Hey everyone,



Happy new year! As we move into 2021, we've got a lot of things in the pipeline for Speedrun.com, as well as a good amount of ground we've already covered.



**What's Happened So Far?**



**New Logo & Color Update**



As you've probably noticed, we've had a bit of a refresh on our logo and color scheme. We tried to stay as true to the original design as possible while still vectorizing the logo, and we hope you'll grow to love the adjustment as much as we have.



**Front Page Request Form**



We heard a lot of feedback asking us to diversify the content on the front page, and we're thrilled to announce the [Front Page Request Form (Beta Program)](https://forms.gle/dgJTDKztpxqf57Pn9). If you've got a marathon, a speedrun show, a TAS premiere, etc, we want to hear about it. As it's a beta program, we are still working out the policies on the type of content we'll accept, as well as the length of each reservation, but we're super excited to be able to leverage the front page as a place to promote cool community content.



**Community Feature Program**



We're also looking to start doing some written features on communities, runners, and other cool aspects of speedrunning. If you have a community/runner/topic you'd like to nominate, feel free to fill out our form [here](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeRUtILBSo12j9kNXjyGLK1G3pCuzDuDOSa3f-Vb2Hu8JlN8g/viewform)! Have a question? Feel free to reach out to our content expert at <chelsea@elo.io>.



**Minor Externally Facing Updates**



-   Donation perks have been turned on for everyone (except the Coin Badge)

-   The bug has been fixed barring users with unique characters from editing their profiles

-   A page will no longer 404 if a game moderator cancels rejecting a run

-   The rejection window is now larger so game moderators can add more detail

-   Users can list their pronouns on their profiles

-   Author names are no longer listed twice for guides

-   The ZeldaSpeedRuns social badge now links to the correct site

-   Mixer has been removed from social profiles

-   The Mississippi flag has been updated

-   The search bug causing incorrect search results has been fixed

-   Forum posts that have been edited will be marked as 'edited' with the date

-   Direct messages are capped at 10,000 characters

-   Image uploads are capped at 2.5 MB to speed up load time for pages

-   Users can no longer send stacking messages to themselves

  

**Full And Content Moderator Applications Are Open**



These are always open as we're looking to grow our volunteer base, but we wanted to shout it out in case anyone was interested in joining in the new year. The application can be found [here](https://www.speedrun.com/staffapplication).



**What's Next?**



We've got a few things planned for the next year, and we wanted to give you a look at some of the user-facing items next up on our current road map. Our main priority is continuing to optimize the site to handle traffic as it increases, but we also have some features planned in the coming months.



-   Updated News Page with better archiving

-   Knowledge Base for helping new runners and moderators get started

-   Announcements functionality on each game page for game moderators to use

-   Optional featured YouTube videos on the game pages

-   Updated Moderator Tools

  

As always, if you have any feedback feel free to drop it in the [Speedrun.com Feedback Form](https://forms.gle/y5UpJrShzdH6foZ56), and we look forward to hearing from you!



Cheers,



Speedrun.com

Our upcoming plans for 2021 and a look back at what we've done so far.

Looking Towards 2021

Hey all!

So some of you may have already heard from Pac's post over in the forums, but we have some exciting news that we're announcing today. When Speedrun.com was first started by Pac in 2013, it was a labor of love created by volunteers passionate about the speedrunning community. As the website grew, Pac with the help of others continued to develop features to best serve both runners and moderators. What no one could have predicted was the sheer popularity of the site, and especially with the recent boom during pandemic it became harder than ever to keep up with the growing community's needs.



In order to meet those needs, Pac worked with [Elo](https://www.elo.io/) on an acquisition so that Elo could start providing the full-time engineering resources necessary to stabilize the site and continue to fix and develop the tools used by moderators and runners. We've already gotten started on stabilizing the infrastructure, and some of you may have noticed you've been seeing the error page far less often lately. While the community will continue to be run through the expertise of the Full Mods, Content Mods, and Game Moderators, Elo has committed itself to updating the tech infrastructure so that the site can continue to grow in a scalable manner and bugs can be addressed.



