1. What is your play style like nowadays?
Apart from changing from keyboard to mouse, very little has changed. I move through a map with the primary intention of killing everything on my way to the exit. But I will rarely go back looking for a monster I missed.

2. Are you in a hurry to finish the map?
Not especially so. I will always replay sections if I die in a difficult (but not impossible) fight.

3. Do you pause to explore and find every nook and cranny?
If I can see a route that appears to be deliberate but not essential e.g. a climb away from the obvious path, I will go after it. But I am mainly after dead monsters and exits.

4. Do you feel you have to find every secret?
If I can see a secret that appears to have a climbing solution, I will go after it. Other than that I keep my eyes open with secrets in mind but do not obsees for not finding them. I see them as a bonus, not a purpose. So, megahealth in a caged area will not keep me interested for long. Equally, I will not linger on pixel-perfect jumping secrets.

5. Are you put off by certain monster (horde) setups?
Mixed monster hordes that do not infight, for whatever reason, I may be tempted to run away from and come backlater if I can snipe them. But 'He who is battle slain, Can never rise to fight again'.

6. Do you want giant maps to explore and be lost in?
I enjoy big maps but it is essential that I cannot get lost. I never try to 'learn' a map. Too many circular routes, especially in a large map of few textures or without obvious location markers, do tend to bore me very quickly. I want a large map with a fairly obvious 'right' route.

7. Do you want a quick 15 min blast and that is enough?
No; I want good gameplay, enough ammo, and about 30 minutes at my pace (whatever that is).

8. Do you play the same map again with different skill levels?
Never. I open all maps at their default skill level, and I expect all maps to have monsters - do I remember one recently that had no monsters on easy? A map without monsters is simply not Quake.

9. What drives you to give feedback to map authors?
A difficult one: because I mapped for my own selfish pleasure, I tend to think others do the same. I have responded in the past, but it is not common practice for me and there needs to have been something fairly special about the map.

I thought this question was interesting enough to warrant some thought about my answers, and therefore here is some feedback from an ex-mapper, now just an occasional player. 

I don't play a lot of Quake anymore but I do sometimes bust it out on those rare occasions where i just want to shoot stuff.

1: My playstyle is casual, loose, just shoot some monsters and jump in the lava or whatever, see how fast I can jump, just have some fun really. Nothing competitive or obsessive.

2: No,

3: No.

4: Definitely not. I expect a map to be playable without finding any secrets.

5. Yes, anything that gets repetitive or grating, having to kill 500 grunts that all take pot shots at me and no med packs in sight is no fun. I prefer fewer but more well thought out encounters. Use the environment, lifts, windtunnels, monsterjumps, verticality, prison bars, even the odd monster closet. If gameplay starts to turn into a slog, I'll just quit. I lost the urge to punish myself.

6: Not really, I want maps that do something cool and entertaining gameplay wise. Huge cavernous structures with random hordes running around like ants are off-putting. Small, clever, polished maps with dense atmosphere that doesn't get in the way are preferred.

7: Sure, why not.

8: Not normally, except in the case of the vanilla quake maps. Most custom maps are far too challenging for me, to the point where it feels abusive and grating and that's why I mostly don't bother anymore. I feel they are made for the hardcore audience these days. So usually I just load up vanilla Quake because I prefer the gameplay.

9: The author being a nice guy, kindly requesting feedback from me personally and the map not pissing me off.

These days I also value youtube videos or gameplay trailers before I install anything. More people should do that.