Thank you Marka for the link to this page, it's very interesting reading, I don't visit the forums that much.

It's fun, thats why I do it, taking pictures is fun for me, I enjoy doing it.  Posting on RR is an outlet for me to share my fun.  I have been retired from work due to ill health and can't get out into the big wide world as often as I would like to do.  So I find things around the house and in the garden, take macro's and have guessing games, I enjoy doing it.  If I take a photo that I don't like, I don't post it.  First and foremost I take the photo to please me, if it pleases me I post it.  If that then pleases somebody else, that is a bonus, especially if they tell me it pleases them also.  It fills my day.

Yes I'm guilty of flossy/fluffy comments, great, fantastic, excellent, superb, outstanding are all superlatives I use, coupled with lighting, detail, framing, pov, dof, composition.  Very seldom do I use poor, crap, useless.  The reason I use the superlatives is because compared to mine they usually are superb.

Reciprocal comments yes, if someone comments on my picture, I like to go and look in that persons gallery, my mother always taught me that if a person speaks to you it is only polite to speak back.  If a person comments on mine yes I feel obliged to comment on theirs.  I do not however comment to gain comments, I am not upset if I comment on someones and they do not on mine.  I might comment on several pictures in a persons gallery I'm visiting for the first time, even though they have only commented on one of mine but this is not to gain more comments it is because I like what they have done.

As for ratings, I have them switched on, I have never bothered looking at them, I could not tell you if I have had either good or bad comments on any picture in my gallery.  I have no interest in ratings, I do it for FUN.  I am not a great photographer, neither do I aspire to become one, I do it for fun, if I make one person smile, then it has been worthwhile.  I don't think I have ever given a nasty comment to anybody, but If I do spot what I belive to be something wrong with the picture I am viewing, depending on what it is, I will leave a comment to that effect or mail the person so as not to cause embarressment. 

Some very interesting  thoughts on this thread.