Batch submission of maps for (possibly) map packs

[seven_two]

'batch submission' yielded no results, so here I go.

I was wondering, if it would be convenient to be able to submit a batch of maps in the userlevels format to NUMA. Of course, if it exceeds 2 maps, they have to be delisted and relisted only after a condition is met (maybe when it would not appear on the hot page). This is because I've seen users like lord_day (TheThreeColumns) and Yahoozy submit multiple maps at once, and I think it's rather tedious to submit maps one by one and delist them the same way too.

I'm interested in this idea as I plan to submit a map pack to this forum and later on to NUMA so it is easier to give feedback. Anyone else?

[Radium]

sounds great to me.

[EdoI]

Everything above two maps at once is spamming.

[toasters]

Everything above two maps at once is spamming.

He knows this.
Are you asking if there's some method of submitting multiple maps at once? If so, I don't think there is. I remember mintnut saying he had multiple tabs with the Submit Map page on them, and that's how he did it.

[heatwave]

I thought of this myself a while ago. I guess you beat me to the punch. Here's how it'd work:

Next to the "Submit a Map" button under the profile tab, there would be a "batch submit" button.
If you click on it, you would be asked to upload a .txt file full of map data, organized just like the userlevels:

Code: Select all

&userdata=
$name#author#type#data#
$name#author#type#data#
$name#author#type#data#
...

You can't say this is a bad idea. NUMA is supposed to be an archive, right? If you have a butt load a maps, why shouldn't you be able to ARCHIVE THEM with as little hassle as possible? Of course, they wouldn't appear on the hot maps listing.

How would that work, you ask? This is how I'd do it.
Every map submitted via the "batch submit" option would automatically be tagged with the word "batch."
Then, Arachnid would just have to set the hot maps page to exclude any map with the tag "batch."

The batch tag would be one of those special tags that people can't add manually, like "bitesized" or "featured" or "rated."

Foolproof?

[Rose]

You can still submit them to NUMA one-by-one over an extended period of time. That's what I'm doing, because you'll probably get more feedback that way if only one is on the hot maps page at a time.

[EdoI]

Here's this awesome idea:
When you submit more than one map (I'd recommend six as the limit) maps get automatically submitted in [24 / number of maps] hours delay.

[origami_alligator]

---
The following proposal will require the following:
- A link on the Profile tab next to "Submit a Map"
- A link on the Hot Maps page titled "Packs"
- A link on the user profile page that shows a listing of all the map packs that user has made
- An upload section that loads userlevel data from a text file (would require various extensions such as .doc, .txt, etc.)

*note: When I say "map pack" I mean a single item listed, NOT every map listed. Clicking on that single listed item would direct you to a list of the maps in the map pack.
---

Proposal:
---
Under the Profile tab next to "Submit a Map" we change that to "Submit a Map / Pack" where clicking to the left of the "/" takes you to the regular map submission page and clicking on "Pack" takes you to a new submission page.

Here we are presented with an upload page that takes text files and uploads userlevel data only. A series of text boxes will be available to add 5 custom tags to the map pack. This solves having to load each map separately. This is where things get slightly tricky though. For this to work we would need another page under the Maps tab. This link would be called "Packs" and wouldn't show every map. Instead it would sort out the latest map packs submitted to NUMA and by clicking on them one would get a listing of every map in the pack. Thus the Hot Maps page is never effected by someone submitting their map pack and the maps are all in one nice little area.
By popular demand we'd probably need an image upload section for advertisement of the pack.
Voting on a map in the pack would create an average for the individual map and also add to the average rating of the entire pack. This should require at least 25 rates for a public rating for map packs considering their size. This way individual maps could be publicly rated but the map pack would require a large number of votes before we had any sort of average. This last part is just an idea and is open for debate. Maybe map packs shouldn't need a vote minimum for public ratings.
___

Possible issues:
---
The main problem with this is that NUMA would need to be able to detect 5 or more maps (I don't believe you can really call something a map pack if it isn't at least 1 episode long.) and the number of map packs that a person would be able to submit would have to be limited. (I'm thinking 2 per month but we can change that if need be.)

