Whether or not someone cheated in the past is completely beside the point here. Decisions like this should be made based on the merits of the arguments put forward, not the person the arguments are coming from. To decry disrespectful posts while making a comment like that is a little hypocritical.
I was pretty neutral to this topic, but ended up voting for emulator to be allowed. The reactions of some people on the "losing side" have been pretty disappointing, but it should be said that this discussion could have been handled in more transparent way. Going by the thread, even I don't really understand at what point the decision was reached, or by whom. Valyssa put forward an idea for what emulator to use, apparently solving some of the "cheating would be too easy" arguments, but quite soon after that Uchiha posted a set of rules which made it seem like the decision was already made. (This is evidenced by astro's reply to Uchiha's post.) It seems that at least opening the floor for opinions on Val's solution would've been a good idea, before then moving on, or at least clarifying after astro's post that the decision hadn't yet been reached, if that was the case. I can only guess that discussion on Discord played a part in the decision, too, but there's something to be said for decisions like this (and all the relevant arguments) being done "out in the open" in a thread like this.
I'm not sure I have a better solution, but putting any real weight in the outcome of a poll also seemed a bit iffy. Aside from it being relatively easy to manipulate, especially in such a small community, I don't think it's fair that someone like me, who has no intention of running Climax, had as much of a say as someone who does. To use an overblown example, it's like if I was able to vote in the US election despite not living there. It doesn't matter how well-thought out my opinion might be - I'm not the one who's gonna have to live with the consequences.
Having said that, the lack of any real meat to the anti-emulator responses is kind of what swayed me in the other direction. Even if everyone thought the decision was already made, it's bizarre to me that runners who feel so strongly about banning emulator did not make a single counter-argument to the idea of using mGBA, seeing as it was put forward as something that solved the cheating issue. If your argument is "well, I don't know anything about mGBA", then why should I take your position seriously if you're not willing to put in any kind of research? It's baffling that people care enough about this to delete their times in the aftermath, but not to put forth detailed arguments when it seems like the wrong decision is about to be made. As it is, this thread just looks like "varied arguments about whether emulator should be allowed" > "solution proposed for allowing emulator in a fair way" > "no counter-arguments made and decision inevitably reached".
Sorry, I realise this post is kind of a mash of points and that there's nothing to really be done now, anyway. I just think that if there's a similar situation in the future, being a bit more structured and transparent might lead to less of a fallout.
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