Quote - So under my criteria everyone who has made the effort (and put up with those really long render times. LOL) gets a 5.

 

No, that's horrible, that hurts everyone involved...

The only thing that encourages is complacency and stagnation, where's the desire to get better if you're already getting all the stars you're gonna get? What's the point, you've already reached the top, right? Why even bother sitting thru the long render times, surely you can make the render quicker, and still get those same fives stars, no? I've seen it far too often, and I've been guilty of it myself more often than I'd like to admit, but ultimately false praise to protect someone's feelings only hurts them.

Of course, there's a flip side to giving everyone "who made the effort" 5 stars, sure you're encouraging the developing artist [to make MORE images at least, not necessarily BETTER images], but you're doing so at the cost of kicking all the artists that have put in the years of hard work developing their skill and possibly hundreds of hours of work in on a single image, squarely in the teeth. You completely devalue the hard work and effort they've put in when you rate their work the same as someone's first render.

While I absolutely agree its important to be encouraging of young/developing artists, do it with your words thru constructive criticism not arbitrary stars. You'll do them worlds more good that way.

 @LBAMagic - I've nothing against you personally and I don't intend my words/post as such, you just happened to be the catalyst, and this the place, for somethings that always bugged me, sorry. I do agree with you completely on the dangers of the written word across the internet [especially when english may not be a first or even second language for either side].**
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With regards to the "rating system being broken" of course it is, that's a given, it always will be. Because of things already mentioned [cliques, and "encouragement" etc] but also because not everyone is of a skill level where they can even objectively rate something the same as everyone else. A work that may look like a masterpiece to someone that's only be doing CG for a year may well be nothing noteworthy to an artist who's being doing it for 10 years. I know anytime I page thru the collection of images in my "inspiration" folder, I'm always left in shock at [and often embarrassed that I even saved] some of the stuff I thought was great 5 or 6 years ago. I'd love to see a push to steer the ratings system back on track, but I fear like AnnieD said, some things will never change.

Even if we can eliminate the subjective elements [that'd be a huge, huge step in the right direction], there's still the varying reference point of one's own objectivity**.** If you can say that art can even be rated objectively, but that's a whole 'nother can of worms isn't it?**
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