I've just experienced this glitch a couple of times by skipping one of the two switches at the begginng of a map, and result in a crash stating Null Area link, is there any way to prevent this from happening?
Once again I have dredged through the dark and frankly terrifying mire that is my memory to recall previous conversations as to why this wasn't fixed years ago.
i) since it couldn't be fixed in QdQStats and would need hard modification to one of the game's components it shouldn't be done. But since most people play with hacked maps anyway these days...
ii) the map sources weren't available and the various decompilers and never perfect.
iii) the temptation would be too great to add a few things to the map. Extra monsters, a jacuzzi, some cheese, a large picture of my genitals, etc, etc
That's fine and all, but if you think about it, it also is not fair in terms of speedrunning! We can't change the conditions of the game after 13 years only because it's easily possible.
Edit: Also, try playing on any skill other than 0 (for example 3) and you won't need to shoot the second button at all.
Following up on Mandel's reply, it's definitely not fair to fix it in regards of speedrunning. The way Jozsef fixed it in JoeQuake is sufficient enough.