despairing is a strong word, as it's not important, though sometimes it's fun. I did see the requirement to rate 1000 people with a activated auto-11 bling, though, and thought me "this is going to take forever."
When I started noticing the counter going up when I was rating photos, not just profiles, I did what I should have done in the first place and read it carefully: only profiles count for one condition, but profiles and photos count for the other. So thought I "ah, I can do -that- easily"- found someone with an auto 11 going (several people) and lots of rateable photos - (using the "SEARCH" feature) - and was level 43 in no time. Level 44, understandably, might be awhile, but that's ok, I have other work to do anyway and it'll get there or it won't.
Cheers!