Renderdog wrote:

> top 20, and it might become repetitive eventually anyway, 

I think there is a real possibility of this though it will be 
interesting to shift one's critical stance for different topics.  At the 
moment I have no idea how I will approach "architecture".

> 
> I still feel many of the best images are not in the top 10, so maybe next
> round I'll post a few to discuss, no matter where they scored.

Yes I think this is the best approach.  I also think that the six 
winners should always be discussed along with any entries which rank 
among the winners.

> 
> One very positive result of these discussions is I've learned how to look at
> the images more carefully, to better appreciate their creative and
> technical aspects.

Your initial instincts were right, that there is a tremendous amount of 
work put into these entries, and they *will* support a little more 
attention, even on the content side.  While I think I have pooped out 
finally, I found that all the top entries we've reviewed were ones I'd 
given top ranking in my own voting and had little problem getting 
enthusiastic about them.  I few of them stretched my appreciation.  I 
think this experiment has been a good success.  I think shrinking the 
number of mandatory works to review and encouraging the number of ad hoc 
reviews is the way to go. There are some entries I thought were 
interesting that fell outside our net but after the number of mandatory 
reviews I've attempted already, I really can't get to them. I did toy 
with the idea of balling a few entries together into one set of 
observations. I will probably attempt this in the future. One of the 
things that worries me is that the attention could have a chilling 
effect on entries. That novices might fear exposing their work to an 
overly critical environment. That is why I personally took the approach 
of being as positive as possible while at the same time hinting at the 
different artistic and interpretive issues as they come up. I hope that 
my approach gave others the space to provide friendly and helpful 
criticism.  I just listened to some tapes by John Bradshaw, "The Price 
of Nice", which talk about the tremendous harm false niceness can cause.
And the value of someone who will give honest criticism.  So it is a 
fine line we have to walk I feel.  I also know of art schools that 
became such severe critical environments that creativity was no longer 
nurtured.

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