Open Letter to AutoSimSport and the Community

[Sebastien Bortoli]

R2P is good,they offer a lot of racing series,with a good ranking soft etc etc ,that don't mean a "non professionnal" and here i mean a comunity who's not a company, cannot offer great leagues and very good forum content,this article (or column as you want) have been writing without any knowledge of how the things work here ....donate or not is up to us,members of RD,nothing have never been asked to me about giving money.

 

[Michael Herrmann]

i am around here since day 1 of RD joined short befor the split of RSC and never looked back
what Bram, Ramon, Bruce, Simon and many others (sorry just cant name all who made this place what it is) did and do
to deliver great racing in a clean enviorment is just unbeliveable, and that for FREE!!!!
cuz noone is forced to pay2play
at the beginning all of the Adimins runned RD in fact on there verry owne money, there free time and dedication
and if you see the whole it would be stupid to think that will work without donations, nothing bad there as long it is not forced like other sites do

now to write a rant about such a great service cant be Fair and must have a reason personal or money wise, maybe RD takes to much ppl of his prefered racing site

i hope i can read a rectification in the next issu

 

[Ramon van Rijn]

Yeah - but it ain't professional
And since for example R2P already offers professionally organized simracing, there's no need for you to provide (any pay) servers of your own. Thus you don't offer any useful service that should cost that much $ - from a R2P zealot's point of view. X-Ter has always been a strong believer in professionally organized simracing.

Lol, what is professional ?
Its still starting the game-ds and run the signups/etc.etc.
All the same here.

Ok we don't have advertising banners And we don't charge money to be on the signup list first.

If a rant-writer wants to rant about a site, it would be nice if he/she actually know the site and history and not just write untruth stuff.

Imo Auto Sim Sport ruined their respect I had for a long time just by posting this ****e in their magazine.

Sounds too much like Race2Play fanboys, and I don't like fanboys.

 

[Adam Vaughan]

I read parts of the article. First time iv ever read AutoSim and the very first bit I read was how the owner/auther or whoever that may be is struggling to finance the magazine???? Even with all there "lovely" advertisments. Maybe they/he should understand what it takes to fund a magazine/website. And also what works best for us.

I love RD and tbh its the only site i visit for my sim racing. But because I love RD.... does that mean i can go slag off all other communities because I dont race there without even attempting to join/race and become part of there community??

 

[Adam Vaughan]

Sounds too much like Race2Play fanboys, and I don't like fanboys.

My thoughts exactly. Difference is we realise diffrent communities attract different people but we still dont go slagging of other communities and welcome all who want to race here.

 

[Gareth Hickling]

Ive raced in a few leagues around the net but for some reason I always seem to have alot more fun here at RD with whoever im racing with, in whatever sim. Maybe this is due to it not having a mandatory price plan to race?
When people pay for a service they start to demand more and believe its their right to do so. Maybe thats why it feels more fun here in the Racing Club, Laid back enjoyable racing.
Ofcourse the leagues here are ran with the uppermost professionalism as we have seen many many times in the past since this place was born. We seem to have the best of both worlds without a subscription. lus1:

As for all this in Autosim mag, I think to me they have just lost some credability. Still I guess some people like controversy.
As somebody said earlier its the first time they have read that net mag, At least they might of got a few extra downloads.



I just loved this bit..

And since for example R2P already offers professionally organized simracing, there's no need for you to provide (any pay) servers of your own. Thus you don't offer any useful service that should cost that much $

Funny how RD does not provide ANY pay only servers. but they seem to meet there target most of the time, It just shows what a stellar job the guys do here.

 

[Mark Birney]

Why is RD paying for domains like "nationsgp.com" if there is no Nations GP?

 

[Simon Trendell]

You can only buy domains on terms of years, so technically it's only a once a year cost

 

[Cholerix]

Lol, what is professional ?

Dunno - ask X-Ter, he'll be able to tell you

Sounds too much like Race2Play fanboys, and I don't like fanboys.

This has not been about R2P, but about the rant author's way of thinking

Heck, 2 years back he has even publicly told a niche part of simracing community that they were ceasing to exit. That pretty much upset quite some folks from that allegedly virtually nonexistent community. While that community still does exit and is alive and kicking, this fact would never ever have any impact on X-Ter's line of thinking.

What he was stating now, was just that neither RSC nor RD offer anything to HIM that would be worth his money. Not that anyone had asked for his money... so actually nothing wrong with that. Only the fact, that maybe some people don't like other people's public pissing ... and that nobody at A.S.S. seemed to care in the least that this kind of thoughtless ranting may have notably negative impact on its topics

At least it would have that impact if anyone would take X-Ter's rantings for a serious writer's column...

IMO it's more the satirical kind, though most probably unintentionally arty:

 

[Adam Vaughan]

Maybe A.S.S can let a normal active member of RD to a coloumn on his/her thoughts of RD. Because Im sure this guys choice of website community is always going to be the greatest hey.

But Who is he anyway???????????? Thats all that needs to be said. Who is he??? Iv never heard of the guy it just happens they have allowed him to do a Column. So why cant a respected member of RD do a column??? And say what he/she likes and prefers. Because in my opinion. Thats all it is.

Who is he again btw???????

 

[spamsac]

Only maybe the fact, that maybe some people don't like other people's public pissing ... and that nobody at A.S.S. seemed to care in the least that this kind of thoughtless ranting has negative impact on its topics

Just a quick point: as someone who has written for Autosimsport in the past, including a piece in the issue at hand, I would like to stress that most of the people who have contributed to this magazine do not read the other articles before it gets published.

I am not going to comment on Magnus' piece as I don't really see that my opinion is of much relevance: he's a big enough boy to explain/justify/defend it himself if he sees fit.

