Hello everyone. After talking a lot with @AlphaTempAlphaTemp we came out with the following ruleset for Normal Mode:

(Every line after a "-" is how the ruleset will look like, and every line in brackets "[ ]" are comments about why we want that ruleset)

Timing method
- Timer starts at the first frame the player gets control over Mario.

- The Status Line has to be active at the start of Level 1.

[This is the same frame where the Status Line shows on the screen, see here: https:/​/​drive.​google.​com/​file/​d/​18R5YDpUNOjHZRj0Z_8QkmLendraDthBg/​view?usp=sharing]
[Because of this, every run has to have the Status Line active and visible at least at the start of Level 1 to be valid]
[Even while the autosplitter can do all this for you, we as moderators need a consistent way to retime runs in case someone is not using the autosplitter (and for old runs)]
[If you don't have the Status Line active, you can activate it from the options menu or press the "S" Key while playing]

- Timer ends at the first frame the player loses control over Mario.

[This happens one frame before you see Mario a couple pixels inside the final pipe of Level 6, see here: https:/​/​drive.​google.​com/​file/​d/​1rHhCjIUmTlcNuSGUanzuiQsT_vus8wAe/​view?usp=sharing]

Emulator Rules
- All runs have to be done on DosBox 0.74.

[This is because this is the most consistent emulator so far. Also, the autosplitter only works with this version of DosBox]

- Use 15.000 cycles in DosBox configuration.

[This is a reasonable value that keeps the game at good speed]

Is everyone alright with 15.000 cycles or do we allow max cycles?

I think 15k is a good value, but max is fine with me.
As for timing, if people don't use LiveSplit, setting the timer to start at -3.4 seconds works just as well.

Then I'll put both as an option in the rules.

My wote goes for max. Seems like this games handle max with no problem.

@sivart0sivart0 just discovered that there's in-game cheat codes.
They go from getting extra lifes to completely skipping levels, so we are banning them for Normal Mode for the health of the leaderboards.