Hello everyone

A few days ago I used the map request feature for submitting map to a mappack for a tournament for the first time. I didn't previously know this feature existed and I have to say it is really easy and intuitive to use. It also just a great feature in general for handling map requests. However there were 2 points that slightly confused me that maybe could be improved:

• When submittig the map it is clearly stated in red that the map will be hidden and only released once the mappack is released. This info is very clear and useful. However, when filling out the map details, there's still the checkbox "Hide Track". This kind of confused me because I wasn't sure if I had to check the box to make it REALLY hidden or if it is then hidden forever.
  
• When changes are requested to map, I got the notification with the comment of what to change. This is a really really great feature imo. However, after I made the changes I wasn't completely sure what to do. I ended up just updating the map file. But I'm not sure if the person that gave the feedback sees that I changed the map since I wasn't able to write a comment or anything. I think it would be cool to have a button in the change request screen that said "changes applied" or something like that where you could upload the new mapfile and write a comment of what you changed.

All in all, an absolutely great feature and I love it. Those are just some thoughts of someone who used it for the first time.

Hey Phil,

thanks for your comments, they were really helpful! I have improved the view for when you upload a map file, so that you do not see the hide / unreleased buttons anymore, if the mappack hides the map anyway.

For your second point: The mappack manager receives a notification, as soon your map is updated. You can use your map description to write a changelog.

Hi,

here are 2 more issues I've been having trouble with:

1. It's still unclear to me how exactly the Unreleased, Unlisted and Hidden map settings interact with the map packs (even though the descriptions seem to document it quite well). Maybe I'm just misunderstanding things. It's particularly interesting for map packs which want to keep the maps secret (only visible to map author and map pack managers), but didn't enable the auto-hide/auto-unreleased options (so map submitters still have to set those settings manually).

Unreleased: sounds like it doesn't affect visibility in map packs, so I'm ignoring it for now
Unlisted: "Will hide your track from all listings (except mappacks)"
Hidden: "[...] it will only be accessible by you, mappack managers (that own a map you uploaded to their mappack) [...]"

Hidden sounds like the map will not be visible anywhere, not in search results, not in the profile page, not in the map packs' map lists, and not even to the map pack manager if submitted to a map pack (unless it's the map pack manager's own map). Is that correct? If so, then why does https://trackmania.exchange/s/ft/13 recommend to set submitted maps to Hidden, shouldn't it recommend Unreleased + Unlisted instead? Why is there an option for map packs to auto-hide submitted maps, if they aren't visible anymore afterwards (is that just for convenience, for mass-hiding)?

Unlisted sounds like the map won't be visible in normal listings like search results or profile page, but will be visible to servers and in map packs' map lists. So I'm assuming it will be visible to map pack managers too, if submitted, but not yet approved. Is that correct? If so, then it sounds like this should be used instead of Hidden.

2. The behaviour of the Map Request list ("Submit and manage your own Track submissions here" on the map pack's page, if user submission is enabled) seems odd/inconsistent. I'm guessing it is supposed to be a list of all maps I have submitted to that map pack, but I can't get it to show anything except approved, unhidden maps. So no hidden maps (even though I own and submitted them), and no submitted but not yet approved maps (e.g. Retired, Changes Requested). It just shows "Loading..." and the spinning TMX icon instead.

From the map pack manager's point of view, I was able to see (my) hidden map under Manager Options -> Manage Tracks, which is nice (but I'm not sure whether that worked only because it was my own map), but not in the Map List, which was confusing since besides that the two seem to show the same information (which probably is the expected behaviour though, public vs. internal map lists...).