Seeing as this thread has mostly responses about BN's I want to talk a bit about attempting to get maps ranked as a new mapper (or at least as a mapper who doesn't have any ranked maps).
The typical timeline for someone is along the lines of:
I want to get a map ranked/start mapping > I'm going to collect mods until my map is good enough > My map is good enough, time to call BNs
Lets talk about each of these steps.
I want to get a map ranked/start mapping:
Not much to talk about here other than maybe trying to get better base resources for beginner mappers such as tutorials on the editor itself as well as what makes maps 'good', what patterns are commonly used, what to avoid etc.
I'm going to collect mods until my map is good enough:
Two issues here, the mods and knowing when your map is good enough.
As of now, a lot of people try to fill a 'quota' of mods before they try and find BN's to check. In an ideal world, everyone would have maps that are already well done in the 'style' or 'theme' or whatever you want to call it of the map, and these mods would be to check for technical issues (which most mods already are) and to maybe offer some suggestions (which, again, they already are). People are getting surprised when they fill out their quota and it turns out that contrary to what everyone else has told them in their quick mods, technical issues are not the only part of what their map needs to fix.
This also begs the question of how do you actually know when your map is polished enough to be considered for ranking. BN's get bombarded with heaps and heaps of requests, and sometimes these requests can range from very well polished maps to 'why are you even coming to me your entire map is an issue'. We should try to cut down the number of requests that BN's actually get by teaching the mapping community how to recognize when your map is ready for ranking, not just by the lack of technical issues within the map, but by ensuring that your map is done to the best of its potential. I'm not entirely sure how this can be done considering the subjective matter of mapping, but even small steps into being able to say 'this map is closer to being ready' or 'this map is ready' would be really good.
My map is good enough, time to call BNs
This is a massive issue for multiple reasons.
There's already been a lot of criticism about favouritism when it comes to BN's; I'm not going to say much about anything in particular, but I think that the perception of it being harder to find BN's when you're an unknown mapper is true.
When you're an unknown/newer mapper, there's multiple things you have to go through. Remember that BN's get bombarded with heaps of requests, so it's easy to get brushed off as 'yet another request'. This isn't the BN's fault of course, but it's rough to go around asking for requests then hearing BN's complain about people requesting BN checks when it's literally the only way that you can advance your map and multiple BN's are either difficult to contact due to inactivity or being busy, and the fact that it's actually really difficult sometimes to figure out what the BN actually wants in a map. Personally I think that all BN's should lay out clearly what they want from requests SOMEWHERE, preferably in their profile page or on a modding queue that they link from their profile or something.
A combined BN/QAT thread that only lists the BN/QAT expectations, current level of activity (active, semi-active, inactive, etc.) and current state of their queues (currently taking 5 requests, will be unavailable for roughly 1 month, etc.) might be very helpful too. This would cut down on the number of 'bad' requests, or at least make it easy to ignore when the BN's have clear rules on what they will and won't accept.
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Ideally, the system should be easy for newcomers to get into while maintaining high quality standards that are CLEAR and EASY to understand for ranking. Remember this isn't only about BN activity, or mapping activity, it's about helping mappers and BN/QAT get the most out of each other to create and rank the best maps possible.
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As an aside, I see a few suggestions on BN's and playability of high difficulty maps, as well as modding of low>high maps as a progression system. Remember that some people out there are good mapping/criticising high level maps, but are clueless on low level maps, and vice versa. Even if their ability is more limited, I don't think we should discount people who's expertise is focused on a single keymode, or a single level range if they are good at what they do.