By southpaw (and various other prestigious members)

Q: What's NUMA?
A: NUMA stands for N User Map Archive. It is a place where those who create their own original maps in Ned may post them for other N players around the world to view and play. NUMA comes with a few features that make it easy to view, browse and play maps. Among these include:

• Ratings - NUMA features a simple rating system from 0 to 5 ninjas, with the ability to rate maps in increments of 1. Ratings are kept hidden for only you to see until you receive ratings from 5 different registered users on NUMA, at which point it becomes a public rating that everybody can see.
• Favorites - The My Favorites link under Profile allows you to see maps that you have deemed your... well, your favorites. Next to the title of every map is an icon of a ninja running. If you click on this icon it will turn gold. Once you have clicked that button you can click on the link that says Favorites under the Profile tab. Favorites are ordered by date the map was submitted. This means that if you favorite Broken Wasteland by sidke and then favorite Line of sight and smell by remote, Line of sight and smell will be AFTER Broken Wasteland in your favorites, even though they were favorited in the opposite order.
• Bitesize - Bitesizing is a special addition to NUMA in that it sets some maps apart from others in one way or another. In essence, a Bitesized map should implement an idea or concept in a brand new or interesting way. Gameplay of a Bitesized map is also of exceptional quality, though this isn't always the case because people have different tastes in maps. Bitesize NUMA no longer exists. The maps that have been bitesized in the past can still be viewed and they remain tagged as bitesized. Replacing Bitesize NUMA is a new addition called Featured Maps. These are special maps that have been deemed excellent and have been reviewed. The featured map of the day and the review can be seen on the homepage of NUMA.
• Top rated - The Top rated link in the navigation bar leads you to a list of maps that are ordered from highest average rating to lowest average rating. Usually if a map reaches the Top rated section that means that at least 5 people thought the map was exceptionally good and probably at least 3 of those people rated the map a 5. The Top rated navigation link also no longer exists.
• Featured Maps - The latest and greatest addition to NUMA, Featured Maps is the section where a select few get to review maps that are of exceptional quality (much like Bitesize NUMA but a lot cooler). To start, a map is put on the Featured Map page, as well as the NUMA Homepage, by a Reviewer and is on the NUMA Homepage for a full 12 hours at which point the next map in the queue is featured. A Reviewer is simply a person who has the ability to write a review on a map that they think is in a league of its own. Unlike the previous Bitesize ability, Reviewers do not remain anonymous and they are required to write a 50-100 word review as to why they chose the map to be featured. Arachnid chose the first 6 Reviewers through a contest he held here. Those chosen were gloomp, kisler, southpaw, Condog, Pheidippides and woser456.
• Hot Maps - Another new addition to NUMA since the redesign, Hot Maps is kind of like a mixture between the newest maps submitted to NUMA and Top Rated. To be precise, when you submit a map to NUMA it goes straight to the top of the Hot Maps page for others to view. But as the map is (or isn't) rated, where it goes on the front page is determined by what rating has been given it. A map that receives a higher rating will be pushed to the top of the Hot Maps section, while a map that gets a lower rating will get pushed to the bottom of the Hot Maps section. In this way you can see what maps people are enjoying more than others. It has been pointed out that for the Hot Maps section to work effectively, one must rate the maps. If you don't rate the maps then you won't be able to show people what maps are good or not.
• Active Authors - Active Authors is the answer to the Newest page on NUMA. Underneath the Maps heading in the navigation bar you will see a link that says Active Authors. When clicked it will show you the users who have submitted maps most recently. But instead of just being their latest map(s), it shows their 5 most recent maps, so that you can browse through other great (or not-so-great) maps by the author. The list is also ascending, so the most recent author to submit a map will be at the bottom of the page.

Q: Great! How do I sign up?
A: You may be wondering why there's no 'register' link anywhere on the site. This is because NUMA's login system is integrated with the N highscore account system. In order to get an account on NUMA, simply fire up N, click on 'configure', enter a username and password in the boxes provided, and click 'create new user'. You can then use that account to log into NUMA. (straight from the About section on NUMA)

Q: Okay, I've signed up. Where are all the maps?
A: Click on the link that says "Maps" in the navigation bar. That'll show you the Hottest Maps section. Notice at the bottom you can continue to another page, in case you want to look for a map that was fun that you may have missed earlier.

