Hey, folks, I think we are getting way too hung up on this "brutally honest" teminology. Far too many people think that a critique has to be "brutal and harsh" to be worth anything, a sentiment with which I completely disagree. The other reality, even though I find that many "professional" critics disagree, is that in a medium as subjective as this, a critique is an opinion, and should be given and taken in that vein. I look at sites like those mentioned and find that some critiques I agree with, some I don't. Well, I like peas and I don't like broccoli too :lol: . And this is, I think, why I like the set of "critique standards" pointed to earlier in this thread.
Again, what I look for is good, constructive critiscm, a different point of view from people whose work I can compare to, and who, to at least some degree, give a rip about me as a person, and I think that is what is different here, the sense of community. Now, that may be the case at forums like photosig as well, I am not knocking those, but I know what the tenor of the conversations are here.
Once more, as to the "separate" critique forum issue. Let's say that I hope to get a critique on composition from someone that I know who shoots landscapes, but the image is a Bird shot. Do I post in the Birdie place and then send them a PM? This is why I think we should have both a separate forum for specific Critique issues as well as the ability to say "Critique this one please" in the forum of subject choice. We certainly have this ability already.