I’d like to suggest an alternative approach to address the current osu! Beatmap Nominator (BN) workload issue. Currently, BNs are under considerable pressure to juggle their real-life responsibilities with their osu! duties. (While there are those who believe the stress is manageable, it’s undeniable that individuals often face challenging life circumstances.)
Facing the reality of map ranking can be quite challenging unless you’re a BN. As a BN, you’re inundated with requests to rank others’ mapsets while trying to meet your BN duties, leaving you with little time to map or enjoy the game. What if the solution was to increase the number of BNs? This way, the workload could be distributed more evenly, resulting in fewer requests per BN and a more manageable experience.
Why not expand the BN team to 200 or even more for the osu! standard mode? One reason might be the challenge osu! staff face in managing a large team.
Facing the reality of map ranking can be quite challenging unless you’re a BN. As a BN, you’re inundated with requests to rank others’ mapsets while trying to meet your BN duties, leaving you with little time to map or enjoy the game. What if the solution was to increase the number of BNs? This way, the workload could be distributed more evenly, resulting in fewer requests per BN and a more manageable experience.
Why not expand the BN team to 200 or even more for the osu! standard mode? One reason might be the challenge osu! staff face in managing a large team.
My New BN System Proposal:
We could reintroduce tiered BNs, similar to the past, but with a twist:- Tier 1 BNs would be endorsed by the mapping community rather than managed by osu! staff. Any retired BN who has maintained good conduct should be eligible for Tier 1 status upon request. Alternatively, they could toggle their Tier 1 status on their profile page. This list would serve as a community endorsement rather than an obligation and would be subject to community review, akin to voting for mapper’s choice awards.
- Eligible individuals would be notified that community recognition has qualified them as Tier 1 nominators, and they could toggle this status on their user page (with a one-month cooldown for changes). There’s no requirement to nominate maps to maintain this status, but it will automatically toggle off if no nominations are made within two months.
- Our goal is to re-engage former BNs and skilled mappers in the nomination process, thereby alleviating the burden on the current osu! staff-managed BNs. While saying this may be controversial, I believe that the standards of many former BNs surpass those of the current ones. Their involvement would only enhance the quality of ranked beatmaps. This group could potentially grow to 200 or more members and wouldn’t require direct management by osu! staff—let the community take the lead! The veterans who have graduated and remained active are invaluable to this game; let’s empower them to contribute to osu!'s improvement. Their energy may differ from their school days, but their expertise is timeless.
- Existing osu! staff-managed BNs would be elevated to Tier 2 BNs, tasked with verifying the Ranking Criteria, metadata, and more, thus completing the nomination process with reduced stress—perhaps two nominations per month would suffice.
Given the reduced oversight osu! staff would have over Tier 1 BNs, I propose requiring two Tier 1 BNs for each game mode, followed by one Tier 2 BN to finalize the nomination process. For hybrid sets, Tier 2 BNs should seek confirmation from another Tier 2 BN of referred game mode, mitigating most risks.- Edit: Regards to yaspo's post, I propose an additional status within the ranking process: “Qualified for Review.”. When a mapset accumulates two tier 1 BN nominations, it will enter the “Qualified for Review” status and remain there for at least one month, subject to community review, then move to ranked if no issue is present. Alternatively, if a tier 2 BN is involved, this period will be shortened to one week, similar to the current practice.
- I urge the osu! staff to motivate tier 2 BNs to actively participate in reviewing these sections. Such involvement would not only count towards their contributions but also elevate the caliber of ranked maps.
Despite knowing that this post might not capture widespread attention, and acknowledging that the methods to re-engage former BNs and ALMs in mapping and nomination could vary, I remain optimistic about osu!'s future. Next month marks my 13th anniversary with osu!, and it’s my sincere hope to witness the game’s continued improvement and growth over next 13 years.