Another thing that would have to be sorted out is having map packs show up in searches. Obviously we'd need the non-editable tag "mappack" but should they be included with the map listings of an author or should they be separate? Similarly, should map packs be included in tag searches for maps or should they be separately listed and only viewable through the Packs link under the "Maps" tab? Should we allow the map pack

Finally, in case you didn't read the above note, listing a map pack will NOT list every map in the pack. Only by clicking on the map pack name/image would one be able to view all the maps in the pack. The map pack listing would show either a default image or a custom image for extra attention grabbing.
---

This would probably take some serious coding, of which I have no idea how to do and don't know if anybody would be up to the task. This would allow people to submit their map packs to NUMA in one place without having to delist a majority of the maps; it also gives authors a place where people can give feedback on each map or the map pack as a whole.

This is simply a rough draft idea. We can discuss it and work out the finer details if need be.

[Superpok]

sounds great, how active are the numa admins who can code this though?

[SkyPanda]

Good idea, hope you genius's can work something out.

Anyone notice that the hot maps page prevents NUMA from properly being used as an archive for maps? Due to all the issues about attention and stuff. A submission option for people who don't really care about attention and therefore don't need or want their map on the hot maps would be pretty cool, i reckon.

[lord_day]

I am all for this. But this isn't the first time we've had this idea, and nothing has happened, so what are the plans to actually push it through this time?

[Tunco]

Suppose that the numa is coded this way, but what about NReality?

Maps in the packs should have ID codes so we could play them on NReality. It shouldn't be just

Code: Select all

&userdata=
$name#author#type#data#
$name#author#type#data#
$name#author#type#data#

And so on. Anyone who codes this (if) should work with Unreality, which makes this *project* be more complicated.

Or NReality should be coded so as;

Code: Select all

Main Menu>Userlevels>Packs'/Single Levels (supposing I clicked packs' link)> <very different page design that you can see all the levels in the pack [i]and[/i] it''s screenshot [i]and[/i] highscrore board of every level in the pack.

About the highscore board of every level in the pack:
Or it could be like Metanet levels' highscoring system; level scores and episode scores, each different, which makes this even more complicated. But these are just my idea, I don't know how the coder and Unreality (if he will be in to this) will design this.

[origami_alligator]

Suppose that the numa is coded this way, but what about NReality?
Maps in the packs should have ID codes so we could play them on NReality.

NUMA and Nreality are two separate things. As far as I'm concerned, I'm more worried about user functionality on NUMA than I am about the idea working in Nreality. Unreality can code Nreality himself if he wants it to work somehow in Nreality.

I would imagine that batch submissions would number maps accordingly, so that if the latest map were 179042 and someone submitted a map pack with 100 maps it would label them all the way to 179142 according to how they are listed in the map pack. Otherwise we'd have to label the map pack maps differently and I think that would be far too complicated.


lord_day, maybe it's time we did some snooping around to find someone interested enough in this idea to tell us if it's even possible to code for AppEngine first. It seems like this would be extremely complicated to pull off but would be very useful for the website.

[a happy song]

Everything pawz wrote is in the right direction. I'll think about this a little more and see if I can critique or add to it later.

This would be a massive boon to the NUMA community.

[sidke]

lord_day, maybe it's time we did some snooping around to find someone interested enough in this idea to tell us if it's even possible to code for AppEngine first. It seems like this would be extremely complicated to pull off but would be very useful for the website.

>____>
*downloads a damn GAE ebook*

[otters~1]

Anyone notice that the hot maps page prevents NUMA from properly being used as an archive for maps?

I would say that the bad search engine is far more in the way of using it as an archive. As for this idea, sounds great. Would the maps subbed in 'Pack' form show up in the statistics, graph, etc? That's more work, and not really necessary.

Also, if this finally went up, everyone would submit their mappacks to be archived as soon as possible. It would definitely be more traffic than NUMA usually has. Can the site handle that, at least for about a week?

