If like me , you have been the victim of "i love your picture" but then get 1 out of 5 rating from that member then you know what I'm not happy about.
We should scrap this rating system for a simple "recommendation star" which the viewer could give or not, anonymously. No comments needed which in this multi-lingual site would be easy and helpful.
Then we could see how many of the members who viewed the image actually liked it.
Any ideas?

rosepab - I see your point, but alot of people like to have comments on their pictures on what people liked about it & also how they could improve.

By all means have comments, good and constructive....but to just choose if they like what they see by giving it a recommendation star would help people just browsing the galleries, to see if the images are worth clicking on.
At the moment, I have on average 25-30 images a day to comment on just from favourites. I can't comment on every image but I try  not do the "copy and paste" replies that I see a lot of.

Rosepab yeah I see it going around, I think it's obvious who's doing it and why.  Stormchaser I dunno if you get it, the cute gag going around in the past couple of days is for certain folks to a) gush over your gallery submission in a comment, but b) give you 1 out of 5.  Not that I give a crap, I think the whole ranking system is rubbish anyway.

My Freebies

So how do we get renderosity to change this? I hear on the other galleries they have the same problem!

OK I have to agree with this. Based on comments left on an image (mine or others) you would think considering how much certain people 'love' the image that they would rate it 5 stars but when you get to the 15-20 rating mark someone comes along and slaps you with a 1 star rating and completely kills your average. I mean, its almost like there are people who specifically go around low-rating people who might stand a chance at getting in the top-rated images because they aren't part of 'the clique' or some such thing.

I feel your pain rosepab...

Comments YES, because sometimes they can actually be useful!

Ratings NO, I have to agree, totally superfluous and of no use or merit in any way shape or form!!

Injustice will be avenged.
Cofiwch Dryweryn.

Just disable ratings on your images and forget about it.  Seems pretty obvious to me who's doing it and why.  Terribly unlikely Rendo is going to act on it, and frankly they should not, it's just an application of the ratings system.  It's there to be gamed, so people are gaming it.  What do you win or lose at the end of the day?  Who cares?  /yawn

My Freebies

I do switch off the ratings now, and who cares? Me of course!
Just change the system like I mentioned...easy!

Next thing you'll want to change the thumbnail policy too!!  

Injustice will be avenged.
Cofiwch Dryweryn.

Now don't get me started on that s**t!

I don't understand, are people really giving great comments on pictures & then purposely giving low ratings? If this is true, how SAD!!

The sad thing is now that I have turned off my ratings, that person hasn't commented on my last 3 images! Go figure!

I keep forgetting they're there..;) Maybe they need a simple category where you can enable comments, but not ratings.

I wish I'd said that.. The Staircase Wit

anahl nathrak uth vas betude doth yel dyenvey..;)

Quote - The sad thing is now that I have turned off my ratings, that person hasn't commented on my last 3 images! Go figure!

You have now his name... Let's find out the real-life name and adress and... be creative. ^.^

Much more than the current rating system I would prefer a list, some control boxes, of good/bad things that people find in a picture and click on that list.
Let there be 30 or 50 entries in this list that describe attributes of an image.

One can now instead of writing a long critical comment click in the list what is applicable and add the things that are not on the list. The list would work well because most pictures suffer from the same technical shortcomings.
The hug-club prolly ignores this feature because it requires to spent a few seconds looking at a picture.

Quote - I keep forgetting they're there..;) Maybe they need a simple category where you can enable comments, but not ratings.

 

Yes, this is how it works already when you upload.

My Freebies

  How about a set of check-boxes that truly reflect opinions.... two categories... technical and artistic. Then, subcategories in each.... maybe... something like "Technically: well done, but not to my personal taste" Vs. "Artistically: I like it"  . One thing, though, it would have to allow for the "But" part. I REALLY hate it, when I'm only given a choice of yes/no, when I'm asked for my opinion on something that has multiple bits that I do, and don't, like.......... or, "Did you find the information you were looking for? Y/N." No, I only found PART of it...... "Was it useful? Y/N.".. not unless I can get the rest. How many of you have been asked the same questions, and been really annoyed by the choices. Lou.

