Xyuwelion and I have recently had a discussion on the recent mapranking process. Together, we developed an idea that might change perspectives and priorities of this process.

As of now, maps that are checked on quality by a team of asserted "specialists" become ranked and therefore accompanied by a scoreboard. This causes a lot of good maps to fall into the background and possibly even alliances between team members and mappers, one might call this "circlejerk". We reckon that this will continue to happen, even after the recent "BN purge". But this is not the only problem. We figured that putting a scoreboard on a map should not be characteristic for a good map, but rather for a popular one. This is where our idea comes into play. We modellized a new concept that would allow players to compare their scores on any kind of map and mappers to feel great when their map is approved as "good".

I'd like to introduce the Seal/Icon of Approval (patent pending) which signalizes the certain quality of a map, while quality is defined the way it is done now.

What exactly is this seal?

To explain the seal, I will have to explain what we are trying to make happen. It is supposed to symbolize that a map fits into a certain criteria without including the competitive element of the game. Instead, we ask for a scoreboard on all finished mapsets. Why? Because this is the main clue of the game - competition. There is no real goal to this game other than getting better, which is also a way of putting oneself over another person. This sounds slightly chaotic at first, but it will not be after further explanation.
Right now, qualified maps have a scoreboard on them, but no Performance Points will be awarded if a player places a score on it. This is what is, in our opinion, supposed to apply to all maps submitted via BSS that is entirely complete. Incomplete maps are those that don't acquaint a song by at least 75%, as stated in the ranking criteria, with the exception of a good reasoning behind a shorter map.
The mapper should be able to choose whether they want their map to have a scoreboard or not instead of waiting on a permission. Unrightfully scoreboarded maps will be deranked and the mapper receives a certain timeout. This makes the current ranking process obsolete.
To make up for that loss, we thought of the icon. But it should not be awarded the way it is right now, but it should be entirely community-based. Momentarily, all mappers and modders as well as BNs and QATs decide whether a map is good. With the update, everyone gets to decide on this rather than a selection of people of which we say that they know about quality, that we cannot challenge right now. I see a lot of maps becoming worse after being modded and this would nullify the problem: Moddings should be applicable while there is no scoreboard on the map and the map should not be updateable if scoreboarded.

Resulting from that, there would be an Unranked Section where all unfinished maps will be in.
Also, there will be a Ranked Section where maps that the mapper sees as ready will be set in. They will have a scoreboard and no scores will provide Performance Points. Thus, it would act like the current Qualified Section. This is already highly demanded, since there is a well-supported thread in the Feature Request forum by Default, who suggested a section for gimmick maps.
Then, there would be the Sealed Section. In this section, you will be able to find maps that the community likes the most in terms of playstyle, aethetics, sense, et cetera. Those will be visually differenciable from ranked maps due to their seal. They are not intended to be worth Performance Points, but they might as well. Through this new section, getting the same map status like right now becomes an option instead of an obligation.
Now, this looks like Performance Points fall short. But they are not intended to do so, as there should be a fourth section, the Competitive Section. In here, you will find the most played beatmaps of a set period of time. Those will be handled like the current ranked maps, they will provide pp. Audiences cannot choose which maps will be put into this section other than ranking the map.

Why this way of solving problems?

I fear that if we were to keep the current way of mapranking, most unranked maps fall short. If we were to change the system without the seal, easy mapsets would not be successful at all and maps of potencially horrible quality would have the status of currently appreciated maps. With the seal and the rankings handled seperately, both challenging and interesting maps can go their way, much like a career.

Now, I would understand that a lot of people would not agree with this model, as it is possibly not absolute yet. But instead of ranting over this, I suggest that you provide constructive ideas on how to improve the concept. I hope we will find a way to combine everyone's interests as briefly as possible.

Thank you for your attention!

