WARNING: THIS IS A LONG POST NOT FOR THE ADD-/ADHD-AFFLICTED.
I started this not to gather a lynch mob but because I am hoping to improve the Featured Row selection process of blenderartists.org. I’m glad I’m not the only madman here who feels this way. 
In the end, we all are here because we like this site and its community.
Now, some replies:
@filibis, you make a good point, one I had in my head but not articulated. I feel if a work is to be considered for Featured Row, the post should cite as you say appropriate credits/links. I would go as far as to consider the software being used, as I question the validity of works posted here created in other CG apps and merely imported and rendered in Blender. If, as I’d mentioned before, this were a general 3d/CGI forum, I wouldn’t feel this way.
That said, everybody post whatever and whenever you like! By all means, show yourselves off! But to the “elite” voting Lounge members, don’t even consider the “modelled/sculpted in X, textured in Y, rendered in Blender” submissions, nice as they may be.
@Weekend and @Hexenfasching: easy, boys! While I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment, sarcasm will get us nowhere.
@Magnavis, you say…
…and as far as I’m concerned, that’s the way it should be! While CG is extremely technical, in the end we are all creating art. I personally don’t care how the engine is built, I want that car to go 0-to-60 in five seconds flat, so to speak. I personally could give a rat’s ass how many vertices or if there are ngons galore or all that other gearhead stuff…I wanna see beautiful pictures…but specifically created in Blender! You say you’re fine with the “made with X, Y and Z but Blender-rendered” works. I respectfully disagree because this site is called blenderartists.org, not threedeesoup.com. It’s like going to the GIMP forum to post work made in Photoshop.
In your second post you say…
…this is actually a very good idea. I personally don’t remember featured posts getting stale on Featured Row but that could be my failing memory! I do understand and agree that Featured Row does need to keep fresh and I also like the idea of the simple renaming “Featured Posts of the Week”. At least it’s calling it what it is!
@BigBlend and @Sourvinos, while I totally agree and even stated in my flagged comment, art by nature is subjective. I’m not making any calls on “beauty” or the quality of the work; that’s for the voting members to decide, subjective as it may be. But you are both correct: it’s unfair to feature a work that is not much more than materials test render, especially when the poster of said work vaguely states as such. I also find it extremely surprising that noone of the voting members recognized it as such, especially since the same model was used in @pixelgrip’s post of almost two years ago, but he had the sincerity to explain in his post exactly what it was and what he was doing. Oh, well…nobody’s human.
@Metin_Seven, I was wondering when you’d show up to the party! 
Your comments and insights are always appreciated…by me, anyway. 
I agree wholeheartedly regarding the points you’ve made: as I said earlier, “art” has been, is and will always be subjective. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” I personally don’t even care if they’re photorealistic or not , it’s the complete effect of the work that matters. To beat my point to death, I’m not questioning the artistic decisions regarding Featured Row selection for one second. But inadvertently you made a point that is the crux of the problem, as I see it:
Is ZBrush’s Featured Row filled with entries made in Blender? I honestly don’t know; I’ve never frequented the site. I’m betting they’re filled exclusively with work made in ZBrush. So why is this site’s Featured Row often filled with work not made exclusively in Blender? Especially since Blender has the capability to model/sculpt/texture/render/post-process?!
@Piotr_Adamowicz, that’s fine. We all see posts that we don’t like. Your strategy is the best strategy. “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” What kills me are people who go out of their way to insult without any constructive criticism!
And finally, @bartv, I totally realize that it’s not you alone that makes these decisions, but as the Administrator (and de facto Prime Minister of blenderartists.org Parliament) you are the “face” of this site. The buck stops with you, as they say. It’s not out of lip service that I say, and I’m not alone mind you, that we all appreciate your service to the community, what with you taking up the reins of the site some time ago, and all the technical/administrative work and difficulties of running a site of this scale. It’s nice to get a little recognition for a mostly-thankless job .
That said, if I may, I would like to make two suggestions to you and the voting members on Featured Row selection:
• All submissions considered for Featured Row must be at least modelled/sculpted and rendered in Blender. Texturing has always been a convoluted process so it’s only fair, even though some amazing materials can be and have been created solely in Blender procedurally and otherwise, that textures/materials may be created outside of Blender. I don’t see this as a major hindrance because for the most part of submissions already proudly add this information.
• All submissions considered for Featured Row must state all software used in its creation (including post-production) as well as any use of pre-made models not created by the submitter. It’s not fair to anyone that someone creates, for example, an archviz with sofas and beds from downloaded 3D models obtained and not created by the submitter. This is a bit stickier as I’ve noticed some featured works reluctantly admit this somewhere along the thread’s line. But if one wants to be considered, I think a bit of honesty should go along with the submission. Being humans, YMMV.
I think @Magnavis’s suggestion of simply renaming “Featured Row” to Featured of The Week/Month/Minute/Martian Year" is to be considered, or removing entirely this self-imposed time limit of weekly, even though Featured Row seems to move along at an undefined pace, usually daily-ish.
Short of removing the offending post from Featured Row, I would like to think that the voting members, however many they are (50-ish?), would be better informed of the goings-on of the CGI world in general and not let something like this happen in the future. Otherwise I really am going to post a series of Suzanne heads with different materials and textures once a day! 
I’ve said what I had to say. Resolve, ignore, whatever. PEACE, EVERYBODY! 
