[Russell Sobie]

Ok, controversial post alert.

The concept of "gentleman's rules" in this like First Person Shooters or Fighters is some of the dumbest things I've ever seen.

With all due of respect, some might say the same of these rules in Sim racing. It all comes down to what certain people take seriously and what not. There are substantial sums of money to be won in professional FPS game events. 

Sim racing in AC is a hobby. Some are more fanatic than others, there are people who take this very seriously, but it's still a hobby. For me personally, it is still too far from reality to actually call it "simulation".

I am one of those ppl who want to take simracing as seriously as possible. When I accidentally run into someone, I am genuinly gutted and when someone runs into me then -for a few seconds- I act like the world has done me the biggest injustice possible. But then I move on. Learn to live with the reality that some people don't take this as seriously as you and I do. They do however, have just as much right to be here as anyone else... Until proven otherwise

Firstly, type below the quote for legibility.

Secondly, I think I was making the same exact point you are here: some people literally DO think that "gentleman's rules are dumb in Assetto Corsa/rFactor2/Automobolista/Whatever".

The problem is that the people that think that they are dumb are not welcome with racers who do not think they are not dumb. The two cannot exist on the same track and have a clean race by the standards of those who understand and abide by the rules. My hope (and this thread) is about educating those that either think these rules are dumb or are literally ignorant that there are rules in the first place.

You seem to miss the point. It's not about if they are allowed to be here or not. Of course everybody interested in SimRacing/Motorsports/Cars or whatever is more than welcome to join and get to know the beauty of racing.
It's more about the people who are ignorant regarding the rules. That's the entire point. Let's take Football as an example: every kid can take a ball and kick it around - without obeying proper rules nobody would say the kid is playing football, it simply plays ball. And if people here just want to kick the ball around, maybe they should look for another field to play on, since I very much like to play proper football.

Yes, exactly this.

And further, if the kid kicking the ball around wants to learn how to play proper football, he can learn the rules and play along quite easily. The problem is that "learning the rules" in the case of sim racing is that those rules are not adequately communicated on this very website.