A few months back, Your Eliteness created what grew into a large, very interesting topic discussing the Elite's current proof situation. If you missed it, or would like to look back, it can be found here:
p075.ezboard.com/fperfect...4975.topicAs discussion came to a close, I promised to think long and hard about what had been said, and to later call to session a Conference between Youse, Clark, and myself in order to decide the course of action this community was to take in the future. I had hoped to put a new "Policy" in place as regards all things proof here at the Elite (if you're curious, yes, what will be laid down in this topic will apply to GE just as much as PD). Although it took (much) longer than expected, I'm happy to say that the meeting was successfully concluded earlier tonight. Here, in full, is the new Elite Policy agreed upon:
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All times with full video proof will be listed in the rankings. - Every player who has been removed from the rankings, yet has proven one or more times, has had their proven times re-added to the rankings. Thanks go to Wouter for faithfully tracking proven times in the past, but as he was unwilling to keep the pages both updated and uploaded weekly, the task of managing them has been given to YE. The three players most affected by this change (Shade, Cook, and Josh) will have to make sure that YE sees each of their new videos soon after they are created, so that they can quickly be given credit for them in the rankings.
What about Karl? - Karl Jobst will be re-added to the PD ranks as soon as Karl Jobst is ready to be re-added. Yes, we realize that this is a major blow to the overall accuracy of the PDE rankings. Yes, it's true, survey respondents were overwhelmingly in favor of putting Karl back in the rankings, no matter how he felt about it. However, one member of the Trim was very much against this idea, and he will be talking to Karl in the next days to see if PD's #2(?) is willing to have his times listed once again. As before, nothing is going to happen without Karl's consent.
Is it possible to be fully re-added? - Yes... and no. Yes in the case of those who have been removed in the past for claiming suspicious times/not providing enough proof/being stupid in general (ie... whatever that thing was between mallow and Kingpin). For example, the long-standing 'Shade policy' still remains: as soon as he proves all of his untied WRs, he will be fully reinstated. The stance on Josh is the same as well, he has a list of times he'll need to prove before having all of his PRs listed. Cook, however, falls under the 2nd new policy...
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Former liars may only PR through full video proof. - Harsh? Perhaps, but not nearly as harsh as the old policy. I think one survey-taker said it best: "Add their proven times only. If they really show a change in attitude, they'll be willing to prove any claim." When someone has blatantly lied to the community in the past, you can't help but wonder if they can ever be fully trusted again... Under this Policy, the issue of trust will never come up.
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All times by veteran, long inactive players will remain. - It's time to move ahead, to get realistic, to stop pointing fingers well back into the past. The times of Paragon, Disco, Carnski, Expert, Zeebo, SlayerRocket, Phil, and yes, Sucram, are not going anywhere, now or at any point in the future. If you feel the urge to question one of their claims from this point onward, do yourself a favor, forget about it, and go ahead with the rest of your day. These PRs were set years ago, the players have moved on, the times have long since stopped affecting the records table (with one exception; more on that later), and these veterans themselves were largely about as trustworthy as they come during their careers. 8 out of the 11 who took the survey agreed that this was the only reasonable move to make as regards these old times, so if you're one of those in the vast minority, well... sorry, but it's time to move on.
I want a water-holding explaination for 1:23 remaining online. - It is an extremely rare occurance for the evidence to be so overwhelmingly against a record that was set well over two years beforehand that a decision would be made to remove that same record. Aztec 1:31 was one of those very rare cases. Defection 1:23 is no Aztec 1:31. In fact, it's not even
close to a 1:31, but despite the fact that a large explaination of this was posted in the previous topic, I'll elaborate on a few key points anyways.
Firstly, the Defection situation has been drastically altered in the past month, as the #1 video available has gone from a grainy old low quality 1:28 to two fresh, crisp new 1:26s. Only days after setting what he claimed to be a "real World Record" at 1:27, Illu made YE look a tad silly by dropping the best proven mark to within 3 seconds of Sucram's no-longer-so-untouchable WR, and it took only a couple more days for the Champ to respond by tying the new mark. With time being shaved from the difficult level at such a rapid pace, it's not so surprising that a majority of the best Defection players agree that 1:23 is possible given the current strat. The same could certainly
not be said for opinions surrounding 1:31 at the time of its removal. A 1:23 would require an amazingly fast programmer, and given his randomness, it could take days and days before it the magic run finally occurred... but it could happen, and given the mind-boggling amount of time Sucram spent in almost single-handedly pioneering his Defection strat, we're confident in our believe that it
did happen.