"..... and that was when things got interestiing."

archdruid - that seems a bit complex to me.  i think it would be much better if we had, as rosepab suggested,  a "recommended" toggle instead of ratings, and you didn't have to comment to recommend. 

personally, i feel the opposite.  i could love an image and think it's absolutely wonderful, but still a 3.  because even if i adjust my standards to just here instead of the wider world of art (how do you rank compared to picasso or matisse?), i still feel like 2 stars below the absolute best is really, really good. but all anyone seems comfortable giving is 5s or nothing (except some strange person now).  if we're going to be so binary about the scale, we might as well reduce it to being binary.  and since ratings are just averages and not specific reviews, they're not much less meaningful that way.

should we take this over to the suggestions forum?

  No, don't get me wrong..... I'm much the same way.... i've seen things that are "technically" really bad, yet, I loved the "whole"... that's why I said.... no Y / N answers. Lou.

"..... and that was when things got interestiing."

this issue has been beaten to death at all the poser-related sites AFAIK. I dunno of any instance where the admins removed the ratings function, although they may have threatened to do so, after web-weenies complained about low ratings. we all know the ratings are meaningless, but why spoil the fun for those who take solace in them?

we're not suggesting they be gotten rid of.  we're suggesting they change.  i almost never see any rating beneath 5 stars on _anyone's _ work.  what i generally see is more and less votes for the 5 stars.  and personally, sometimes i just want to give someone a gold star and not say anything.  actually, a lot of time that happens.

and actually, this might be kinder to people who care. don't you have to get 4 ratings or so before it shows up?  with a recommended mark, you could have the show immediately.

just a thought.

How do you tell what someone rates you?  I'm suppressing the urge to be catty and do it back - ok maybe just once to get it out of my system....

I am:  aka Velocity3d 

Frankly, I don't know of any solution to the ratings/comments in the galleries business which would make everybody happy.  The underlying difficulty being that even a hypothetically 'perfect' system would still be corrupted by the presence of imperfect people participating in it.

I've seen the 'ratings troll' phenomenon pop up on other sites, too.......where someone was systematically giving low ratings to images.  shrug  What can we say?  People can be petty and childish.  And I don't know of a way to stop them from doing that.

Something To Do At 3:00AM 

The suggestion is not bad really. I see lots of pics that I like, but have nothing to say because I'm not going to say "nice work" 30 times a day. But I'd certainly click the "Close and GoldStar" instead of just "close".

And nobody could "game" this. You either give it a star or you don't.  A individual cannot lower the star count - he can only raise it by one. Even having 10 "star hackers" who come to look at your image but don't give it a star would hardly affect the outcome. After 300 views and 200 stars, you know where you stand, 210 wouldn't make any difference.

Personally I think just looking at your "views" counter is a pretty good statistical indication of whether people like your image or not. Because people browse each others favorites, great pictures get advertised in a way that shows up statistically.

I know which of my gallery posts are the most appealing - they have over a 1000 views. That's all I need to know. By the way my "scientific" study shows that a thumbnail showing a shapely leg will get more views than breasts, ass, or face. And if you have none of those things, don't expect views. :biggrin:

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Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)

Quote - Terribly unlikely Rendo is going to act on it, and frankly they should not, it's just an application of the ratings system.  It's there to be gamed, so people are gaming it. 

Actually it's against the TOS. It falls under this clause:

Quote - Member/User Conduct:

Members and users are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that is constructive and respectful of others at all times. Additionally, we would hope that each member/user would do their best to facilitate a culture of collaboration and positive reinforcement, so that we can all share our passion for art while realizing our personal ambitions, and developing friendships.

Members/Users will not use this community for;

Any practices that affect the normal operations of the community (Admins will take whatever steps are necessary to restore service)

If someone is abusing the rating system, contact a moderator and they will deal with it.

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi

Honestly how is it an abuse?  If someone feels like giving a 1, they're entitled to give a 1.  Conversely if a few hundred people feel like giving a 5 to a very plain get well card, is that an abuse of the system?