Q: I can't figure out how to play a map from NUMA in Ned. Help?
A: Underneath the map description there is a text field. To play the map in Ned simply copy the level data from the text box and paste it into the upper text box in Ned. Then click outside of the textbox in Ned and press L to load the map.

If you want to highscore a map on NUMA, download Nreality. Once you have downloaded Nreality, click on User Levels and up at the top you'll notice a text box. Type in the MAP NUMBER ONLY. So if you were wanting to highscore the map http://nmaps.net/125485 you would type 125485 into the text box. Click on "load numa map" and then highscore away.

Q: I want to add a map to my user le-
A: Read the Manual that comes with N to find out more about that -OR- download this: Firefox Extension
Unfortunately you have to create an account, but you could just make up a random email that you'll never use again just for this purpose

Q: I have completed a map and I would like to submit it to NUMA.
A: Great! Follow southpaw's easy, step-by-step guide to submitting a map!
-Step 1: Click on the link that says "Submit a Map" in the navigation bar under the Profile tab.
-Step 2: Give the map a name and description (try not to make the description incredibly long).
-Step 3: Paste the map data into the text box that says "Map Data" next to it.
-Step 4: Add any tags (which I'll explain next) you think are necessary (or even unnecessary) in the section that says "Tags"
-Step 5: Click on the "Submit" button and make sure the thumbnail and the map you were intending on posting look the same. If everything checks out click on the "Confirm" button.

Congratulations! Your map has been added to the Hottest Maps page for everyone to see!

Q: How do I add a map to my Favourites list?
A: Find the map you wish to add to your list, then simply click the ninja icon to the left of the map name. The icon will turn gold indicating that it's been added.

Q: I want to delete one of my maps, but I can't find a button that says "DELETE". All I see is this "delist" link. What is that?
A: Maps on NUMA can no longer be deleted, a "feature" if you will that came with the NUMA updates. Delisting a map is almost like deleting it except not. When you delist a map it is removed from any searches that other members do of YOUR MAPS. If, for example, someone were to type in "author:SkyRay" in the search bar, any maps that SkyRay has delisted won't show up in the search. Members can access delisted maps only if they know the map number for the map they are looking for.
Oh, and don't worry. Delisting a map does not remove the map from other users favorites, nor does it mean that it is delisted forever. You may delist and relist maps at any time, as you can still view ALL the maps you have made, listed or not.

Q: I'm curious as to who runs NUMA?
A:Why, Arachnid,maestro and blue_tetris of course. The current moderators of NUMA are southpaw, wedgie123, fingersonthefrets and littleviking. Sweep used to run Bitesized NUMA, and then kkstrong (cucumber_boy) briefly ran it.

Q: Wait, weren't you about to talk about tags?
A: I was. The Tag system on NUMA works like any other tag system. First of all, there are 2 tags that are not editable. The first is the "author" tag, which simply says your username. The second is the "rated/unrated" tag, which says whether or not the map has a public rating (has been rated by at least 5 people). There is a third tag which could only be toggled by a person with Bitesize rights (now that bitesizing is gone I do not believe those tags can be removed anymore). The only things these three tags do is differentiate your maps from other maps (ie, you from all other authors, rated maps from unrated maps and Bitesized maps from non-Bitesized maps). All other tags you put down are your own and you can make them your own.

For starters, let's suggest that you wanted to make a series of maps on NUMA that were all fairly similar and were meant to be played in succession. By using the tag system you can tag all of the maps you want grouped together with a single tag, as in _destiny^-'s d-elemental series. In this way you can play only the d-elemental maps that _destiny^- has made (though there is one map in there by FacetiousPantsWearer...).

