New Rules (read first post for new changes)

2008-03-29 08:17:48 pm

Yes, a cucco riding the ground.

Quote:

When recording a run on a Snes, if i fail and just hit the reset button(or turn it off and on again to quickly) it takes me straight to the title screen, is this allowed or must the company logos and the like be recorded?

That is allowed.

DJGrenola

2008-03-29 08:40:41 pm

guffaw

Quote:

yeah, we need the title for the screenshot on the game page.

so unfair

Essentia

2008-03-29 09:10:06 pm

Everything's better with Magitek

Hmm, I didn't start recording from the title screen on my FF3/6 run. If I had, you would have had to sit through about 3 minutes of stuff before I even started the run. (I started recording in the same spot as the previous FF6 run.)

Veritate

2008-03-29 09:45:05 pm

Quote:

i agree. i also never understood save penalties either.

Same here.

YautjaElder

Edit history:

YautjaElder: 2008-03-29 10:05:31 pm

2008-03-29 10:05:11 pm

Speed is the key.

I agree about not making savewarping a different category.

Since we started to allow savewarping, exactly how many runs have there been that haven't used it, when they could have? I'm pretty damn sure the answer is zero.

ZFG

Edit history:

ZFG: 2008-03-30 09:42:40 pm

2008-03-29 10:43:18 pm

MrGrunz is a guay

Finally, the OoB rule is gone for good :D.

Hattori HANZo

2008-03-29 10:49:47 pm

contraddicted

Quote:

Don't you need to have frame perfect input to do that, or does this device simply change the RAM address on the fly?

Nope, not needed.
The MK1 and the MK3 I owned both had a three way switch: On, Off, Enter Gui on reset.
During the game you could turn it on and off and it instantly changed the adresses' values ot stopped keeping their state. You could e.g. use a cheat fixing your health in Super Metroid, turn it off while mother brain used her rainbow beam and turn it on again afterwards.

trihex

2008-03-29 11:01:18 pm

Yoshi's eggs are at my mercy!

One small rule I didn't expect in there at all in the revision:

Quote:

There was a new run on a separate category and it looks much better than my run. Can I have my run removed?
Of course! It's your choice whether or not you still want your run to be posted. Just ask Enhasa.

Yay!! I was worried about when I got around to producing a Sly Cooper 1 any% run along with a better structured Master Theif Sprint IL table that my, by comparison, lackluster, not-up-to-trihex-quality 41 segment run would still be on the page wasting space.

I'll be glad to be allowed to nuke the run fron SDA's pages later this year! Cheesy

mikwuyma

Edit history:

mikwuyma: 2008-03-30 12:10:50 am

2008-03-30 12:06:30 am

My feelings on The Demon Rush

Manocheese: I fixed the errors you pointed out in the faq. I'll revise the video proof section of the rules later when I'm not feeling so lazy.

ZFG: Don't you mean OoB is here to stay?

Tri.Hex: I figured run removal should be explicitly stated since we've done it before (frezy's PAL smb 1 full run, Mega Man 8).

One note about title screens. You don't need to record the title screen if the game page already has a title screenshot.

Ifrit

2008-03-30 12:08:26 am

yep. i told them to replace my run of mm8 with the pal version. it was slower but really faster...

Axel Ryman

2008-03-30 12:13:14 am

We all scream for Eyes Cream

I think under what to use for recording, you should list not to use a Gamebridge(Or use the program that it comes with, cause from what I've seen VirtualDub looks EXCELLENT, with it).

mikwuyma

2008-03-30 12:41:18 am

My feelings on The Demon Rush

Axel: Try posting a sample using a Gamebridge with virtualdub in tech support.

Axel Ryman

2008-03-30 12:47:42 am

We all scream for Eyes Cream

I plan on it monday(Can't from home, it would take too long).

D A P

2008-03-30 01:37:02 am

Quote:

you know what would've been nice? i think this announcement should have waited a few more days. it would've been an awesome April Fools prank.

SDA is no joke!