My Freebies

Quote - Honestly how is it an abuse?  If someone feels like giving a 1, they're entitled to give a 1.  Conversely if a few hundred people feel like giving a 5 to a very plain get well card, is that an abuse of the system?

It's abuse if they rave and gush over your image and then give a 1 for the rating.

Don't blame me. I don't make the rules. But I do know for a fact that it's against the TOS to rave and gush over images and then give a 1 for a rating.

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi

How do you know what people rate you?

Personally, I always give a 5 for effort unless I really hate it, and then I don't even comment or rate it at all. Sometimes I don't rate if I have little time, but usually I figure everyine deserves a high mark for effort whether I like it or not. Art is subjective.

You can't know for sure, but when a small number of people rate an image, it isn't hard to guess, particularly since you must leave a comment in order to leave a rating.

My Freebies

Besides commenting on other people's work and then they comment back, it really helps to have an eye-catching thumbnail. This is a huge gallery if you look at everything every night. For example, when I have time, I comment on cute animals, beautiful scenery with water, things I like. It is impossible to comment on everything. As far as ratings, why worry about it? Except for those lucky few who sell their art or do commissioned pieces, this is a hobby for most of us. When i started, i would upload something I thought was pretty good and not recieve a single comment much less a rating. We can't please everyone so please yourself!

Your not going to be able to change it. Any type of rating system turns into a popularity thing. The star system you mentioned would be no different, in fact it would be easier to get top charting. Just click a star on every image and leave. Most of what I have seen going on in the gallery is not how good the art is. It's how many you know and comment on or what group you join.

Take the rating system totally out and you would solve the whole issue. Comment all you want on an image, it does not mater because they are not being counted and no charts made with those numbers. The drawback of that would be, you would have to actually look at images that are not part of the popualrs or groups. How else would you know if you like them, they aren't racked in the top 20 or have the most stars.

Now, if those with top ratings got PAID REAL MONEY, like a prize, every week, it would be worth it, LOL!

Could you hear the howling over that? It might make for an interesting read though.

Seriously?  Industrious and highly motivated Asians would kick out all these flabby Americans and Euros, a la the online RPG ebay market.  None of the usual gallery top #s peeps would ever, ever, ever get on the list again.

My Freebies

I'd settle for a gift certificate, ROFLMAO!!!!

I know most of us do this for a hobby, but we would all like our art to be seen. And someone mentioned that if you are part of a small community you can rack up 50 comments in no time. So the rating system, I thought was a way of trying to get the good stuff to the top of the pile. I have found that I find most gems when looking through peoples "favourite image" section, a truer but not perfect way of seeing the good stuff.
But then again this points me in the direction of my tastes in art, which isn't a bad thing!

Do you want your art to be seen?  Print it on flyers and throw copies out the window of your car on the way to work.  It will be seen then, at least by the policeman who gives you a citation for littering.  Being part of a small community that cut-and-pastes generic comments, however flowery, is not the same as being seen - after all many of them are not really looking.

Do you want money or some concrete item of value for your art?  You won't really get that here either.  I suppose once in a while some person or other might buy you some item on your wishlist, but otherwise no.  It's terribly unlikely some wealthy art dealer is going to come here and take your jpeg to Sotheby's and auction it for a million dollars.

Do you want ego gratification?  Show your art to your mom, she'll give you much more thorough and gushing praise than you can get from "awesome render" and a meaningless 5-point decimal score.  Although in your case in particular, your mom might spank you - I know my mom would spank me!

There is no objective standard for "the good stuff".  I don't even like very much of the stuff that goes in the staff choice threads.  Leaving it up to the users just makes it a game, that they play with themselves.  ;)

My Freebies

When has staff choice threads been called "my favourite images", maybe I should ask your mom!!!  ;-D
If I wanted money, wouldn't I be better on deviantArt site?
Should pay for all the flyers I have had printed!!!!!

It only falls under that clause if it is in a disrespectful or trolling comment. It is not against the TOS to rate a image 1 .

Sandy
An imagination can create wonderful things

SndCastie's Little Haven

Quote - It only falls under that clause if it is in a disrespectful or trolling comment. It is not against the TOS to rate a image 1 .

