
Here's my take on things:
1. More cartos are a must. I am truly surprised at how long the admins have left Coleman here virtually by himself. I know Andy is the chief monkey, but there has to be more help around here (especially when I've been seeing Andy in Sugs&Bugs a lot, which I thought was jennifermarie's job). I don't necessarily know how the work load should be divided, but I do know that Coleman should be doing much more checking on XML rather than graphics. Others are much better at graphics.
2. Don't be afraid to move a map backwards in the process. As the saying goes, "One step backword and two step forward." I did not pay attention to Civil War and others that had a giant revamp called for/done while in Final Forge, but if a map is going to undertake a large change, move it back to the main foundry. Same if a map in the foundry (or perhaps forge) appears to be abandoned, move it back to ideas.
3. The first post as well as all subsequent posts containing updates MUST contain what the update has fixed as well as what the cartographer has in mind for the next step. Aside from being interested in the Solar System map anyway, I felt that maxdetjens did a great job of announcing his fixes and plans to move the map forward. (I know cairnswk does this mostly as well, and I'm sure some other do too.) Not only does this keep the interest of current aids, but it allows for a new person to come by and jump into more effective critiques much easier.
4. Foundry and Ideas maps should have a rotating sticky. Once an update is posted, if the map has not had much criticism for a day or two, a cartos should place a sticky on the topic to bring focus to the map. After a couple days, the sticky is removed and the thread evaluated. If there was a positive contribution, the map should continue. If posts are negative or there weren't very many, the maker should post an update that goes in a different direction (or that looks better in their eyes), or the cartos should encourage abandonment until a later time.
Well that's my 4 cents. Sorry it was long, but I hope a view of a non-cartographer helps.