I support, wholeheartedly, a critique forum (but not a gallery). I think the forum upload is sufficient to keep such a forum self-contained.

Allowing a critique gallery to mix in with the other works is like putting a microphone in people's hands and saying, "Tell me what's wrong with this picture." and then broadcasting that to the entire gallery. Soon, people focus on the faults of your images (even those not submitted for such critique), and not the images themselves. That is unfair to the artist and the viewer.

The reason I like the forum idea though is because yes, artists want to learn their craft, but perhaps not with every picture they put up. Sometimes these pictures have deep meaning to the artist, maybe it got them through a hard time, maybe it's in honor of a loved one. I thought it was pretty shameful, personally, that there was critiques of technique in the memorial gallery after 9-11. Such critiques often hurt deeply, especially when an image is emotionally created, that all they wanted to do was shere their pain to ease it. People on the outside may not understand or sympathize with the reason for a picture, and thus coldly critique without knowing, and can really hurt a person a lot, though it's rarely intentional. Not only that, but some people just want to post for fun. They aren't looking to be slammed for every little detail, so it's better to have a place that requests such critique and I would hope it's encouraged that people who wish to teach and inform artists of faults to post there, rather than look for and comment on all images.

Count me in for a vote for a critique forum, but a vote against a gallery, unless it's set up like the member's gallery...