I don't think this is a good decision purely based on the fact that loved, as I remember it being set up, should be a method for standout maps to get a leaderboard.



Standout maps include, but are not limited to:



- maps that are amazingly mapped but don't fully conform to ranking criteria

- maps that promote new ideas and new mapping techniques but are unfit for ranking due to the way they're set-up (forbidden patterns à la burai slider or ninja spinners, or just flatout MinG Style Editorbreaking)

- maps that for one reason or another gained notoriety and community approval

- maps that should be ranked and could be ranked, but the creator has left the community or doesn't/can't push it to ranked due to circumstances



All raising the approval level does is potentially drown out maps of the second variety, due to them being more prone to controversy, nothing more. Maps of the first and third variety will get past the threshhold in most cases simply due to people actively wanting to see them loved and therefore interacting with the system where they otherwise won't, and the fourth variety will most likely strike people as "fine" and therefore not prone to discouraging the loved status.

The only time most people will make the conscious decision to vote against a map being loved is if the map strikes them as 'too odd', 'not comfortable', or 'trolling'. If I were to name an infamous extreme, it would be (still under the first loved system) IKENAI BORDERLINE.



However, since all loved does is give unranked maps a spotlight, I think if anything we need more of the second variety of maps, as those typically inspire and impact more people than any of the other three do. Previously, this could only be achieved by biting the bullet and actually ranking them (Miss You, Exit This Earth's Atomosphere, Kikoku Doukoku Jigokuraku and many more I'm probably forgetting). I don't think reversing the opportunity to have them be loved instead, even if it's only partially, is a good thing, especially considering none of those maps would probably have had a 90% approval rating at the time of their peak controversy. Neither would for example A-L-I-E-N.