I think one possible solution would be to create a new, Updated category for the News updates: One for the traditional "Combined" system and another with the updated system. This would hopefully convince more people who don't like playing
dumb categories like glitches and flaps.
I have multiple Ideas for this updated system:
1. No glitch w/ flaps: the one we already have (and have neglected for a while). This wouldn't require us to change anything but would still leave us with having to play flaps to be counted on this system.
2. No glitch w/ flaps that count less: 3lap times count twice as much as flap times. If we did this the people who like flaps would still get to play them for a higher ranking while the people that don't like them won't have to take them into account as much. They will still have to play them tough. This might be a little hard to program but I'm no CS nerd so idk
3. No glitch w/o flaps: this is the idea I would prefer but I don't matter so I'll shut up. I have seen many people suggest a system like this because it keeps people that haven't played in years from being fazed out by new glitches and you wouldn't have to play as many categories.
The new system could be presented in 2 ways:
Method 1. #171; #157 Aaron M Improved his rPB flap and his GV glitch 3lap time this month. This would be easier on the News Updater since they wouldn't have to write everybody's name out twice like in
Method 2.
Updated Activity
#157 Aaron M improved his rPB time this month
...
Combined Activity
#171 Aaron M improved his GV glitch 3lap this month
As you should be able to tell this would probably put more of a strain on the News Updater because they would have to write most people down twice. I'm suggesting this because this is (more or less) the system that MK64, SMK, and MK8 use for their separate categories.
The reason these systems are all No-Glitch is because we already have a more traditional system with all the glitches so a new one would probably have to be No-glitch in order to encourage those who don't like glitches to join the Player's Page. We also had a poll in 2017 (started by everyone's favorite player) that shows that most people already want No-Glitch to play a larger role. Here's a link to the poll if you would like to see what people had to say back then:
http://www.mariokart64.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1492359924