Steve: the point about your avatar is not that it's bad, it's that it's old. It's from the 80s, and your point of view is from the 80's as well. This doesn't make it good, bad, correct or incorrect, it just makes it old and that explains a lot about what you're saying about art, about 'graphics and design' and ultimately about 'cobblers'. You talk about being a professional in the field as if that's a badge of legitimacy, where a lot of people on this forum also quiety work in the field today and have the opposite views to you when it comes to how pixel art is. It's mostly your problem that you cannot adjust to new circumstances and you're trying to argue about how the circumstances should drift back towards your comfort zone. Pixelation's not going to change in that way, there will be no distinction between 'art' and 'design' and 'graphics' here. There WILL be a lot of 'blind leading the blind' in the critique section of the forum which will always lead to slow but assured positive movement for the whole of the userbase. Critique will never be exhausted to 'use reference more'. If you can live with that, stick around and post your new art for critique and/or help others with your wisdom! If it doesn't suit you, you should find somewhere else where your point of view is the norm, not reactionary.
TheOne, your points of view being what they are I do not see how Pixelation is of any use to you. You could stick around and try to affect change on this thread as long as you're civil, but I don't think Pixelation is ready to give up on critique because you feel it's limiting. Do you have something better to do with your time? I feel like that sometimes too and then I don't post my art on Pixelation for critique (=I go do something better with my time).
I do think that critique has an 'expiration date' as far as the growth of an artist goes and it doesn't so much have to do with hittiing a high enough skill level so that critique becomes irrelevant, it has to do with the psychological effects of 'being told you're doing it wrong': for some stages in an artist's evolution, it's very good to hear these things, at some other stages it's either irrelevant or even detrimental. Sometimes one artist can go from critique being beneficial to him to being detrimental and then back to beneficial. One has to look at his own situation honestly and judge if a place like Pixelation is useful to them at that point in their lives. People that outgrow receiving critique in Pixelation are welcome to stick around and just post it. People that do not believe in the critique process altogether can hit the road and do us all a favor.
What is important is that if someone sees a cobbler on a thread anywhere in pixelation, he/she should be able to address it without other people resorting to snarky comments about their avatar or other forms of denial (btw i thought the likeness is pretty good ste86).
No you see, what is important in Pixelation is that people are encouraged to post critique (even if it's unfounded, strange or even blatantly bad critique) and let the original artists take from it what they want, without disruptive people like you that have a score to settle breathing down their necks. It's an issue of atmosphere and of community. All denials are equal, Pixelation has a scope that needs be maintained for it to be useful. If you have different thoughts on how an art critique board should be ran (and it seems you do) by all means, go start the board and I'll be eagerly watching how it grows and what it does differently. I learn better from example than I do by being told 'I'm doing it wrong', that's just how Pixelation made me.
You have voiced your concerns here in this thread and they're up for public discussion, please keep it to this thread though and make a further effort to be honest and courteous to people. You might want to drop the irony and such for this.