Now...seeing this discussion taking place here like this, with both intense and recociliating moments, makes have even more hope in the future..trully Some good points were made, and i'll be back to say a few words about, imo, the key ones I just wish, and i do know the admins feel the same, people here would participate more in this polls But hey...thats life Like Jim Morrison said: i prefer a feast of a few friends to a giant family And this...imo...is a good starting point
Ken mentioned that they are planning a pool about 'time slot' and of course if they find out a popular but 'exotic' time they will need to find someone awake to act as an admin... seems reasonable and it Look like You'll make a great candidate . Yes, indeed he would. I would volunteer myself too, if the admins have me, but with a small 4 months child i cannot... And Ken, in this matter, as a point.. SRO would need an admin to those time slots (its just logic) So I, we, understand the difficulties Maybe you could Kahel.. I know you a long time .. you're a straight commited guy SRO, we, would be (is/are) lucky to have you my 2cents in this matter
Agree.. but those disgruntled people, whoever they are, also want the best for SRO .. such that they, not like the majority, spoke their mind That's important, i think
If as a member of SRO you want us to take your preferences into account for future series, then you need to tell us by voting in ALL three Polls currently still running. We have had a much larger response to Poll #1 than we have for Polls #2 and #3, so if you have not yet voted please do so here. We would also appreciate your feedback and comments too. https://www.simracingonline.co.uk/threads/member-feedback-poll-2-day.2740/ https://www.simracingonline.co.uk/threads/member-feedback-poll-3-time.2741/
Other than the mathematical count of the votes received and what they indicated, I'd make the following observations, 1. Disappointment in the low volume of responses given the large membership we have and the fact that the Polls were an open opportunity to help steer the Calendar at SRO. 2. Apart from the core 40-50 members who regularly contribute to our community by discussing things in the Forums, it confirmed that other members are not interested in this kind of activity and possibly only use our website/forums to "lurk" and download files. 3. With the low level of response it's very difficult to reach any consensus on the collective preferences of members in terms of input into the selection process for new series. 4. The lack of response indicates that it would be a waste of time and effort in replicating the process in the future. Despite all that, the Admin Team at SRO will continue to host Championships as we have done and look at fine tuning things and introducing new ideas, for example what has been done recently with getting the the Broadcasting/Streaming activities up and running, thanks particularly to John vd Geest's efforts and enthusiasm and of the course the Commentary Team who've embraced SRO openly
Thanks for the feedback Ken. Aren't you being a bit pessimistic though about lack of responses? There are two universal laws in the world in life and whatever; Murphy's law and Pareto. So according to Pareto 20% of the members make 80% of the contributions. Also, I saw a lot of interesting feedback. I didn't have time to give you my opinions but will do it now for it's worth (better late than never, no?). - For me the main problem is that there are too many series spread across too many platforms. Reducing the number of series would allow perhaps to have more servers available that could be set up for practice earlier. If there are bugs they would be spotted sooner. You could also set up a practice or fun race in the week preceding the "real" race. All this should also help in improving the community spirit. You could also think about making TS compulsory. Evidently no speaking during qualification or the race except for special team channels. - Another thing is that people should be encouraged to file a protest when they see something that requires it. How many people have gone away from SRO because they see people getting away with things that they shouldn't. And the ones that stay ask "If he is allowed to do it, why not me?". Also, it is often the same people. Anyway whatever is done, or not done, I appreciate all that you admins are doing. See you on the track.
I would have never thought this but , honestly, last acseries here are running a very decent gridsize. Been longtime since I have been part of such a large grid. So you guys must be doing something right... the fact that multiple series are being broadcasted is a very welcome addition as well! This really is going in the right direction imo.
Ken, one thing about the low level response: dont forget - a lot of drivers dont speak english!!! I can articulate most things i want to tell you in my low level school-english, a lot of drivers cannot! Another group of drivers dont have enough spare time, to think about future series, they just pick some events they like and which suite in their weekly schedule.
It's more like 5-6% than 20% considering we now have 850 members. There were some interesting comments made by members, which we do take into consideration when looking ahead, but a single comment doesn't mean all active members agree with it. You should have noticed by now that we have in fact reduced considerably the number of series we host across all the Sims. Three weekday nights are now open whereas before it was only one. On a weekend we do not always have two races each day, running at the 17:00/18:00 or 20:00/21:00 time slots. Overall I would guess we are running 25-30% less series in general. Regarding the number of sims we run, not everybody has all of them or is interested in all of them, but we still see some good grids for the older stuff e.g. rF which compare favourably with others like AC/rF2. We could of course specialise in only the new stuff, but that goes against the general idea of SRO providing a home for a mixture of sim racing fans. Ultimately of course, we will have to drop some of the sims off the list or not bother with them any more when the turnout drops to a low level. We are potentially getting to that stage with AMS for example, but if we can sustain grids of around 10 then it's still worth running it. Regarding "people should be encouraged to file a protest". It's the members choice if they want to submit a protest or not and we don't want the racing here to degenerate into a plethora of protests which would certainly be a turn-off for members I suspect. When protests have been made, they have and will continue to be reviewed carefully in the cold light of day. A few Penalties have been given where it was felt necessary and I believe our Admin Team are considered by the majority of members to be fair when reviewing protests.