Pootrain

2008-03-30 03:00:25 am

train kept rollin

I was thinking, shouldnt the rules say some thing about using scripts/macros in pc runs?

andrewg

Edit history:

andrewg: 2008-03-30 04:46:28 am

2008-03-30 04:45:11 am

Hi! I'm andrewg!

Quote:

Do you know something that I don't? 'Cause AFAIK pausing just damages your time. Don't know about bathroom breaks, though. Or games' timers that do not count the pause time.

So, assuming I'm not wrong, one would be stating the obvious and thus, wasting time.

Don't you need to have frame perfect input to do that, or does this device simply change the RAM address on the fly?

There are many games that pausing helps to save time, such as in megaman continually pressing start will cause megaman to stay in the air longer, although that's not like a pause, but I know of at least one game where pausing it slightly benefits your time. Wink

Enhasa

Edit history:

Enhasa: 2008-03-31 02:16:36 am

2008-03-30 06:56:42 am

everybody wanna tell you the meaning of music

MTGjumper: Nobody I talked to can understand your question. Does "this" mean "requiring real name" or "not requiring real name"? Does "fake name" mean pseudonym?

Well on the issue itself, and not your post, I don't think the real name thing is a problem since anyone who really doesn't want their name up and is half clever could just submit a fake name and we would never know. I didn't want to come out and say it, but it's true. I don't think I should explicitly suggest that in the rules though. The vast majority of people do abide by this rule though (because why not), so there is a benefit that it looks more legitimate. I mean, you can fake your name in real life too, we can't control everything.

dexter: Yes, but there are actually very few runs to which this applies. DJ's secret worlds is the only one I can think of actually. (Zelda OOT is slower anyway and stanski is redoing Oil Ocean anyway.) The reason is that most any potential OOB runs before were aborted in the womb, so to speak, and never got "born" as submitted runs.

Archer: Pausing to go to the bathroom or calm down or whatever is like submitting with a fake name. Sure you could do it, and there's no way we could tell, but that doesn't mean we should encourage it in the rules. ~~Is this a clear enough answer or would you like more clarity (I don't think it's worth putting in the FAQ)?~~

Manually timed runs, it counts against you. Runs with a timer where the timer doesn't pause with you, counts against you. Segmented, you shouldn't be pausing. SS runs with a timer that pauses with you, I guess you could pause and game the system. But why? It's not like much of a benefit or anything. Ah screw it, I'll add a FAQ for it. Tongue

petrie: I agree 100%. Actually, we agreed to change this, and I thought I rewrote that, but for some reason (I blame our total lack of editing and synchronization control!) the "save warping is a different category" is still there.

About death warping, the reason why death abuse as a separate category is in there, is not because of death warping. I think most people would agree that death warping to avoid walking back in Bomberman 64 is fine, but suiciding to refill your ammo in Metal Slug is lame. I mean, I dunno though, what do you think? It is strategic and creative after all. I am a G.Rev and Raizing fan so I actually enjoy strategic suiciding, and yes only 2 or so people reading this will get that.

Actually I'm talking to Mike now. He is EXTREMELY against it for something like Contra or Metal Slug, but is fine with death abuse otherwise. Sooo, I guess we can actually change that too.

Satoryu: The save penalty is "to discourage someone from potentially using thousands of segments in a run." Do you disagree with this, and you would like to see a run with 5000 autosaves? Not a confrontational question. The 1/2 sec autosave penalty thing was actually the most debated (really, only debated) change we considered. I was slightly in favor of removing, Mike was slightly against removing, but he is the judge and timer so I cede to him. I asked some PC runners what they thought, and reaction was basically completely mixed (some definitely remove, definitely keep, and don't care).

My argument for removing was that it is wack/unintuitive/complicated, and it doesn't really stop people from massively segmenting anyway since 1/2 sec is so little (it should be more like 5 secs), and just like OOB being really just for LTTP, 1/2 sec is really just for Half Life. But dex has a good reply that the 1/2 sec penalty is actually genius because it is another consideration for runners to see how much they want to optimize vs incurring penalty, and 1/2 is high enough to prevent 5000 segments, yet low enough that most people won't be upset by the penalty time added to their run.

