true about tit for tat. I don't think there are any deliberate cliques that are formed, but a normal group dynamic does occur.
People start liking some peoples expressions and images more then the others, sometimes they put them on your list of favorites...
I've done one or more of the following on a number of occasions:

-randomly look at the latest gallery posts, and comment on things that catch my eye (not always due to quality, but various reasons)

-Look at gallery posts for specific application or genre

-Look through artists I've favorited and see if they have anything I've missed.

-Lot of time I favorited artists not because of their work, but because of some interaction (advice, conversation) in the forum or in the gallery, and wanted to remember to keep an eye on their progress.

-Look at galleries of people whom participate in the forum, out of curiosity, and noticing images that maybe wouldn't catch my eye in the gallery alone.

-Made a gallery comment because I felt amiable towards a person, and wanted to give them encouragement for improvements I've seen, (as opposed to being awed with their abilities)

-There are people, although they can be counted on fingers of one hand, whom I dislike for specific personal reasons, and I don't look at their work. 

-There are certain genre that I'm very interested in, and others that I never look at. There's a number of people like that, so there could be an amazingly superb image in a genre that doesn't hold my interest, and it will never get the attention it's technical excellence deserves.

-I almost never rate images. I find 1-5 too constraining, and never know what to put, so I don't rate.

-In a crowd of some 3000+ artists, many times there are people whose art I would have never noticed had they not commented on my image. I'm not much into thank you notes or returning the favor of making a contrived nice comment as a matter of social norm, but I often do take a peak at their gallery, and depending on if or what catches my eye, I do make comments. Sometimes one, sometimes more, depending on the effect of what I see there has on me.

-WIth so many images being uploaded daily, it's hard to see all of them, and objectivelly pick out the best. Often it's a very subjective process. Personally, of the 'favorite images' on the art charts, lot of them don't end up being my favorites. It appears that my tastes are very seldom mainstream.

-I tend to not comment as much on image using very recognizeable popular props and figures - Alice being one example. Not because I don't like it, or that they're not good or deservig, but because I've seen so many, I'm on Alice overload... Byut yet I LOVE Aery souls work, and use it as one of personal standards I'd like to work up to.

-Sometimes I examine other people's favorite artists or images. I've discovered many of 'gems' that way, as opposed to random daily gallery browsing.

Those are just few of a number or personal reasons, habits and preferences that come into play when looking at and commenting on galleries. Whether conscious or not, it does affect most people. Looking at it from the outside, it can appear cliquish. For those whose art is really good, but for one or anopther reason doesn't get noticed, it can be frustrating and look contrived or fixed.

Now, to adress the 'lack of social skills' again, since it seems that the way it came across is perhaps not quite the way I intended it:
The way I see it, people whom lack social skills, find tit for tat tiresome, feel bashful or embarrased, or whatever the reason may be, or at the extremes by pissing people off (on a grand scale) end up limiting their chances of their work being noticed to only random gallery browsers.

As far as the quality of the artwork, I'm wondering how many people are qualified to judge it very objectively (I know for me, there's a lot of subjectivity involved - as I described above). How much can really be seen from the thumbnail? vs. how many people go and open every image to examine it. I've seen both, where the tumbnail was better then the picture, or where a great picture ended up having an uninviting thumbnail.

I agree with you on one point, it WOULD be nice if people got noticed for the quality and content of their artwork. Perhaps I'm too much of a cynic. I think the world just doesn't work that way, and rendo is just another small segment of it. I don't see it as a bad thing though, to me, it's just reality.

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