Say, you have an individual level and category, and each category is for each character.
But there's a problem: Not all characters can pass that level, or they play the exact same in this particular level, so you end up with unnecessary clutter of empty categories. This also can happen with fullgame side categories, but it's usually with individual levels.
Presenting: The Category exceptions!
For categories: Click on categories, then the 3 dots next to a level, or fullgame category. There would be a checkbox called "Add exception(s)". Check this box, and a drop-down window will appear for which category you don't want to show on the boards at all. A new button will appear for "Add another exception" and so on.
For variables: Click on the three dots next to a variable, click the "Add exceptions(s)" box. You get an empty space of what variables to type in to exempt. Each variable must have the correct spelling along separated by a comma. If you knock out every variable, the boards will still show times (see exempt all variable options below). If you enter something incorrectly spelled, you will get a "[Variable] not found" warning. Doing either of these options nulls out exempting all variables.
**How you'd exempt all variables! ** This is the case where an individual level plays the exact same with every character, so no distinction needs to be made. You'd go into categories, individual levels, click the 3 dots and hit a checkbox to exempt all variables. This will bring all runs from every category of this single IL all into one - along removing the character label. Doing this option nulls out individual exceptions, of course. For variables, you may need to be more specific.
If you try to exempt values with existing run entries, a big warning should appear (as I'm sure someone will slip their finger at one point), but it'll be reversable regardless.
I've wanted these features for many, many years. It's the last step to making the leaderboards feel professional for multicharacter speedgames (if we don't count point/total ranking systems, which is a bonus thing to me tbh).
There might be some logical holes (or unnecessary complication) in this suggestion. If so, please let me know.
This sounds like a defensive solution to a problem that speedrun.com has had for years - one or all categories / variables. What you should be able to do instead, is rather than adding a whole new system for exemptions, is allow for a variable to be set to multiple categories but not all, and similar to variables / subcategories. This is the proper way to solve this issue.
I wouldn't be surprised if this is a problem that gets solved once the new backend is programmed in.
Hmm...
It sounds good on paper and probably fine for fullgame, but rather tedious for ILs - where you'll have most levels compatible/unique for each character, bar a few. Hence why I lean towards exceptions rather than custom variables set to multiple categories.
Or maybe I'm misunderstanding it.
Maybe...we can have both? I can see where the situation would arise for either, especially category extension ILs now too.
as far as variables go, this is already possible: if you don't want every level to use the same configuration of variables you have to create a separate variable for every single level and apply it to only that level - obviously not the cleanest solution, which is why i agree with @diggity that the site should just let you be selective with variables/categories instead of being one or all. maybe using a similar UI to the leaderboards' new variable filter menu would work?
Instead of Single Level / All Levels as options for instance, imagine a list of levels with checkboxes where you can individually select each level. Your issue of it being too tedious to select all but a few would be solved by a "select all" button, after which you could deselect appropriately.