phlemhacker, I don't see how he was ranting on his awesomeness. He generally speaks the truth though. If you want your map to be taken seriously, it needs 1 ramp, any other ramps should be initially blocked by rocks.
I am, by no means, an authority with melee maps, but it's a basic principle.
And if you changed it as such, I don't see what the bickering is about.

I made some changes, I left the ramps as is. I just hate how ridiculously formulaic this place is about melee maps, especially about a game that hasn't come out yet. If every map has the same basic layout, the games get boring and the strategies stagnant. Having different layouts would keep the game fresh and entertaining. God forbid your one ramp platinum strategy doesn't work on a map with more than one ramp.

Throwing players into new situations, in my opinion, would be a very good test of skill and improvisation. On the other hand it may frustrate the players completely and might prove to be a non-viable melee map. Nevertheless, when we start seeing player made Melee maps on B.net, we'll get to see how the community reacts to situations like this. Until then, please try to not make such harsh judgments.

I'd just like to point out that there is no certain formula for a map. You could make two ramp bases on a large map, but people usually dislike that. You're right. We won't know if there will ever be a balanced two ramp'd map if we don't ever try. (Still, doubtful. Seeing as the game mechanics don't deviate far away from SC1.) Plus, you really shouldn't talk about how formulaic games get boring. SC1 was the most formulaic game ever out on the industry, and was, no- is still popular.

But as I was saying, it's highly doubtful that double open ramps will ever be balanced.

The way I see it, it's not a bad thing that the map favors a certain style of play. Maybe this map favors terrain-walking abilities. At first glace that might seem to give the zerg a disadvantage, but when you consider that the zerg might have a better way of countering these terrain walkers, then it might actually wind up giving the zerg an advantage and balance it out. However, that being said, it could favor either too much and wind up unbalancing the map, which is very easy. You have to consider the entire map. One ramp could be unbalanced if the rest of the map favored a certain playstyle, two ramps could be balanced if the whole map favored a different playstyle. They can both be balanced, but they much more easily become unbalanced.

I like the second one a lot, especially since it forces the high expansion a lot, but puts whoever has it at a gigantic risk, considering how close they both are to the other player's main, and how easy it would be to access those.

All in all, they both seem to favor rush strategies a lot. That's just my opinion from first glance.

So...

Different game = different mechanics.

Different mechanics = don't exist?

I don't see how that's possible. What league are you in? Get to Plat and play a few games (placement matches are easy as heck to win with cheese), and then you'll realize some of the critical elements of a map. "Unconventional" is usually "imbalanced", so you're better off following the norm rather than trying to hit the rare case of balance in weirdness.