1. When a mapper is learning to map, and indeed learning to make a good map, they shouldn't publicly release a map until they've made a good quality map. When they make test maps to learn mapping, or to try to make a proper map, those maps should be kept on their hard drive, or perhaps privately released to acquaintances and more experienced mappers for testing and feedback, until they manage to make a good map - the good map is the first one they should publicly release.
2. Being a first time mapper is no excuse whatsoever for releasing a bad quality map. Some mappers mistakenly think it is, and try to make such excuses in their texts - sorry, but that excuse simply isn't acceptable. Firstly, the reason above, bad quality maps that one makes while learning to map should be kept on the hard drive until a good quality map is achieved. Secondly, there are plenty of people, from all genres of mapping, who have released good quality maps as their first released maps, some of these have indeed been excellent maps.
Is the entire Quake modding scene this hostile to newbies or is it just this one dude?
This attitude may have made sense back in 2001 when Quake was only about five years old and you could presumably get your friends to check out your first attempts at levels when you hauled your computers into one room for bi-weekly LAN party but when we're talking about a thirty-year-old game I somehow suspect most of your friends are gonna be playing something slightly newer most of the time.
In my experience the quake mapping community is very welcoming to new mappers.
There are a had full of quake mapping discord channels where new and old mappers are sharing screenshots very regularly, tips and where you can ask for feedback and play-testing.
For anyone interested in what quake mapping is like these days, I can recommend the latest mapping jam "Quake Brutalist Jam III (QBJ3)". I believe there are a bunch of mappers releasing for the first time for this map pack.
EDIT: I looked into it and it seems the article is first captured around 2006, at that time the Quake scene was perhaps less welcoming to new mappers or maps of low quality.
It's not later than 2001 since the dude closed the site on "Sunday 25th November 2001 ". I used to frequent it all the time back in 2000~2001 since it was the only SP review site still being updated. He was notorously grumpy.
Here's what he posted when shutting down the site:
Site closed.
This site is now closed. This is because I haven't enjoyed reviewing at the site
for about 9 months, and because I am no longer interested in supporting the Quake
mapping scene. My email address is also closed. The current content will remain
here as an archive.
IIRC, at the time, it was considered wasteful and annoying to download smoeone's WIP, half-assed map because bandwidth was a big issue, and these files (wads? paks? can't remember exactly) were hefty.
2. Being a first time mapper is no excuse whatsoever for releasing a bad quality map. Some mappers mistakenly think it is, and try to make such excuses in their texts - sorry, but that excuse simply isn't acceptable. Firstly, the reason above, bad quality maps that one makes while learning to map should be kept on the hard drive until a good quality map is achieved. Secondly, there are plenty of people, from all genres of mapping, who have released good quality maps as their first released maps, some of these have indeed been excellent maps.
Is the entire Quake modding scene this hostile to newbies or is it just this one dude?
This attitude may have made sense back in 2001 when Quake was only about five years old and you could presumably get your friends to check out your first attempts at levels when you hauled your computers into one room for bi-weekly LAN party but when we're talking about a thirty-year-old game I somehow suspect most of your friends are gonna be playing something slightly newer most of the time.