[heatwave]

If the URL of an individual map within a map pack is assigned in the same way normal submissions are handled, (http://www.nmaps.net/insert-map-number-here) Then we might have a problem.
Suppose Map number 200000 is coming around. It would be a whole lot easier to nab the 200000th map for yourself if you just submitted a map pack full of duplicate or spam maps.
Why not create URLs for map pack maps like this: http://www.nmaps.net/LaserLightLove/1
Of course, then you'd run into the problem of playing a map on NReality, right?

[Tunco]

If the URL of an individual map within a map pack is assigned in the same way normal submissions are handled, (http://www.nmaps.net/insert-map-number-here) Then we might have a problem.
Suppose Map number 200000 is coming around. It would be a whole lot easier to nab the 200000th map for yourself if you just submitted a map pack full of duplicate or spam maps.
Why not create URLs for map pack maps like this: http://www.nmaps.net/LaserLightLove/1

That was exactly my point Pawz.

NReality needs to be recoded if this happens so.

[DigitalDuck]

Why not create URLs for map pack maps like this: http://www.nmaps.net/LaserLightLove/1

I think it'd be better if it was something along the lines of http://www.nmaps.net/packs/5/8, '5' meaning the fifth pack submitted, and '8' meaning the eighth map in that pack. That way, NUMA wouldn't have to rely on pack names, and users could submit packs that have the same name.

[heatwave]

That's a good point, even though it's fairly unlikely that two people would want the same name for their map pack.
There's still a possibility, though. How about this: http://www.nmaps.net/author name/LaserLightLove/1

Thus the Hot Maps page is never effected by someone submitting their map pack and the maps are all in one nice little area.

You could make it look just like the "Active authors" list. That way, each map pack takes up no more space than a normal map.

Alternatively:

This would be assuming that map packs wouldn't be submitted very frequently. A map pack would move farther and farther down the list as new maps are submitted.

[Tunco]

That's a good point, even though it's fairly unlikely that two people would want the same name for their map pack.
There's still a possibility, though. How about this: http://www.nmaps.net/author name/LaserLightLove/1

Thus the Hot Maps page is never effected by someone submitting their map pack and the maps are all in one nice little area.

You could make it look just like the "Active authors" list. That way, each map pack takes up no more space than a normal map.

Alternatively:

This would be assuming that map packs wouldn't be submitted very frequently. A map pack would move farther and farther down the list as new maps are submitted.

http://www.nmaps.net/author name/# of the pack of the author(2nd, for example, which means there should be just "2" here)/map # of the pack Maybe.

Thus, what about if there are more levels in a pack that you've showed? We can't make it take too much space.

[Rule]

I'd suggest you get a general image for the pack, with a general description, and a general rating system.
Just like normal maps, so it will take exactly the same amount of space a normal map would. ((on the select a map/pack page))
But when you click it, it shows the maps inside. But then again, that would take hell long to load.
Like another list where you view every seperate map?

Or, maybe, it could be done just like now, but instead of giving the code for one map in the box, you simply just get the entire pack code in there.
This would save a lot of room, and it would prevent a lot of coding.

[origami_alligator]

This would resolve the sorting issue:

http://www.nmaps.net/browse?q=pack:"name of map pack"

The quotations would be important because then you could include spaces instead of resorting to underscores.

EDIT: I just realized about sorting the maps within a map pack and then realized that it doesn't really solve the issue.

http://www.nmaps.net/packs/24/7

Where "24" is the 24th map pack that was submitted to NUMA and "7" is the 7th map in that pack.

[Ampersand]

If you guys really want 3500 maps submitted in a single day, I'd be all for this. I'd also like the URL thing. http://www.nmaps.net/MoA/Memoirs seems like a sweet URL.

[Tunco]

I'd also like the URL thing. http://www.nmaps.net/MoA/Memoirs seems like a sweet URL.

Me likey that URL.

Let's see the other guy (CS) will say about this.