To start, we've been working with the Full Mods and Content Mods on the most urgent fixes, such as activation emails not going through or the site going down. Some other milestones on our road map include:



-   Updated run submission and moderator tools

-   Faster search

-   The ability to back up boards and prevent accidental permanent deletion

-   A long list of bug fixes



This is just a snapshot of our plans, and it will take us into 2021 as we do a lot of behind the scenes work, but we want to make sure that you know that we're committed to transparently addressing community needs and providing the best resources we can for the growth of speedrunning communities.To start, we also wanted to provide a way for you to have your voice heard, and we've created this [feedback form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/112eJ-uN55mThCWIYG89cmBhqw9RDDncjH5WV5tEOZ-o/viewform?edit_requested=true) for your hopes and dreams for the site.



- Speedrun.com



P.S. Want to join the team? We're currently hiring for Senior and Intermediate Developer roles to specifically work on SR.C! Learn more and apply at our job posting here - <https://apply.workable.com/elo/>

Speedrun.com joins Elo.io

# ***You make speedrunning as good as it is***

The greater speedrunning community has some of the most amazing individual communities on the internet. I am constantly reminded how passionate and friendly the members of our communities are, on top of being so patient and willing to teach new runners.

It’s not uncommon for new runners joining a speedrunning Discord to be embraced with a friendly “welcome!” and an offer to answer any questions the runner might have, or at the very least some help in finding premade community resources and guides. It warms my heart to join a community and be welcomed so sincerely.

Now that I’ve been in a few communities myself, I make it a priority to make sure new runners feel just as welcome as I did when I first started. Without the communities in speedrunning, I don’t think it would be quite the same.

Before I picked up speedrunning myself, I had seen a few runs and thought it was *incredible* that a game could be beaten in a single sitting. Looking back, I suppose it was only a matter of time before I picked a game to speedrun - my first speedgame. When I finally did get into speedrunning, it was because I had just finished a game casually and absolutely loved it. Shortly after finishing it, I got curious as to how quickly it could be beaten. As I watched the run, I sat there in awe as the runner blazed through the game ***in under ten minutes.*** By the time I had finished, I had already sunk **30 hours** in! I was blown away.  It looked complex, but even if it took me 10x as long as the world record, I knew I needed to try it.

Shortly after, I found a streamer who was doing PB attempts of the same game, so I decided to join.  This streamer was *incredibly* patient and kind. He answered all the questions I had, took time to demonstrate some tricks, and even showed me how to find the tutorial and Discord server for the speedrunning community. That Discord was filled with even more friendly runners who had no problem with helping me to learn the game and find my way around LiveSplit as well as Speedrun.com. To this day, I consider these runners my friends. We’ve run multiple different games together and still talk most days about speedrunning or even just regular life stuff.

# Speedrunning is special

Not only because it offers a unique experience of playing games in a whole new way, but because the communities within it are so damn remarkable.  The majority of communities that I’ve been in since starting speedrunning have been a great source of friendships. Aside from that, they’ve also created a culture of support, education, and overall a positive atmosphere. I think ***that's*** what makes speedrunning special to me, and I believe there are lots of you who’ve been around for a while that can relate.

I started speedrunning because I was simply interested in trying to play a game I liked kinda fast, but I’ve *stayed* because of the amazing friends I’ve made along the way. I likely would’ve dropped the hobby all together by now if it wasn’t for all the extraordinary people I’ve met doing it.

# Competing through cooperation

Speedrunning is a competition, and it can undoubtedly get *very* competitive. Some of the world’s top speedrunners have pushed their times down so far that it takes incredible precision and dedication to push them further even by just a few milliseconds. That said, it’s safe to say that no single person would ever be able to push a game down as low as we’ve seen without the passion and dedication from a community full of people routing, glitch-hunting, strat-finding, tool-making,  and even just encouraging through support and celebration. Without the fierce enthusiasm from all sides of a community, speedrunning simply wouldn’t be the same from either a competitive or an entertainment standpoint.

