The 'default' 6 is auto-loaded for those whose work DOES NOT go through moderation......my stuff for example gets an auto '6' which usually means no-one ever rates my work at all....even the admins will generally not even notice it's there....and the same goes for them....many of BoXXi's walls went up and I didn't even know they existed....because they hadn't gone through the moderation list.

Pretty well the best rating I have put on a work through moderation is a '10'.....and the worst was a 'do not upload anything like this again or your account will be deleted', but usually the lowest not to be rejected outright is about a '3'.

Many of you who go through moderation receive a '7, 8 or 9 or 10'.....which can be seen as quite legitimate, yet the auto-loaded '6' is quite often quite unfair.....either high or low [the script doesn't have skinning experience]...but perhaps averages out over all the person's submissions.

I'm not 'covering someone's butt'....I'm TELLING people that an admin has exactly the same right to an opinion of the standard of work as anyone else....

Actually, all the Admins are volunteers.  The only people who get paid for running the site are the programmers (programming doesn't work well on a volunteer basis.)

Yep, I'm at home right now recovering from surgery reading this (because I volunteer like all the other admins).  All I can speculate is that the walls have a more relaxed moderation now.  So, now instead of a "3" rated wall being rejected, it's accepted, but with the "3" (or 2 or 1) that it actually deserves.  Sounds crappy, but it's true.  And, as mentioned before, there is no automatic "6" rating.  All ratings through moderation are discussed then accepted with an appropriate rating.  All Journeymen and higher get auto-uploaded with a "6".