RaceDepartment New Website Released

[Paul Jeffrey]

RaceDepartment.com will be down on Wednesday 30th October, as we look to bring a fresh new image to the largest sim racing website in the world.

Having undergone considerable growth and change in the last decade and a bit, we feel the time is right to take our website to the next level of presentation and functionality. On the evening of Wednesday 30th October (approx 22:00 UTC) we will close access to www.racedepartment.com for much of the night, as we upload and launch our brand new website!

We anticipate access will be restricted for around 12 hours, but if you still need that essential sim racing fix, take the opportunity to check us out on our various Social Media platforms, which can be accessed via the below links.

See you all on the other side!

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

No.
Bad.
View attachment 350338

can you confirm that this issue has now been resolved? I have changed the collapsing width of the navigation.

 

[Jempy]

Hello @Bram Hengeveld

For the dark style, should it be possible for threads with new posts .... to modify the white color ( for example from white to yellow ) for those threads titles.... in place of normal character to bold.
The difference between bold and usual characters is so tiny .... that it's nearly impossible to know which is which.

On a 21/9 screen ( with no adds for premium members )... the dark style is the best choice for the eyes but with a disadvantage of less visibility for threads with new posts.

Or maybe another solution for all styles ....have a filter of new posts per category ( sim series and other main ones ) for the general "New Posts" page.
It should be easier for all ( and for me also ) to find the new infos or answers they are looking for in a particulary topic

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Ill spend some more time on the dark styles soon @Jempy and of course will take this on board.

 

[krissboo]

You are using an adblocker or a scriptblocker which prevents ads from loading. You will understand what we cannot provide any support to people who block our only source of income to pay for our servers and costs.

With a default browser without ad block software you will not see those big empty spaces.

I do understand ad revenue is needed but why offer a premium option if ads are your only source of income to pay for servers and costs? Does premium not also count as an income for you?

By the way, now I have hidden the menu on the left by clicking on the 3 lines the site looks much better. Keep at it and you might please everybody here - actually that's never gonna happen

I mentioned it before but I'll mention it again...can we have the old bookmark icon back as well please.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Which bookmark icon do you mean @krissboo ?

With regards to ads. If people don't like ads (who does?) people can do three things: purchase premium and support the site by actively helping with the costs, watch ads which is also fine as our ads are all placed outside the content and not annoying and very limited in amount, or choose the wrong option and block ads and then go ask for support when pages look broken

If people knew the true intention of adblocking companies they would not use them. They are not here for a better or saver internet, they are only active to scam website owners asking ridiculous monthly fees to unblock ads on their sites.

Premium users are the biggest help @krissboo and the site would not be able to continue without them. I am glad we have something awesome to give to them soon!

 

[krissboo]

Which bookmark icon do you mean @krissboo ?

With regards to ads. If people don't like ads (who does?) people can do three things: purchase premium and support the site by actively helping with the costs, watch ads which is also fine as our ads are all placed outside the content and not annoying and very limited in amount, or choose the wrong option and block ads and then go ask for support when pages look broken

If people knew the true intention of adblocking companies they would not use them. They are not here for a better or saver internet, they are only active to scam website owners asking ridiculous monthly fees to unblock ads on their sites.

Premium users are the biggest help @krissboo and the site would not be able to continue without them. I am glad we have something awesome to give to them soon!

As I said, I totally get the whole ad thing and the revenue it provides but I was just pulling you up on the fact you said it was your only source of income for this site and I wondered where premium fitted in to it....all good. Just me being picky lol

As for the bookmark icon - its now a light blue thing with 3 sliders (like a graphic equalizer) and before it was a nice clear red R and a blue D and was easily distinguishable in my list of many bookmarks. The new icon isn't very easy to find yet.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

As for the bookmark icon - its now a light blue thing with 3 sliders (like a graphic equalizer) and before it was a nice clear red R and a blue D and was easily distinguishable in my list of many bookmarks. The new icon isn't very easy to find yet.

Ah, that is something i will have to look into. I thought you meant the bookmark icon on forums posts which is still here.

Ill put that on the things to do list!

 

[Monol]

Maybe we have mistakenly gave you the impression that we are running a democracy here but that is not the case, sorry

Site design, road map, business development, and how our site and staff will look in the future are not something you have a say in. Everybody is happy to help, provide feedback and report bugs and yes you can even step up to a position where you can make decisions but we are not rolling back anything as I have clearly outlined a few times now we MUST adopt this framework to move on to the next phase.

This site is visited 1.5 million times each 30 days so these few vocal comments do not represent the voice of the customerbase. The majority of our users are still very happy with us improving the site and developing new features for free!

If you don't wish to visit the site anymore that is your decision and totally fine. The web is large enough to browse other sites you prefer over this one. No hard feelings.

Jesus, that is a garbage attitude, sorry but it's true.

This isn't about being a democracy. It's about your userbase, which should be your top priority, being unhappy with changes you made. This should be an indicator to change back.

But fine. I'm taking your advice.

 

[Marisa]

can you confirm that this issue has now been resolved? I have changed the collapsing width of the navigation.

Way better now.
Thx for making it more into an overlay in smaller windows so it doesn't push everything else to the side, I think this solution is perfect.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Jesus, that is a garbage attitude, sorry but it's true.

This isn't about being a democracy. It's about your userbase, which should be your top priority, being unhappy with changes you made. This should be an indicator to change back.

It's the truth. We are not going to revert anything as we need this framework to build our future website on, simple as that. If for every time a user complains we need to put things to a halt or revert we don't get anywhere.

Our userbase is not unhappy, don't make the mistake to think that the vocal minority represents the majority as that isn't the case.

