“ETIQUETTE” of Charting

A significant part of XDRV charting is the community that has formed and will continue to grow around it. Though most charts are made by one person, the larger community still leaves their mark on each individual contribution–giving feedback and praise, sharing scores, and even taking inspiration for future charts. Involvement in the charting community via the community Discord is a great way to build friendships and share your work. As with any community-based activity, you can choose to act in a way shows respect to other charters and community members.

Giving / Receiving Feedback

For charters who want to improve, receiving and giving feedback is an important part of the charting process. With that said, not all individuals want to receive feedback on their charts. Some people may find that feedback, whether constructive or destructive, heavily demotivates their ability to create; others may not want feedback on specific charts which they feel are “complete.” If you want to give feedback on a person’s chart, ensure that said person has put the “Feedback Requested” tag on their chart. When giving feedback, do your best to be constructive in your criticism, and avoid bloating your feedback with negativity; often, it is much more productive to point out one or two things you dislike, plus at least one thing that you enjoy.

If you receive feedback on a chart, it is your choice whether you implement it. Sometimes, you would prefer to start a new chart with the information you’ve learned, and that is also completely fine. (You can always rechart your less refined content down the line.)

Claiming Songs

In some instances of XDRV charting, the charter may choose to post about what song they are charting or going to chart prior to the chart being done. This is known as claiming a song. Typically, song claims ensure that other people do not chart the same song as you. Song claims can also build hype for a project and give the charter a space to share their progress. While this benefits are nice, claiming songs has some key downsides:

Claiming a song too early and not following through with charting the song can result in a song never being charted.
Creating posts for claimed songs can bloat the forum channel, making it difficult for people who want to browse and download custom charts.
Claiming a song implies that multiple people charting the same song is bad, which is not necessarily the case.
Claiming a song implies that you have some ownership or exclusivity towards it, which (unless you genuinely do) you don’t.

If you want to claim a song for any reason, your best bet is to do so when you have made considerable progress on its chart. Having a semi-cleaned draft of your chart’s patterns done prior to posting is ideal.

If you would prefer to tease a chart without bloating the forum channel, consider making a post in the #charting-discussion channel instead. Even if you do this, still try to make considerable progress with your chart first.

Charting Previously-Charted Songs

At some point in your charting experience, you may find that a song you wish to chart has already been charted by someone in the past. While the point of claiming songs is to dissuade or avoid this, multiple people charting the same song is typically a sign of a healthy charting community. Furthermore, (in nearly all instances) no singular charter owns the rights to a song; if one person can chart a song, then another person can go through the same process with that song and also be able to chart it.

Multiple charts of the same song can create bloat, especially when few charts exist. It’s best to do something with your chart that the original chart did not:

The original chart is old and no longer reflective of current XDRV charting standards.
- This can include charts that do not receive a leaderboard.
You want to take your chart beyond the scale of the original (by multidiffing, adding mods, charting a song’s full version).
The original chart is not controller friendly, and you want to make a controller friendly chart of the song (or vice versa).

Referencing Other Customs

At some point in your charting experience, you may want to reference another charter’s chart files, mod files, or other media made for XDRV. Not only is this completely okay to do, but it is generally a great way to learn. Copying helper functions can also be helpful, though you should be careful as to not copy helper functions too specific to one chart–that may look like plagiarism to the original charter and outside players.

Other Good Practices

Listed in no particular order, here are other good practices for charting and contributing charts in the community server:

Attribute song and jacket artists as thoroughly and accurately as possible.
Add proper metadata to your charts. For instance, if your song comes from a different game or property, fill in MUSIC_CREDIT. If your song is a shortened version of a longer song, fill in SUBTITLE.
Do not share low-quality charts solely for the purpose of being low quality, especially if the song being used was not made in a similar nature.
If a piece of media is obscenely offensive or harmful, do not share a chart containing it on the community Discord.
Do not share content on the Discord that you do not have permission to chart (see Getting Song Perms).
Do not use AI-generated media in your charts.

With time, the XDRV community will evolve, taking on new charters of different interests and norms. While following the guidelines here will allow you to contribute positively to the XDRV charting community, the best way to familiarize yourself with and become a part of the community is to be active. Consider answering questions in #charting-discussion, posting feedback and scoreposts under individual forum posts, and even interacting with base-game XDRV.