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These rankings are a little silly and arbitrary since they are based on individual tastes , but here's mine:

S1: Totally incomparable since nothing preceded it in the US television market. The editors had to use their good judgement, and they had mixed sucess. Fortunately for us, the audience, most of the castaways had personality quirks and nuances that can't be compartmentilized into a caricature. Even though some people will disagree with me, there are no "heroes" nor are there "villains" in the first season, just people.

S2-S3: The editors try to copy the sucess of the first season, which they did for the most part, but made the show a little more polished. The human element is still there, as the focus is strictly on the people trying to cope with the environment in which they're encamped, and each others personalities are the focal point on which strategy is based. There are points in which the editors try to be preachy and esoteric, such as in the finale of season two, but they are mostly laughed off by the general public as the phony schmaltz that it is.

S4-S5: The public clearly isn't enamored with Survivor as much as it used to be, but to the real fans of the show, not much has changed. Season four revitalizes peoples interests by being the first season in which the ruling alliance is dismantled in toto. Season five is a return to normalacy, as it features the shows biggest pagonging ever. It is mostly panned for being boring and mean spirited, though I still can't see why. I loved it.

S6-S8: The emphasis upon physical survival and the personal trials and tribulations of the castaways is still there, but it is being stretched to accomodate more complex and convoluted stratagems. These seasons are most remembered for having one over arching mastermind(Or at least the impression of having a mastermind) apiece, and the irrational love of certain castaways over others. Also, the latter two seasons mark the beginning in which challenges and twists start taking up lots of airtime. Fortunately they did not overshadow the castaways, but worked in tandem with them to make the show seem as epic as it did in the first three seasons.

S9-S12: After All Stars ended and Vanuatu begun, it seemed as if most people just stopped caring. The editing was not as fresh as it was even during All Stars, and it looks especially grim compared to the pulse pounding edit of Pearl Islands. I would say that the show was on auto pilot, but that seems more appropriate for seasons 2-7. Season 10, Palau, got people briefly interested, but a combination of factors kept that season from greatness. One, there were too many people being ignored by the editing, and even so, many of those people were recruits who seemed to minimal interest in the experience they were having. I don't agree with these opinions myself, but they was the general feelings of the audience at large and especially at Sucks. Two, the show started employing weird and totally meaningless twists such as the Double Tribal Council and more ominously, an increase in the number of castaways per season. There was no absolutely no reason for the extra two people in Vanuatu, except to accomodate the Double Tribal Council twist, and Palau's initial twist could easily have been accomplished with 18 rather than 20 people. Also, Stephanie Lagrossa of Palau becomes inexplicably popular through her edit, and then pisses it all away in the following season, Guatemala. To me at least, Stephanie's duel edits highlight the inherent phoniness of the hero vs villain motif that Survivor frequently brings to the table.

Season 12, Panama, left people disheartened even further with more arbitrary twists. This time, there would be four tribes, and there would also be something called Exile Island. On this Exile Island, there would be an "idol" that one could use to save themselves if they got voted off. What pissed people off was that this season utilized the Pearl Islands as its backdrop for a jaw dropping third time. There was an excuse for this, albeit it was a flimsy and easily disprovable one, which I will get to in a minute. Ultimately, they picked Panama because the production crew turned into lazy bastards. There is also a case to be built against this season as being one where editing favored strategy over personality, despite it's return to a 16 person cast. I would agree with this, and if anyone wants to know further about it, Bobdawg Mason made an excellent thread detailing everything they left out of the show called "The Deuceman Cometh". Why it isn't in Monster Island, I have no idea. While I enjoyed the cast personally, the editing was a real failure.

S13-S14: These are two special seasons, as many consider them the point of no return for Survivor. In them, the editing just gives up and dwells deliberately on strategy and game play over the castaways. There are a million reasons to hate these seasons if you have watched and enjoyed Survivor from day 1, not the least of which is the number of people not just ignored through the editing, but rendered totally and completely inconsequential. If you are not part of the storyline that the producers are peddling, then forget about it, you're nothing but a torch to be extingushed. To be fair, this is somewhat of an exaggeration, and upon rewatching there are things to enjoy and admire about Cook Islands and Fiji, but it's not the same as it used to be. Now I know how some people feel when they talk mindlessly about the good old days.

Besides the ratings dropping at an accelerated rate, there is also another reason to tread carefully around these seasons, especially here at Sucks. Around this time, Survivor Sucks began becoming less of a darkly humorous message board run by cynical fans who loved the show as much as they satirized it, but a humorless message board run by miserly jerks pushing a mob mentality. RavuRules, for whatever flaws he may have, was a valuable contribuator to not only intelligent debate concerning what makes a Survivor player good or poor, but also opened up my eyes to what makes these two seasons worth any value at all. In the end, seasons 13 and 14 are important for historical reasons in the avenue of reality television called "Survivor". They have sophisticated strategy only hinted at or not shown in earlier seasons.

S15-S18: The editing is pretty much identical to the previous two seasons, and the arbitrary(Read:Stupid and Hindering) twists keep coming. Realistically, China is no different than Cook Islands or Fiji in tone or melody, but it is treated differently because there is a more sensible cast size. It didn't really matter, though, because everyone was treated like a chess piece rather than a fully fleshed out human being, or even a caricature. Micronesia was the same way, though perhaps the nature of a partial All Star season mitigated this awful trend. Upon reviewing, Micronesia had plenty of interesting character based moments which I didn't see the first time around. Also, I noticed the second time I viewed it that the use of the Hidden Immunity Idol had not really impacted anything. While there is good gameplay in Micronesia as advertised, the season would roughly be the same without the idol. Parvati probably still would have won, and Cirie still would have exited earlier than people wanted had there been no idol. So much for that.

Gabon was interesting. In many ways, it was refreshing to see the show finally embrace character devolopment again. On the other hand, the production value was of course down. The traditional tribal music is gone, and replaced by generic and boring sounding "inspirational" and "competitive" moments. There is also an annoying tendancy to use sound effects whenever someone says something only a prude would find shocking. And how could we forget Sugar? She was portrayed as a "hero" for no reason at all other than being the one to find the Hidden Idol, even when there is plenty of evidance and testimony to suggest a less than noble character. She is also accused of being a producer plant, forcing people to take the projected "fan favorites" to the end. Not anything shocking by production standards, but with the show now being based upon heroes and villains, and strategy above all else, it comes off very badly and disheartening.

Tocantins? Same story as Gabon, but replace Sugar with a phony douchebag named Coach.

Also, I just plain hate people being taken out of the credits each week. It is pointless and distracting, and only bigs ill will upon the producers. So that's another strike against them.