John, my earlier remarks were certainly not aimed at you. Putting my point over as best I can is, that before submitting a picture, the taker should ask himself / herself is that image going to interest others, and if the answer is no, then the obvious choice is to not send it. Equipment does not have to be top of the range, as modern cameras are all able to provide sharp images when held steadily and a tad of thought given to exposure times. I am not saying that POE should be a showcase of excellence. 

The awarding of stars is a fine idea, but if we only ever give five then it becomes the norm and maybe loses it's meaning to a degree.

I went out yesterday to take some pictures of HMS Dragon, berthed in Liverpool. Of the twenty pictures taken of the ship, plus others of the docks, I would probably choose only one for POE. A couple were abstract type images which I like, but would not suit POE in all honesty as they could have been taken just about anywhere, and were a take on things that appealed to me.  

Everyone has their own idea as to what is, or is not a good strong image, as it is all subjective. I often go to photographic exhibitions, being lucky to live in a city with a few art galleries, and one gallery devoted to photography and I don't like some of the stuff I see, but the fact it has been chosen to hang on a wall indicates how diverse our tastes are, which is how it should be.

At the end of the day we should be our own strictest critic and select what we genuinely think is okay, not just expect POE to accept everything taken, maybe in a huge batch as has been the case, sometimes I feel to the detriment of the overall impression to a first time viewer of the site. 

I did get a one star rating for one of my pictures and at the time I thought the person giving it was crackers, but maybe he was right.  

But it can also be a double edgeded sword too Ruth. If you upload an image that say isn't over exciting in itself ... but has a very interesting story to it, a lot of people probably wont bother to even look at the image & will miss the narrative. In my oppinion the image must come first .. but any info is a bonus of course. 

You have a good point there Martin, the image is the first thing to catch the eye and yes, I do always look at that before the narrative, but I do find an image with no narrative at all a bit lacking in something, even if its only a line.

I think we can assume we don't live in a perfect world