[Simon Meisinger]

Here's an idea I had after yesterday's F1 race how we could enhance the race quality of certain series:

Rating limits don't really work because a rating of more than 500 isn't an indication that you can race and a higher rating limit would exclude a lot of good racers that simply don't race that often or aren't part of SRS that long. Incident average also doesn't work, as debated often already.

So how about we introduce something like a "trusted racers group" as a requirement for certain series?

Kind of like a group of members that are known to usually behave around the track. "Gentlemen" as they're often referred to in sim racing.

Not just guys who let others pass when they're faster of course, also hard racers that simply know their limits (you know, those people who are usually from the Netherlands or Finnland).

People can vote others into that "club" and with enough votes (5? 10?) you're part of it and can participate in series that are only available to people of that group.

Thoughts?

[Igor Relja]

Great idea! Some kind of karma system for filtering drivers for certain series could work wonders. Something in the line with Reputation we already have, but separated from the forum posts. Maybe at the end of the race or in results you have option to (anonymously, to prevent people abusing those who give them negative rep) give thumbs up or down to the drivers in your split.

"Only" downsides to this would be:

• Difficulty to implement. It doesn't even need to be too complicated, but maybe it can take time to make sure everything works, and maybe SRS are not willing to spend that time for that.
  
• Somewhat opened to vote manipulation, like every public vote. Even if it's limited just to races you're in, like it should be, it doesn't prevent somebody to give + or - to somebody just because they are friendly. I could be in the same race with you and give you positive even if we never met during the race, and you were wrecking people up. But, I think that vote manipulation would be too small to matter in the long run.
  
• Making people to actually use the bloody function. You can take horse to the water, but you can't make it drink. I'm afraid that not enough drivers would use it to make it, well, useful. It would probably end up being same 20 or so people who usually discuss things on the forums, suggest stuff like that. Just think how many drivers still don't respect blue flags, or block you when you're lapping them, even though it's clearly written in the MOTD when you join server.
  

[Andrea Papasodaro]

It's a good idea, it would be a server 1+.

It might also indirectly help other drivers to increase their rating since the best are racing in another split

[Sergio Mendez]

Nice idea but in my opinion It wouldn’t work if it makes into a popularity contest where drivers with some friends/communities, can inflate/harm other’s.

[Andrea Papasodaro]

http://www.simracingsystem.com/showthread.php?tid=7309

There's also this thread, maybe a mix of both can be good

[Sergio Mendez]

The races I would like to watch are "champions races". Best drivers of one or more series invited for final season races. It would be great in my opinion.

[Simon Meisinger]

popularity contest

I though of that as a problem at first as well, but when you think about it this voting should be a popularity contest. Because in sim racing people who can't behave on the track are automatically unpopular. No matter how many nice things they post in the forums.

champions races

That's a really great idea. Only people who finished in the top five of a series (or top 10 maybe).

People who take their time to participate in every race of a series are usually also those who put a lot of effort into sim racing which automatically makes them capable of racing properly.

Pretty much what I was going for but without the voting mechanism (that people might not use and takes time to implement).

[Sergio Mendez]

Agree with your ideas about trusted drivers. I don't know how technically difficult could it be, but as driver I support every try to achieve it.
Champions race's streamings could give SRS even more relevance, in addition being so fun to watch by others. I almost know every daily driver here, his names, his ways... I would enjoy a lot to watch the best drivers fighting for a final Championship.

[Afonso Quelhas]

Since the last f1 series that i've raced ( I think it was the lotus with turbo settings),that this same concepts came into to my mind.
Maybe i'm wrong, but i think at the time, at first that series started without any type limitation, but after the first race, a rating minimum was implemented. It became better, but was not the perfect solution, by the same reasons posted above.
I've been thinking about now again, after joining this 1991 f1 series with the Ferraris 643 and Williams FW14.
At first i though about joining the ideas of, rating minimum ( but high, maybe 800 ) with a minimum lap time also. That could also be, 5/10 laps with a average lap time minimum requirement, set on specific srs practice server.
Another idea also came to mind, that is simply like a "Pro series" , with the top 20 general rating drivers or like it already said above, the winners or the top 3 or five of each series.
Regarding the proposed voting "system"...well, that could be complicated, by numerous reasons.
First the obvious, risk of the "popularity contest effect", then there is the fact that a lot of SRS users if not the majority don't even read things on the forums. Then if voting is based on track behavior...well that might be tricky, since it's really easy to get the wrong impression about someone, positive or negative one, since when we are on track, we are concentrated and focus on our race and race preparation, and not really paying to much attention to what others drivers do or don't do, unless it happens near or in front of you.
Even if you had a good or bad experience with a driver on track, let's say, 3/5 times, i don't believe that can be representative of his global behavior or racecraft...you mite caught him on a bad day, or a god day and his behavior being totally different in other occasions or around others drivers. In order to be able to vote with some certainly, i think it should be with drivers that you raced many, many times, that you've raced against near by, in close racing...something like that.
I've been racing here for a while now, and it seems there are now around 20.000 registered users or more, don't know how many are really active or not, but still there's a lot of drivers using the system. And in all this time i've raced here... i've only managed to form a idea about some drivers or knowing them a bit and their racecraft...really just a few. Maybe 15/25 drivers, 30 tops. And that's nothing compared to the total.
So the voting idea...may be really complicated and not really accurate.

Cheers, and see you all on track.

[Simon Meisinger]

Yes, the voting idea has a lot of problems. But I'm glad this and the other thread led to the champion races idea

What I'd really like is an official practice server where you have to do a certain number of laps before you can register for a race. Not for all series of course, just for the more demanding ones.