Sriver says:

In a good track, there is nothing to criticize. It's pointless to say you don't like something in a track if the author has clearly built it on purpose.

Except that's not true at all.

First off, a good track can have it's faults.A perfect track cannot. Very big difference there. I've played hundreds of good tracks that could've been better with a few changes.
Also, yes, of course the track creator built the track that way on purpose - that doesn't make his decision good. That doesn't mean that there aren't better ways to build the track. You're essentially saying that all tracks should be completely free from scrutiny because the builder built his track that way on purpose and therefore it is perfect.

I can't adequately put into words just how wrong you are. Things that are bad should be scrutnized - it's the only way for them to improve. If the track author doesn't give a damn what people think, then he just doesn't give a damn. You can very easily just not look in the comment section and go about your day.

Funny how this thread turned from a rant into (another) award discussion.
Btw in my book saying "I don't like the pf" is feedback. Whether it's good or helpful is another question.
ID made clear he doesn't want to hear it. Enough said I guess.

@ Poorly...:
Define a good track then.

tmjonas says:
Tstar, did you ever consider that "good" is completely in the eye of the beholder?

I'm not talking about "taste" here, I mean the efforts, work and thought that an author put into a track.

This is not about what food you like, shrimps or beef stake, it's about if it was made by a star cook or a greasy old bastard who pulled the food through his pants before he served it to you.

Sriver says:
@ Poorly...:
Define a good track then.

A track that's well-made and fun to play. Nothing more, nothing less.
It doesn't have to be perfect. Very few tracks are. In fact, I don't think I can name a single perfect track. Many of my favourite tracks have flaws.

Poorly Taxidermied Fox says:
Also, yes, of course the track creator built the track that way on purpose - that doesn't make his decision good. That doesn't mean that there aren't better ways to build the track.

There's never a 'better' or 'worse' way to build a track. Because this depends on what you personally like in a track.
And that's why I say a track is good if the author has succeeded in building what he wants to build.
If someone builds a track where you only press the forward button and watch your car doing jumps or flips or whatever, I respect his work. I don't start a discussion saying that I want to drive instead of watching.
If someone builds a track where you have to drive perfectly to be able to finish, I respect his work. I don't complain it's too hard.

The author can't please everyone with his track. But he decides what he regards as the lesser evil.
In this case, ID has decided to build a pf start. It's totally stupid to say he should remove the start if you know he wanted to build it that way.

Sriver says:

There's never a 'better' or 'worse' way to build a track. Because this depends on what you personally like in a track.
And that's why I say a track is good if the author has succeeded in building what he wants to build.

Everything is subjective to a point - music, video games, art, movies.. Same with tracks in Trackmania.
By your train of thought, I could build a track in 10 minutes and it'd be a masterpiece because it turned out exactly how I wanted it. But that's not how it works. There are standards. They're not defined standards as actual standards would be impossible to define - but the community as a whole knows what it wants. That doesn't mean, of course, that tracks that don't adhere to the community standards are bad - but chances are if 99% of people who play your track think it's terrible, they are probably right.

It's subjective - to a point. Otherwise, we wouldn't be having this discussion. If there wasn't some sort of general idea of what a good track is, this topic wouldn't exist. Okay? You may disagree with the communities opinion and you're free to do that, but claiming that every track that turned out the way the author wanted is 'perfect' is nonsense. Some people just have bad taste. Some people don't know what makes a good track. Some people just don't have a clue. Don't give the mob more credit than it deserves..

ID has a point however I do not completely agree with what he has said. And the rest of you have taken the discussion to some other level alltogether.

You upload a map: Because you want people to play it, else why would you upload it?

People play your map: Because they think they will have fun on it, if someone is doing it to get tortured then that is good too.

You get feedback: Because they want to let you know if they had fun on it or not.

You don't like feedback: You don't take it, you read it and let it go. Or you put up a comment to the user and tell him/her that you do not need any feedback.

You open a thread on this: You are giving feedback to people that you do not like/want their feedback, why do you think will they take your feedback for you not wanting their feedback in the first place?

Oh!! Damn where was I now, wait I'll get back to this topic later on as I kinda lost my way in typing what I was thinking, sorry.

smok3y says:
You open a thread on this: You are giving feedback to people that you do not like/want their feedback, why do you think will they take your feedback for you not wanting their feedback in the first place?

This comment makes more sense than anything I posted in my large reply.

I think this thread needs a lock so people stop trying to steer the conversation towards awards.

+1, it's gone full circle at this point.
- ID's thing -> awards are the devil and will destroy this site -> back to ID's thing.