To state more clearly one of the points I kind of hinted to in my original reasons: Picking a cutoff time for where we accept video proof is always going to be arbitrary and, in my opinion, could be seen as disrespectful. Once we draw a line about where we consider a run "good enough" to require video proof, we're then calling all times worse than that mark "bad." I think this is disrespectful and possibly discouraging for new runners.

One might say rejecting a run for no video proof could be discouraging, but I disagree. The fact that we're applying the same rules to everybody is inherently inclusive and means nobody gets special treatment (another reason I would prefer if we didn't add times manually, but that's a topic for another time). In addition, whenever I have to reject a run for no video proof, I specifically say that I hope the runner comes back with a new time soon and to contact me if they ever need any assistance or clarification on anything.

TL/DR: Calling some runs "good enough" to require a video means you're calling everything else "bad." Making the same rules apply to everyone puts everyone on an equal playing field.

To note: I have finished those tutorials, I just need to upload the rest, which I'll do soon.

In addition to what Sally's mentioned, I'll clarify about the gummi ship pieces.

The only reason not to use a gun and/or to leave Haste-G on is due to optimal menus. For example, I don't put a gun on until the second gummi menu because then I don't have to move back across the cockpit in the piece selection menu, saving two inputs overall. Gummi menus are all about doing whatever's comfortable for you while still being optimal, so don't worry too much about the pieces.

My feelings on the matter lie with grig and Timmi.

1. Upload speeds don't have to be anywhere near good to be able to stream at a low quality (see sonic and rizz, both of whom stream at under 1Mbps, I believe). 2) They don't have to stream, they can local record and upload to YouTube.

The only game I would even consider not requiring video proof for is DDD.

(Also, what I meant about "technical way" is there are no tools built-in to the site to enforce a video past a certain time.)

Elgato works perfectly fine, it just has a significant delay on capture. I'm not sure of the inputs on the Elgato, so you may need either component cables or an HDMI splitter, as mentioned before.

For capturing standard definition, you'll need any SD capture card like the Dazzle, as well as the standard red, white, yellow cables for the PS3, and 3 A/V splitters if you plan to split the feed to a TV.

For capturing HD, you'll need an HD capture card such as the Avermedia LGP, and either PS3 component cables (if the capture card has component input, like the LGP), or an HDMI splitter that strips HDCP. HDCP is a copyright protection mechanism, so be sure to carefully check the Amazon reviews when purchasing an HDMI splitter, as not all strip HDCP.

I completely agree with Rizz and have stated so publicly before.

As for Pain's topic:

1. Moderators already have to approve every run. I know I, at least, check the video for any runs I verify. I assume the other mods do the same. I do this even for longstanding runners.

2. Making videos optional is something I'd be very against doing for the following reasons:

a) There's no technical way to enforce videos by arbitrary criteria (besides constantly rejecting runs). b) There's no great place to surface a pastebin with our rules around video proof. The rules for individual categories already take up a bunch of space. c) I'm worried people could use a decision like this to try to justify allowing emulators for bad times. The SMS community, to use your example, allow emulator runs. d) How do we determine where the line is for requiring proof? Is it rank-based or time-based? If rank-based, does it change as we get more total runs? If time-based, does it change as strats improve? e) What about edge-cases? People who are a short time past the line are going to beg for exceptions, which makes the mods look like assholes when they have to reject it. f) It is NOT HARD to record a run. I whole-heartedly do NOT believe people who say they "do not have the ability to provide a video"; I assume those people have not done the appropriate research. Ez-cap costs $8. Everyone has at least one computer in their home (and if they don't, odds are they don't have a game console). Can't get an ez-cap for some reason? Potato cam. No webcam? Phone or camcorder. My first runs were done when I didn't have a job and was so broke I was eating peanut butter for every meal. People who say they can't record a video are most likely just lazy.

To Timmi's point: I try to check the "series" forum as often as possible, but there's currently no way to get email notifications for it, so don't hold your breath on all the mods checking them. :/

The old TS server was closed by its owner. A few Discord and TS servers have popped up, but there's no longer any kind of "official" one, so you'd have to chat with the owners of the respective servers.

If that is the case then hold your phone up to a mirror at the beginning and end of the run to show it started and the final time. I highly recommend getting a computer when you can; it'll make your life a lot easier ;)

Yes! A webcam or other form of recording is perfectly acceptable.

DISCLAIMER: I am NOT a BbS runner, nor have I even finished the game, so please verify this info with an actual runner (I recommend SilverGU001 or SonicShadowSilver2, both of whom can be reached on twitter).

I believe the secret episode is only (legitimately) available on critical mode, so beginner all stories does not include it.

But doesn't IGT still include loads? I'm not sure I see the value. I'm assuming the Re:coded one is just there due to an old rule for that game or very inconsistent loads or something. I don't know enough about Re:coded, so I'd probably like Draz to chime in, but if anything I'd probably rather remove IGT from Re:coded rather than add it to different games.

