Thats true, but repeated bumping after a long enough time of no responses is not the answer either. It can be annoying, rude, and considering spam or necromancing in some instances. In fact, its a little selfish. There are other people who want requests done too, but they don't bump their threads. They wait their turn, and if it doesn't work out it doesn't work out. People who bump are cutting to the front of the line.
I think your own concern/question is answered as it is already, as is everyone else's. You say you would want an acknowledgement that the threads are seen, but the silence is, in and of itself, the answer. The lack of an answer IS the answer. It answers the question for you of whether anyone is interested, anyone cares, or anyone is available at that time. In fact, this is the reason it becomes annoying to bump after a thread had a chance, because it's like telling the artists you're not satisfied with their answer and want their attention on the matter again. Also, if you expect them to answer the thread just to say they've seen it, then you're putting them on the spot, and questioning them in public for why they haven't accepted your request or whether they're going too, which is a bit rude since theres an expectation for an answer or at least a hinting towards one.
While I will acknowledge that some threads are successful because of bumping, and persistance does sometimes pay off, generally its just a bit unfair when some bump and others do not, since you're bumping down their request and cutting to the front of the line. If everyone bumped it would be even more unfair, since then its about who wants it more badly and whose willing to double-post, spam, bump, necromance, etc. And, if that happens then theres rule breakage, and it becomes an actual forum issue that needs to be resolved and might need rules implimented to make things more orderly.
As is it now, though, everyone has the same chances/odds that they will or will not get their request fulfilled. People should be satisfied, I think, that they even have this option publically. I still say that if you have a particular artist in mind, to send that artist a PM. It saves you all this trouble, and you're getting the attention of the artist you want, rather than playing a random game of craps with this forum.
