rec.autos.simulators

Even more ramblings.....

What r.a.s. needs right now is for a few of the "devoted" to step
forward and start showing some leadership.  I think Tony Johns did that
with his well thought out proposal.  He needs some support.  Now, I am
not saying, okay let's all line up behind Tony and do what he says.
(Not after all I've already said in other threads :-0).  But, hey, he
took alot of time and effort to work on something where his main goal
was to do something good for our "community".  For that I support him
and his goals.  This isn't a big ego thing for Tony, but he needs to
know that his effort is appreciated.  It really hurts in the gut when
you go out on a limb like he did, only to have it all seem to fall apart
before his very eyes.  

I can only hope that he has gotten some e-mail thanking him for his
effort (whether you support the end results or not), cuz there hasn't
been much public appreciation voiced.  I think we are all pretty
reasonable people here and most of us have sensed what has being going
on here.  So I don't need to spell it out.

I want to express my appreciation to some of the other leaders out there
in r.a.s.  You weren't elected, but you have taken it upon yourselves to
provide constructive input when needed.  You've taken the time to answer
questions and provide guidance.  But, the rest of us can't just sit back
and take a free ride.  Maybe we could in the good ole days when r.a.s
was just a small circle of friends.  But we've grown and we need more
leaders to step up to the line an help us keep r.a.s. alive and a fun
place to visit.

Hey, I'm not asking you to take on projects like Tony Johns has or to
work your butts off like John Wallace.  I'm just asking for you to sorta
help out in a "community policing" kind of way.  (see earlier posts in
this thread).  

Though I think we could use a couple of volunteers to help out with a
couple of projects that I think r.a.s. desperately needs.  FAQs, that's
what we need.  I'm willing to work on one for ICR2 (since that is what I
am concentrating on now), but I could use a little help from a couple of
people in gathering up those Frequently Asked Questions.  I think it
would be helpful to have one for each of the sim/games discussed here.
Do we got any volunteers for NASCAR, Hawaii, GP2, NFS?  While we are at
it, we need one for r.a.s. also.  (Tony or anyone else happen to have a
copy of the original charter for r.a.s.?  Or happen to know where it's
located?).

The compilation of these FAQs is greatly needed.  It doesn't matter
whether we split up or not, these FAQs will still be needed if we
splinter off or if we end up staying a whole.  As a matter of fact,
everything I've rambled on about holds true no matter what the future
is for r.a.s.

Guess what, I'm actually going to wind this up for now!

In closing, if we did all of the things I've talked about, r.a.s. ain't
gonna become a utopia.  It just ain't gonna happen!  But, it will help
make it a nicer place to hang out in.  It will be more inviting to
new-comers.  And hopefully less hostile to the likes of Ed, Adam, Scott,
Charles, et al who would like to spend some time with us.

Now let's get on to some serious racing!!!!!!!

--
**************************** Michael E. Carver *************************
     Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town.

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As you've probably noticed in my earlier posts, I'm interested in
being an active part of r.a.s.  Most likely not an intricate part, but
a part nonetheless.  I'd like to volunteer to put together a FAQ for
NASCAR, be it for this newsgroup, or for a new r.a.s.nascar newsgroup
in the future.

Kyle Langston

Well I decided to put myself in some of the other reader's shows and try
to let the r.a.s. posts pile up for a couple of days.  I usually like to
visit at least once a day (usually more often).  Pop in read through the
messages real quick.  Skipping the ones I am not interested in.  Thanks
to the release (& the non-USA-release) of the long awaited F1GP2, this
was a horrible time to do that.

First of all I would like to applaud the GP2 posters!!!  They have shown
excellent USENET manners by starting their Subject Line with "GP2" or
"Grand Prix II", etc.  (I will admit a few haven't, but the vast
majority has.)  This made my job a hell of alot easier.

I guess for some people it's just too hard to not read everything that is
posted in r.a.s.  For these people, I do feel sorry for you.  r.a.s.
must be a nightmare at times.  Thank god you don't feel the need to read
all of the posts posted to the USENET ;-)

Anyway, I'm rambling ... (sorry about that, but it's gonna happen alot
in the post so just press TAB or N or whatever you reader needs to skip
to the next post).

I'm not an "ol' timer" on the USENET, though I have put in my years.
Alot of people haven't had the experience some of us have.  I really
like to think of r.a.s. as a community.  Which means that those who
visit here regularly have certain responsibilities.  I think most of us
have been able to shirk these responsibilities in the past.  Mostly
because r.a.s. has been small enough and because we have a good crowd
here.  But as we grow as a community we can't continue to shirk our
community responsibilities.  If we do, we will lose this wonderful
newsgroup to utter chaos.  

