Again I have to agree with you SS. Though I'm not a "seasoned" member I lurked here for a couple of years before I became a member and I was here before and through the big transition when a lot of seasoned members left. I used to look at making banner as an honor but after a while I started to get a bad taste in my mouth about how things seemed to work. I started following less and chose to not post my finds so much. Just a lot of unanswered questions. I've certainly seen you and some others battling on this issue and sometimes you weren't so popular. OK to be fair maybe you were on the brink of being booted.
The fact is that the moderators use their discretion when it comes to the rules and guidelines of banners which leaves the question of transparency. They have stated too, that enough votes to make a particular find "Banner" has not been met on occasion. Don't change the rules per say, enhance the guidelines. A "Banner" meter, gauge or whatever you want to call it lets the members see if that's been met. It also can create interesting statistics as far as what types of things members find interesting. My intent like yours, is not to give them a hard time. I have a ton of respect for those who take a lot of flack and often get little respect in return for doing a tuff job that few would do. That's not counting the time, knowledge, patience, ect. that it takes.
We wouldn't be doing Tnet, or the world for that matter, any good if we didn't question how things are and we're not open to being questioned.