After a lengthy period of observation and over 20 hours spent consulting with members of the Beatmap Nominators and the Quality Assurance Team, I have come to understand that the current state of affairs is less than ideal.
There are multiple reasons for this - the most commonly cited are listed below.
The tier splitting of the standard BN was a common point of concern in over 75% of the QAT surveyed, and 95% of the BN surveyed.
Prominent issues cited were:
- The lack of agency that T1 BNs felt they had on the system in comparison to T2s
- The absence of a clear progression path across tiers with appropriate feedback given for improvement
- Mediocre or otherwise insulting rewards for participation in what is arguably the backbone of the ranking system
- Unclear progress towards aforementioned rewards
- The pressure on T2 BNs to perform purely in a qualification rule is immense due to their exclusive nature and dissuades many from bubbling maps they think would personally work
Additionally, there were varied concerns about the actual impact of the tiering system on overall mapping quality.
One T2 BN noted that in the process of forcing less experienced BN to only be able to bubble maps coupled with the more experienced T2 BN being pressured to solely qualify, the maps that were receiving the most attention were considerably safer, more uniform maps that may prioritize criteria 'safety' over creative exposition and general enjoyment.
This aligns with a commonly held community belief regarding the quality of the maps ranked thus far in 2017.
A universal concern among every member of the BN surveyed, the transparency in the decision-making processes of the QAT was cited as being essentially non-existant.
BN reported that they felt unapproached and unengaged, especially on matters that had direct relevance to them.
The silence and apparent non-movement on many newly introduced systems led to widespread feelings of apathy, fatigue and demotivation in the BN members surveyed.
Most hailed the general concept of the divisions providing at least a rudimentary way for some BN to keep tabs on what was going on by talking to their division leader, but felt it was something that should be unnessecary.
Lack of communication between the two teams appears to be one of the most pressing issues that needs to be addressed.
In almost every QAT member surveyed, the current state of the QAT engagement with the community and the ranking cycle at large was cited as a major concern or issue that they would like to see fixed.
One curious thing to note was this effect was lessened in the non-standard mode QAT, whom historically have worked very closely with their communities and retained much of the engagement they had with them in the process.
It is plain to see that much of the QAT are unhappy being largely reduced to an administrative role with oversight limited purely to community reporting.
Taking highly experienced mappers and modders from the community and placing them in situations where they can apply almost none of their prior experience towards contributing meaningfully to the game is not currently being taken very well.
Many expressed a desire to return to the days of regular qualified map checking, and to the days of hands-on engagement with the communities they originated from.
Participant agency in the BN/QAT related structures appears to be at an all time low.
Commonly cited from members across both teams, a general air of disengagement and demotivation is widely present among matters related to QAT leadership and BN system progression.
People felt overall that their opinions were not even slightly considered in many leadership decisions. Some had avoided stating them entirely out of sheer fatigue.
This was most prominent among highly active BN, who felt that despite their immense contribution to the current system, had almost no say in its direction and that their experiences in the role were almost meaningless to those who were in charge.
To preface this with a little bit of history, allow me to interject some of my own personal experiences with leading the BAT in the past.
Historically speaking, the groups responsible for managing the ranking cycle have been some of the most highly volatile and fiercely competitive environments in the game.
This previously manifested itself in an endless deluge of conversation and discussion, from topics covering recent mapping fads and popular techniques, to intense, indepth discussion on individual mapsets and how they were being received by the playerbase.
Members of the BAT were not contiguous or orderly in the slightest, but they all held a fierce passion for beatmapping and had extremely strong opinions on what direction that should take for the rest of the game. This led to a distinct 'fire' in the group's activity - no matter how quiet things became, there were always at least a few issues being discussed and mulled over at any given point in time. Publicly.
To my eye, most of this fire has all but died out within the QAT. The members with initiative have for whatever reason, be it systemic or motivational, have 'settled' on their apparent inability to meaningfully affect the community at large. Common discussion in #qat is all but dead except during meetings, or times of provocation by disgruntled members of the community. Every member of the QAT still has this fire, but it is rarely (if ever) brought to bear in public discussions for fear of reprisal and the loss of privileges.
This cannot be allowed to continue.
I don't believe that any of the changes made in recent months have been made with even a shred of malicious intent. What is plain to me is that the people responsible for the decisions made care very deeply about the game, and felt that their highly structured and organizational-heavy decisions would introduce a stabilizing and guiding force in helping the modding and mapping scene progress.
Unfortunately, ideals often yield to reality, and the reality of our current situation is that these concepts are simply not working in their current implementation.