My reason for posting is just to clarify that, whilst "Autosimsport" comprises of a number of people who contribute towards the magazine, it is not necessarily some unified group with homogeneous opinion and consensus.

"We have opinionated columnists, and as the saying goes, they don't necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the magazine ... though we most certainly stand-by their right to have one" might not hit the spot in some of your eyes, but please do remember that it is true.

Regards,
Simon

 

[Bruce Saltzman]

I understood that from your previous post that this was a rant by the author, not necessarily grounded in reality or truth.

I'm still curious what the author thinks constitutes a professionally run organization as opposed to what we do here. To my knowledge, there is no school that offers an undergraduate degree in sim racing organization, so it can't be by virtue of an educational background. Perhaps it is the structure of the organization. Perhaps a professional organization would organize and manage races using individuals with years of experience and a successful track record in doing so. Perhaps that organization would provide and support an array of servers dedicated to the sole purpose at hand. Then perhaps that organization would charge its members for those services on a monthly basis.

Hey! That sounds like RaceDepartment! Oh, except for the monthly charge to members. So I guess we'll have to start charging our community with monthly fees for the privilege of having quality organized sim racing events and we too can join the ranks of 'professionally' run sim racing destinations. Then we could stop asking for donations and not have to justify our overhead to the clueless.

 

[Bruce Saltzman]

Just a quick point: as someone who has written for Autosimsport in the past, including a piece in the issue at hand, I would like to stress that most of the people who have contributed to this magazine do not read the other articles before it gets published.

I am not going to comment on Magnus' piece as I don't really see that my opinion is of much relevance: he's a big enough boy to explain/justify/defend it himself if he sees fit.

My reason for posting is just to clarify that, whilst "Autosimsport" comprises of a number of people who contribute towards the magazine, it is not necessarily some unified group with homogeneous opinion and consensus.

"We have opinionated columnists, and as the saying goes, they don't necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the magazine ... though we most certainly stand-by their right to have one" might not hit the spot in some of your eyes, but please do remember that it is true.

Regards,
Simon

As someone who has produced AutoSimSport in the past, I'm all to aware of what you're saying. And I suspect that's true of any magazine. However, in my past experience, the Editor-in-Chief read every word that was written. Perhaps that has changed as well?

 

[Damian Henderson]

Guess you missed a point here. According to X-Ter, R2P is simracer's heaven, as its the only place (apart from iRacing) where simracing is organized in a professional way - and according to X-Ter the only way simracing should be done. So running that 3 race RD servers would be entirely useless anyway

Thats just his opionion, R2P is good but it lacks rewards for your money spent on team licenses and most big named drivers and teams ( including ourselfs ) don't take it to seriously so you don't get many big teams competing there, as there is no broadcast and no prizes given out (well very rarely anyway), so you dont get anything back in terms of exposure for your team or prizes for winning for your money spent. Outside of R2P it's like called the place for organized public races as it's a good place for fun, but it's no where near as clean as a place to race then at RD and there is allot more big names here, as well as having broadcasts, competitions for prizes and everything else, so overall IMO RD is a better community then R2P.

 

[Adam Vaughan]

Thats just his opionion, R2P is good but it lacks rewards for your money spent on team licenses and most big named drivers and teams ( including ourselfs ) don't take it to seriously so you don't get many big teams competing there, as there is no broadcast and no prizes given out, so you dont get anything back in terms of exposure for your team or prizes for winning. Outside of R2P it's like called the place for organized public races as it's a good place for fun, but it's no where near as clean as a place to race then at RD and there is allot more big names here, as well as having broadcasts, competitions for prizes and everything else, so overall IMO RD is a better comminity then R2P.

Oh look an opinion from a guy who sounds like hes tried both communities. Unlike the "journalist". Top Man Damian :good:

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Guys, I think Bruce started this open letter to AutoSimSport to express our concerns about the article. Not to make a comparison between racing communities itself in terms of which is better or worse. Every community supporting online simracing is a good community, wether thats run by professionals, hobbiests, paid or unpaid staff, i hope we are all here for the same reason: love for the racing simulations we enjoy racing.

 

[Damian Henderson]

Of course, am not ripping R2P in anyway as it's a good place and does things differently, am just merley stating my own experience with RP2 & RD to make things a bit more clearer to some people who maybe a bit unaware of the differences and to help protect the image of RD.

 

[Jon Denton]

Maybe A.S.S can let a normal active member of RD to a coloumn on his/her thoughts of RD. Because Im sure this guys choice of website community is always going to be the greatest hey.

So why cant a respected member of RD do a column??? And say what he/she likes and prefers. Because in my opinion. Thats all it is.

You, or any other member of RD would be very welcome to do a column. It would be a delight to see the viewpoint of a respected RD member, and as a columnist covering their chosen field, they would be free and open to express any opinions which they hold dear.

Any volunteers drop me a mail at jon.denton@autosimsport.net

 

[Mike Hill]

You, or any other member of RD would be very welcome to do a column. It would be a delight to see the viewpoint of a respected RD member, and as a columnist covering their chosen field, they would be free and open to express any opinions which they hold dear.

Any volunteers drop me a mail at jon.denton@autosimsport.net

Now thats probably a very good idea, it would be interesting to see something from within RD, as this site does appear to have a very different atmosphere to anything else out there - maybe we should consider doing something to publicise the fact?

 

[Kevin Watts]

I say any input now gives weight to the original opinion piece. RD has nothing to explain, the article lacked any factual basis or common decency. To contribute now only provides ASS with column inches and validates such rants. This issue it was RD in the firing line but next issue it could be someone less able to defend themselves.