The tag system can do much more than this though. For example, you remember the three tags mentioned earlier (author, rated/unrated and bitesized)? I'll explain why they are important now. Let us say you wanted to search for maps made by Fingersonthefrets because you've heard he makes amazing maps. To do so, simply type author:Fingersonthefrets in the Search field and press Search. All maps made by the author Fingersonthefrets will now show up for you to view and play.

Now... let us say you wanted to play only the unrated maps by Fingersonthefrets. In the search field simply type in the following without quotes: "author:Fingersonthefrets unrated"
The space between the author: and "unrated" tags means that it will search for all maps made by Fingersonthefrets that have the "unrated" tag. The same can be done if you wanted to play his "rated" or Bitesized maps, except one would type "rated" or Bitesized instead of "unrated". Starting to make sense?

The NUMA tag system also allows you to search for map titles. This is helpful if you happen to remember the name of a map but can't remember the name of the author (it happens to the best of us sometimes). To search for a title of a map simply put title:"insert name of map here". In this example the quotes are very very important. If you were looking for the map Annabelle Lies, Sleeps With Quiet Eyes but couldn't remember who it was that made it. Simply type title:"Annabelle Lies" (this will be enough to search for the map) and it will search for all maps that have the words "Annabelle Lies" in succession. If you don't add the quotes to the search query then you will end up searching for all maps with the word Annabelle in the title and of those maps it will search for the tag Lies. As far as I know this will not return any search results. *note: title searches are temporarily unavailable on NUMA. Arachnid will return title searches when he gets the chance, so just sit tight and wait.

As part of the NUMA experience since the redesign, negative tags may now be used to effect the outcome of your search. Let us pretend that you want to look at all types of maps except races and puzzles. In the search bar you would type "-races -puzzles" and the search will return maps without those tags. The negative sign (-) is very important. If you leave it out then you'll be searching for that tag, instead of searching against that tag.

There is also an advanced search available to facilitate this type of searching, in case you get slightly confused about your search results.

Currently the Search function is limited to author searches, tag searches and Boolean searches. Title searches are not up yet and we don't know when they will be. Patience is the most important thing right now so please just wait it out.

Q: I keep seeing acronyms such as AGD, DDA and FBF on NUMA occasionally. What do they mean?
A: All the explanations to all the acronyms you will come across on NUMA are hidden beneath this text.

Q: Let's get back to the thing about Bitesizing. Where is the button that let's me Bitesize a map?
A: You can't. It's impossible to Bitesize maps. In theory it is divine choosing that puts maps onto the Bitesize page.
In reality though, Bitesizing is no longer available to users, as it has been a feature that was removed when NUMA was updated. The maps that have been bitesized still have the bitesized tag though, so you can do a search and find all the old bitesized maps. (this is for those who didn't bother to read the text at the beginning of this post.)

Q: Right, Bitesizing has gone... so what is a featured map?
Basically a Featured Map is one that is of exceptional quality (much like a bitesized map should have been) but unlike bitesizing, Featured Maps show a little more quality as to why they are better. For starters, those who are considered "reviewers" are not anonymous. When their chosen map is on the Featured Maps page it shows who wrote the review, as well as a description of why they think the map should be featured in the first place. In addition, it takes some language skills to become a reviewer and therefore gives people the chance to put into words the reason why the map is in a different league from the rest of the maps on NUMA.

Q: Can I become a reviewer?
Possibly. You need to send an application containing two example reviews to numa@notdot.net If your application is successful, you'll be granted reviewer privileges. Bear in mind that this is an extremely popular position, and many applications are being made, so try not to feel disheartened if you're not successful. All maps on NUMA need feedback so there's still plenty of opportunity to put your opinion across.

Q: Someone sniped my map. What should I do? (question courtesy of CF)
A: First of all, let me explain sniping. A snipe is usually a rating of zero that is given to a map for many various reasons which are too numerous to list. Either way, a sniper is one who gives out these low ratings.