Molotov: After being totally confused and nobody could figure out what you meant in #1, nate came to the rescue and pointed out you were talking about frame 20 as in picture frame 20. Tongue

Manocheese: Good catches. About the video proof part, actually some runs on the site already fail that, so I just nuked the line. We already reserve the right to require video of the runner anyway. I'll just change "title screen" to "start" and put the title screen requirement for new games into submit. Wow, I noticed a couple of your later points before even reading your post.

DJ: That rule was always there, only people didn't always follow it. (In other words, blame Mike for not enforcing it! I'm moving it to submit so it looks like more of a requirement now.) I've had to capture a couple title screens myself. I think maybe one of them was Portal, but anyway, I was lucky I had the games already. I heard from Nate about how you would actually "obtain" a game just to get a screenshot. Wink

Essentia: It's ok, the title screen is just to have a pic, it's not really a verification thing (or else record from power on would make more sense).

Axel: I'm not going to list every single thing you shouldn't do or every single device that sucks. That should be something for posting a sample or asking in tech support anyway.

Pootrain: Good idea. I actually thought of that before but for some reason I didn't bother including it.

MTGjumper: Nobody I talked to can understand your question. Does "this" mean "requiring real name" or "not requiring real name"? Does "fake name" mean pseudonym?

Well on the issue itself, and not your post, I don't think the real name thing is a problem since anyone who really doesn't want their name up and is half clever could just submit a fake name and we would never know. I didn't want to come out and say it, but it's true. I don't think I should explicitly suggest that in the rules though. The vast majority of people do abide by this rule though (because why not), so there is a benefit that it looks more legitimate. I mean, you can fake your name in real life too, we can't control everything.

dexter: Yes, but there are actually very few runs to which this applies. DJ's secret worlds is the only one I can think of actually. (Zelda OOT is slower anyway and stanski is redoing Oil Ocean anyway.) The reason is that most any potential OOB runs before were aborted in the womb, so to speak, and never got "born" as submitted runs.

Archer: Pausing to go to the bathroom or calm down or whatever is like submitting with a fake name. Sure you could do it, and there's no way we could tell, but that doesn't mean we should encourage it in the rules. [s]Is this a clear enough answer or would you like more clarity (I don't think it's worth putting in the FAQ)?[/s]

Manually timed runs, it counts against you. Runs with a timer where the timer doesn't pause with you, counts against you. Segmented, you shouldn't be pausing. SS runs with a timer that pauses with you, I guess you could pause and game the system. But why? It's not like much of a benefit or anything. Ah screw it, I'll add a FAQ for it. :P

petrie: I agree 100%. Actually, we agreed to change this, and I thought I rewrote that, but for some reason (I blame our total lack of editing and synchronization control!) the "save warping is a different category" is still there.

About death warping, the reason why death abuse as a separate category is in there, is not because of death warping. I think most people would agree that death warping to avoid walking back in Bomberman 64 is fine, but suiciding to refill your ammo in Metal Slug is lame. I mean, I dunno though, what do you think? It is strategic and creative after all. I am a G.Rev and Raizing fan so I actually enjoy strategic suiciding, and yes only 2 or so people reading this will get that.

Actually I'm talking to Mike now. He is EXTREMELY against it for something like Contra or Metal Slug, but is fine with death abuse otherwise. Sooo, I guess we can actually change that too.

Satoryu: The save penalty is "to discourage someone from potentially using thousands of segments in a run." Do you disagree with this, and you would like to see a run with 5000 autosaves? Not a confrontational question. The 1/2 sec autosave penalty thing was actually the most debated (really, only debated) change we considered. I was slightly in favor of removing, Mike was slightly against removing, but he is the judge and timer so I cede to him. I asked some PC runners what they thought, and reaction was basically completely mixed (some definitely remove, definitely keep, and don't care).

My argument for removing was that it is wack/unintuitive/complicated, and it doesn't really stop people from massively segmenting anyway since 1/2 sec is so little (it should be more like 5 secs), and just like OOB being really just for LTTP, 1/2 sec is really just for Half Life. But dex has a good reply that the 1/2 sec penalty is actually genius because it is another consideration for runners to see how much they want to optimize vs incurring penalty, and 1/2 is high enough to prevent 5000 segments, yet low enough that most people won't be upset by the penalty time added to their run.

