i have a backround in fine art, and the amount i heard that "art cannot be judged" was in direct proportion to the amount said persons work should have been burned. lol
but we are not talking fine art here. we are talking CG. and more importantly, the creation of assets for practical application. such things have areas where they can be judged quite fairly. if a mesh has bad topology, it has bad topology. there is nothing very interpretive there. if a texture is bad, its bad. what makes it bad, is nothing to do with art, but to do with the fact that it cannot be used for what it is intended to be used for.
i think the main thing that need dealing with first is spam posts. the people uploading 30 different variations of the same thing.
as re; popularity contest, we just need more venomous people like me around here. i hate everyone equilly. ha. seriously though. this is why i suggested that it takes 3 votes on a piece of work by moderators to remove it. at any point i think it should be possible to have the judgment of any moderator called into question on the forum by any user. i cant see there being any favouritism on peoples work, merely because they are not forum hounds. all the best work on sharecg is done by people who have not participated in the forum, and thats just fine. their work does all the talking they need it to. if anything becomes vaguely "eurovision", i will commit hari kiri live on these boards in protest. some things should not be!!
http://irishlostboy.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://www.sharecg.com/pf/irishlostboy