[Michael Martin]

Having re read this i realize i sound like a grumpy old man but we are grumpy because we have experience

Is it possible to have the rules displayed at the start of each session? I have seen similar messages on the public forums giving basic rules / server details etc. My thinking is that a lot of people will not have looked at the regulation page when they signed up much like not reading the small print (i'm guilty of that).

eg.
_________________________________________________________
NEVER DRIVE THE WRONG WAY!!

ABUSIVE CONTACT BETWEEN VEHICLES IS FORBIDDEN!

DO NOT CAUSE ACCIDENTS ON WARMUP LAPS OR AFTER THE RACE!

RESPECT YELLOW AND BLUE FLAGS!
Yellow flags mean hazard on track, slow and no passing.
Blue means you are being lapped. Safely move over and let the faster car through. *bit extra - if you have been lapped please don't race the car(s) that lapped you

REJOIN THE TRACK SAFELY AFTER AN INCIDENT!
__________________________________________________________


Personally i feel chat should be allowed as i enjoy the social aspect of the racing. I guess the rule is there as chat is difficult to police. Maybe a little guidance. eg no swearing/abuse etc?

This is for AC. I don't know if it can apply to other sims.

[Michael Butler]

Having re read this i realize i sound like a grumpy old man but we are grumpy because we have experience

Is it possible to have the rules displayed at the start of each session? I have seen similar messages on the public forums giving basic rules / server details etc. My thinking is that a lot of people will not have looked at the regulation page when they signed up much like not reading the small print (i'm guilty of that).
Personally i feel chat should be allowed as i enjoy the social aspect of the racing. I guess the rule is there as chat is difficult to police. Maybe a little guidance. eg no swearing/abuse etc?

This is for AC. I don't know if it can apply to other sims.

when it causes contact or a wreck, some rule is broken generally...never understood the chat thing because people do chat in the box. They wouldn't notice the lobby page of the server anymore than the website rules and even if they did, would not follow the rules.

[Josh Martin]

I think the issue here is that beyond a report and having the admins look at incidents, there's very little immediate reprecussion for contact.

Lowering incident limits per race to 10, with an onscreen saying something like "1/10 contacts made, at 10 you will be banned for 3 weeks" is simple and effective enough for people to wisen up and not wreck.

As for the chat during the race, if you have people not checking mirrors under blue flags, sometimes it's imperative to type.

Now we both sound grumpy... alteast i'm not old

[Will Dawson]

10 'incidents' in a race and you're banned for 3 weeks!? No Josh... No Considering SRS counts all contacts however minor (including wall taps and hitting corner/braking markers) as an incident this would be too punishing. It would also mean that a clean racer who gets smashed into enough will also get the suspension.

I think the majority of people take the no chat rule as meaning no abusive chat. If people got punished for congratulating each other for a good battle or race win there would be no one left to race

Yellow flags should really be policed by the game, not SRS. AC is rather weak when it comes to policing anything unfortunately... Unless you get punted off track, then it loves to punish the victim lol

Blue flags being ignored for more than a couple of corners while the lapping car is in passing distance should be warned for a first offense and punished if they continue to ignore them... I think the same rule should apply to a lapping car who thinks it's OK to barge their way through unsafely. Also if 2 or 3 blue flagged cars are battling I think it should be expected that they won't ruin their battle/race just to let someone through who is essentially hotlapping up front on their own

[Michael Butler]

10 'incidents' in a race and you're banned for 3 weeks!? No Josh... No Considering SRS counts all contacts however minor (including wall taps and hitting corner/braking markers) as an incident this would be too punishing. It would also mean that a clean racer who gets smashed into enough will also get the suspension.

I think the majority of people take the no chat rule as meaning no abusive chat. If people got punished for congratulating each other for a good battle or race win there would be no one left to race

Yellow flags should really be policed by the game, not SRS. AC is rather weak when it comes to policing anything unfortunately... Unless you get punted off track, then it loves to punish the victim lol

Blue flags being ignored for more than a couple of corners while the lapping car is in passing distance should be warned for a first offense and punished if they continue to ignore them... I think the same rule should apply to a lapping car who thinks it's OK to barge their way through unsafely. Also if 2 or 3 blue flagged cars are battling I think it should be expected that they won't ruin their battle/race just to let someone through who is essentially hotlapping up front on their own

very seldom see 10 incidents in a race from any driver in server 1, so wouldn't do any good to punish @ 10, and i look at most results i participate in.

