It's always been that way, unfortunately.
Not exclusive to this website or trackmania, for that matter.
The way I got attention back in TMO days was very hamfisted (and I don't recommend it, because I was 13 at the time). All I did was hound people to play my maps online, and hounded them even further to award them if they enjoyed the maps lol. If you ever see popgun, faith, or pitstep (god knows where these people are now), they can tell you all about it. Once I had that first map in the BOTW, then attention came easily from that point forward, and I could just focus on getting better.
That said, some much more talented mappers than myself got attention merely by uploading maps and nothing more (panis and knuckles. come to mind).
Thankfully because a lot less people play the game now, there's a lot less competition, so it's a lot easier to get attention than it was probably a few years ago. You would have to be genuinely amazing and very consistent (e.g. winter and freak) if you wanted to get attention back then.
Best of luck to you.
Last edited by irondragons,