Hi.
I wouldn't say I'm a new mapper. I've been exposed to mapping since late 2012, and have even managed to get a few of my maps ranked years ago. However, I am struggling to get my current work noticed. I simply thought I was just outdated from the newer stuff people enjoy, or I just didn't have enough experience in the field anymore.
But then I noticed that all I saw that was being ranked were just short maps, stuff shorter than 90 seconds, with multiple expert difficulties, and only one of the normals, hards, and insanes, and then their top difficulty. I saw those getting ranked, and I wanted to know why. I played them and I felt like I wasn't really understanding anything. Everytime I looked at any of time my brain started to hurt knowing there was absolutely no flow or shape, just felt like someone dropped their box of cheez-its and it's all over the floor.
(Not saying every map ranked nowadays is short, but for every good map ranked there are about 5 "tv size farm maps" ranked.)
And while me criticizing mapping is not the topic, I destined to look out for something else. I wanted to truly understand why their maps are getting the attention, and not mine. For one, I noticed that all of these mappers seem to have only two difficulties out of many by them, the rest by guest mappers. Usually they'd have a top difficulty, and maybe an insane or normal difficulty. I've noticed recently that a few mappers (not going to point fingers), are actually using the same people to map the same difficulty on different maps, like if I were to map an easy difficulty on one of my friend's maps for rank, I would do the same on their next map, and so on.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it sort of gave me something else to think about. I noticed that there is about the same group of people that nominate their map, usually after minimal modding to said map, where as mine usually reaches 3 or 4x more mods than their maps. Not really anything wrong with the same bns that nominate, but... it also seems like some BNs are either closed forever, but open for their friends. Mordred said something along those lines way above me, and I think he said it way better than I could, mentioning how experienced mappers still struggle to get their stuff ranked, especially now because I prefer trying to map stuff longer than 3 minutes, and almost no BN wants to help with that. I may have gotten some cringe songs ranked in the past, but I have managed to get a much more broader taste in music. EDM has been very fun to map in the past 2-3 years but that brings me up to the next point, that was already covered by another user.
osu! is a rhythm game. Rhythm can come from all sorts of music, country, rap, kpop even. They're not my jam, but I cannot close out the fact that they count as music. EDM and dubstep also count as music, but alot of BNs don't seem to enjoy modding tech or these genres. I felt demotivated after trying to find someone out there that wouldn't mind modding tech, and the few I came across to, were just closed for a long time. I felt like I wasn't progressing along, and that it would take a very long time to get something ranked, or I would have to try and just map tv size. I don't want to map that, I don't get alot of satisfaction mapping anime openings, or songs that have already been mapped multiple freaking times. (I'm looking at you Harumachi Clover and Chika Chika.) I'd also bring up that some artists get featured but very few of their songs get ranked or mapped, but other people have brought that up.
I feel like we need more BNs in the team. More specifically, more BNs that will actually mod other genres that the current team is lacking. We have plenty of mappers and modders that do tech and EDM, perhaps they should prove their worth and be accepted into the team. Or maybe the guidelines for the BNs need changes so that they can't just deny a genre because they don't like it. I'm not trying to blame anyone, I don't want to throw myself into the abyss and suddenly back out after making myself look like a fool. I'm trying to say that we need more diversity, other than all of the anime and tv-size songs out there. There's SO much more music out there, and with so many mappers, the BNs are overwhelmed and I feel bad for them since they must be overloaded with work, including their lives, which I say real life always comes first. We have to remember that these are REAL HUMANS trying their absolute best, and they just want to get through their life without alot of struggles. We all are humans, talking to each other online.
Overall, I just feel discouraged trying to get my maps ranked, or even finish more of the tech maps I've made by some of my favorite artists. The job of the BN is to get maps ranked that they think is quality. And I understand that people have their music tastes, but it can't hurt diving into the other genres in a rhythm game, especially if the map fits the ranking criteria and is very clean? There are some really good maps out there, and alot of people not BNs really enjoy their map, and would like to see it ranked. Even if you feel like it's more effort than needed, it means it was put together with meaning and care, instead of a jumbled, messed up puzzle board.
I'm not asking for people like me to have 90 ranked maps a year, I wouldn't find time to get 6 ranked a year. We'd like to have some recognition, giving us a little more hope and motivation to get something else ranked or mapped a few months down the line. There's a few other points I could bring up, but they were already talked about, those posts definitely gave more thought other than me giving an unaccented opinion and my thoughts on this situation. Someone said going back to the SP system might help, but I don't think it will help, considering there will still be maps that might not be good quality but loved to death by alot of people. Infact I'm not really sure how we could solve this situation, other than "just hire more BNs". It might help, but with the growing number of new mappers and experienced mappers alike, perhaps the system just needs some tweaking.
Sorry if this is long and hard to read. I tried to not call people out or make myself look like an idiot (even though I am one), but I just wanted to get my opinion out.
Edit: I wrote this all in 2 hours with alot of thinking, and three posts have been made in that time.