The problem of your plan is that someone still has to check every scoreboarded map and based on the amount of maps submitted every day this doesn't look feasible.
Also cheating on unranked but scoreboarded maps would require replays to be saved which requires a huge amount of space when considering how many more maps would have a scoreboard. Without replays saved the scoreboards would be worthless due to cheating.
That being said, a "finished" mapset with a full spread mapped by some enthusiastic newbie who never took a step into modding or guides could be scoreboarded too as there is no qualitycheck involved for scoreboarded maps as far as I can see. After being scoreboarded no mods are possible, gg.
Sinking into an abundance of low quality mapsets actual good graveyard-maps would find as much recognition as they do now. Only mappers who already made themselves a name through ranked maps(your competitive section) would have a chance to get their non-ranked maps recognized by a bigger audience than 10 ppl. And these 10ppl already play the maps today.

Finally I wholeheartedly disagree with the following statement:

There is no real goal to this game other than getting better, which is also a way of putting oneself over another person.

Games are supposed to be enjoyed by the player and based on osu!'s game design there's absolutely no competition required in order to enjoy the game.
This is your personal motivation for gameplay. Mine is different.

Endaris wrote:

The problem of your plan is that someone still has to check every scoreboarded map and based on the amount of maps submitted every day this doesn't look feasible.
That being said, a "finished" mapset with a full spread mapped by some enthusiastic newbie who never took a step into modding or guides could be scoreboarded too as there is no qualitycheck involved for scoreboarded maps as far as I can see. After being scoreboarded no mods are possible, gg.

That's what the current QATs could do, maybe even BNs? Otherwise this would be really messed up, wondering you didn't get this idea yourself, as you are a smart guy. If all BNs would get QATs, there shouldn't be too many problems with having bad maps having a scoreboard, or at least it wouldn't last long.

Endaris wrote:

Sinking into an abundance of low quality mapsets actual good graveyard-maps would find as much recognition as they do now. Only mappers who already made themselves a name through ranked maps(your competitive section) would have a chance to get their non-ranked maps recognized by a bigger audience than 10 ppl. And these 10ppl already play the maps today.

That's indeed something that maybe needs to be fixed, but we can't really know it actually because this system isn't live. If everybody gets the chance to learn how this new system works, maybe they'll not only check the maps of popular players but also others. I guess that's a bit luck though. Maps with a higher positive rating could go higher in the Sealed section (if I'm not mistaken right now) so people who want to see other maps could go a bit deeper and maybe help newer mappers or help them with getting more attention by sharing their maps?

First off, I'd like to apology that some things were still untackled. I created a much more detailed version of this post yesterday evening but I lost it due to my browser.

Checking scoreboarded maps does not appear to be a problem for me, as we likely have enough people that can potencially check this up. The QAT had to deal with a similar situation a few weeks ago and they did, although with slight delays. If we increase the number of staff dedicated to this obligation, I doubt there will be much of a problem left.

Given the fact that I got you right by "unranked but scoreboarded", replays of cheaters can be locally saved and provided in reports by players. I am pretty sure that the free disk space of every active user combined would nullify any problems with saving replays. About online replays: I only considered this possible because I asked Xyuwelion who has contacted Tom94 before. Allegedly, he stated that there was enough space for providing rankings everywhere, but I do not know if this includes replays. I would love some staff confirmation on this.

Having mapsets with less quality scoreboarded as well is intended. I claim that it is not fair to exclude maps from the possibility of competitive interaction just because they are not good. If they are not good enough for players, they will not be played and therefore will be of no relevance for players, mappers or any other group. Also, right now, maps that are neither downloaded or played for a set amount of time will be deleted, which can likely be applied to this scenario as well. The period of time can be stortened and maps will get deleted faster if they remain untouched. I am saying "deleted" because this might help with the space problem.

That the status of graveyarded maps will remain the same is an assumption and I would almost claim that this is not true, at least not for the majority of truly good and known maps.

Surprisingly, there is a big amount of players that do not care about a map's creator. Their focus mainly revolves on the map itself or on the song. If a map is good, people will play it. I am conviced of this to be the truth.

Finally, I have to apologize again. I expressed my point of view like a take-this-for-granted statement, which is not my intention. But look at our rankings. Right now, a big piece of motivation comes from gaining Performance Points. Therefore, competition is relevant. Of course there is no competition required to enjoy a game, but if this was the case with everyone, we would not need rankings. And frankly, osu! without rankings is only half the fun. I just gave a reason why it would make sense to use rankings seperately from quality approval measurements.

