Change of times?

Vangelis Parginos · Apr 7, 2017

I want to ask RD Owners, Admins, Moderators or who ever gave that order.
Why you change the times at the Raceroom club races this year?
The raceroom club timing is the only one that fits my schedule. Thats why i become premium.
Last year we didnt change the timing, so with that in my mind i renew my premium membership.
Now with out asking no one you order to change that, so me and many others not at GMT or BST cant race so late. Race time for my time is 23:00............ its a 2 hour change for no reason!!!
Please give us the reason for that change.

I think these races is for the premium members, and if something is changed the premium members must have a say....

Kurupt CDN · Apr 7, 2017

I wont be able to do much racing this summer with the new time change either

-1 hr would be prefered

Vangelis Parginos · Apr 7, 2017

I think we should find a kind of solution, maybe something like another part of the club with the old racing times.
Couple hours after the announcement of the time change and many premium racers saying that they cant race at these times. I think we deserve a solution.

Vangelis Parginos · Apr 7, 2017

Kurupt CDN said:
I wont be able to do much racing this summer with the new time change either
-1 hr would be prefered

Yes one hour i think i can deal with it. Two hours is a no go for every race for me.

Don Rudi · Apr 8, 2017

The basic question is - why a change of time at all? The schedule we had worked fine and the races were well attended. All Club races must start at the same time - sorry that's too meager as an explanation.

Vangelis Parginos · Apr 8, 2017

RaceDepartment thinks that these times are the best times to attract the maximum amount of racers.
And don't care to ask about that the current racers!!!

Don Rudi · Apr 8, 2017

All races are ahead of a working day and my alarm sounds at 0520, so a race start at 2200 just isn't possible for me. And I am just GMT +2, I don't dare to think about the folks at GMT +3 or even +4.

Vangelis Parginos · Apr 8, 2017

Yeah im at GMT+3 but my problem is different i start work at 23:00 basically at the time the race starts. So if it was an one hour change i could take some minutes to get to work. Now its impossible.
But both me, you, David and many others that didnt read the announcement yet, we will have to quit.

Don Rudi · Apr 8, 2017

There was an announcement?

Vangelis Parginos · Apr 8, 2017

Don Rudi said:
There was an announcement?

No it wasnt, i meant the announcement from Kenny at the races threads

UMC 22 · Apr 8, 2017

No offence guys, but given that RD is a community with people from all over the world, there is no "perfect" solution to this problem. If they change the times, some people will be upset. If they don't change the times, some people will be upset. So what do they do? The answer is that they do what is best for the majority. While it means upsetting some, it is unfortunately the fairest way of doing things.

But let's be clear here, things haven't actually changed on RD. The races are starting at 19:00GMT, which is the time they've always started. (Some races for R3E were starting at 18:30GMT, but it's always been 19:00 in every other club I've raced in.) The only thing that has changed is that some of our stupid countries have moved onto Summer time. So if you want to complain to someone, complain to your governments and lobby them to drop Summer time altogether as it clearly has no place in modern world.

For the record, the time changes are in fact inconvenient for me too and may impact how often I can race, particularly for the longer 60 minute races. However, being in one of those countries which still use archaic Summer time, I understand that RD cannot base their decisions on my personal preferences and must cater for the wider community.

C'est la vie.

Vangelis Parginos · Apr 8, 2017

Ok with that mentality we should let everything that comes in life like it is.
If you were in my spot and cant race at all then i think it will hurt you more Ross.
The races starting at 20:00 GMT not 19:00 GMT i think its a big difference.
Tuesday race
Race: 20:00 GMT / 21:00 BST / 22:00 CEST (30 minutes)
Thursday race
Race: 20:00 GMT / 21:00 BST / 22:00 CEST (20 minutes)
Sunday race
Race: 20:00 GMT / 21:00 BST / 22:00 CEST (45 minutes)

Guys this is not about argue with other members, its about frustration that i cant race at all.

But anyway be good with everything. And C'est la vie....

Rupe Wilson · Apr 8, 2017

Thanks @Ross Garland in trying to explain and help

Guys, I did say Kenny is looking into it and asking the relevant questions, please be patient and give him the time needed to be able to respond.

Vangelis Parginos · Apr 8, 2017

Rupe Wilson said:
Thanks @Ross Garland in trying to explain and help

Guys, I did say Kenny is looking into it and asking the relevant questions, please be patient and give him the time needed to be able to respond.

We cant discuss???

Don Rudi · Apr 8, 2017

Sorry Ross, but I disagree on a couple of points:

RD is a community with pepole from all over the world

Yes, but that's why we have US, EU and AU races. So from my understanding EU races should be optimized for people in the current GMT+1, +2 and +3 regions.

Summertime

As to my knowlege the only European country without summertime is Iceland. Thus summertime is a given fact and should very well be taken into account for race planning.

Time will tell if they made the right move, but I expect to see an increase in Canadian and US flags next to the names and a decrease in flags from countries to the east of the UK. But maybe I am wrong and there are more night owls, than drivers that have to work in the next morning (or night)

psynusoid · Apr 8, 2017

I brought this up last year and @Kenny Paton was pretty good in trying to adjust times where possible but real life meant I couldn't race very much anyway.
Its pretty pointless having evening races if they start at 2200 CEST, practice at 2100 CEST.
Surely it would be sensible to aim as early as possible in the UK so the rest of Europe hasn't already gone to bed.
If practice started at 1830 BST, qualify 1900 BST and race 1930 BST then....
practice starts 1930 CEST, qualify 2000 CEST and race 2030 CEST
Its not actually any time difference other than the timezones across europe as we all change clocks the same last sunday in march and october.

Maddog77 · Apr 8, 2017

Now this is the shittiest thing that can be done. Suddenly +2 hours is too much for me, as it would be 2300. I'm out, thanks for the fun, how can I get a refund, does anyone know?

UMC 22 · Apr 8, 2017

Right, so let's assume they change the times away from the never-changing GMT timezone, so all races then start earlier to accommodate the people on GMT+2 or whatever. That would then mean that others may not be able to race as often as earlier times are too early for various reasons... work, dinner time, kids bed times, etc etc.

So what then? They post complaints too just like the ones above, RD are still considered to be in the wrong, and no resolution can be found to suit everybody. Remember that it's always the people negatively affected that are the most vocal. What about the 100's that are perfectly fine with RD's races always being based on GMT?

As I already said, the time "change" (based on BST) does not suit my schedule at all, but it's just one of those things. You can't expect an online community to change everything for a small minority which are inconvenienced. They have to do what is best for the majority, especially since the move to paid membership. Yes, I know you guys and myself pay too, but in this case we're not the majority. If I'm wrong and we are the majority, then more people need to speak up here.

Vangelis Parginos · Apr 8, 2017

Ross you continue to talk with out thinking... like you did before with one hour mistake,
i have race in this club last summer too and we didnt change the timing. The other clubs are used to this timing, not the raceroom club. Thats why me and many others become and renew our membership.

Please dont take it to the argue way... its not

Don Rudi · Apr 8, 2017

The whole of Europe has summertime, so what sense does it make to stick to GMT times during that period? Adapting the times to summertime, would mean that basically no-one is affected. How could that be wrong?!? Now everybody is affected, how can that be better?