There are a lot of great groups out there who are sincerely interested in helping artists get exposure. There are also a lot of great groups out there that are selective in what they accept into their galleries but do so fairly and democratically with a set a defined criteria. Unfortunately, there are far more selective groups that are just unfair and elitist.

I'm leaving groups run by less than 4 people who seem to think they are entitled to determine the value of other people's work. So many of these groups claim they want to increase exposure for artists but really they just like being able to accept or deny people without explanation. The admins rarely present credentials to show that they are even capable of assessing artistic quality. I look at their galleries and see nothing that seems "amazing" or "flawless" to me but they posted it so they must think something about it is amazing. And if that kind of subjective process is what they're using to determine if something should be accepted or denied, it really is a flawed system. It's sophomoric. It's really very annoying and I won't support it. Let's grow up people. Everyone has talents and everyone's work should be appreciated.

If you want to run a selective group, tell us why you are better than anyone else at assessing artistic value. Tell us how you assess it, beyond stating that 4 random people vote yay or nay. Tell us why things get declined and why things get accepted. I realize these groups get overwhelming numbers of submissions, but if your mission is to run a group that is truly focused on presenting great works, then you're going to have to take the time required to give every piece the amount of thought it deserves. And people should be told why their submissions were rejected.

I'm going to spend some time finding groups that I think really do a great job of being both selective and fair... In the meantime...
Create whatever makes you happy. It's beautiful.