Race league forum is getting convoluted

Mike Davies · Jan 22, 2017

Is there anyway the race postings can be labeled with date first, then the track/car combo? The list getting pretty hard to read with so many races going on every week. I noticed turn out has been down, so maybe this will help. For example

Kurupt CDN · Jan 22, 2017

Personally i think we need to cut back on the US events until we get a good amount of drivers as well as not schedule during or around other US club events. Another thing to factor in is ESR west runs on weekends at the same time and a handful of RD members race there.....during our audi race last night they had 15 drivers in there race 3 or 4 where RD members.
The fact is north american sim racers are a dying breed and i dont wanna see the us server efforts go to waste.....1 nite a week with a good grid beats 3-4 nights of small grids or cancellations

Christian Moreau · Jan 22, 2017

Kurupt CDN said:
Personally i think we need to cut back on the US events until we get a good amount of drivers as well as not schedule during or around other US club events. Another thing to factor in is ESR west runs on weekends at the same time and a handful of RD members race there.....during our audi race last night they had 15 drivers in there race 3 or 4 where RD members.
The fact is north american sim racers are a dying breed and i dont wanna see the us server efforts go to waste.....1 nite a week with a good grid beats 3-4 nights of small grids or cancellations

Unfortunately, ESR runs events almost hourly on the weekend nights as well as Friday night, so that puts us in a rock and a hard place. All I can do is put the events up and hope that those members chose to race with us using their membership rather than racing there.

This is what setting up the US event schedule looks like.

Kurupt CDN · Jan 22, 2017

Lol i agree...i ran a club back in the day for race 07 and it was a nightmare trying to find a time that suited the majority......we found saturdays at 11am MT worked well and allowed for the uk guys to join.
As for esr they have 2 main time slots....8pm est and 10 or 11pm est....than baddog has his own server up around 12am....one of the nights is there winter league but not sure what night, than sat, sun is there open dropin.
My main concern is you getting turned off or disheartened due to low turn outs or having to cancel races thats why i suggested less races till we build a good core.

Christian Moreau · Jan 22, 2017

Kurupt CDN said:
Lol i agree...i ran a club back in the day for race 07 and it was a nightmare trying to find a time that suited the majority......we found saturdays at 11am MT worked well and allowed for the uk guys to join.
As for esr they have 2 main time slots....8pm est and 10 or 11pm est....than baddog has his own server up around 12am....one of the nights is there winter league but not sure what night, than sat, sun is there open dropin.
My main concern is you getting turned off or disheartened due to low turn outs or having to cancel races thats why i suggested less races till we build a good core.

Don't worry, when I agreed to taking on this role, I said that I was in it for the long haul so I ain't going anywhere.

I love this game and want to see us get a nice core going with the great content that is on offer. The mandate that has been given is for us to post multiple events a week so the weekday event postings will continue, whether people sign up or not. My hope is that Fridays and Sundays will open up as time goes by. 2017 will hopefully be a boom in popularity for R3E considering all the changes that are coming, which may help things.

Kenny Paton · Jan 22, 2017

I believe the way it has to done relates to the calendar.
If people use the links in the conversations it'll take them directly to the event for signing up.

Mike Davies · Jan 22, 2017

Kenny Paton said:
I believe the way it has to done relates to the calendar.
If people use the links in the conversations it'll take them directly to the event for signing up.

dont get me started on how even more unbearably convoluted those conversations are, too much information on one page
I just feel like for a new person coming to the site, starting at the list of races in the forum is a bit intimidating. Where when starting with the date it looks a tad more 'readable' and organized...just voicing my opinion, but i feel like simplifying things could help with getting a new wave of racers on the site.

I mainly bring this up because my 40 yr old friend that i really want to get racing on here is having trouble signing up...hes finding it confusing

Kenny Paton · Jan 22, 2017

@Mike Davies, week commencing followed by day and link to event details and sign up thread, I don't see that as confusing. I suppose I could add the dates as well see if that helps.

Mike Davies · Jan 22, 2017

Kenny Paton said:
@Mike Davies, week commencing followed by day and link to event details and sign up thread, I don't see that as confusing. I suppose I could add the dates as well see if that helps.

i just mean the title of the event on the forum page that's all
it's this page here where I feel like having the dates first in the title might help make it easier to read

Kenny Paton · Jan 22, 2017

Mike Davies said:
i just mean the title of the event on the forum page that's all
it's this page here where I feel like having the dates first in the title might help make it easier to read

it's got to be uniform across all clubs, plus by the time the newer posts have changed the order it probably would be just as confusing.
I think the secret is to use the links in the conversation. The only difference in my approach is I'm starting a new conversation each week, which I think makes it slightly easier.

Caramidaru Andrei Bogdan · Jan 22, 2017

I for one find them OK, but I also use mostly the Calendar tab

Kenny Paton · Jan 22, 2017

Caramidaru Andrei Bogdan said:
I for one find them OK, but I also use mostly the Calendar tab

Yes I like the calendar, the only thing about tags are that they hopefully encourage people to sign up early because we know that sign ups tend to grow the grid. I have no issue with members signing in at the last minute if that's dependent on their circumstances but seeing a busy grid really does help others in deciding to join. With the competition both in different games and leagues/clubs coupled with the ease of setting up a server any advantage is desirable.

Mike Davies · Jan 22, 2017

Kenny Paton said:
I think the secret is to use the links in the conversation. The only difference in my approach is I'm starting a new conversation each week, which I think makes it slightly easier.

NOOOO these are not the secret! lol These conversations will be the death of RaceDepartment, mark my words. I have already noticed a massive drop in participation levels since this change, so im sure you guys have too.

Everyone I talk to in the club agrees those conversations are NOT good. Its taking the club back a few steps , not forward. ESPECIALLY for new comers....how do they get in the conversation?
If the owner of RaceDepartment wants to increase traffic, these recent changes are not the way to do it. A new conversation every week is turning off current users because of unnecessary spam as well.

I applaud you guys trying to make changes for the better, but this is not one of them. The old system was great, just need to clean the interface up a bunch for newcomers.

Kenny Paton · Jan 22, 2017

Mike Davies said:
I have already noticed a massive drop in participation levels since this change

It's only been used once so far, so that can't be a factor.

Mike Davies said:
ESPECIALLY for new comers....how do they get in the conversation

The same as always, once they have raced with us a couple of times they get added to the tag list (now conversation list)

Mike Davies said:
A new conversation every week is turning off current users because of unnecessary spam as well

There will be no spam, the test was my fault for not stopping replies, but I wanted to know if people wanted to be taken off the list. That's been remedied now.
As far as I'm aware the site coding moves the latest thread to the top of the pile and I don't think that'll change, also it's been that way forever and people manage.