There is one key difference among getting rated 0 as a new mapmaker and getting rated 0 as an old mapmaker. One such difference is that as a n00b one is probably not going to make the best of the best maps (though there have been exceptions like Fenominous's map, Inside the outer world). Getting rated a 0 when you are a new mapmaker is much like saying you have very little mapmaking ability. This doesn't mean that newbies should fret and frown over a simple rating such as this. It simply means that you need some time to hone your skills.
Getting rated a 0 as an old mapmaker is somewhat of a different story. This usually means that there is someone out there who is having fun messing with your user ratings by rating your maps 0. Usually old mapmakers are consistent with making good maps so when a 0 rating is given to someone who has been around NUMA for quite a long time a lot of the time it's not because the map is terrible.

What do we do about sniping? There isn't a lot you can do. The best solution to snipers is to ignore them. don't post comments on your own map saying, "OMG! I just got sniped! Show yourself, punk!" because you will almost never get a response and that just brings attention to the issue. Continue on with your mapmaking. Snipers come and go and rarely ever stick with one mapmaker for very long.

Q: How do I tell when a user is abusing NUMA and their privileges to use the site? (a short list probably created by Arachnid)

The following things are not abusive, and should not be reported:::

• Profanity: Profanity is impossible to police and is generally not that bad to have around. Profanity only becomes a problem when it is also insulting or hate speech--and those things are considered abusive with or without profanity.
• People who dislike your map(s): People are entitled to dislike your maps. In fact, constructive criticism isn't even necessary, but it's expected. Again, criticism of your maps is only a problem when it disparages you directly.
• Poor maps: People are allowed to make poor maps. People are not allowed to make offensive maps.

The following things might be abusive or should be reported:::

• Spam: People are not allowed to spam. Report it.
• Accidental multi-posting: Calling this abuse creates a bit of a misnomer. Report this only if it's way excessive and a mod needs to clean it up. The occasion double post or even triple post isn't typically a problem.
• Flaming or flamebaiting: If someone insults you directly or attempts to get you into an argument, you may be able to report it as abuse. It is not considered flaming or flamebaiting if a person doesn't like your map. If you get hypersensitive about someone disliking your map, you're the one flaming--not them.
• Offensive content: Messages can become offensive content when it becomes sexually- or racially-charged or would otherwise offend the sensibilities of the average Internet denizen. Maps which are hateful, offensive, or promote flaming and personal tensions can be reported also.

To report a problem, send an email to "numa.notdot.net". If it is a problem then it will be dealt with, but please do not expect a response from the NUMA admins.

Q: NUMA won't let me log on after repeated attempts. [question courtesy of Be_Happy_:)]
A: This is a common glitch that fixes itself over a couple of days so you'll just have to wait. If it still lasts after 4 days, contact a NUMA administrator.

Q: I just signed up or I've been around NUMA a while and seen a few people get yelled at for posting 4 or more maps in a row on NUMA. What is an acceptable amount of maps?
A: Posting 4 or more maps at a time is a common mistake that new users on NUMA make, and it probably happens a few times a week. The NUMA community mostly agrees that if you're new, submitting 1-2 maps over a period of 6-8 hours, and no more than 5 maps per day is a good rule if you want much more positive feedback from other members. Spamming NUMA makes one seem like they are just begging for attention and usually people who do spam the Hot Maps page get ignored, their maps get reported, their maps get delisted, and if the problem continues their account becomes suspended.
If you have a series of maps you'd like to release all at the same time, a good rule to go by is only post 3 of the series at a time over a period of 8-12 hours. Any more than that and people start to get a little annoyed.

Q:I keep on seeing people talking about something called Nreality. What exactly is it?
A: Nreality is a cool version of N made by Unreality that allows you to mod drones and other objects, add images to levels, and more. It also allows you to play maps with Nreality mods in them. Two good examples of Nreality use can be found here and here.. If you want to download Nreality, click here.[/color]

[Thanks to all the Metanembers who have helped edit this. There are probably a few things that have been left out but to me this looks like a pretty good list of questions about some of the most basic and not-so-basic things on NUMA. Thanks again...] ~southpaw

This post has been edited by Keron Cyst on September 21, 2008 09:38 am