Giving feedback on Etterna charts
Preface
(Not necessarily limited to Etterna charts, but that's what this is about)
I've been giving feedback to charters since 2017, and over the years I've realized that some ways of giving chart feedback tend to be more effective than others.
tl;dr
- Don't go into excessive detail, give a summary of your thoughts.
- The primary purpose of feedback is to enable the charter to express their concept better. This means having an understanding of the charter's intention is paramount.
Focus on the structure, not details
Back when I first started giving feedback, the way I did it was mostly inspired by what little feedback I had seen from submitting to packs myself and getting feedback, and maybe lurking around FlashFlashRevolution.
Specifically, what I'd so is basically just go through the entire person's chart, and basically just start writing line by line every single detail I personally disagreed with, with timestamps provided.
This is a really bad way of going about things. It perfectly conveys your criticisms, sure, but it doesn't explain why. Plus, from both personal experience and from the accounts of other charters, nobody is interested in poring over a laundry list of changes and going through them one-by-one; at that point they would generally rather you just send them a version of the chart with all changes applied (More about the "send fixes approach" later).
A better approach is essentially to give a summary of what you think of the file, and provide a few timestamps as examples of what you mean. However, there is also more to consider, which is covered below:
Keep the charter's intent in mind
Even if they don't consciously think about it, every charter has a vision or structure for what they want their chart to be, and this should be respected. Don't suggest completely changing the difficulty or charting patterns of the chart. The primary purpose of feedback is to enable the charter to express their concept better. Feedback that changes everything is equivalent to a rejection.
If you don't feel confident in inferring the charter's intent, feel free to ask them what exactly they're trying to make. If they don't really have a direction, then feel free to just give your personal opinion (and make sure it is clear it's just that).
Keep your intent in mind
That being said, if you're giving feedback, chances are it is for some sort of pack. In this case, keep the pack's goal in mind as well, particularly when deciding whether to accept or reject a file. If the chart's fine but it doesn't fit in the pack, then just say that.
Other notes
Sometimes charters don't care enough to apply feedback, and just want a simple accept/reject. They might also be fine with you just making whatever small fixes are needed, or they might be infuriated by that. Obviously, feel free to work case-by-case.