First of all, Pixelblink, there is no animosity from my part towards you or really anyone. I don't have a problem with anyone person over this. I am talking about the managment of a website and how it could be improved. I think I've been constructive in my critique, but here's a recap:
1. Weed out your moderator base, if people come and go or are problematic, ditch them. When we did the same for Pixelation there was a lot of unpleasantness, but it was at the end, for the best. There should be no 'you're my friend' loyalty from a managerial point of view. Ptoing is my close friend but if I were away from Pixelation for 6 months or just logged on but didn't do anything you bet he would remove me from the mods. It is useful if there is a head mod that is level-headed and well... a bit German.
2. If you need more moderators, you should pick people whom have shown they have sound judgment on these matters, not just are hard-working or loyal. Making them go through a few test runs with some grey area pixel art pieces would help. Also they should never behave like assholes. I remember a lot of times where moderators of PJ were sarcastic or worse towards potential rule-breakers. This isn't cool. It looks cool at the time, but it really breaks trust.
3. Arrive to a sensible set of rules as to what is pixel art that doesn't rest upon knowing anything about the process, just the end result (while simultaneously really encouraging people to post workstages and references as much as possible), and make it clearly public. I'd rather if that set of rules was closer to the Pixelation standard, but even if it differs, just as long as it's application is consistent, I think you'll be fine. However the more strange your definition is, the more it will become inconsistent to practice moderation on top of it, as you see.
4. After this is public, train your userbase to understand these rules and then leave it up to them in some automated voting system to choose what is pixel art from the new images. This will alleviate a LOT of moderator grief over having to slog through stuff every day. They should only come in if they feel some piece that is pixel art has been unfairly sent back by the userbase.
5. Spend more time in your community discussing the merits of pixels and some learning instead of 'what music do you listen to?' and stuff like that. This might initially seem odd a suggestion, but a community must have a focus, if that focus is diluted, there start to become other concerns that become primary over its focus, like 'these are my internet friends and I can't break their hearts' and other such bullshit. If PJ is about pixels, then train the userbase to spend time on the boards talking about pixels.