We’re excited to announce a big new change in how the QAT functions today, making the first steps towards community-oriented direction in how beatmaps are managed and processed.
Previously, the QAT was required to individually check every map in the Qualified section to ‘assure quality’. This often resulted in situations where issues of an unclear nature were often ignored in discussion between modders and mappers, and instead left for the QAT to decide by means of disqualification.
Disqualifications were often made over minor issues that most users would typically not even notice when playing maps as well, much to the frustration of the people waiting for the maps to enter the Ranked category, and to the people making maps as well.
Going forward, the QAT will no longer be obligated to check every qualified beatmap for quality checks. Instead, they will be reactive in nature, responding to and addressing reports made by members of the community about a map’s quality.
We want to return the responsibility for mapping quality and content to the community at large, rather than delegating it to a small group of people to enforce. We believe this change will achieve this.
Going forward, we will also be releasing a Code of Conduct regarding Mapping and Modding affairs. This will ensure that there will be a base level of respect in the talks surrounding these issues, as they have been prone to problems in the past. Ultimately, all parties involved in the ranking/mapping process have the same ultimate goal - to get cool stuff ranked and available for play as quickly as possible with as little issue as possible.
We would also like to encourage people to be civil and mature when dealing with criticism. Disqualifying a beatmap does not denote that a map is of poor quality or that the person doling out the disqualification has personal problems with you.
Think of disqualification as a platform to make your maps even better than they were before, and know that the more effort you put into your creations, the better they will ultimately be at the end of things, and this will reflect well on you as a mapper.
Feel free to post here and leave your comments and questions about that change!
Previously, the QAT was required to individually check every map in the Qualified section to ‘assure quality’. This often resulted in situations where issues of an unclear nature were often ignored in discussion between modders and mappers, and instead left for the QAT to decide by means of disqualification.
Disqualifications were often made over minor issues that most users would typically not even notice when playing maps as well, much to the frustration of the people waiting for the maps to enter the Ranked category, and to the people making maps as well.
Going forward, the QAT will no longer be obligated to check every qualified beatmap for quality checks. Instead, they will be reactive in nature, responding to and addressing reports made by members of the community about a map’s quality.
We want to return the responsibility for mapping quality and content to the community at large, rather than delegating it to a small group of people to enforce. We believe this change will achieve this.
How does this affect the QAT?
The QAT will no longer do the following:- Check maps of their own volition for general quality assurance
- Mod beatmaps of their own accord
- Check the metadata of maps both qualified and ranked
- Check all reports made by the community for a base level of consideration and worth.
- For example, reports of issues such as sliders being a single pixel off alignment (or any other issue that has almost no impact on gameplay) will be considered as trivial and will be rejected by the QAT.
How does this affect the community at large?
The community will now be responsible for the following:- Reporting qualified maps that have glaring issues, reasonable room for improvement or errors that significantly affect general play in the map
- Discuss aforementioned issues with the mapper in the beatmap threads
- Reaching an amicable conclusion about how to best address said issues with the mapper(s)
How do I report a beatmap?
Members of the community may report a beatmap which they feel would benefit from disqualification and further revision by doing the following:- Posting in this thread
- Contacting any QAT via forum PM or an in-game message with a link to a forum post detailing the issues or suggestions of the beatmap in question.
- Using the in-game !report function, including the same information as the point above in the report message.
Going forward, we will also be releasing a Code of Conduct regarding Mapping and Modding affairs. This will ensure that there will be a base level of respect in the talks surrounding these issues, as they have been prone to problems in the past. Ultimately, all parties involved in the ranking/mapping process have the same ultimate goal - to get cool stuff ranked and available for play as quickly as possible with as little issue as possible.
We would also like to encourage people to be civil and mature when dealing with criticism. Disqualifying a beatmap does not denote that a map is of poor quality or that the person doling out the disqualification has personal problems with you.
Think of disqualification as a platform to make your maps even better than they were before, and know that the more effort you put into your creations, the better they will ultimately be at the end of things, and this will reflect well on you as a mapper.
Feel free to post here and leave your comments and questions about that change!