Molotov: After being totally confused and nobody could figure out what you meant in #1, nate came to the rescue and pointed out you were talking about frame 20 as in picture frame 20. :P

Manocheese: Good catches. About the video proof part, actually some runs on the site already fail that, so I just nuked the line. We already reserve the right to require video of the runner anyway. I'll just change "title screen" to "start" and put the title screen requirement for new games into submit. Wow, I noticed a couple of your later points before even reading your post.

DJ: That rule was always there, only people didn't always follow it. (In other words, blame Mike for not enforcing it! I'm moving it to submit so it looks like more of a requirement now.) I've had to capture a couple title screens myself. I think maybe one of them was Portal, but anyway, I was lucky I had the games already. I heard from Nate about how you would actually "obtain" a game just to get a screenshot. ;)

Essentia: It's ok, the title screen is just to have a pic, it's not really a verification thing (or else record from power on would make more sense).

Axel: I'm not going to list every single thing you shouldn't do or every single device that sucks. That should be something for posting a sample or asking in tech support anyway.

Pootrain: Good idea. I actually thought of that before but for some reason I didn't bother including it.

Psonar

2008-03-30 07:52:55 am

Long live SF64!

From the FAQ...

Quote:

[color=yellow]Could you please do a run of game X?[/color]
Most of our runners speedrun for personal reasons and not because someone else wants them to do a run. If you really want to see a particular run, however, feel free to put a bounty on its completion. Naturally, the more money you are willing to place on a bounty, the more attention it will attract. Of course, SDA does not officially endorse these bounties, and transactions will be negotiated solely on a private basis between the runner and the person who offered the bounty.

I found it interesting that the bounties thread was mentioned in this FAQ but not the Speedrun request thread. I guess I can see where linking new visitors to the first post of the request thread could be a bit out of place, but I just figured I'd go ahead and post the concept here for discussion.

While many visitors post nagging requests long before reading the FAQ, it might be nice to mention that there is a place somewhat reserved for making requests or to possibly discover that the request has already been made.

[b]From the FAQ...[/b][quote][i][color=yellow]Could you please do a run of game X?[/i][/color]
Most of our runners speedrun for personal reasons and not because someone else wants them to do a run. If you really want to see a particular run, however, feel free to put a [url=http://speeddemosarchive.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=main;action=display;num=1172435272]bounty [/url] on its completion. Naturally, the more money you are willing to place on a bounty, the more attention it will attract. Of course, SDA does not officially endorse these bounties, and transactions will be negotiated solely on a private basis between the runner and the person who offered the bounty.[/quote]

I found it interesting that the bounties thread was mentioned in this FAQ but not the [url=http://speeddemosarchive.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=sda_site;action=display;num=1109009625]Speedrun request thread[/url].  I guess I can see where linking new visitors to the first post of the request thread could be a bit out of place, but I just figured I'd go ahead and post the concept here for discussion.

While many visitors post nagging requests long before reading the FAQ, it might be nice to mention that there is a place somewhat reserved for making requests or to possibly discover that the request has already been made.

scaryice

2008-03-30 08:58:08 am

Quote:

Always remember that speed is the first and foremost priority; side issues such as entertainment are secondary. You can include a neat trick that costs a second or two, but be warned that verifiers will see this as a negative, not a positive. Someone can beat your run later simply by omitting your time waster. If you waste enough time, the verifiers will reject your run outright. Similarly, if a game lets you skip cutscenes, then you must do so. Unfortunately, some games are poorly designed and don't let you skip cutscenes.

I thought the final sentence in this paragraph was pretty unnecessary.

MortyreR45

(user is banned)

MortyreR45

Edit history:

MortyreR45: 2013-05-27 10:03:54 pm

MortyreR45: 2013-05-27 07:33:22 am

MortyreR45: 2008-03-30 10:25:13 am

2008-03-30 10:23:38 am

I AM FUCKED ANGRY

Rules : #08 - "System modification"

"The only extra hardware that is allowed are modchips and boot disks used for playing imports, and official add-ons. "

---

there gives a BIG Problem , PAL & NTSC Selector on a PSX or PS2 System will not adjust your Screen to fit on TV, also gives some Problems to Record or Capture the Selector GamePlay !