Make no mistake about it, keeping the time was a difficult decision to make, and those who took the survey should be able to understand why, given that responses were split as evenly as possible when it came to the big 1:23 question. In the end the Trim was won over by Sucram's strong reputation and his having proof online displaying his skill at this level in particular. 1:23 stays, end of discussion.
What if one of these vets makes a strong comeback? - If any of them become active once again, they'll be subject to the same new proof standards as everyone else in the league. The "no more questions asked" policy applies only to their old PRs, for reasons discussed above.
What about Carnski's short comeback from early last year? - Rumor has it that Carn taped 'all' (3? 4?) of his new PRs. We will get in touch with Carnski and kindly ask him to send that tape to Wouter, but are not going to hold back the couple of new times he did manage to achieve until it arrives. (And yes, our opinion might be different had YE and Boss not utterly crushed his new Escape times in the previous half dozen months, but they did, by over 5 seconds apiece, so what's the point in speculating?)
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As of today, no untied World Record will be allowed without complete video proof. - The Defection situation was messy. Fortunately, it will never happen again. There will not be a hard-and-fast deadline by which any untied claim must be proven, cases will instead by handled on a person by person basis. For instance, a new untied WR by Bryan Bosshardt will not be removed simply because his tape has not arrived at Jimbo's house yet 2 months later, whereas a shady (no pun intended *ceotugh*), quick-rising newb who is hesitant to share strats or send out tapes will be lucky to be cut a single month's worth of slack. The important thing is, never again will the Elite see an untied stand unproven.
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No action will be taken against those who currently have :6 Defection A and/or :9 Duel PA. - The most popular survey response was to forget the easier 6 all together, and instead concentrate on only those who claimed Duel 9 without having proven a single time. The Trim carefully considered the list this strategy created (consisting of Infiltrater, PDO, ShadowZero, Vulpex, and a couple others) and decided that it would not be worth the time and effort to try and chase down these trustworthy vets and demand they prove a time set 3+ years earlier, in most cases. However...
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No fully unproven tied WR claims will be allowed in the future (6 and 9 included). - It would be unrealistic to demand video proof before allowing 6s and 9s to be placed on the rankings at all (everyone except YE is in agreement that they're not THAT hard). Instead, all new record-tiers will be contacted by one of us the following day (if possible) and they will be informed that taping is now a MUST, and that it it will eventually be necessary for them to either send that tape off to a moderator, or else find another way to get their videos online. Whether or not a strict proof deadline will need to be set will depend upon the difficulty of the WRs they are claiming (again, it will be a case by case basis). A similiar policy will also be enforced for any new member who quickly climbs near the top of the rankings, say into the area of the Top 20. Again, it wouldn't make sense to set a concrete rule of "Send a Tape at Top 25," that would then have to be enforced against a well-proven, trustworthy player the likes of Wouter (imaging for just a moment that Wouter had no capture card and would NEED to send a tape).
And now for the final, perhaps most important point:
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As of February 1st, 2005 and following, all times submitted to the Elite will be considered the joint property of the-elite.net and the individual responsible for said times. - A message to this effect will be placed at the bottom of the "How to Join" page come February. The actions taken by Karl last year led to a huge number of headaches for the t-e.n staff. There have also been issues in the past with members attempting to "take the rankings hostage" by removing/faking their times in an attempt to get some kind of message across (or occasionally just because they felt like it). This new policy should effectively do away with such troubles, as long as players keep two things in mind...
Do something stupid with your page, and
your times will be frozen. "Frozen" means the times themselves will remain exactly as they were before your idiot move, but your ability to update your own times will be suspended. You may eventually regain your updating abilities at some later point, depending on your attitude.
If you would, for some reason, not like your times listed in either the PDE or GEE,
contact Ngamer, Youse, or Clark sometime before Feb 1st. At midnight board time your times as they currently stand will become "historic," you might say, and can no longer be removed from the rankings.
And that about does it for the new Elite Policy. Pretty much all that remains to be seen now is if Karl's times will return to the rankings. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, you're more than welcome to post them here. Just remember: you can't please all of the people all of the time. We knew that going in, and I'm sure it will be proven once again in this topic, but we feel strongly that each of these changes will be for the betterment of the Elite as a whole.
