People have been responding every day, dude. And yeah I did some testing to provide info, there was a lot of data there. Sorry for being thorough.

Two months ago there wasn't a community. I had runs pending and forum posts unanswered for a year, so I had given up on it. I came back to find out it had been revived, and I had missed about a month of discussion, sorry. There was a new glitch that there wasn't before, and it looked and acted suspiciously like a macro, which is what you all thought too when you discovered it (thanks, Discord logs). God forbid I have an opinion about it. I never called anyone a cheater.

Sorry, but I don't understand any of your points. The glitch refers to holding down two buttons and having them both repeat automatically. How is this even possible with a touch screen interface? Are you referring to a different glitch? None of the current mobile runs use the glitch. You've said both that the glitch is version specific and that it is consistent across OS and device; these statements are contradictory. How would this isolate mobile players when you already have your own category?

Linux is a non-trivial market share, and if you're going to exclude Linux at 2% that's not very different than excluding macOS at 9%. And it's not just buying an OS, it's buying a computer, unless you expect somebody to sacrifice their current Linux machine to run Windows. Keep in mind that a camera prerequisite has already been rejected, and that's cheaper than Windows.

Also, neither of the expensive, fully NKRO-capable keyboards I tested were able to perform the glitch on macOS. We still do not have a way to predict whether any particular keyboard can perform the glitch on any operating system, so we don't even know what the prerequisites are. I could buy a keyboard on Amazon and it may or may not work, and we have no way of knowing whether it will, from the listed specs. How many keyboards do we expect somebody to buy on this gamble?

I do have other arguments against the glitch, but as you point out, my last couple posts were meant to be informative, not persuasive. I've already had a mod tell me more than once what I'm not allowed to say (which is ridiculous), despite the fact that I've been nothing but respectful, so I'll save those arguments until they're needed, as there's already a decent amount of support for splitting the categories.

Also, turns out if you use a keyboard (or combination of keyboards) and operating system that can do the glitch, not only can you hold multiple arrows on that keyboard(s), you can use a second (or third) keyboard to punch other arrow keys without disturbing the key repeats on the first keyboard(s). This expands the scope of the glitch outside of how I believe it is currently being used.

Alright so I've been able to test the glitch using several combinations of hardware / software. Both external keyboards used support full USB NKRO, and neither have DIP switches to toggle it.

OS / Laptops used: Ubuntu 16.04 on Lenovo Thinkpad Ubuntu 18.04 on MSI GT70 Windows 8.1 on MSI GT70 macOS High Sierra on MacBook Air

Keyboards used: Onboard laptop keyboard MK Fission Filco Majestouch 2 2 keyboards at once

Browsers used: Chrome Firefox Vivaldi Safari Edge

USB ports used: 2.0 3.0 Hub

Results (does the glitch work):

Ubuntu 16 / Onboard - No Ubuntu 16 / MK - No Ubuntu 16 / Filco - No Ubuntu 16 / Multi - No Ubuntu 18 / Onboard - No Ubuntu 18 / MK - No Ubuntu 18 / Filco - No Ubuntu 18 / Multi - No macOS / Onboard - No macOS / MK - No macOS / Filco - No macOS / Multi - Yes Windows / Onboard - No Windows / MK - No Windows / Filco - Yes Windows / Multi - Yes

Conclusions:

The only working combination with a single keyboard was the Filco on Windows. The same Filco on the same computer under Ubuntu did not work. Pressing an arrow on one keyboard and another arrow on a different keyboard works on Windows and Mac but not Linux. USB port and browser had no effect, in fact this can be tested by holding down two characters in a text editor.

TLDR: This glitch is both keyboard-specific and OS-specific (but not built into the game), only works in a very small minority of tested combinations, and NKRO is not a valid predictor for whether it works or not. Somebody using a Linux machine might have to buy another computer to make the glitch work.

My keyboard does support NKRO, I don't believe that is the only criterion for performing the glitch. That doesn't even make much sense as all keyboards support at least 2KRO, and some people are able to perform the glitch without NKRO. Also see https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=48158.0

Even if I did have access to it, it's not how I prefer to play the game. This point is pretty moot as there is currently a vote / poll about whether to split the categories into glitched / glitchless.

My suggestion that you quoted was rejected because it is a barrier to entry.

Haha is that a challenge? I can easily make undetectable macros unless you see my hands on the keyboard. This is just basic verification, I don't see why it shouldn't be enforced.

Kind of beside the point. It's still effectively a macro and I don't want to compete against it.

The current world record utilizes a glitch by holding down 2 inputs simultaneously. I don't believe this is intended behavior, in fact he characterizes it as a glitch himself, on the youtube video. In my mind this is pretty clearly in macro territory, i.e. mashing buttons faster than a human could.

I can't reproduce this glitch, which leads me to believe it may be OS-specific or something. To quote a mod (https://www.speedrun.com/2048/thread/nhb2y/1#93tot), "We want everyone on an even playing ground."

I'm not accusing rauflegon of cheating, I think he just used a loophole that wasn't explicitly banned by the rules. But I don't think this should be allowed.

I had competitive times on the old leaderboard, including the 4096 WR. I'd like to compete for the 2048 WR, but I won't even try if boost glitches like this are allowed, that I don't even have access to.

Maybe this only needs to apply to competitive times, but it should still be a thing. Lots of other games have requirements like this.

Also, there's absolutely no reason videos shouldn't be required to show the address bar, to ensure compliance with the existing rule about verified versions of the game. This takes no effort at all to do.

Can we please make a rule that the video must show hands on keyboard? There's nothing stopping people from making macros to mash keys for them. I used to do it for casual play to cut down on muscle strain.

I have a 10:22 to submit for 8192