Dead group or what?????
Please comment on your correspondence message with any questions or concerns about your submission in question. We are a high volume group with many submissions and due to the new and poor UI change of Eclispe, the log is rather long and can't possible know of which deviation you speak of.
You also seem to have misinterpreted 'uptightness' for possibly your deviation breaking quality guidelines or rule breaking that could possibly be included into it. But again, without actual proper representation of communication of the particular image, we cannot comment on what the actual case was. It could even be a case of sticking very closely to guidelines to make sure the gallery sticks to group's guidelines to the T. In future reference, the front page is not for complaints or concerns about submissions; Correspondence messages and notes are suitable and acceptable.