Yep it sucks. Seems like it's constantly getting worse. My problem with it is that all the crap moving through the most recent 50 so quickly pushes the noncrap with it. 5 years ago a submission would get at least a dozen reviews no matter how awful, yesterday I won daily 3rd and got 7.
scytheholder
Yeah... This kinda pisses me off too. Sometimes i'll get bored and look up a random idea, I'll get several results and get maybe 1/10 to be worth a 2. I think you're right, people are mindless zombies, are we all mindless zombies? In some ways, yes. If we see something by a certain author, we might not hesitate to click "5", but you can't say everything's crap.
I tried flash about a year ago... holy crap time flies, anyway, about a year ago, I tried making some simple animations. I was a TOTAL newbie(newbie as in beginner, not noob, i'm very annoying about this topic) to Flash and had to look at several bits of tutorials constantly. I came up with some things that would've, sadly, probably passed.
I don't think it's right for people to do that. The people I find the MOST repulsive in this sense are the people that vote 5 for a group or a club, and 0 for a sprite movie just because they're sprites(sprites are still art, they were even revered more than art for several years). People should focus on a few things when deciding a submission's fate. 1.Graphics- Does it look incredibly kickass? or like a little kid drew it? 2.Sound-Is it butchered?(that's all I got for sound) 3.Originality-Is it new? Is it fresh? It is the same rehashed crap we get every 3 seconds? 4.Art Style-Is it a good style? 5. Personal Preference- Does it appeal to you? Is it good/bad? Or are you just saying it's good/bad because someone else did it or it's unpopular at the time?
(Ignore those 5, just rant space of mine)
Here's what should happen to the people who just go around giving 5s: "Lolz, I amz rating dis shiz 5!!!(note: all people who do this are not completely retarded)" *gun fire* THE END.
People sometimes find doing it funny for personal amusement, my own self feels the need to beat the living hell outta people like this(Stopped by ol' Johnny Law), but I never actually do anything do to age basis.(Off Topic but... Age is unimportant in maturity, more mature people tend to be older, but everyone blames it on 10 year olds when they could be 18, or 8)
So, list of ideas:
1.Beat them
2.Beat them to the voting
3.Scare them away
4.Start a flame war(I HIGHLY reccomend against this one, in fact, doing it would make you as bad as the people who vote like this.)