 

That's incongruent to what has been happening.  There have been situations where people have received warnings for consistently giving rave reviews with low ratings. 

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi

**Acadia,

Situations like this are examined by the staff.. Low ratings need to be put in context..
There are isolated situations where it could be a simple mistake..
There are also situations of people attempting to manipulate a rating system.
(Thankfully the HOT 10 is gone !)

Again...the circumstances have to be examined in the over all context of both parties involved.

**

www.bclaytonphoto.com

bclaytonphoto on Facebook

I am sorry ment trolling in general which is what that would consist of a pattern of being disrespectful but if a person does this in just one instance it would not be considered trolling. It depends on the circumstance each one is different and it is always run by the team before we determine if it is trolling or not.

Sandy
An imagination can create wonderful things

SndCastie's Little Haven

It's not a mistake a hundred times over.  If admins can do something about the person rating it a 1 but saying "Excellent 5*****" than they should.    To me that is the same as any troll.

Megalomaniacs someone needs to give them a pill or something.

I am:  aka Velocity3d 

Quote - It's not a mistake a hundred times over.  If admins can do something about the person rating it a 1 but saying "Excellent 5*****" than they should.    To me that is the same as any troll

We do.
We need to be told about it though. So if someone does this (especially persistently) then please flag it to us so we can investigate.

---

"you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love." - Warsan Shire

How would you know of someone rated a 1 but said "excellent 5"? I can never tell if someone rates my stuff or not unless I get into the top rated. I get a lot of comments but not a lot of ratings, I don't think.

I think you would have to anally watch your comments.  So if 4 ppl comment and you get 4 ratings and you are sitting at a rating of 5 - (everyone gave you fives) then someone comes along and gives you a 1 - your rating would go down.  But like I said you would have to be anally watching it to see when that happened I think.

Either way I suck big time in math area - it hurts my brain right now just to try to figure out what that averages to.

I am:  aka Velocity3d 

Well, if people worry about ratings here at a hobby gallery, they should try to show a horse at a horse show. I went to a show to watch some kids from the stable where I board my horse. One girl is overweight, and although her horse is well trained and she rides well, the judges never give her a ribbon. Only the skinny girls get them.

Karen is correct. We have to know WHO the alleged abuser is and we WILL take care of it if after review it appears to be a pattern of abuse from that member. It would fall under trolling IMO if someone consistently went around doing this.

Since it was probably a response to forum threads about this very subject, it is likely the culprit has already stopped.  Thanks to various Rendo staffers who have responded, that probably did the trick.

My Freebies

I hope so as that is completely uncalled for.  Let us know if this type of abuse of the system is seen

Quote - I think you would have to anally watch your comments.  So if 4 ppl comment and you get 4 ratings and you are sitting at a rating of 5 - (everyone gave you fives) then someone comes along and gives you a 1 - your rating would go down.  But like I said you would have to be anally watching it to see when that happened I think.

Either way I suck big time in math area - it hurts my brain right now just to try to figure out what that averages to.

just to say, unless you're really popular, no it wouldn't take being anal about comments.  all it would take is being notified you got a rating and comment and seeing your rating drop.  unless you're not checking your email or you get lots and lots of comments, it will be pretty obvious.  that's one of the reasons i feel a single recommend or don't would be better.  then nobody would be afraid of giving low ratings.  though this case just sounds malicious.

FYI:

3 5's and a 1: 4
4 5's and a 1: 4.2
5 5's and a 1: 4.33
6 5's and a 1: 4.42
10 5's and a 1: 4.64
20 5's and a 1: 4.81

What I'm saying is unless you get lots of these guys doing these, who cares? Any image where my grade is above 4, I figure I did a good job. If I didn't then I'd be getting 3's and 4's right? Oh wait - everybody's voting 5 or not voting. Hmmm. Then I know nothing.

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Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)

I really think a "recommend' button would work better. If 73 out of 100 viewers recommend, you got a much more realistic score (73) than if you count the votes, which require commenting, and as a result you get a tiny statistical sampling.

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Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)

I agree with BB. The actual rating system is not good.

