*"Back when I was new to rendo, I noticed the trend some people do of leaving as many comments as they can to those who have never heard of them in the hopes that they will in turn visit their gallery and put them in their watched list. It is quite common to see the same people leaving a cut and paste comment to almost every images posted good or bad."

How do you know what someone else is hoping? You are putting words/thoughts in their minds. When I first started here, I was in awe of people who got a lot of comments and thought they must be incredible artists. People like Prog routinely got over 100 comments, but his stuff, IMHO, is really wonderful. Commenting back on someone's work after they leave a comment on your art is just courtesy. I have only one person who routinely leaves cut and paste comments. If I don't have time to comment on other's work, I don't post my own, or I turn off comments. It is just being polite. As far as ratings, how can you tell what someone has rated you? I can't see it anywhere. And if it doesn't matter, why are there so many threads complaining about low ratings or lack of comments? It obviously matters to a lot of folks. It would be nice if we won money, though, LOL!!!!