I think the ratings system asks you to put a value on the artwork which has been so inflated as to be useless (except to hurt feelings and cause problems). I'll use generally good natured Geep as an example. Geep's early stuff was pretty rough--but I got no joy out of giving him what I considered to be a below average score when everyone else in the gallery was getting 5s and 4s. The point was, Geep was a novice at the time and he deserved to be in a constructive environment, not a competitive one. When I'm forced to give a rating when all I want to do is critique the work, I'm stuck in the dilemma of going with my gut, or following suit--not a pleasant situation. I have a feeling that the rating system discourages novices. Since everyone can contribute to the galleries, why not remove the element of competition and save the ratings for the professionals (who show work in offline galleries.) Or else, I'm going to give only 5s on the assumption that the numbers are meaningless.