There are quite a few flaws with this request which causes me to dislike this

1. The ridiculous amount of submitted maps is insane. If the quality of scoreboarded maps needs to be verified, it ofcourse will happen by BN/QAT, but by looking at the ridiculous amounts of requests we get per day, and the high amount of time it takes to properly check a 4-diff TV-size, let alone a map similar to Fort's Call me it, with 10 diffs, all almost reaching 5 minutes. Seeing there will be a lot of those full mapsets which will get rankings, the checking of said maps will be impossible. In case you don't know how many maps get submitted every day, it's much more then 500. I once submitted a map in the morning, its ID ending at approx 100, I uploaded one in the evening, its ID ended at approx 600
   
2. The fact that you say they might give pp is already a no-go. This listing will be like forever qualified, as it can be taken down by QATs (and to keep up with the maps preferrably BN). Qualified maps also don't give pp, so why shpuld this give pp?
   
3. If you want rankings, you also needs scores (and top-50 replays) to be saved. As there is currently no indication on how a map can get rankings, it looks as if people can set it themselves. This means all maps doomed for graveyard will automatically be moved to sealed, you know that'll happen. If you don't want to work on a map, let's just give it rankings, cause it doesn't hurt. I guess it can be fine if it's socres only, but then you can't check the #1
   
4. It supports shitmapping, in the same sense by Default's request. People now no longer need any quality-check by someone who has proper knowledge, and anyone can get their maps rankingsed. It's true, that those maps won't be played, and the mapper risks a chance of getting silenced, and the loss of the rankingsed status of the map
   
5. It forces you to make a choice on a map's status. I personally don't see a difference between a great unranked map (DeltaMAX for example) and a great rankingsed map. If it's known, it'll get played anyway. If it were to be rankingsed, Spro couldn't revive and update it, as he was planning on getting it ranked (it's back in grave now) Perhaps you have a map which goes fine in that category, but after 3 years you want to get it formally ranked. Then you need to update it, which is not possible, so you need to make a choice, but you can't revise it years later, which imo is quite bad
   
6. Those maps will likely be ignored. Currently, the most played maps are ranked maps, and a handful of graveyarded maps (DeltaMAX, Big Money (and those are like the only 2 famous graveyarded maps I know)) I highly doubt * insert unkown map* would be played a lot, as this category allows for a lot of maps, while having some perks, making them less favorable to play

I have to admit, there are some good points about it, as the circlejerk indeed exists, which makes it harder for new mappers to get their maps ranked, and this will at least give them the feel they have rankings on their map.

Please take into consideration that there is no need for detailed checking like our current modding system. Any kind of rechecks for scoreboarded maps would be checks on "completeness". They don't need to be verified in a way other than that. We are just trying to give them a scoreboard, that's it.

The Sealed Section could contain pp-maps because this is not like the current qualified section, but rather the current ranked section. The reason why I claimed that it might be possible for one to find pp-maps in this section is because people might dislike the fact that sealed maps are not worth points anymore. Actually, it might be better if they do not serve pp, since this is a contradiction to what I am implying with this post. Maps should be able to achieve both the status of competition with pp and a seal separately, underlying the rules that I implied.

I am pretty sure that you did not understand the model of sections that I suggested, so I guess I should illustrate this.



Therefore I have no idea why all graveyarded maps would become sealed.


Also, you seem to misunderstand the purpose of the post: a scoreboard does not equal quality anymore in this model!

Forcing a status on a map is an invalid point, since mappers themselves can only choose between pending and unsubmitted at the moment. We add another possibility with our model and it requires less confirmation than the current ranking. If people choose to rank their maps, however, they should be sure that they don't want to change anything. If they do want to change something, they can unrank it with a penalty, in which they will not be allowed to enhance their map with a scoreboard.

"If it is known, it'll get played anyway." - this is entirely true, but there is no scoreboard on DeltaMAX, while I am sure that people would love one.
Also, since it is unranked now, it would still be unranked after the change. Only when the mapper liberatedly chooses his map to be ranked, it will receive a scoreboard.

Maps that get a scoreboard and are good will be played, there is logical sense behind this assumption. If a map is not good, it will not be played. Those will turn out to become deleted/graveyarded/idkhowtocallthisyet.

I hope my intentions are a bit clearer now.

btw rip unicode