I have try so many Import games NTSC to play on my PAL Systems. Some FMV videos are not correct playable.... and also
have you a problem with the timing and slowdown...

---

The only one way I know is to play Imports on a DC System, there gives not problems..

LLCoolDave

2008-03-30 10:44:57 am

Just a quick note on the history of the save penalty:

The first segmented PC runs to make it to SDA were a couple of Half Life runs in April, May and June 2004 (Hey, people actually BEAT speedruns back then regularly, surprise) followed by my first Jedi Outcast run in August. There's a Single Segment Fallout 2 run in between and some Doom runs that were recorded before, but Half Life and Jedi Outcast pretty much set this rule in stone.

Taken from the submission text on the first Half Life run: "A penalty of 0.5 seconds is added for each demo recorded beyond the first, because the engine seems to skip around 0.2 seconds for each new demo, and to discourage using a large number of demos. This entry was made before the penalty decision was made, so the old time of 55:48 is still in the filenames." The next run in May didn't have its time adjusted so I suppose the decision must have been somewhere in between.

Unfortunately I don't quite remember if I was working on my JO run back then already or not because I vaguely recall noticing that you can move a bit during the blackscreen while loading a save in JO and then people noticing the same with HL Demos, but it could very well been the other way around, I really don't know. I also recall discussing this issue with Radix, and also discussing the penelty amount. In the end we decided on using half a second because it seemed to cover all the inconsistencies with loading. Despite the remark in the submission page, nobody back then ever expected someone to use ultra-heavy-segmenting in a run, and depending on your view on the issue we might have missed a chance back then to stop it altogether by using a bigger save penalty.

In any case, the save penalty was originally included mostly to cover save/load discrepancies so that saving wouldn't allow you to save time by slightly moving during the portion that isn't timed.

The issue with ultra-heavy-segmenting only came up recently with the Half Life Half Hour run that turned out to be a real controversy. Use of clearly inhuman scripts and a never before seen concentration of segments made many people feel that it was closer to being a TAS than a real speedrun. While I have to say that I guess it still barely is on the speedrun side I honestly feel it kind of misses some of the speedrunning spirit because I feel there's somewhat more to it than just getting the fastest time at all cost. In any case, this issue came up when the save penalty had long become a standard, even if some of the games it's applied to don't even suffer from the original issue, and so there's not much we can do about it now. It's either a consistent application or scraping it altogether, although I feel that the quirkyness with quicksaving in some engines makes a savbe penalty unavoidable.

Just a quick note on the history of the save penalty:

The first segmented PC runs to make it to SDA were a couple of Half Life runs in April, May and June 2004 (Hey, people actually BEAT speedruns back then regularly, surprise) followed by my first Jedi Outcast run in August. There's a Single Segment Fallout 2 run in between and some Doom runs that were recorded before, but Half Life and Jedi Outcast pretty much set this rule in stone.

Taken from the submission text on the first Half Life run: "A penalty of 0.5 seconds is added for each demo recorded beyond the first, because the engine seems to skip around 0.2 seconds for each new demo, and to discourage using a large number of demos. This entry was made before the penalty decision was made, so the old time of 55:48 is still in the filenames." The next run in May didn't have its time adjusted so I suppose the decision must have been somewhere in between.

Unfortunately I don't quite remember if I was working on my JO run back then already or not because I vaguely recall noticing that you can move a bit during the blackscreen while loading a save in JO and then people noticing the same with HL Demos, but it could very well been the other way around, I really don't know. I also recall discussing this issue with Radix, and also discussing the penelty amount. In the end we decided on using half a second because it seemed to cover all the inconsistencies with loading. Despite the remark in the submission page, nobody back then ever expected someone to use ultra-heavy-segmenting in a run, and depending on your view on the issue we might have missed a chance back then to stop it altogether by using a bigger save penalty.

