Nomination Assessment Team

See also: Beatmap Nominator evaluations, SEV rating

The Nomination Assessment Team (NAT) is a team that moderates the Beatmap Nominators (BN) and ensures the beatmapping side of osu! stays functional.

Members of the NAT are distinguished by their orange red user title, orange user group badge that reads NAT, and their red in-game username. They have site-wide moderation permissions, like the Global Moderation Team (GMT), and also possess the ability to nominate and reset nominations on beatmaps, like full members of the Beatmap Nominators (BNs). For most purposes, NAT members are BNs with different responsibilities. Therefore, all BN rules and expectations apply to NAT members, with some exceptions for activity.

All members of the Nomination Assessment Team are sworn to uphold the Contributor Code of Conduct in addition to the normal Community Rules.

Note: To report a member of the NAT misbehaving or breaking the Contributor Code of Conduct, please contact the account support team.

Responsibilities

The NAT is responsible for a variety of mapping-related tasks, which are divided into two categories: evaluation and structural. Each category outlines the responsibilities of a NAT member, as well as the requirements and expectations for each type of task.

Evaluation

NAT members assigned to the evaluation category (also referred to as the evaluators) are primarily responsible for:

• Evaluation: Evaluating the proficiency and activity of both current Beatmap Nominators and applicants. See Evaluations for more details.
• Nomination: Nominating at least 2 beatmaps per month. This helps evaluators keep up to date with the mapping/modding community when evaluating current and aspiring Beatmap Nominators.

  • Modding activity and other contributions may be used as a backup metric when evaluating activity.

NAT members responsible for this category are in high demand due to the sheer volume of BN applications. Therefore, they occasionally look for new members to join them and help ease the workload. This is why BNs who wish to join the NAT are primarily judged based on their ability to evaluate, and most NAT members join and stay responsible for the evaluation category.

Structural

NAT members assigned to the structural category are required to maintain:

• Communication: Promoting transparency and maintaining good relations with not only the rest of the mapping/modding community, but also within the NAT itself. This includes, but not limited to, making announcements, participating in discussions about proposals, asking/answering questions through surveys, and updating the ranking criteria as well as other documentation.
• Development: Developing and maintaining tools and websites to help improve the ranking process (such as Mapset Verifier, Aiess, or the NAT/BN website).
• Moderation: Handling user reports and assessing inappropriate behaviour of Beatmap Nominators, as well as processing beatmap content reviews. This task is a joint effort between the NAT and the GMT.
• Miscellaneous maintenance: Included but not limited to:

  • Handling vetoes.
  • Maintaining the RC Test.
  • Judging nomination reset severity.

NAT members who are primarily handling this category make sure that BNs and other members of the mapping/modding community remain informed and feel heard, in addition to maintaining the components required to keep everything running in the mapping/modding scene. Users belonging to this category are made up of experienced evaluators that prefer to focus on managerial matters regarding the mapping/modding scene.

Dividing the NAT workload into two main categories is necessary for the overall organisation and productivity of the group, allowing for a more streamlined assignment of responsibilities. Delegating tasks keeps NAT members from being overwhelmed while simultaneously avoiding a diffusion of responsibility.

A member of the NAT can engage with any tasks within any category that they choose, despite their listed primary responsibilities. For example, an NAT member primarily responsible for evaluations may also help with structural-related tasks, or vice versa.

Activity

Depending on their category, each NAT member has different activity requirements. Members responsible for evaluations are expected to consistently evaluate both applicants and current BNs, while also keeping up to date with the mapping/modding scene on their own through modding. Members assigned to the structural category are expected to uphold key parts of the ranking process on a case-by-case basis.

Each month, the NAT members are required to submit a summary of their activity in the BN/NAT website. This summary, alongside other metrics like nomination and evaluation activity, is used to determine whether a member is still active and whether they should remain in the group. The team leaders will then discuss the activity of each member and decide whether they should remain in the NAT.

The team leaders will confront inactive NAT members, or members who fail to provide a summary in a timely manner. If an appropriate resolution to their inactivity is not feasible, they will be removed from the NAT. Members under the evaluation category working on other mapping-related projects may be moved to the structural category to better reflect their contribution.

Promotion to the NAT

Before joining the NAT, a user must either be a full member of the Beatmap Nominators, or a former NAT member still involved in the community. Most NAT candidates are initially considered based on their commitment to helping the mapping and modding community, and further demonstration of their ability to contribute to a multitude of NAT responsibilities is usually the basis for being promoted.

Since all new NAT members start off in the evaluation category, it is important that NAT candidates are exceptional in assessing the proficiency of others. Full BNs may be given the opportunity to participate in mock evaluations or temporarily join the evaluation team, giving them an opportunity to practice. NAT candidates have a much better chance of being promoted if their evaluations are thorough and come to similar conclusions as the NAT (or have supportive reasoning otherwise).

The NAT keeps tabs on potential NAT candidates over long periods of time, and occasionally convenes to decide if a candidate should be promoted, similar to how BN evaluations are done. BNs are also allowed to ask about joining the NAT if they want to receive feedback and make sure they are being considered. However, depending on the activity and skill set of current NAT members, there may not be a need for new ones. New NAT members will likely be promoted only when one of the current members is becoming less active, or there are new workloads requiring more members, etc.

Joining the structural category

NAT members who show proficiency in the structural tasks outlined above, to the point where their current or planned contributions are indispensable and far outweighs their necessity as an evaluator, can opt in to change their designated category. This is as judged by the NAT leaders and handled on a case-by-case basis.

Before conducting a category change, the addition is sanity checked with the rest of the NAT in case of objections. If no issues arise, the concerned member will then be subject to different activity expectations depending on their specific situation. If their contribution towards structural tasks is considered lacklustre or unnecessary at some later point, again as judged by the NAT leaders, then they will be moved back to the evaluation category.

NAT Leadership

As of March 2023, the NAT has decided to re-adopt the concept of leadership, which was previously used in the QAT. NAT leaders have the combined responsibility of both evaluation and structural categories so they can watch over and stay involved with every aspect of the NAT.

The current NAT leaders are Hivie and radar.

Responsibilities

NAT leaders aim to cover the following tasks:

• Activity management: Constantly monitoring the activity of other NAT members and handling cases of low activity, either through regular checkups or through exit interviews, in case of activity issues regarding certain members.
• Communication:

  • Acting as a bridge between the osu! team, the NAT, and the mapping community, constantly communicating any changes, concerns, or demands raised.
  • Encourage participation in internal and external discussions by proactively engaging all parties, keeping discussions organised, and facilitating the combination of different viewpoints to form a practical course of action.
  • Promote new or existing ideas that can easily get lost in the midst of discussions/ranking criteria proposals.
• Problem solving: Taking initiative to be involved with critical decision making and handling delicate concerns raised by the team or the community.

Team members

Note: All NAT members speak English in addition to the language(s) listed below unless noted otherwise.

The Nomination Assessment Team group page lists all of the team members. In addition to areas mentioned below, all NAT members take part in reviewing audio and visual content included in beatmaps.

osu!

osu!taiko

osu!catch

osu!mania

Notes