Site Rules

General

  • Users under the age of 13 should not use Speedrun.com
  • Users need to follow applicable local, state, national, and international laws when using the site.
  • The site does not host, distribute, or allow illegal distribution of commercially owned games or ROMs.
  • The preferred formatting of Speedrun.com is in upper case. SRC is the preferred abbreviation.

Site Bans

The following are examples of bannable behavior. It is by no means an exhaustive or complete list.

  • Account impersonation
  • Staff impersonation
  • Spam and/or advertising
  • Ban evasion
  • Splicing and/or faking/falsifying runs for any reason
  • Abuse of moderator privileges, such as vandalizing game pages
  • Use of slurs or hateful language
  • Excessive violation of the general site forum rules.

In addition, while we are not seeking to police people's Twitch, Twitter, Discord, and other social medias, we may issue bans for the following regardless of if it is on-site or off-site conduct. As with the above list, this is by no means exhaustive.

  • Physical threats
  • Excessive criminal behavior or threats of criminal behavior
  • Excessive harassment
  • Blackmail
  • Posting or seeking personal information (doxxing)

You are permitted to have exactly one account on the site. Alternate accounts will be banned.

The site uses an automatic spam detection tool on forum posts. Every once in a while the spam detection will mistakenly ban a newer user for making a post it thinks is spam. The action by the spam detection tool is logged, so if you think you were mistakenly caught by the spam detection, contact an admin or full mod and they can unban you.

Forums

  • Site posts should generally be kept PG-13.
  • Do not post pirated commercially owned games or ROMs or links to those games or ROMs anywhere on the site.
  • Political and religious discussions are prohibited.
  • Hate speech and harassment will not be tolerated.
  • If site staff feels it necessary, forum posting privileges may be revoked.
  • "Multi-posting" (making multiple posts in a row in the same thread) is discouraged. Please use the edit button.

Discord Servers Associated With Speedrun.com

  • Discord Servers associated with Speedrun.com game pages are expected to follow Speedrun.com code of conduct. Hate speech and harassment will not be tolerated and may lead to on-site bans.

Message system

  • Accounts must be 7 days old in order to use the message system.
  • The message report system is to be used when dealing with serious and repeated misbehavior or offences. Users dealing with personal harassment, spam or generally any form of unwanted behavior when using the message system are generally advised to use the "Block" option as site staff is not looking to police people's personal messages.
  • Examples of bannable behavior listed in the chapter "Site Bans" of the site rules apply to their fullest when using the message system.

Usernames

  • Usernames should generally be kept PG-13 and not contain problematic words or phrases.
  • Usernames shall not reference usernames of other users, exceptions may be allowed by site staff in rare cases.

Submitting a Run

  • Once you have submitted your run to a game on the site, please wait at least 14 days prior to contacting the moderators of the game regarding your run.
  • Game moderators are generally provided 21 days to handle a run submission. If the game moderators have logged into the site recently, please do not ask site staff prior to this. It is not a requirement for moderators to verify all runs every time they visit the site, we understand people have lives.
  • If submitting multiple run improvements, it is recommended to create a new submission rather than editing an old submission in order to maintain the history of your runs in the database.
  • The time of the run is the time in the video from starting condition to ending condition. It is not the time shown on the timer program, which is started and ended with human error.
  • If used, the video field must contain a video of the run. The video field may not contain an image. Relevant images may be linked in the comments of a run.
  • If your run features multiple videos (due to video length/file-size restrictions, providing alternative links, or other reasons), additional videos may be linked in the comments of the run as well.
  • The video must be of a reasonable enough viewing quality to see everything going on in the game.
  • It is highly recommended to record with game audio, and some boards may require this.
  • Intentionally submitting falsified runs is prohibited. This includes attempts to "test" moderators, which will likely get you banned.
  • Runs featuring inappropriate video or images on the side or highly offensive/slanderous audio may be rejected.
  • Run submission comments shall not slander users or moderators.

It is always recommended to locally record even if streaming. The stream connection may drop. Streaming services may mute portions of the audio. Streaming services have lost or broken videos multiple times over the years. Having a local recording is highly recommended to preserve your run.

General Gameplay Rules

The following examples are things generally considered cheating and not allowed for runs. Note that some games may allow things on this list - if it is explicitly stated in the game or category rules that it's allowed, then it's fine for that game or category.

  • Turbo controllers or such with non-native functions are disallowed by default unless specified otherwise in a game's rules. (Exception: Turbografx-16, which has native turbo controller support)
  • Segmented runs (runs performed in multiple sittings, often with each segment retried many times until it is made as optimal as possible) are most often disallowed. Communities may in rare cases choose to explicitly track these under a separate category.
  • Splicing a run (copying and pasting parts of different runs together) and presenting it as legitimate is not allowed. This will most often get you banned from the site. Unclear cases may be handled on an individual community basis.
  • Cheat codes are disallowed.
  • Manipulating the game hardware in such a way to affect the console's reading of the game medium is disallowed. A common example of this is "Crooked Cartridge" on the Nintendo 64.
  • Tool-assisted emulator features such as save-states, re-recording, or frame advance are not allowed.
  • Game memory must not be manipulated or monitored with outside tools during runs (For example: Emulator RAM Watch, Cheat Engine). Exceptions can be made on a community basis for convenience. Examples of these conveniences might be item trackers or info HUDs for stream viewers or auto-splitters. These should not include information that would be unknown to the runner.
  • The game itself must not be altered or controlled with outside tools. Exceptions can be made on a community basis (e.g., character creation scripts, logo/cutscene removal dlls, etc.)

Just because something isn't in writing doesn't mean it is allowed. If you are doing something drastically outside of normal expectations for a game category, it is recommended to contact a moderator to clarify if it is allowed.

Moderation Requests

  • Moderation requests are to be first directed towards the game's current moderators. Most games are not looking to add moderators that are not well-known to the community.
  • Moderators are considered inactive if they have not logged on or verified a pending run in at least 21 days. In the case of inactive game moderators, please attempt to contact them via social media to resolve the situation.
  • Site staff will most often need to see a pending run by you to make a moderation change for inactivity.
  • If a game's moderators are highly inactive (have not logged on in three or more months) and not responding to off-site contact, and you have a run already on the boards, you may request moderation of the game without a pending run. Accepting these requests are at the discretion of site staff.
  • If your account is less than 30 days old, your request may not be fulfilled.
  • All moderation change requests are accepted or denied at the discretion of site staff.
  • Moderation change requests may be made in the Support Hub.
  • Full Moderation Rules can be found here.