You're absolutely right Gerhard, but they must be able to read and understand it well enough to join SRO and then find there way around the site to be able to join a series Bang on the money once again I think this is the key to everything at the moment. The Sim racing community in general is more fragmented and less dedicated than it used to be, especially in committing to running a full series. I think it's an indication of how modern life is these days, where the consumption of enjoyment via the internet and mobile phone's is all about a quick fix and move on. Many of the new sims confirm that with the way they are structured for one-off hit's, Leaderboards, quick short repetitive races etc, and less of an emphasis, or sometimes extremely poor built-in functionality for online racing as done by traditional League type operations.
Really, but most of them are non-active members aren´t they? Some of even do not comply to the name convention, for example like him https://www.simracingonline.co.uk/members/umberto82.71/ or never drove a race respectively drove their last race a long time ago. As soon as a membership or account brings no commitments with it, it is as you describe. A "concession" to a fast moving world so probably the term disposable fits. A shame yeah. Anyway that is not the point I wanted to mention. First I want to thank you Ken and all the other admins for your work. I fully understand that it is frustrating to set up such a heavywheight process and the most you learn is, that it will work that way. As it was said above you guys did something right. Less races and (micro) traget group advert helped probably as well as Johns effort. But nobody can guarantee that this trend continues. If I remember it right, Race2Play had similar issues/problems so it this probably a curse of the concept. In the end it seems reasonable to work with that you got. So the communication with the "active" members should never stop. And to speak for me, if you need help with certain things, feel free to ask.
Ken, John, Rob and Kenny are the heavy lifters at this site and they are the backbone to this operation. Everyone owes them a pat on the back for the tremendous job they do every week to bring you guys the great racing series we all enjoy. And yes, trimming down the number of series has helped grow grid sizes in all of our series. So I think we are headed in the right direction. Thanks to everyone who participates in our polls and for the valuable feedback we get from you.
Sorry I didn't participate at this poll at the right time. Believe me or not, I didn't see it until now I just want to thank to the admins for the job they are doing and I want to assure you I will try my best to participate in the as much series I can (and I like). I don't have anything to add to what was said here, a lot of valid comments, and I hope the things will go from better to better. You guys, are building here a very nice place to race and I'm sure your commitment will not remain without echo. About that, Roy, it is for sure the language barrier. I must confess I never, NEVER, run any race with my compatriots (simracing here is ... just a kid play). And I think, if there will be a server with drivers speaking my language I would be very tempted to move there. Don't get me wrong, I like english, I understand, I speak a little, but during the race, on TS (on RD is mandatory), it is very difficult to understand all that banter and I fell ... alone ... I think it is a great feeling to be able to communicate limitless with the people speaking your own language and this is the case here.
I also think many people would had like to participate/contribute, but did not learn about this. Maybe many are in a similar situation as I am: I am a sim-racing enthusiast in general and race with as many clubs I can, as long as I like the type of races they are doing. I am very new to SRO, love what you guys are doing, the level of professionalism for a hobby we love, how you take care of everything necessary and I also try to contribute when I can, but I usually do not participate in the core forums, way too little time to do that for all the several clubs I race with. For this reason, normally I wouldn't had noticed the first poll, but I did because you had added a big red bold notice about it in the website first page . The other polls I noticed them almost accidentally, thought about having a closer look in case there were more polls created and apparently they were. But if there was an email sent to me and other members, or there was always a big banner about that, I and probably many others would had certainly noticed. Well, possibly you kept low profile on this on purpose, to see who's really interested and willing to search for news in the club by himself, you may require a higher level of dedication and if that was your intention I completely respect that, just pointing out that unfortunately not everybody affords to do that. Btw, a general suggestion, maybe it's a good idea to advertise (leagues mainly) in the forums of the games you support. I am a very regular in the PCARS2 official forum, if you'd like I'd be happy to help with that. Maybe make posts there about new leagues etc.
Thanks very much for your outlook on this discussion Colin, any feedback of any kind is most welcome here. Regarding promotion of our races, you are right in that any and all outlets should be used to get our name out there. I know that has been useful in attracting new members here who might not otherwise find the SRO website. Any promotion by an SRO member on a Sim Forum is most welcome, so please feel free to do that if it's not been done by any of us already