Thus, we must change.
To begin fixing this situation, here is what I propose:
The current BN tiering system will be dissolved, and replaced with a probationary system.
New BN will enter the system at this probationary level. We will call it 'T1' just for the sake of familiarity. All existing BN will be promoted to 'full members' (aka, T2) and will be allowed to both qualify and bubble maps at will.
Probationary members will not be permitted to qualify - only to bubble. The probation period will not exceed longer than a 2 month timeframe, with most people ideally out of probation after QAT review after a one month time period.
Full members may be reduced to the probationary level at any time by QAT consensus if their conduct is deemed unacceptable, or they repeatedly make large mistakes or oversights.
Probationary members that prove problematic for whatever reason will be opened up to a QAT consensus vote for dismissal from the BN. This must pass with a significant majority (66%+).
A new BN addition round will begin immediately. The new members will enter at the probationary level.
Full members of the Beatmap Nominators (aka: not probationary members) will once again receive a forum title and the purple name they were once known for in the past.
Probationary members do not receive this until they become a full member.
This is a temporary change and will not be carried over into the new system. Nominators under the new system (new being the automated system referenced in the past) will receive a different form of visual identification, yet to be determined.
This way, people that find BN via the forums will know that purple equals someone that can help. There will be no need to consult tier lists or anything of the sort.
In addition, long-serving BN (>1.5 years) will qualify for a special title which they may choose to have applied to their account when they retire. What this will be is still being considered, but probably something involving community and modding somehow.
The most active BN member every 6 months as determined by a composite consideration of successfully qualified beatmaps and overall modding activity will receive the "Elite Nominator" title permanently, and 6 months of osu! supporter, plus 3 months that they may gift to any of their friends.
This will also be featured as a standalone news announcement complete with social media advertisement.
Other rewards will be considered as time goes on and new systems are announced.
Divisions will be merged together into larger but separate units based on overall activity, with attention paid to common cooperation and friendships existing between divisions at the moment.
This one is a bit nebulous and may require further consideration.
QAT will be no longer barred (or discouraged) from bubbling, qualifying, or vetting qualified maps on their own.
The 'report a map' thread will be closed, and the functionality shifted to a 'report this map' button on the beatmap's web page. These reports will coalesce at certain thresholds within the #qat channel on the osu! internal discord, and all QAT will be expected to review these maps for potential issues as soon as they notice them.
QAT will be encouraged to return to checking qualified maps of their own initiative and interest, and a solution will be made to try to automatically allocated newly qualified maps to certain divisions for checking and approval.
My current idea for this is a Discord bot will notify divisions in their channels when a newly qualified map is assigned to them. I'm open to other ideas.
QAT will also be strongly encouraged to consider minimalist revisions of the current Ranking Criteria to promote higher quality beatmaps while removing unnecessary roadblocks to having alternate mapping styles enter Ranked. They will do so under the leadership of a self-appointed leader(s), explained more below.
Long-standing members of the QAT (>2 years) will receive a profile badge denoting their tenure and marking anything significant they achieved during their time on the team.
They will be afforded a permanent place on the osu! Alumni should they choose to retire. They will also receive osu! supporter equivalent to the length of their service on the team once they retire.
Some of this is already the case, but I figured I'd state it again just to make people aware.
Should this proposal pass in full, the leadership and direction of the QAT will no longer be determined by a nebulous group of people officiated by the "staff".
The leader(s) will be determined by an expression of interest, followed by a combined vote from both the QAT and the Beatmap Nominators. The top scoring aspirants will be considered the de-facto QAT leadership, though they may number no greater than two.
Before clarifying this further, you must all understand that the BN/QAT system is a system in flux. It has been a standalone 'workaround' to the non-availability of an automated system that is supposed to fully regulate BN appointment automatically, with the QAT designed to fill a literal quality assurance role in that regard. It will change significantly from what it currently is at some point in the near future. When that time is exactly, none of us can say.
The scope of the QAT's leadership will be largely limited to day-to-day affairs and ensuring the smooth addition to and running of the Beatmap Nominators. QAT leadership will be expected to engage with both the Beatmap Nominators and the QAT as a whole, and generally be active and engaged members of the community of their own right.
The QAT leadership will work closely with a member of the osu! team to help them get things going and to provide consul for any systemic changes they may wish to make.
For the time being, that member will be me (Ephemeral). Understand however, that I will not be assuming direct leadership of the QAT under any circumstances bar an absolute necessity. My time has long since passed, and it is well past time for the newer members of the community to begin having their say in the game's future direction.