The site stays as it is and from here we build to the next version with an amazing frontpage with daily news.

Bugs and errors we can fix but our users are not going to decide what framework we run on the backend or what kind of software we are or aren't using.

 

[Jivesauce]

Jesus, that is a garbage attitude, sorry but it's true.

This isn't about being a democracy. It's about your userbase, which should be your top priority, being unhappy with changes you made. This should be an indicator to change back.

But fine. I'm taking your advice.

I think maybe you are looking at it from the wrong perspective. It seems as if you view this site as you being a customer and Bram having an obligation to serve your needs, but Bram (and many others) is volunteering his time to provide a community where you can get the latest news about sim racing, find races, and get downloads, all for free. I know this isn't Bram's primary job, and I feel very confident in saying he isn't getting rich off this site. I suspect very much that the vast majority of revenue goes back in to paying server costs/hosting fees, as this site has a pretty large amount of traffic and file downloads.

If this were iRacing or something and you were paying a significant monthly fee I would understand having some expectation of service, but you're not even a Premium member; I don't see where the entitlement is coming from. Why do you think he owes you something?

Edit: Maybe I can be even more clear as I think about it. It sounds like you think you are doing him a favor by being a member of his community, when I think it is more accurate to say he is doing people a favor by providing the community for us.

 

[Monol]

It's the truth. We are not going to revert anything as we need this framework to build our future website on, simple as that. If for every time a user complains we need to put things to a halt or revert we don't get anywhere.

Our userbase is not unhappy, don't make the mistake to think that the vocal minority represents the majority as that isn't the case.

The site stays as it is and from here we build to the next version with an amazing frontpage with daily news.

Bugs and errors we can fix but our users are not going to decide what framework we run on the backend or what kind of software we are or aren't using.

I don't see the need to lie to me, as I can clearly read. The response here has been overwhelmingly negative.

And so far, not a single change to this website from it's old version has been received well, following discussion on both major changes lately.

But sure, keep telling yourself that "people like this" and that RaceDepartment can be "professional and great". I'll put that next to the now four-month long 7% discount you keep advertising in a begging plea for people to buy your "Premium" service. No thanks, I have functional AdBlock Software to keep malicious Ads away from my PC, I don't need to send you money for that.

Have a good day.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

You don't need to send us anything if you don't want to. RD is a fine free to use site with ads.

However people like yourself make running a site for free an absolute nightmare but do as you wish and block the ads you don't want to see but don't be surprised to be revoked access to this and other sites yourself at some point in the future when running an active adblocker in your browser.

For sure you have a real life job where at the end of the month somebody actively blocks your salary? But why bother, you don't need to pay for any costs in life right? Do you also cover your eyes when there are advertisements on TV or put fingers in your ears when a commercial is played on the radio?

Come on be real. This website and others with high traffic and terrabytes of data use each month are facing costs that need to be paid. The internet is not for free despite what some people think.

 

[LilSki]

To be fair about the ads. I was fine with them initially but when on mobile 1 in 5 visits would result in some sort of popup or redirect which is unacceptable IMO. So I switched to opera on mobile to mitigate that issue. Ads are fine as long as they do their thing without sending me places without my consent.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Let me stress that one more time: we never serve pop-ups intentionally. If that happens you need to report those as Google doesn't allow popups in their network and advertisers who force their way into adsense with such tactics are rightfully removed and banned as far as I know.

 

[LilSki]

Let me stress that one more time: we never serve pop-ups intentionally. If that happens you need to report those as Google doesn't allow popups in their network and advertisers who force their way into adsense with such tactics are rightfully removed and banned as far as I know.

Never said you did it intentionally but it is a problem and one that can take time to resolve even when it is reported. And it's not necessarily easy to know which one triggered the problem in the first place. Sadly I don't believe there is a perfect solution. Maybe ad block that only blocks known trouble makers.

 

[Scarystuff]

I think maybe you are looking at it from the wrong perspective. It seems as if you view this site as you being a customer and Bram having an obligation to serve your needs, but Bram (and many others) is volunteering his time to provide a community where you can get the latest news about sim racing, find races, and get downloads, all for free. I know this isn't Bram's primary job, and I feel very confident in saying he isn't getting rich off this site. I suspect very much that the vast majority of revenue goes back in to paying server costs/hosting fees, as this site has a pretty large amount of traffic and file downloads.

Anyone paying to be premium is a customer. And running this website as a source of income is NOT volunteer work.

If people knew the true intention of adblocking companies they would not use them. They are not here for a better or saver internet, they are only active to scam website owners asking ridiculous monthly fees to unblock ads on their sites.

Someone have been drinking the kool-aid. It is true that 1 adblocker is doing that, but no one in their right mind is using that adblocker.

 

[Scarystuff]

You are using an adblocker or a scriptblocker which prevents ads from loading. You will understand what we cannot provide any support to people who block our only source of income to pay for our servers and costs.

With a default browser without ad block software you will not see those big empty spaces.

If ads are your only source of income, where do the money from Premium users then go?

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Shall we please not have the same discussion again? Already explained above that premium and ads are our income.

Lets continue this thread for what is was posted for: bug reporting and feedback. If there aren't any bugs spotted anymore we can keep the design as it is for now.

The viewport has been adjusted for users on smaller width screens. If there are no other reports of abnormalities I can mark this one resolved as well.

 

[LilSki]

I posted this previously but this is with an actual image. Is there a way we can get this at the top or near the top of the mobile thread list? It's a pain to have to scroll down the entire first page just to be able to get to the last page. So if we can have this also be up top as well as at the bottom like the desktop layout that would be the last thing I can think of that drives me crazy since the first redesign.