While I'm in favor of more info whenever possible, I think this could confuse people. I'd personally only add IGT to games where it matters much more or is already kept track of. Having RTA & IGT on every game could be very confusing for outsiders looking at the pages. Not to mention, it'll be nearly always empty for some runs like KHFM HD Beginner (since you can't see the post-game stats), which will then just clutter the page. Additionally, the in-game timer only goes to minutes, no?

I guess I just don't see the benefit, as opposed to things like PS3 model that are super easy to add and allow us to look for patterns in speed, or filter by console if desired. :/

Thanks!

If someone could update my account name to simply "JHobz", I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!

Instead of borderlines, slightly different alternating background colors for entire sections could work as well. Like how sites do it when they have really long lists of stuff so you can more easily tell one item from the next.

Oh and ranking appears to be working properly, so thanks!

Since there's been no opposition and it so CLEARLY looks a million times better, I'm moving forward with this on every page.

As the proponent for this feature, I cannot stress enough how much our community greatly appreciates you implementing this (and doing it so quickly)! Take, for example, the screenshots below after we updated the page today: Before: https://gyazo.com/d8c25970ba77f0ddb805183ff4eb30e8 After: https://gyazo.com/ab5ed386520ace360f7ac7509e48a4bc

So once again, a huge congratulations and thank you!

Now, to get down to business, I've found a couple bugs and some nice-to-haves: 1.) Because these subcategories are all still technically the same category, user profile pages don't quite update the run's ranking properly like the game pages do. The last run in this screenshot -- https://gyazo.com/2d001ea16945d6fc342ea07383296a87 -- is listed as 66th place, but is actually 18th within its appropriate subcategory.

2.) "Note that this isn't a huge, complete overhaul of the system, so for example you cannot nest multiple levels of subcategories, but it actually ended up working quite well." Actually, we've found nested levels of subcategories works quite well! Obviously they're not TRULY nested (they all apply to the top-level category), but I imagine that is a very limited use case anyways. Of course it's probably still a decent nice-to-have for somebody out there.

3.) Moving runs is a pain, but I also understand that it would be very hard to implement a batch editing system, so it's a small price to pay for having much cleaner pages. That being said, a way to see all runs for a category for admin purposes would be very useful. We found when moving stuff that it was quite easy to get confused by obsolete runs or runs that were lingering on the main category but with no subcategories. Granted, this was our mistake initially by not setting a default to all runs before refactoring categories, but it would still be nice to be able to see all the "hidden" runs in a category in order to reject duplicates. Earlier today I had to do this manually in the Javascript console by setting the subcategory variable to 0 and re-running leaderboardUpdate() (or whatever the method was).

3a.) As I mentioned, obsolete runs are a bit obnoxious, as when you move the user's PB from one category to another, their previous obsolete run will then show up as their new PB. Not a big deal because you can either move the obsolete run over too or leave it in the category to be deleted, but it can be a bit confusing at first.

All in all, I definitely didn't mind spending the 5 hours today setting up our biggest page with subcategories, as it was an incredibly useful use of my time. :)

@Silver & @Timmi: This would be in addition to the other thread. Games would still be split out into their JP, EN, and HD counterparts. On top of that, each game would have the difficulties/characters as subcategories.

@Timmi: You're somewhat correct in that people's splits shouldn't really matter for the leaderboards, but since you can submit to speedrun.com straight from LiveSplit, we should try to make the changes as clear as possible and minimize impact. Additionally, to load the proper WR with the WR component, you'll need your splits set up properly.

@pain & @Timmi: This has nothing to do with splits.io. The only split integration I meant was the speedrun.com integration on it.

@All: Fuck it looks like the "email for new forum posts" functionality is not working...

Hey all,

So I've got a proposition that will seem pretty radical at first but really just changes the way we think about categories. Lighnat0r (one of the creators of speedrun.com) has been gracious enough to develop a "use variable as subcategory" feature for us. This means we can define our own variables (like character, difficulty, etc.) and use them just like subcategories. With that in mind, I'd like to propose the following changes (and will act on them soon, but starting with the WIP games to give people time to comment):

1. Simplify all Beginner categories to remove difficulty and character - e.g. Any% (Beginner) -> Any%
2. Add character and difficulty variables to each category
3. Edit all times to update category & variables (yaaaaaay...)
4. Try to educate people on how to properly set up their splits in LiveSplit (it'll be a bit different now)

So these changes LOOK pretty radical, but overall it's really not a big change. It just means instead of thinking of Any% (Beginner) as its own category, we now just have to think of it as a subcategory of Any%. This will DRASTICALLY improve our speedrun.com pages and put us more in line with other games that only have a few categories like Any% or Any% (No OoB).

Thoughts?