First off, not asking to start a war on the subject, so if it turns into that, feel free to move it I guess. I also don't want to sound condescending to any group of artists either and if I do, it's not my intention.

I would just like to inquire as to the purpose of having the number of views of other artists visible as the default with the thumbnails in the galleries? I noticed during the Halloween Contest that you withheld the results until people voted. Makes perfect sense, but shouldn't that same fairness be extended to the galleries? Anyone who comes here now with the amount of work shown here is essentially voting for pictures based on thumbnails, popularity, group or advertising. The Hot 20 hasn't gone away, it's just been extended out. When what's new is done in all groups, many don't realize how much different view counts are between the various galleries (Poser vs Bryce for example)...

Why do I ask this? A snapshot of the number of views has two potential snags. The first is until an artist learns the score as to why views are the way they are, it can be very discouraging to see two works side by side that are not equal in views, especially if they share equal quality (perhaps for no other reason than one shows a cute girl in the thumbnail or a body shot while the other is a ship in a storm). That inbalance is even worse with crank and hoax thumbnails used to generate views while the other is a considerable work of art. I've seen so much of this lately, that it's disheartening...

The second reason is because lately I've been showing off Renderosity to visitors and I've had a couple come back and ask me if all we had on here was one type of art? I asked why they'd thought that and they said it was because they clicked on what was "popular" and pretty much ignored anything that didn't have the views that those did, assuming wrongly that they couldn't be good if they didn't get the views. That really sickened me as I know many artists that are worth their weight in gold, but never get the views that the latest Poser pinup does and thus are missed because they aren't "popular."

So my suggestion would be one of two things...

1> Put the view count within the full picture structure (with perhaps a configuration option, but the default inside).
2> Or make the default no views shown (except your own), unless you so pick it in your configuration.

Of course, you should always be able to see your own pic's views. I realize that inherent competition for views will always be there, but it brings a bit of fairness to artists with the viewers and it doesn't beat you over the head with where you "rank" at any given moment, turning expression into nothing more than competition...

This is just my humble opinion in an attempt to help Renderosity...

PS: A side note...While I can't say how you do the pic views, having worked with MySQL, I can imagine it would be less taxing to only get the views for a single picture, than 24 at the same time...