HYPOTHETICAL: Featured and/or Bitesized

[origami_alligator]

I find it hilarious that the main posters in this thread are for Feature ONLY and yet the poll is showing a majority want side-by-side. You don't win just by polls people, your ability to argue your opinion persuasively is important too.

We're fairly convinced that Bitesize will become a bad idea given a long enough period of time (~1 year? maybe less.) so we're thinking of other ways we can highlight maps with a fair and less arbitrary way of doing so.

Thanks for your opinions!

[remm]

I have to completely agree with mintnut here. I would change my vote if I could.
Though I do not recall that sort of thing occurring whilst bitesizing was in full swing, I did spend most of my time playing those maps, rather than works by new/unknown authors.

What if Hot Maps showed 15 maps instead of 10?

Or perhaps we could have a system like the Quotes Repository where there are two lists shown on the same page. the current Hot Maps, plus something else beneath it. Probably not a Top Rated, since that seems to have gone out of favour, but perhaps another way of sorting Hot Maps more dependent on comments? I don't know, just throwing out ideas here.

[mintnut]

What we really need is for the number of times a map has been favourited visible on the maps page.

[nevershine]

What we really need is for the number of times a map has been favourited visible on the maps page.

100% Yes

[origami_alligator]

Honestly I think the Hot Maps float system should be removed. It acts like a Top Rated system but what we really need is a Top Rated system with time slots, from 8 hours ago to 1 year ago with an All Time addition for the most highly rated maps.
Then we can just go back to sorting maps by rating (top rated) and submission time (newest).

[OneSevenNine]

Honestly I think the Hot Maps float system should be removed. It acts like a Top Rated system but what we really need is a Top Rated system with time slots, from 8 hours ago to 1 year ago with an All Time addition for the most highly rated maps.
Then we can just go back to sorting maps by rating (top rated) and submission time (newest).

I agree partially--I remember when Newma came out that the "Active Authors" page (which nobody uses) was supposed to fill the role of "New Maps." It doesn't--way too ugly, can't see descriptions or ratings or tags, etc. The "Hot Maps" page, which I love the concept of, as it basically replaces the role of bitesizing by often keeping noteworthy maps at the top of the page, is AFAIK the best way to look through new maps.

The trick is, as said above, to not have an area entirely free of maps below a certain threshold of quality. Frankly, I think the current system does an okay job with that; good maps are kept at the top while below-average maps are on the same page. Maaaybe it might be beneficial to replace "Active Authors" with an unfloated "New Maps" Page (This I'd like) and increase the floating effect on Hot Maps (higher rated maps stay up there even longer than they do now) in order to simulate closer the system of bitesizing, but of course that risks ignoring new authors unless there's something ensuring that only very good maps remain at the top of Hot Maps.

In other words, I'm pretty much cool with the current system.

[origami_alligator]

Honestly I think the Hot Maps float system should be removed. It acts like a Top Rated system but what we really need is a Top Rated system with time slots, from 8 hours ago to 1 year ago with an All Time addition for the most highly rated maps.
Then we can just go back to sorting maps by rating (top rated) and submission time (newest).

I agree partially--I remember when Newma came out that the "Active Authors" page (which nobody uses) was supposed to fill the role of "New Maps." It doesn't--way too ugly, can't see descriptions or ratings or tags, etc. The "Hot Maps" page, which I love the concept of, as it basically replaces the role of bitesizing by often keeping noteworthy maps at the top of the page, is AFAIK the best way to look through new maps.

The trick is, as said above, to not have an area entirely free of maps below a certain threshold of quality. Frankly, I think the current system does an okay job with that; good maps are kept at the top while below-average maps are on the same page. Maaaybe it might be beneficial to replace "Active Authors" with an unfloated "New Maps" Page (This I'd like) and increase the floating effect on Hot Maps (higher rated maps stay up there even longer than they do now) in order to simulate closer the system of bitesizing, but of course that risks ignoring new authors unless there's something ensuring that only very good maps remain at the top of Hot Maps.

In other words, I'm pretty much cool with the current system.

If the float were any longer then we'd need to cap the amount of time a map is allowed to be at the top of the Hot Maps page. If we made the float longer than shitty maps rated highly by friends of authors who make awful maps will stay up longer. Eventually this could lead to a congested Hot Maps page where there are 3 or 4 maps stuck at the top of the page while maps are submitted below them and not noticed nearly as much as they should be.

This is why I think a staggered Top Rated system would work best. It allows for an unfloated Newest Maps section like you want, at the same time allows for maps rated highly over the course of a certain number of hours/days/weeks/months to float at the top of the list and stay there until either another map takes its place in the top spots or the map exceeds the time limit for the slot it is in and is thus removed from that Top Rated section. (after 8 hours a map would no longer appear in the 8 hours Top Rated section.)
I think this covers all the things you mentioned that you would like, just done in a different way than you suggested.

[chocollama]

What we really need is for the number of times a map has been favourited visible on the maps page.

100% Yes

Agreed beyond all doubt.

EDIT: But I'm still not sure which way to vote, and taking into account what southpaw said, I don't even think the votes are that important.

[enespanol4268]

Side-by-side.

[Rose]

hot maps does all you need if you know what you're doing

I am in favor of bitesizing, not for the good authors' sake (as they can already have a rough estimate of a map's quality by thumbnail), but rather for the newer members who want to find good maps but don't know where to start. I don't know about you, but when I started, I tried to find the best authors. Unfortunately, one featured map a day was not nearly enough to satisfy my excitement over this new hobby of mine. I wish bitesize had been around when I joined, so that I could have played a lot of decent maps and probably improved more quickly. I'm in favor of the side-by-side system. If you personally don't like the bitesize system, you can just ignore it.

I remember when Newma came out that the "Active Authors" page (which nobody uses)

I use it all the time. :(

[Ferox]

I have to agree with Maxson.

I will sometime go through pages of ****y maps finding nothing. Bitesize makes it easier.

How about somebody bitesizes a map and then there is a page where we have a vote on whether or not to have that map have bitesized? This page could have all maps nom. for bitesize.

[otters]

****y

Fucky?

[aids]

****y

Fucky?

Titty?

[squibbles]

****y

Fucky?

Titty?

It's gotta be dicky

[Ferox]

If it is not relevant to the topic, then please do not post.

[enespanol4268]

I remember when Newma came out that the "Active Authors" page (which nobody uses)

I use it all the time. :(

I also use it a lot.

[origami_alligator]

If it is not relevant to the topic, then please do not post.

If you are not a moderator then do not pretend to be a moderator by being a backseat mod.

[unoriginal name]

If it is not relevant to the topic, then please do not post.

If you are not a moderator then do not pretend to be a moderator by being a backseat mod.

Neither are you! But you're still right. Ferox, listen to southpaw.

[origami_alligator]

I'm a moderator. Maybe not a global one, nor the moderator of this particular forum, but I'm still a moderator here within these forums...