I'm working on a new method for the Spotlight, and I'm curious how often everyone thinks that it should be updated. Weekly? Biweekly (once every 2 weeks)? Monthly?

Vote in an option and let us know.

How about with every roundup? Roundups usually come every 2-4 weeks, depending on the released maps within that time area.

It wouldn't be a problem to:
a) define the best map of the roundup as new spotlight
or b) always start a poll to the community with every roundup, asking them to vote for the spotlight (out of the maps in the roundup). The poll could be open for let's say 7 days to test the system, later we can alter that time if it's not working out.

In case of b) it would be even more a COMMUNITY spotlight, as it's chosen by the community, out of the top releases of a certain time period.

Most people don't play all the maps, so I don't really care for a voting system. But I think a spotlight should be given once every month or longer.

I think once a month is a good idea, as baca said, not everyone plays every map. And the spotlight does gets more downloads. Weekly or biweekly could be a problem if there are no good maps in that week...
"This crappy map was the only upload this week so it's the spotlight" that ain't gonna work !

Djinndrache wrote:
It wouldn't be a problem to:
a) define the best map of the roundup as new spotlight
or b) always start a poll to the community with every roundup, asking them to vote for the spotlight (out of the maps in the roundup). The poll could be open for let's say 7 days to test the system, later we can alter that time if it's not working out.

There would be a problem if there were 2 or more maps that deserves spotlight in one roundup and also there could be none that deserves a spotlight in a roundup. And as baca said everyone doesn't play all maps (as me) to cast a vote. Some people may like easy maps, some may like hard maps, some may like detailed maps,etc and would favor the maps they like. My suggestion would be to make the voting system among the group of members who play all maps(some are there like Djinn). First release a roundup then wait a week or so and let these people cast their votes. And it must be made strict to cast votes for all maps in the roundup at one go(that will somewhat ensure that they played all maps). I don't know how to resolve 2 or more spotlights(maybe have the next spotlight appear after 2 weeks).

Monthly or even less frequent (like now?) is fine I think, because the spotlight is probably the first place where people go if they're like "I wonder what kind of custom maps are available for Portal 2!" and it therefore makes the first impression on them. Only having the very best maps(like 6/5 maps because there are many works that aren't spotlight-tier but still worth 5/5) in the spotlight will probably make them interested into trying more maps like from the roundups.

So actually I think an undetermined time is the best option.

Yeah i like that idea. keep a spotlightuntil another extraordinary map comes up.

Let me elaborate a little bit more.

The idea I had was to have the Spotlight constantly rotate every week/2 weeks/month to a new "Spotlight" map, based on the maps in the download section. So the Spotlight would always be an "exceptional quality map", but it would be from a larger pool of maps available. This would keep the site from seeming stale, and make sure that all of the amazing maps get a little bit of time in the Spotlight.

This would also make it so that the site staff could simply move a great map to the Spotlight download section, and the Spotlight would automatically know to start showcasing it.

msleeper wrote:
Let me elaborate a little bit more.

The idea I had was to have the Spotlight constantly rotate every week/2 weeks/month to a new "Spotlight" map, based on the maps in the download section. So the Spotlight would always be an "exceptional quality map", but it would be from a larger pool of maps available. This would keep the site from seeming stale, and make sure that all of the amazing maps get a little bit of time in the Spotlight.

This would also make it so that the site staff could simply move a great map to the Spotlight download section, and the Spotlight would automatically know to start showcasing it.

It's a nice plan to give more maps the attention they deserve(because there are so many great maps) by refreshing the spotlight more often, but I think the roundups also do a good job of making the website look fresh and giving the slightly less special maps their attention.

I personally think it is better to have the spotlight just serve the purpose of giving newcomers a great first impression of how awesome custom maps can get, so they will be more likely to keep interested in the website and check the roundups/new releases for more.

I think setting the spotlight at a minimum of 2 or 3 weeks is a good idea. I don't think you have to post a new map every 2 weeks on the dot. Having a minimum lets the map that made spotlight seem more special, and then if someone else released a map with a WOW factor, then those that choose the spotlight can pick the new map that earned it. This way it wont force a good but not great map into the spotlight by making a set update date. It could take 2 weeks or it could take 7 weeks, but I think a map should be exceptional to make it in the spotlight.