[Will Dawson]

very seldom see 10 incidents in a race from any driver in server 1, so wouldn't do any good to punish @ 10, and i look at most results i participate in.

Exactly. When I do see more than 10 on people it's not because they're driving recklessly. More just that they've hit too many cones or had some light touches against another driver or a wall. Take Macau in R3E from last season as an example.. Half the field in every race (myself included) got 20+ incidents and a 3 day suspension even when there was little to no driver to driver contact.

[Russell Sobie]

There used to be a MOTD (Message of the Day) on AC servers... at some point it stopped working, however. I haven't raced all week (thanks, Battletech) so I can't tell you if it were there or not recently! And it had most of the rules in the OP listed.

The counting incidents automatically doing anything other than messing with your points is a bad idea. There's all sorts of edge cases that people simply don't have control over, including by not limited to getting punted off track through a string of cones into a wall (tada... 10 incidents in 0.5 seconds!) or getting nudged by someone just as fast as you but not quite good enough to get around in a slow car race for 20 minutes (tada, 1-2 incidents every lap for 12+ laps!). It isn't frequent, but the fact that it CAN happen is a good enough reason to not do it.

I've stated it in many threads: use the Protest Form. I know it is a pain to record replays and upload them somewhere for review, and the results of the protest could be days or weeks before the admins get to it... but it's really the only way to suspend/ban people who deserve it without getting false positives.

And yeah... the don't use the chat rule is not at all policed... we chat all the time in races to pat each other on the back or make fun of how slick 96% grip is before/after the race is over. The spirit of that rule is not to start through F bombs at someone who just did something boneheaded.

[Stephen Haley]

I think the issue here is that beyond a report and having the admins look at incidents, there's very little immediate reprecussion for contact.

Lowering incident limits per race to 10, with an onscreen saying something like "1/10 contacts made, at 10 you will be banned for 3 weeks" is simple and effective enough for people to wisen up and not wreck.

As for the chat during the race, if you have people not checking mirrors under blue flags, sometimes it's imperative to type.

Now we both sound grumpy... alteast i'm not old

Some like what KissMyRank does

[Pierre Caillet]

I don't use the in-race chat but the post-race chat is getting quite.. lively lately (in the GT3 cup anyway). As soon as the race ends, recriminations start: you did this, you did that, ooh, ah. I'll admit I've indulged myself on occasions but at the very least you have to do it when you're sure of your target and of what happened. People hang you in public for this or that and then, by PM: oh by the way, it wasn't you, it was this other guy, let's be buddies. Yeah well, thanks bud.

As for displaying the rules, I guess it wouldn't hurt, but did you notice anything different when it was done, up until a few months ago ? I didn't.

A ban for X incidents ? As others have said, a difficult proposition.

The rules are here, I don't know if they need reinforcing*. What they definitely need is enforcing, but the protest form is not enough, repression can't do everything, the drivers themselves have to enforce them. And you enforce them when you've learnt them, when you've trained on applying them and when you've enjoyed racing with them, and driving is the only way to do that. Ergo, separating the new guys through a minimum rating for certain series is still the best option in my opinion. And for those who still don't get it, yes, there's the stick.

* Actually the SRS rules say nothing about overlap, dive bombing, the basic stuff. (I've checked here : http://www.simracingsystem.com/regulation.php ; is it the only place ?) Maybe we could start by making clear what is deemed "abusive contact" ? There's a consensus among seasoned drivers but you can't expect anyone who shows up to be aware, can you ?

[Josh Martin]

I think the issue here is that beyond a report and having the admins look at incidents, there's very little immediate reprecussion for contact.

Lowering incident limits per race to 10, with an onscreen saying something like "1/10 contacts made, at 10 you will be banned for 3 weeks" is simple and effective enough for people to wisen up and not wreck.

As for the chat during the race, if you have people not checking mirrors under blue flags, sometimes it's imperative to type.

Now we both sound grumpy... alteast i'm not old

Some like what KissMyRank does

Exactly mate, that would be perfect.

an incident limit or splitting servers based on rating would be better.