Thank you everyone. Congrats to Yvonne and Tres, so many lovely entries!

4 - 3 points #10 - 2 points #3 - 1 point

I noticed the lack of any comments too when i went to look at it. Its very strange.

Matt maybe it was removed due to Keith's question about whether one person found a way to vote for an image more than once or not. If 28+ people did actually vote for it independently, then fair enough shrug The number one image in the hot 20 atm certainly has an enormous amount of votes too

LOL Rick " coquette-ish " Thats had me in stitches... thats exactly the right word. still chuckling

I am curious to know myself how that piece got back in the hot 20 What a controversy that was at the time ! :/

#14 - 3 points #32 - 2 points #40 - 1 point

I guess i am one of those people who can find something i like about most images. It may only be the colours, or the lighting, but ill comment on that. If someone has gone to the trouble to put their best effort into a work, and proudly put it up for display, then who am i to concentrate on the negative, rather than the positive sides of it? If i dont like something about the piece, i just dont mention it. It may be that the artist likes it the way it is, and even though i may not, thats only my opinion.
I dont mind offering suggestions or an opinion about change, but unless the artist has stated that theyre not satisfied with the image & asked for improvements, then i dont usually feel comfortable doing that ( again, this is just me personally )
Rankings i rarely do unless a fractal really 'speaks' to me, and i havent used rankings on my own work for ages. I would rather see someone comment in a little depth about why or why not they dont like one of my fractals, rather than say 'wonderful' and hit the excellent button cos they feel like they have to.
I like getting comments about changes and i also like people offering suggestions or improvements ( in a constructive way, which is the key ) The only times i have really recieved those kinds of comments however, are when i have asked for them.
On my own work, dont be afraid to offer a suggestive change if you feel like you want to. Seeing our art through other peoples eyes, and trying out others opinions can only help the learning curve.

As for cliques, i cant comment on that, im really a ghost around here lately lol.
I dont seem to find the time to be able to look through the galleries lately, which is a shame

Thanks for sharing that Matt, this will be a big help, ive been a bit "blah" about Apo lately, cant seem to make anything i like. That has resparked my interest a lot! :) Oh and on the subject of rendering... i used to render my flames in UF, i still do if i find one i particularly like. It does take an enormous amount of time, and cpu power ( if your pc is a little old like mine ) but i find it smooths them etc just a little bit more than an export. All comes down to your own personal preference though :)

LMAO Cartman is such a legend

hmmm I agree totally with midnightblue. Even though its hurtful, dont give people like that the satisfaction of knowing they have contributed to a reluctance to post your art ( which is very lovely, i looked ) Indeed i would take their comments with a tiny grain of salt, as they are so obviously reeking of jealousy and lack of inspiration. Re the emulation of someones style... that is indeed correct, i know because when i first started fractaling, my inspiration came from Jackie ( lulu18 ) who has the most beautiful touch with a spiral i had ever seen. She is also the one who taught me how to use Apophysis, and gave me heaps of support with UF. There are always critics, and often the worst and nastiest critics are the ones who lack much artistic skill. Like Vicky said, hold your head up high... be proud of your work, dont be hesitant to show it off, and definitely dont let some small, narrow minded, amateur critic take away your pleasure in creating.

woohoo another spiral junkie :) Welcome. Post some of your work, asking people for opinions and to suggest improvements can always help us learn :)

I often wonder about this too, about how other viewers see my work on their monitors. I see the same as dialyn, the image looks great to me, very bright and detailed. On my old monitor all my work looked blurry, so in some of my earlier images i may have been guilty of over-sharpening :/ I dont know if there's any way to get some kind of 'generic' image quality that would look the same on most monitors.

I dont pp as a rule. I did on one of my images only once. Not because i dont agree with it, like the others have said its the artists finished product that counts, not how they achieved it. I only dont pp because quite frankly i cant do it lol. Im absolutely hopeless at it and my images always look worse than before i started. I got lucky with my watercolour rose, but that was only using blur and a softening tool around the edges. If you can pp, then i say go for it. Anything that makes you happy as an artist and makes you happy in your work results cant be wrong :)