I think you should never change the spotlight...

CaretCaret wrote:
I think you should never change the spotlight...

I see what you did there

edit:

changed my mind reading all the above posts again.

I think you should have the best of the best as the community spotlight. like some have said, it is what the majority of the community go to first to see what custom maps there are. I certainly went and clicked on the spotlight when i first came to the website, then went down the best maps in the list.

So, in conclusion, have best of both worlds.

• 2 week rotation of the best maps (like msleeper proposed) so that all maps in the community spotlight get a rotation every 2 (maybe week)
• Only put the best of the best into that forum. Maybe have a community say in whether a new good map gets put into that forum or not.

This way, you get the spotlight changing, while also keeping it to a high quality.

roundup does exactly what it says on the tin really.. It shows the best maps of the month. Not the best maps in general released.

As soon as there is a decent map. The arrival of new maps slowed down, so it should be longer, but when a lot of appears (maybe because a dlc or anything that boosts mapping mood) can be faster. And if its 2 week for example but no good new map, then just wait. And ye, can bring up older maps too.

DaMaGepy wrote:
As soon as there is a decent map. The arrival of new maps slowed down, so it should be longer, but when a lot of appears (maybe because a dlc or anything that boosts mapping mood) can be faster. And if its 2 week for example but no good new map, then just wait. And ye, can bring up older maps too.

As soon as there is a decent map might be a bit of a problem. "Decent map" might be a 4/5 or 5/5 map. (Great or excellent maps). If we go for 5/5 as a requirement (and for the sake of science, at least 10 votes) we already have a problem:
January 26th: Chronologic
January 28th: Without Portalgun Demo ?2: Volleygel
January 30th: Portal Stories: Past Power
February 1st: DaMaGepy's P2 map #3 (mini conceptmap)

That would mean that all those maps had 2 days of fame at the community spotlight. And I think that's a bit short

Spotlights won't be chosen just because a map gets a decent community rating.
A good community rating may help your map to get into the roundup or even into the spotlight, but both - the roundup and the spotlight - are hand-picked maps by the staff.

I suggest you better get some cake to give it to the staff to increase your chances

I think the roundup should be for all the great maps.
And then the spotlight for the really special ones and replaced when another top quality map is released. But a map should have a minimum spotlight time of like 2 weeks.
But Im thinking, what if two maps are released pretty close to each other and then theres not a good one for 2 months? wouldnt be fair for the map released first to only get two weeks while the other got 2 months.
Maybe you can have multiple maps in the spotlight. Then a spotlighted map gets into the spotlight for a month or two. If theres then a second map they could both circulate in the spotlight. And then there would only be one map when the first had its month. And if it would ever happen that all spotlighted maps time where up, you could have top 3 of the old spotlighted maps in the spotlight.

Over the course of time I have been led to believe that a rating of 5/5 isn't really that great. Seems to me people always hand out fives unless the map really sucks or something, especially the newer members of the community. Four almost seems like a penalty to some - or so I think - even though it says "Great". If a map ever hits three I don't even bother looking at it anymore.

I know that whole thing seems off-topic, but what I'm trying to say here is that perhaps the 5/5 rating system is kinda' holding us back in this as you can't really see how good a map is here. Maybe with a 1-10 or even decimal system people wouldn't be so inclined to give the highest rating an everything can be far more objective (thus making it easier to pick a community spotlight map)?

CaretCaret wrote:
I think you should never change the spotlight...

Good call, though I'm pretty sure just about everyone here played your series already.

FourthReaper wrote:
Over the course of time I have been led to believe that a rating of 5/5 isn't really that great. Seems to me people always hand out fives unless the map really sucks or something

This is the reason the rating scale isn't a 1 to 10, because most people don't know how to rate a map. I added the rating "guides" to give people and idea of what the rating is supposed to mean. But that doesn't help that people still give out 4's for a "pretty good" map, or in a 1-10 scale, an "average" map is like a 7 or an 8.

The rating system is pointless, like all rating systems are. The best way to get an impression of a map is to read it's thread and see what people are saying about it. If there's a few hundred downloads and no posts, it probably sucks.

Then I assume that at least 600-1000 downloads and a few pages of posts make the map seem decent (as an impression)?