Just what am I talking about here.  First of all us ol' timers need to
help out the "newbies".  It ain't their fault, they don't know what's
going on.  It looks cool and they jump in not necessarily knowing how to
act or that there are certain "unwritten" guidelines for sharing on the
USENET.  We should take the time to help them out and in the long run,
help ourselves out.  

Now comes the hard part, how to do this without "flaming" or ridiculing
them.  It's simple, use tact, and if possible don't do it "publicly".
Send them a friendly e-mail explaining how they can participate better
in r.a.s.  I'm talking about letting people know about using a KEYWORD
in the subject line (preferrably the first word or 2 if it relates to a
specific game).  Letting them know that certain types of "conduct" are
not appreciated here.  Proper ways to reply to posts (i.e., don't quote
the whole damn message just to say "so what").  However, there are times
to go "public" and I don't mean flaming.  The prime example is the
"forged" Ed Martin post.  This serves 2 purposes, it let's less
observant and casual readers know it's a HOAX and is WRONG, and
hopefully it will let the poster know we aren't going to let them get
away with ***like that.

(If you care this rambling will continue in the next threaded
article...)

--
**************************** Michael E. Carver *************************
     Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town.

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More RAMBLING thoughts on r.a.s.

We have to realize that the USENET is a huge ungainly beast akin to
total chaos.  I ran across this sig line this afternoon and it sorta
wraps up neatly exactly the "nature of the beast":

* "Usenet
is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea -- massive, difficult to
redirect, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a source of mind-boggling amounts

We have to realize that not all ISP's are equal.  We need to realize
that not all news feeds are equal.  Alot of the complaints that are
raised stem from this fact.  Some people can have 3-4 days lag in their
news feeds.  Because of this threads and discussions can become
disjointed and some's noses get pushed out of joint or people's egos are
bruised.  Come on folks take a "chill pill" and think about the
mechanics of spreading the newsgroups across the globe over countless
locations.   Some of us are lucky and have good service, some of us live
clear around the globe and don't have the great "back-bone" that we in
the "States" have.  

Keep in mind that our community is an ever changing one.  People come
and go.  Old timers vs. first timers.  People who don't visit every day
or even every week.  Just because you see a question being asked and
answered doesn't mean someone else has.  Let's not get bent out of
shape when things are constantly being brought up again over and over.
Besides, it's our own fault.  We don't have any current FAQs, we don't
even have a current FAQ for r.a.s.  (but that is another topic -- I
promise you).

Keeping with the community analogy, every community has it's jerks and
***s.  Well the bigger we get the more we'll see.  Remember, that's
all they are, JERKS.  Ignore them, they ain't worth it.  Don't even give
them the satisfaction of letting them know they got your goat!  That's
what they are after.  That's what they thrive on.  That's what keeps
them alive.

Unfortunately, it really ain't as easy as that.  For one thing we need
to "counter" any ***or mis-information the "jerks" post.  Fine, let's
do that by following up their post with proper information.  Maybe even
include a "civil" comment about their post being inapproriate.  But to
start a minor or major flame war by calling them names our attempting to
ridicule their spelling or grammer is POINTLESS and counter-productive.
The uproar is what they thrive on.  And most importantly, don't let them
drive you away (this is partial directed to Ed or Papyrus and Tony
Johns).  If you abandon the group/community, they've won and everyone
else loses. If your ego is that fragile or your self-esteem is that low,
maybe it is best that you bow-out.  Cuz it's a tough world out here on
the electronic frontier.  But, I truly feel that if you/we can tough it
out, we will win in the end.

If you see red when you read one of these jerk's posts, it's probably
better for you to mark their post as unread.  Go on and read some other
posts, you know the good ones (the ones with my signature :)).  Cool
down a little before you go back and make that follow-up.

Along the same lines, don't hesitate to let a poster know that you feel
they are outta line.  I've had to do this on occasion or two.  And I
have felt the need to do it to people who I know fairly well. I've
probably been in need of being told to calm down a bit myself.  We are
only human and on occasions we show it all too well.  Besides this form
of communication is really hard for some people.  We don't have the
great cues we have when dealing face to face with people (tone of voice,
*** expressions, etc.).  Sometimes, one isn't even aware that
how/what they wrote could be seen as out of line.  Again it just the
nature of the beast.

(more to follow-- I'm sure....)

--
**************************** Michael E. Carver *************************
     Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town.

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