I tend to mark things as seven and up if (a) they seem to strongly fit the category, to me, and (b) they're interesting. Interesting, to me, means that I look at it and linger, exploring the image. If it feels like An Art Shot instead of 'a random snapshot,' in other words.
When I grade something 5 or 6, I can see how it fits the category, but it doesn't do much for me (without having any big obvious flaws).
1-4, for me, is reserved for shots that either have massive flaws *as photographs*, to me, or that seem to me to have nothing whatsoever to do with the theme.
It's a good thing that I ended up having to rate most of the entries for 'Postcards' as a 6 or better. Well over half were 7 and up, by my personal rating scale.
Do I comment on every picture I rate? No. Should I? Maybe. Do I try to make sure that my comments are actually concrete when I *do* leave one? Yes. Sometimes I'll comment on something I just marked 10 because it blows me away so hard. Sometimes I'll comment on something I just marked 2 - because it completely fails to fit the theme, even if I liked it otherwise. Sometimes I comment on something that *could* have been an 8 or 9, if only the photographer had cropped differently/not made it so fuzzy/worked the contrast a little more/etc.
And for the record, if you see one of my shots out there, I prefer critical to harsh, but I'll take harsh over nothing. :->
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