Idea for progressive development...
on the topic of re-releasing maps I just had this idea.
rather than have a single rated element in the downloads section, each released map in the release thread for it having a poll for each of the rating catagories previously described by I think msleeper.
Make the [release] post owned by an admin, accompanied by a release number
[poll][release] mymap r3
poll options will cover 1-5 on all of the catagories, the poll never ends.
the poll totals are averaged, and thats the score on each catagory for the map.
Now the reason for re-releasing, is to improve our maps, if it scores too low, it should have stayed a [wip], but that shouldn't keep the maker from improving it. (Perhaps a [poll] in the wip forum, on wether the map is ready to be rated]
Once a map is reworked to attempt to improve scores, the previous thread is deleted, and a new poll is made.
once a map has a minimum rating in all required categories, it is added to the "Best of TWP" map pack, which is an evolving single click download for people looking for great portal maps. Also this may make it easier to update maps easily, for instance, if you have several beta maps in your folder (like I do) but dont know which are beta, you could download this archive and it would override all maps with the latest version.
I thought of this because I think a TWP map pack would be a great way for us to share our maps. But in order to do something like that there has to be quality control so you would need at least a 4/5 in all categories, and be relatively bug free.
other requirements:
the map has to have a clear start and end
maps must have lighting (no fullbright)
all texture must work
[insert more obvious things here]
anyways, tell me what you think 
tl;dr
At some point I am going to severly modify the download database to have multiple areas of ranking, such as Difficulty, Design, etc.
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what does tl;dr mean? lol
basically I come from working in 3dsmax...
and some people might agree that there is always something that can be improved.
the sense that "releasing" a map writes it in stone kinda turns me away from releasing lol
also I find clicking a million links to download released and wip maps tedious, and find it would be nice to have a [release] and [wip] compilation download, [release] being a best of twp.
Only downside is someone would have to regularly repack and upload the newest compilation pack.
but a [release] pack, all maps having a minimum rating, might help in drawing more people to play the maps, as they would only need to extract 1 file, rather than 10+ or however many.
Also, I find the download page littered with things like Button and Door Tutorial and Ball_launcher_example, which are great, but aren't really maps they're more of a tutoral.
just trying to come up with ideas to make the map distribution easier and less tedious.
tl;dr means "too long to read".
Too long, didn't read.
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mm thats a great way to making things better 
I think in this case it means "that looks way more complicated than it needs to be".
maybe its long because I rambled so here's what I said.
-vote on wip maps in order to release them
-released maps have a moderater run poll on all the rating criteria
-maps with a minimum score in all criteria are added to a "best of TWP" map pack
-maps can be re-released in order to improve the map, if the map is still a wip, it must show enough improvement in order to do this
-re-released maps that have undergone significant changes have their original poll deleted, and a new one started to allow a new rating (once again all polls are run by moderators)
-maps in the "best of TWP" map pack can update their map without changing the voting to tweak minor things, and such updates would be included in the next release of the "map pack"
-optionally a WIP mappack to make it easier to load and test peoples wip without clicking and extracting for each one
I think thats a little more coherient :S
I think the biggest issue I could see with that is that it would discourage people who are not an active part of this community from releasing their maps in the download database. Not everyone who has a map in the Release section developed their map with an active presence on the WIP board, and I think it's fine like that. WIP should be a helpful tool for the community, not a requirement for everyone.
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by re-releasing a WIP map. If it's a work-in-progress, I think it's implied that the author will be making continual updates to it. Is an update a "re-release"? If so, I think that's entirely up to the author and not anyone else.
Other than those objections, the rest seems like it has some good ideas in it, but as the majority of it directly involves increasing the workload of the moderators, I'll leave it to them to respond.
issue 1)
that is true, the main idea here is to have a "best of TWP" map pack. So I guess that one isn't necessary, I just thought of it as an idea to keep people from releasing things that are clearly still wip, ive seen a couple.
perhaps this could only be a requirement if the author wants to be in the map pack. if they came from another site, another option could be added to the poll to "work on it more first" or something
issue 2) re-releasing mainly applies to maps people think are finished, (I still say that everything can be improved even if its unnoticable). a re-release is bigger than an update and has to be asked for. If the map got a lower score than you hoped, this allows you to work on it and try to improve the map. Once a map is "released" it is rated, if it gets a score of 1/5 in every category, it can be "re-released". Obviously a 1/5 map should still be a wip, but it was released already. re-releasing allows you to go back and fix stuff.
now in order to release a map for voting, either a poll, or a moderator playing it, should occur. Since the poll is moderator run, this is just so people dont release their map every 20 minutes for voting.
Each release is treated like a final version, but re-releasing allows continued work until the author, and the community are happy with it