There used to be a big thread for handling mod requests. It had its pros and cons.
The only other thing I remember was when content mods were added (I'm not sure it's even a thing anymore). Some content mods pushed sweeping changes to leaderboard rules that got reverted.
That's probably all there is pre elo that I can think of that was relevant.
Seems to have only gotten worse since elo took over but it had its issues before as well so idk
Sealand flag isn't an option last I checked, so I picked the next worst thing.
Dark Alliance Any% can be pretty confusing. A lot of goofy WW setups and loading screens that make it hard to track what is happening.
It depends on the game but browser based emulators are pretty bad and most likely won't offer the tools all leaderboards (should) require for verification. Such as frame count, input reader, etc.
Is it unnecessary if OPs problem hasn't been solved and they have a solution? After all if someone has the same problem they could land on this forum post and see a potential solution now.
The purpose of the non-game forums is to allow a broad range of discussion. Most of the real posts (presumably real) are from people asking questions on how to get started. They won't have a verified run in that situation. As far as bots are concerned, you'll just end up flooding boards that don't require proof, or, have auto verification setup so that bots can spam. This is not a preferred solution to the problem.
The bots at least make the forums interesting to look at. Otherwise it's just the same 5-10 people posting in the same spam thread(s) everyday.