Many were created for specific use in one of my maps; in effect it would be sharing a chunk of one of my maps rather than something intended for standalone use.
I expect them to be rather seriously misused by most, the same way many other custom item - or even standard BEE - packages are, with people thinking spamming unique items makes for a good test, and giving the package (or BEE) an undeserved bad reputation for "that thing crappy maps use".
Many are not fully implemented, in that they work in the map but often not as a proper BEE item. For example, most of the setpieces used in Natural Light use the cube colorizer editor model.
PUZZLE DESIGN
"I don't agree with your difficulty ratings."
Difficulty is very subjective, and my ratings are merely estimations. I base them on the total number of steps, how common-knowledge those steps seem to be, the number of things the player needs to mentally track, and whether it is feasible to just keep trying random things until finding the solution. Where I have significant feedback - a very rare occurrence - that is also taken into account. Additionally, my difficulty rankings are relative, indicating where it lies among my typical range; others make far more difficult or easy puzzles than I ever have, but those are not part of my scale. This scale is also somewhat variable by year; overall, my puzzles have gotten harder over the years, so a level-5 difficulty puzzle in 2015 is probably more like a level 3 or 4 for my recent years. Finally, in general, puzzles, in Portal or otherwise, rely on moments of insight, and such moments might instantly come to one player and literally never to another; in a very real sense, every player experiences a different difficulty level.
"Why do you say X move is (il)legitimate? I do (not)/would never use it!"
I specifically described moves as (il)legitimate for the purposes of my maps, in terms of moves I would ever choose to make part of a solution (and generally prefer to see in others' maps). Aside from blatant bug exploiting and ninja moves - both of which I feel are extremely clearly against the spirit of the game - I have no stake in what moves you use in yours. Similarly, if you consider one of the moves I use(d) to be illegitimate, that is your perogative.
"I hate custom elements, because they are gimmicky. Why are you using them?"
I rarely use custom elements, as I too feel that many of them, or several in a specific level, feel just that - gimmicky. However, some elements are straightforward extensions or combinations of vanilla elements, and are often so clear that even unexperienced players will likely be able to readily grasp them. This includes my most-commonly-used custom element, the Death Fizzler, which is merely two vanilla fizzlers in the same space. Other elements are used sporadically, often because they are what the solution lent itself to, such as the inquisition fields in Redshift, the conductive plate in Organized Chaos, or the reflection gel in Intermittent Freedom. These are not complicated elements, and I only used them sparingly as was necessity. I do not, and likely never will, use elements like most custom fizzlers, the futbol, or even energy pellets (though that last one is more because I hate those damn things).
COMMENTARY
"Bleh, BEEMod/PeTI. Learn Hammer lol."
Hammer is far more powerful, sure, but it is also far more difficult and time-consuming, and far more prone to error as even simplistic things like an antline connection have a great many fiddly pieces that may be done incorrectly. I have neither the time nor the patience for this, and I have little to no functional need for that level of control and manipulation; I like how my maps look, as do most people who comment on them. In other words, I get something like 80% of the value of full Hammerization with maybe 20% of the work. This means it is not worth the additional effort, so I will continue to use Hammer in a limited capacity to make custom objects, but not for the level outright.
"Everyone knows you should not mix PeTI and Hammer, and yet you do."
The thing people say not to do is not mixing them per se, it is exporting PeTI/BEE maps and then opening the result in hammer to edit further, and exporting and publishing that. That is bad because of the fairly messy map file it creates, with a lot of incomplete or inefficient geometry and logic. I do not do that, only make hammer things I put in PeTI/BEE maps, no different than any other hammer-made item (like 99% of the BEE packages).
"Why do you waste time on styling? Puzzle is all that matters."
While good visuals may not save a crap puzzle, they will improve the experience of even a decent, let alone good puzzle. Not only can a decent but not terribly innovative puzzle become much more enjoyable with custom visuals, they will make a well-designed puzzle both much more well-received and much more memorable. Indeed, even the best pure-PeTI clean-style puzzles are often soon forgotten, if for nothing else than the sheer number of them and puzzles that look like them; striking visuals (on top of a good puzzle) are often the only way to leave a lasting impact in someone's memory.