When you are watching someone else picture, it would be easier to decide to recommend it or not, than to choice between 5 rates. I mean, when someone is rating, why would he give 3? or 4? It would really be easier with a "recommend" button. Only 2 choices!

My Store

I agree.

I am:  aka Velocity3d 

Only improvement I've suggested to staff is to include negative 1 through 5 as well. "We've been thinking about that," was the reply.

As you say, they're more likely to entertain a wider scale than a narrower one, to cater to the competers more.

My Freebies

For me, you like something or you don't. No need of degrees in your liking of it.

My Store

whatever scale is used people always tend to group to one end it's like ice skating with all those 9.9, 9.9, 9.8 ....... etc, if you had -numbers it'll make no difference except to give trolls more ammo, I would prefer 3 levels, good, bad, don't care with don't care as the default.....

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Toolset: Blender, GIMP, Indigo Render, LuxRender, TopMod, Knotplot, Ivy Gen, Plant Studio.

*Only improvement I've suggested to staff is to include negative 1 through 5 as well. "We've been thinking about that," was the reply.
*I can't really see how that helps, if the problem is with people who gush in the comments and then leave a single gold star.  How does giving them the chance to award one to five Black Holes improve matters?  

The comments are the main things, but some people consider even the best-intentioned criticism to be a personal affront.   I've known artists to respond to perfectly polite comments by disabling comments on subsequent contributions, but that banishes the favourable observations just as surely as the critical ones, which are, in any case, just as valid.   Others get incredibly defensive about their friends' pictures, even though the actual artists are perfectly relaxed about criticism, as long as it is sincere.

It must also be said that a lot of Renderosity members seem to have undergone triple humour-bypass procedures with a 120% success-rate.

Quote - (Thankfully the HOT 10 is gone !)

 
Actually it was the HOT 20, but yes...thank goodness it was banished and replaced by the wonderful HOT Most Commented and the HOT Top Rated which has nothing to do with popularity or cliques.  :tt2:

It's all fun and games...
Until the flying monkeys attack!!! 

I don't see how a single "recommended" star would help the situation at all. The majority of people who comment are going to "recommend," just as they now give you a 5 rating. 

If somebody wants to game the system, they could still give you a gushing comment but decline to recommend you.
 
And if you're not required to comment before recommending, then it opens the system up to other kinds of gaming.

It is for these reasons I finally disabled ratings on my pix. People are free to comment, critique, and say anything they want, good, bad or ugly. But the ratings just don't mean anything, and I doubt any system could be devised to make them meaningful.

Gallery

"The majority of people who comment are going to "recommend," just as they now give you a 5 rating. "

Sure, but that's not the issue.

Look, I have some gallery images with over a thousand views. Getting over a thousand people to look at your image is really hard. I bet a lot of them would like to give a "thumbs up" as they go by and I'd move up the rankings in terms of total thumbs up. But right now, you can't even vote unless you're willing to make a comment. I don't want comments like "nice job", "beautiful image"and most people (excluding the sycophants) dont' want to leave comments like that. It takes too much time, and they have 100's of images to get through every day. But they'd have no problem with a "Close with thumbs up" button. 

I can't tell you how many times I'd like to do that as I skim the gallery, trying to get through 10 pagse of new postings. I pick and choose which to open based on the thumbnail. So I get counted as a "view". Then sometimes I see flaws in the full size, like missing refraction in water, or person floating over water instead of immersed, and somebody has already pointed this out and I just close, without a comment. I'd like to rate it a 3, but I'm not going to add a comment just for the right to rate it. So the 11 people who commented are the only ones contributing to the overall assessment.

But if I see an artistically nice image and I see no technical flaws, I want to give it a thumbs up.

Similarly, I'm curious about my own images. When 1000 people looked, how many liked it (thumbs up)? I certainly expect that it's close to 1000, but i have no idea, and I sure don't want 1000 comments just to get an accurate assessment.

