Well, though honest you may have been Taylor, it sure wouldn't hurt to hold the tongue sometimes. No one will become better by reading replies like these. More constructive criticism is a must if we are going to survive as the greatest online photography forum ever (IMHO). If you feel that this photo really is so **, and there is nothing you can think of that would benefit er111a, then why waste your time? I'm sure you have much more important stuff to do than to give meaningless (to anyone other than you apparently) criticism to people on here. Wait, I guess you don't have more important stuff to do, otherwise I wouldn't even be writing this.
You can call it defending, I call it intervention.
Yeah, its a phone, yeah, its off in ways that would be a put-off to people looking to be technical, but this photo isn't necessarily a lump of manure.
If this person, in your opinion (and perhaps others), has not improved over their stay here, what about me? Have I improved since I came on here 3 years ago? I think I have and that's good enough for me. But I certainly didn't get better (in my opinion) by the naysayers. I got better because someone said my photos looked fecal-like and made suggestions as to how I could make it better.
Chew on that for awhile you unsensitive prick...I'm just joking...I don't think you're a prick, just inappropriately honest...