Part of the problem with having it in the R/C was the fact that a lot of the respect was lost when people gave art that wasn't up to the requester's standards or thinking....or something like that. I've seen a lot of artists completely turned around into charging a lot for their art instead of doing it free as they used to. Not to mention that the R/C was totally bogged down with these 'gimme' threads.....now its just a question of sifting through the auctions and the shops....
And I totally agree on that, with the stickies...there should be at least one with a set of guidelines that would help both the artists get what they need from the people requesting...and letting the people give adequate information in their requests. I've been working on a set of my own, part of them posted in my own free art corner, but they're still expanding as I see new problems. Hopefully a thread like that will be approved sooner or later ^^