In any case, the save penalty was originally included mostly to cover save/load discrepancies so that saving wouldn't allow you to save time by slightly moving during the portion that isn't timed.

The issue with ultra-heavy-segmenting only came up recently with the Half Life Half Hour run that turned out to be a real controversy. Use of clearly inhuman scripts and a never before seen concentration of segments made many people feel that it was closer to being a TAS than a real speedrun. While I have to say that I guess it still barely is on the speedrun side I honestly feel it kind of misses some of the speedrunning spirit because I feel there's somewhat more to it than just getting the fastest time at all cost. In any case, this issue came up when the save penalty had long become a standard, even if some of the games it's applied to don't even suffer from the original issue, and so there's not much we can do about it now. It's either a consistent application or scraping it altogether, although I feel that the quirkyness with quicksaving in some engines makes a savbe penalty unavoidable.

MTGjumper

Edit history:

MTGjumper: 2008-03-30 12:17:29 pm

2008-03-30 12:17:16 pm

Enhasa: I was unsure if the rule regarding submitting a real name was "up in the air" as it may prevent certain people wanting to submit runs, if their real name is being displayed on the internet.

Obviously, this rule is easy to get around, so enforcing it will always be difficult. For that reason, is it necessary?

(Apologies for the ambiguity in me first post: I went back and read it, and it made sense to me, but that's probably because I wrote it :-/)

Linkinito

Edit history:

Linkinito: 2008-03-30 12:21:00 pm

2008-03-30 12:18:32 pm

This is my avatar

Well, about translating, there's some things to be clarified, especially the specific terms common to speedrunning.

I'm talking about french now but it can be adapted to other languages. Literally, the french equivalents of single-segment, any%, death abuse or other specific terms are really horrible to read (death abuse become "abus de mort"... no comment). I think, if I translate these pages, to keep the original english terms and give a definition in french.

65

Edit history:

65: 2008-03-31 05:20:38 pm

2008-03-30 01:18:26 pm

Quote:

There are many games that pausing helps to save time, such as in megaman continually pressing start will cause megaman to stay in the air longer, although that's not like a pause, but I know of at least one game where pausing it slightly benefits your time. Wink

I was mainly referring to the fact that even though you pause, you're still on the clock. Of course you can use pause to your advantage where you can. I assume you're talking about Mega Man 2's vertical speed cancelling. Other examples would be Mega Man 1's repeated hitting with the same projectile and Mega Man X5's Wind Shredder hovering (although it wouldn't probably save time if it weren't for the internal clock, since the transition between the game and the menu takes ages).

Perhaps I misunderstood the initial question, since I assumed it was about timing.

Enhasa

2008-03-31 02:10:56 am

everybody wanna tell you the meaning of music

Psonar: I originally wrote that part linking to the request thread, but I changed it to bounty thread. I don't want to hate on FLM since that is his baby, but let me be honest here. I think the request thread is just like an inferior bounty thread with $0 bounties basically. I don't think it's useful at all. I can't think of a single time someone wasn't going to run something, browsed the huge list and saw it, and then decided to run it because of that. I don't want to link to both because I think they are too similar and I want to keep things simple for visitors by only linking to one thing (why I did things like take out the 2 paypal addresses).

For visitors, like you say, I think linking to the bounty thread with all the cartoons and in-jokes would be a bad idea. And simply seeing the full list would be daunting to a lot of people. If someone is really serious about seeing a run, and would want to put a bounty, I think it's really important to let them know that is encouraged. Plus it makes speedruns seem very great and exciting, since they are so exciting people would actually put money on them apparently. And the more people use the bounty thread, the more the ante can get upped like with frezy.

I later figured out that there is a good purpose for the request thread, which is to be a sort of isolated sandbox (a meaner word would be trashcan) for game requests. As far as I can tell, though, we don't get many outsider game requests anyway (I really don't see rampant run requests as a problem). And when we do, they just impulsively make a thread in newer or older and don't read the FAQ first anyway. Don't get me wrong though. I'm really happy the request thread exists. It makes it easy to say "please post this in request thread" and lock.

scaryice: True, I changed it. I think that line was originally fleshed out more and a jab at something (hi xenogears!) and probably placed somewhere else, but now it looks out of place.

