Frankly, I think the ranked section is a disaster. std has forced gimmick maps and mania has hilariously overmapped dump charts, but my main passion is of course about taiko. People have forgotten how to map in taiko due to the current pp meta. When the new meta came out, some mappers completely abandoned the music in favor of random patterns that boost SR. New-at-the-time mappers who took to those mappers for how to make their own have now joined them in ranked, doing the same thing, except now it's because they think it's good mapping to place whatever pattern is fun or feels good to a song they like, regardless what the music is actually doing, simply because it's what they're used to. At least in the old meta, people stuck to songs that supported pp inflation (polyrhythm). Also, mappers have completely abandoned monos, not only because they're low SR, but because whiny bongos used to the lack of monos in modern maps complain when they can't play them. As a bongo myself, I can play monos just fine and think that they should just get over their skill issue, instead of encouraging mappers to rely on improv spam to keep their maps interesting. In fact, mono maps have become so rare that now there are even KDDKs who can't play them. A map doesn't need monos to be good, but they are helpful variety in stream maps with long music notes. Furthermore, a lot of people have forgotten what a pp map even is. I've seen so many people call anything simplistic a pp map, and by extension, the mapper a pp mapper, even if the map is a normal SR. This includes me and my maps. Due to the simplistic nature of actual pp maps, I believe this label causes a subconscious bias against the map(per) in a lot of people, which creates a mentality that maps with weird patterns are the superior way to map, because "pp map bad." This further encourages the excessive improv problem that's already happening in pp maps. Now anything with offhands is showered with praise solely because the patterns aren't simple, when they may be just as bad. D3kuu's yax6, while certainly not a bad map, is an excellent example of a map profiting from this stigma to the point of being overrated. This meta has become a huge mindset problem for the taiko community at large, both for AND against pp maps. I've spoken with others about this and it seems like I'm not alone. I think that when people are judging a map, they need to forget that SR/pp even exists, turn their effect volume down, and just listen to the music. That's where you'll find the answers. A lot of people feel like me, but almost no one is brave enough to say anything (or just don't think it would change anything), so everything in bad maps is now "subjective" without any real thought being put into improving them, and anyone who actually complains gets ratio'd by "skill issue," "don't like it don't play it," or some form of "map it yourself," which are just unhelpful more often than they are right (and you can consider my comment on Reaching Eternity hypocritical if you'd like). All that does is supress criticism, and the mapper learns nothing. It feels like the people just want the mapper to feel good about their map because it's nice, regardless how good a job they did. I agree that criticism should stay constructive, but c'mon... Another thing I wanna mention is that some people base a map's quality on "what it brings to the ranked section," which I heavily disagree with. Why should a map's quality be dependent on being different from other maps in ranked? Each map is its own map, just like each song is its own song. Don't force a map to be unique for the sake of being unique. That just contributes to the current problem.

Another disaster, and for every mode this time (okay ctb I don't actually know). BNs shamelessly abuse their powers and friendships without even hiding it, both to rank complete garbage and unfairly block anything they don't like. That's a known fact though. (The unfairly blocking thing is mainly a problem with std.) Taiko BNs often don't care about map quality and just push anything that follows RC, which is how we ended up with the epidemic of bad pp maps. Keyword BAD pp maps. If a map happens to be overweighted because SR is shit, but it's still good, then let it get ranked. I believe the aforementioned BN issue also has to do with them being new people who are simply used to the meta (in which case they should study older/better maps to get a greater sense of quality), but the ones that doesn't apply to need to put their feet down more and not be as afraid to get their hands on a map that's bad, or just outright reject it. Stop trusting mappers just because they're popular. They could be popular for the wrong reasons. NAT members also needs to put their foot down more, giving punishments to BNs who push blatant garbage. Also (and this is a personal thing) spread rule is HORRIBLE. Both having to map multiple diffs just because a song is short, and having to follow dumbass arbitrary diff specific rules. My heart goes out to the five digits who have to play nothing but mono triplets in their muzus. I understand why spread rule is a thing. In fact, I had lower diffs on A Greater Purpose at one point, but now I think mappers need to come first in the ranking system. Please stop making them cater to noobs if they don't want to. Skill issues are temporary, ranking restrictions are eternal unless repealed. There are already thousands of easy ranked maps for noobs to train up on, and they can play inners within months if they gun for it. This would reduce the amount of modding BNs would have to do on sets, making ranking queues flow faster, which would encourage more BNs to join. That's good, because lack of BNs is a huge problem right now. You wanna rank something? Well, there are only three BNs open, and they all like electronic or anime music. Sucks to be you. I'm not against implementing some kind of optional reward for mapping lower diffs, but the diff specific rules would need to be improved (namely the abolition of rest beats).

My old maps vary wildly in quality depending on when they were made. Before 2023 I was just garbage, but there was a point around Spring 2023 where I think I hit a sweet spot. A Greater Purpose is good and stands the test of time, though it was carried a lot by BNs and is a little overmapped. After that and before September. My maps most closely resembled modern YaniFR maps. Avoided monos, but generally followed the song and didn't spam any pattern too many times. No slight overmapping anywhere, but that was okay because the songs didn't need it. It was September until February 2024 where I went on a spree of bad mapping decisions. Overusing SV jumps (Under the Veil of Madness, which unfortunately got ranked with it), never using don emphasis, and spamming the everloving hell out of kkkkddkkdd because I was afraid of making people mad with eight note monos (this was already a problem before). The absolute worst offenders from that period are fixed, but some remnants still exist. Namely in Reincarnation and Stars Will Light the Way. I plan on fixing some old maps in the future but not all (when motivation permits). If I do, I'll keep this section as an archive I guess.

As of right now, I don't favorite maps ever and the ones I do have favorited are extremely out of date. Just ignore that for now, and maybe some day I'll make it contain something relevant to me.

Voting sucks. The fact that we need a separate site like OMDB is lame (though I like being able to type a review out on there).

1. There should be ratings per diff. Individual diffs can be great or terrible, when the rest of the set isn't, especially on multi mode sets.
2. Voting needs to be disabled for NF. Too many whiny idiots will NFDT a map just to rate it 1 when they're completely incapable of passing. I agree that people can have valid opinions on a map they can't play, but I think they're a worthy sacrifice to filter out the noise, especially considering EZ and HT exist (and even easier alternatives will be ranked eventually in lazer).
3. Votes need to be changeable and removable. Right now they're permanent, and there are votes I regret giving long ago.
4. Votes need to be givable from anywhere, not just on the result screen after finishing a play, as long as you have a pass. I think it's stupid how I have to replay the entire map to vote just because I got carried away by my score and forgot.