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Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)

bb - no, it's not hard.  look at the top people.  you'll notice the same ones commenting on each other's stuff, and even (probably) on yours.  i know  i have.  they leave one liners that praise your work, and they do it on a mammoth number of images.  then those people turn around and give them comments.  more than just gaming, it's the polite thing to do if someone has taken the time to  comment on your image.  if you do that on a massive scale, you get popular.   some people do it because they want to game, and some do it because they just like being part of the big warm fuzzy (this is a community site).

linkdink - i personally wasn't suggesting it to stop gaming.  stopping gaming would be easy:  get rid of ratings, get rid of most commented, get rid of highest rated, get rid of most viewed, and get rid of art charts.  if anything, do it like JPG magazine and count votes or ratings but don't show the score and only use it to inform a selection of images chosen by staff.

i don't see them making those changes.  if they wanted to stop the gaming they wouldn't have banned doc legume for making it obvious how easy it was to game the hot 20.  i certainly don't feel fit to determine whether it's healthy or unhealthy for the community to reward the behavior that generates popularity, but if the ptb thought it was bad, they would have eliminated it a long time ago.

the one star method is to make the whole thing simpler.  and give a more realistic count.  i think the comments part is unnecessary, because it just makes people post comments redundant to their rating like "great image!" or "love it!"  that don't say any more than the rating. they just take up space for no reason.  and those of us who don't like leaving an impersonal comment but don't have the time can't rate some of the things we like.

To make a rating system little more fair then it seems to be right now, it seems to me it would have to be made anonymous (and as a few people said - no comment required).
Also, it would need to allow for several categories... for example, things like technical excellence, likeability, most improved, coiloring, composition, character development...  (I'm just tossing things in that come to mind, the list would have to be refined and more thought put into it)
Now, how to make things perfectly fair and honest and get people to not play favorites and keep everyone happy... Well, look at the society at large - noone has figured out how to do that just yet.

Hi, my namez: "NO, Bad Kitteh, NO!"  Whaz yurs?
BadKittehCo Store  BadKittehCo Freebies and product support

Quote - If like me , you have been the victim of "i love your picture" but then get 1 out of 5 rating from that member then you know what I'm not happy about.
We should scrap this rating system for a simple "recommendation star" which the viewer could give or not, anonymously. No comments needed which in this multi-lingual site would be easy and helpful.
Then we could see how many of the members who viewed the image actually liked it.
Any ideas?

I think being able to leave a quick recommend or thumbs up or whatever without having to write out a comment would be great. Rating art 1-5 or whatever sucks the life out of it, but a way of acknowledging good work is always a good thing.

I'm with BB on this.  I'm at a point where I don't even want to add people to my favs anymore because I don['t have the time to leave comments.  I would really like to be able to give a thumbs up and get on with my day.

I'm not against comments and I don't think there is anything wrong with people froming little groups of friends either.  It really feels like there are two camps here.  The Forum friends and the Gallery friends.  And like any organization that has two camps, there is this 'us vs them' attitude.

Let the Gallery people make friends and comment on each other's work.  The idea behind things like this is to interact with people and build relationships.  More then art, technical skills or anything else, we as humans are interactive relationship building creatures.  Everything that we do we do to build relationships (well, or eat and have sex, but I digress).

Still, I will cry out that the ratings system is a joke.  The numbers mean nothing.  A 5 becuase you are my friend or a 3 because it isn't as good as Rembrandt hardly means anything.  It is vague and misleading.

Oh, and I know I've had a few 'drive-by' 1 stars plus gushy comments.  But I don't know who and I don't really care.

I really think a nice little "thumbs up" system would be vastly more useful and harder to exploit.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go comment on some of my gallery friends' pictures! LOL.

Interesting topic!

My personal opinion is remove 1-4! Then if the image is really to your taste it gets a 5 or a comendation, otherwise no comment. What annoys me about the ratings system is when someone leaves a 4 or less, there is no supporting reason in the comments... so how do I assess how to improve? I know of one individual who always leaves a 4, normally when I am in the top 9 ratings, and never supports his rating in the comments.

Well, in general I leave a 4 unless a piece is truly outstanding, top 5 or 10 percent of work in my opinion, in that area I'm also liekly to add to favourites...

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Toolset: Blender, GIMP, Indigo Render, LuxRender, TopMod, Knotplot, Ivy Gen, Plant Studio.