A huge amount of feedback!! So much it's making my head hurt!
Before I proceed with any radical changes to the site, it's quite clear that guidance/help is needed among the members that are either new to photography or members that do simply not have the confidence. I feel this is the area where we first need to focus on.
Since I first started this thread, I've come up with lots of other ideas sparked off by the great suggestions and more importantly the concerns that have been left and the more I think about them, none of them will really work if someone doesn't have the confidence to leave comments in the first place.
I need to keep focused on our sites values which is to help members as much as possible and not force anyone into a situation which they don't have either the knowledge or confidence to participate in.
Last night, I found what I feel to be a solid educational/informative path that we can follow, I just need to work out how to integrate it into this site. This educational path I'm looking at are "video" photo critiques, small movies that members can watch and enjoy but the real value would be members will get a feel for how someone else is critiquing because you can watch them and hear them.
I'm going to be exploring this today, I'll keep everyone posted on my progress.