Having everyone working together to push a game’s time down as far as possible is *especially* unique compared to other forms of competition because rather than speedrunning being player versus player, it’s more focused on the players versus the game.

Of course, players are competing for times on a leaderboard with other players, but as previously mentioned, the cooperation of the entire community is almost crucial for a speedrun to reach its highest potential. I think it's this difference in opposition compared to other competitive hobbies that allows speedrunners to bond over their chosen speedgame, focusing on improvements to beating the game rather than directly focusing on beating each other. This single degree of separation allows for a unique balance of cooperation and competition that I don’t think many other hobbies can offer.

In conclusion, *you’re* the reason why communities are important in speedrunning.

Whether you run, route, hunt, or watch, ***you*** are a part of the greater speedrunning community and you make speedrunning what it is, the hobby that I and thousands of others get to enjoy. Without you, your communities, and everything you do, this hobby would simply not be the same. Thank you for being here.

Do you have a favorite community? Tell us about them by sending us a tweet @speedruncom with the hashtag #SpeedrunCommunities! Also, if you have a community or individual you think deserves more attention, have them submit to our [Spotlight Nomination form!](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeRUtILBSo12j9kNXjyGLK1G3pCuzDuDOSa3f-Vb2Hu8JlN8g/viewform)

*Header image is a derivative of ["Awesome Games Done Quick 2019" by Angel Cano](https://photos.gamesdonequick.com/AGDQ2019/i-fdctgFh/A)*

Communities are the foundation of speedrunning. They're a source of support, friendship, mutual celebration, and cooperation to optimize speedruns.

Communities are the key to speedrunning

Hi everyone,



This is just a mini update, but we wanted to give everyone a heads-up on some work we'll be doing in the next month or two.



**DONATION PERKS**



We know a lot of people have been asking how they can unlock the donator perks since we've turned off donations, and we're very excited to announce that they will be unlocked for everyone starting today! The only perk that will not be unlocked is the Coin Badge, but anyone who donated during Pac's time running SR.C will keep the Coin Badge. The hover text will now say 'Original Donor' as a thank you for the support.



**SITE BUGS**



Over the next two months we'll be addressing a lot of site bugs, including the milliseconds formatting bug, the 404 window when you try to cancel rejecting a run bug, and some search bugs. This is not a full list, and we'll update everyone in the winter update on the progress we've made.



**SITE MAINTENANCE**



We continue to be hard at work on backend changes to make the site run smoother, and in order to complete some of those tasks we'll need to temporarily bring the site into read-only mode for a few hours in the next couple of weeks. We'll be tweeting and have a banner on the SR.C home page to notify people when it's closer to the date, and we apologize for any inconvenience it might cause.



We've been reading all the feedback we've received through the [feedback form](https://forms.gle/bF1sP7hVrLTuLVdq5) and making sure it's all logged in the proper place, so thank you all again for helping contribute to the improvement of the site! We're especially interested in any feedback on the moderator tools as we've started planning the updates for that tool set, so if you haven't sent that in yet, We'd love any opinions you may have.



Cheers,



Speedrun.com

Update on donation perks and upcoming site maintenance.

Donation Perks Unlocked

xwpw4y0l

SpeedrunCom

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zombies

Submissions will be available 2 weeks after the official release (November 8th). These 2 weeks serve to help the moderation team create main categories, the IL leaderboard and respective rule-sets. Until then feel free to join and help the community with your findings and personal bests on the freshly opened SXS Generations-[Discord](https://discord.gg/M6CyCfC6M7)

Shadow Generations

Submissions will be available 2 weeks after the official release (November 8th). These 2 weeks serve to help the moderation team create main categories, the IL leaderboard and respective rule-sets. Until then feel free to join and help the community with your findings and personal bests on the freshly opened SXS Generations-[Discord](https://discord.gg/M6CyCfC6M7)!