Giving your own submission a rating kind of defeats the point in that you can't really tell what *others* think of it, since your own rating may be skewing the results...
Perhaps, but if the point is to see what people as whole, without specific reference to yourself, think about it then it isn't skewing any results. Just because you made it doesn't mean you can't have an opinion, though granted some people would rate themselves higher than they really think they deserve.
There was an election thingy at my university recently. People are always suprised that they are able to vote for themselves (or perhaps not, as the case may be) and don't seem to understand why this is fair. Polititions are citizens too!