The ratings on Renderosity art pages aren't used for critique, they're used to say "Hi, how are you", if you get my drift. And I use them for that too, I admit it. But personally I don't like to comment on the writing here because I couldn't do the same for prose and I know from experience certain people take criticism hard. The reason I don't post any of my own stuff is the opposite. I would really like totally honest criticism but I know that most people here are too polite and unwilling to offend. I guess the first bit applies to your bunch, Hammer (that's assuming you really tried to be fair and didn't just poke fun). In which case, unless you tell these guys lies they're not going to be your buddies. That's not to say your techinque is perfect (of course it won't be unless you do this for a living) but I don't see any need to water down your opinions if you are honestly trying to help people out. If they don't want to hear the truth stuff 'em and help out someone who does. They're not artists, they're idiots. If a person REALLY wants to know how well they can write (rather than have their egos massaged) they can pay a nominal fee for a reading by a reputable agent. The agent will write a critique of the piece and then 99% likely say "write as a hobby, sure, but don't waste your time trying to be an author because it will not happen." The reason people don't want to do this is that they don't want to hear the truth. I guess if everyone was mature enough to take well-intentioned criticism then a lot of people would improve a lot faster at a lot of things. I worked 110 hours a week for nearly year on a 200,000+ word novel only to have it rejected 10X over at submission time (although with very encouraging comments). And did I moan or throw a tantrum? Did I hell! I was overjoyed more than I can tell you that the agents took time to comment on my work and I can't wait to get started on my next novel!