Hi there! As a workaround for the currently insufficient platform selection options I've added an extra variable to the leaderboards on speedrun.com/sml2. The background is that I think it should be mandatory to specify the emulator during submission if you used one - mainly to make moderation easier, but also to add valuable information. The problem about doing this with an extra variable is, well, I guess it's just not intended to be used for something like this. It has the nasty effect that the variable shows up as some kind of category in the run overview of a user. Example: It is also not possible, as far as I can see, to change the position of the extra column on the leaderboards. Having extra variables is a good workaround for current shortcomings of the site, but I understand that it probably wasn't intended for this. So here's my suggestion for increasing the usability for extra variables: Would it be possible to simply hide the extra variable from everywhere except the page of the individual submission?

And on a more general note: is a revision of how the site handles platforms on your to-do list? Right now it is not clear whether the platform variable is meant to indicate the systems with an official release of a game or platforms that speedruns are performed on. Currently, it's a weird hybrid that doesn't serve either purpose sufficiently.

Anyone? This seems like an easy fix to me. And it would help the moderation issue I mentioned in http://www.speedrun.com/The_Site/thread/ql9tb a lot already.

We had actually conceptualized something like this a long time ago, with non-prioritized variables and purely optional variables (such as what type of controller you played on for example). At this point, restructuring the site to handle these types of things appropriately may or may not be difficult. The others would have to comment. Getting the implementation generic enough is the difficult part.

The platforms variable is certainly ambiguous. I'd prefer if we had one thing indicating release console and another with method of play, but it's not trivial to restructure the site to support this.