Wasn't going to say more on this subject. It is loaded with pitfalls and could get me in trouble in a very short time. But I have to put in just a few more words.
These are just my thoughts on the subject. My opinions, you don't have to share them so just humor the old man.
I have been around bonsai for quite a while. Have attended many critiques at conventions, club shows and workshops. Heard just about everything that can be said about a tree I guess.
There are three categories of critiques.
1. A honest critique that inspires
2. A honest critique that doesn't
3. A critique given for the sake of a critique.
The critiques that come from those that most of us consider "masters" seem to fall in the first category. I am not going to put names to these "masters" . You all know them, have read their books or attended their demos at the major conventions.
These people give honest opinions. But they always seem to leave you with some hope. Most of the time they will show what is wrong with the tree by pointing out what is right. They inspire you to do better.
Occasionally one of these guys/gals will have a bad day and you will wind up with a category 2 critique. Not often but it does happen.
The more experienced seem to give more of the category 1 and then we slip more into the category 2 the further we go down the food chain. We start getting more mean ( and less inspiring ) with each drop in the experience level of the one giving the critique. We get to the point that only faults are noted. Suggestions for improvement are not given. Words like "crap" and "trash" are used.
At the bottom of that food chain only " the rules" are given consideration. Artistic considerations are lost.
Category 3 critiques are, well, all over the place ;o). These are given just for the sake of giving them. Every EXPERT can let these fly at any time. People that do these are just waiting for the chance to slam. To find fault. Anyone that can spell bonsai can let one of these loose on you.
What all this means I am not sure. But I am glad I got it off my chest.

Ron, I'm not so sure that the attitude of a person towards other bonsai students (and, aren't we all students?) can be correlated with his(her) level of experience. From what I've see, there are many - the majority - in bonsai-land that have a genuinely helpful and friendly attitude towards others. There are others, a minority, who are neither helpful nor friendly. It's not hard to see what a person's attitude is. Oh, there may be a few misunderstandings and the nicest people can have a bad day, but, in general, it's not hard to see what a person's true intentions are.

A point that was made earlier that I had never really thought about is that courtesy is a two way street. When we ask for advice we have a responsibility to accept well intentioned comments gracefully. On another site, I saw so much abusiveness being directed from advice giver to advice receiver that that I lost sight of the other side of the equation being just as important.

Regards, Fred

You know, I think I'll just keep my trees to myself for the time being, lol.

But really, this thread reminds me of my first jump school. They scare you so bad on the ground that when you get on the wing of the plane and finally get the guts to jump off, you're damn sure that something is going to go wrong!

Course, the times that it does are very very rare.

Ron,

to take your point a little further, you may get a category 2 or 3 from someone who is more interested in showing off what they know about Bonsai that in giving helpful advice about your tree.

"See how important I am as I shred the efforts of your hard work" These are the people who need to recognise that once again they are only offering an opinion.