Mortyre: I don't know what you mean. Are you saying that modchips for playing imports shouldn't be allowed? Because the rules say that they are allowed. And if you don't think they work very well, it doesn't mean anyone is required to use them.

LLCoolDave's post is very good. I want to clarify for anyone reading it that if we were scrapping the penalty, there would still be an adjustment (instead of a penalty) of say .2 sec for HL or whatever is appropriate.

MTGjumper: Yeah, we've had a fair number of occasions where a run was prevented from getting on the site purely due to the real name issue. While I am very much against that, the fake name is an option so I'm not incredibly concerned. You are right that it is not enforceable, but it does not need 100% efficacy to be useful. The vast majority submit their real names, I would imagine, and it looks more professional this way. And I mean, the best is the enemy of the good. We can't really enforce that people couldn't be cheating in any number of ways, we can just do the best we can. Just like asking for a real name.

Linkinito: People seem to not be understanding this very well, but when it comes to translation, it doesn't need to be literal. If you are translating, I agree, definitely phrase it however is the most comfortable in the language you are translating to. If you think leaving the original English terms is a better idea, feel free to do that.

65: I agree, you can read the new question in the FAQ about pausing.

Psonar: I originally wrote that part linking to the request thread, but I changed it to bounty thread. I don't want to hate on FLM since that is his baby, but let me be honest here. I think the request thread is just like an inferior bounty thread with $0 bounties basically. I don't think it's useful at all. I can't think of a single time someone wasn't going to run something, browsed the huge list and saw it, and then decided to run it because of that. I don't want to link to both because I think they are too similar and I want to keep things simple for visitors by only linking to one thing (why I did things like take out the 2 paypal addresses).

For visitors, like you say, I think linking to the bounty thread with all the cartoons and in-jokes would be a bad idea. And simply seeing the full list would be daunting to a lot of people. If someone is really serious about seeing a run, and would want to put a bounty, I think it's really important to let them know that is encouraged. Plus it makes speedruns seem very great and exciting, since they are so exciting people would actually put money on them apparently. And the more people use the bounty thread, the more the ante can get upped like with frezy.

I later figured out that there [i]is[/i] a good purpose for the request thread, which is to be a sort of isolated sandbox (a meaner word would be trashcan) for game requests. As far as I can tell, though, we don't get many outsider game requests anyway (I really don't see rampant run requests as a problem). And when we do, they just impulsively make a thread in newer or older and don't read the FAQ first anyway. Don't get me wrong though. I'm really happy the request thread exists. It makes it easy to say "please post this in request thread" and lock.

scaryice: True, I changed it. I think that line was originally fleshed out more and a jab at something (hi xenogears!) and probably placed somewhere else, but now it looks out of place.

Mortyre: I don't know what you mean. Are you saying that modchips for playing imports [i]shouldn't[/i] be allowed? Because the rules say that they [i]are[/i] allowed. And if you don't think they work very well, it doesn't mean anyone is required to use them.

LLCoolDave's post is very good. I want to clarify for anyone reading it that if we were scrapping the penalty, there would still be an adjustment (instead of a penalty) of say .2 sec for HL or whatever is appropriate.

MTGjumper: Yeah, we've had a fair number of occasions where a run was prevented from getting on the site purely due to the real name issue. While I am very much against that, the fake name is an option so I'm not incredibly concerned. You are right that it is not enforceable, but it does not need 100% efficacy to be useful. The vast majority submit their real names, I would imagine, and it looks more professional this way. And I mean, the best is the enemy of the good. We can't [i]really[/i] enforce that people couldn't be cheating in any number of ways, we can just do the best we can. Just like asking for a real name.

Linkinito: People seem to not be understanding this very well, but when it comes to translation, it doesn't need to be literal. If you are translating, I agree, definitely phrase it however is the most comfortable in the language you are translating to. If you think leaving the original English terms is a better idea, feel free to do that.

65: I agree, you can read the new question in the FAQ about pausing.