A Public Reply to the FILSCA White Paper

A public reply to the Filsca white paper - http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~djelliso/sim_opinion.htm Please read and voice your opinion in the polls at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/simracingopinions

I independently came to many of the same conclusions as you. Gee, that means we're approaching critical mass ;-) "Douglas Ellison" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:UUgi7.12954$[email hidden]...

Quoted text (7 lines)

> A public reply to the Filsca white paper - > http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~djelliso/sim_opinion.htm > > Please read and voice your opinion in the polls at > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/simracingopinions > >

Some answers to the first reactions - and an Introduction of the persons We'd like to thank all of those in the sim-community who have taken the time to read and evaluate the FILSCA white-paper. We have received many enquiries, criticism, and much enthusiasm and would like to take this opportunity of clearing up as many issues as we can. For this, there appears, as soon as the webmaster is awake today, a FAQ (http://www.filsca.com/filscafaq.html). Before that, however, there are a few misconceptions that need to be discussed. The first of those is the "us/them" scenario which certain members of the sim community have taken as their mantra. FILSCA is, legally, a group of leagues. It is a club, registered in the EU. Leagues join FILSCA, and they, and no-one else, is FILSCA. So who are the "we" mentioned above? We are a group of sim-racers who are creating a platform for FILSCA - which includes start-up costs, statutes, legal advice, concepts, websites, magazine staff, etc. It has taken us the better part of a year, and we are still working, sometimes up to ten hours a day, to get this right. Perhaps the best way to get around this us/them dichotomy, then, is to give a practical example: FILSCA is an empty building that "we" built. The building, when it is complete, will be taken over by the leagues, to do with as they wish. In this regard, the management positions within FILSCA are to be filled by regularly elected representatives nominated by the member leagues of FILSCA. Each member shall have an equal say in the running of FILSCA, the non-profit club. So where do the drivers fit in? Firstly, FILSCA will recognize a Driver's Union. Secondly, leagues are their drivers, and league-managers, as we all know, are drivers as well. So what motivates "us" to create something like this? Besides the technical challenge, what motivates us is the threat to the sim community presented by anonymous portals that will charge a fee for us to play our beloved sims. We want to protect the sim community from outside interference, we want to protect the leagues and make them stronger, we want the sim-racer to have a better experience in sim racing, we want sim racers to get to know one another through their "stats", for instance. We want to market sim racing to the world as a sport, we want sim racers (that is, us) to be recognized as sportspeople. We want to incorporate the best in simdom under one umbrella to strengthen our collective bargaining positions with sim-producers, and we want to show that sim-racers are serious racers who happen to race in cyberspace. We want to market sim-racing to the, as yet, unknowing public, through the mainstream media, for instance. We want, one day, to sit on a beach in the Caribbean surrounded by twenty drivers on-board hypersims sponsored by business and broadcast around the globe. And after extensive research and talks with people from the sim racing community, as well as with individuals not associated with sim-racing, we feel as if we have plan that has a very good chance of succeeding. That is what "we" want. Will we achieve it? Those responsible for the launch of FILSCA - which is to say, the eight guys who are presently at work preparing for "launch" - believe that an Ideal - that is, the collection of dreams and aspirations that we share for the sim-community - is an aspect that must exist prior to any project. Without dreams, there cannot be an altered reality - and without an alteration of how we perceive the world, there can never be any progress. While it is doubtless the case that we have not found a way of enlightening the world, we have, or at least we believe we have, found an approach through which our Ideal for sim-racing, and one shared by many in the sim community, can, through hard work, good fortune and careful administration, become a reality. The charge that sim-racing, the sim-community, and FILCSA, will find it "impossible" to achieve a certain status for sim-racing within the real world, as has been mentioned in certain under-informed quarters, is a charge that is not only an insult to FILSCA, but a slap in the face of the sim-community in general. At best, this outrageous "impossible" attitude hurts FILSCA and its member leagues. At worst, it insults the sim-community, a community that comprises guys and gals with such a vast array of skills that we have not needed, for any aspect of the plan, to actively involve anyone outside the community. This alone says all that needs to be said for the community. We have never said that FILSCA will capture an audience of "millions": on the other hand, we have said it is impossible either. And nor will we do so: because no-one knows what the future holds. We can only manipulate the future in the hope that we can somehow influence the unknown in our favor. It seems as if there are certain individuals bent on trying to harm FILSCA before it even starts. FILSCA is, (it cannot be otherwise), a democracy. FILSCA will, legally be founded as a club. And that, incidentally, is not some bogus line; it has taken an immense amount of work, research and talks, not to mention lofty dinner-bills in exchange for expert opinions from legal and business experts, to prepare our statutes and articles in such a way as to meet all the requirements of a club under German law. We have thought long and hard on how best lay the foundation of FILSCA, and we believe that the club format is the most democratic organization that can exist, because its laws are so strict and defined that democracy is the only result. What is more, FILSCA is a registered, non-profit-club. No member is allowed to make money from this, and FILSCA the club may not show a profit at the end of a financial year. A club is the appropriate form for people or organizations (like leagues) that wish to join forces in the comforting knowledge that each has the same equal rights within their club. As such, perhaps the best way to introduce FILSCA, at this stage, is to introduce those that are responsible for creating FILSCA. Before this, though, one last thing needs to be briefly explained. What was our common motivation? We're sim racers. And since no-one else was going to do this in an appropriate way that seemed to allow for both the preservation of the integrity of the community, and for a way in which to trigger public awareness toward both sim racing and the community, we decided to tackle this project with a group of guys who were willing to dedicate their time and expense in order to prepare and launch what we believe to be the next logical step for sim racing. At a cost, of course; time, money, and now, it appears, a backlash. We are not sure how to answer some of the more vicious critics, nor exactly how to deal with these guys posting on our own forum. It does anger us, more than anyone can imagine. Picture eight guys, spread across the world, spending hour after hour, day after day, month after month creating something for their community, and then having two guys post slanderous remarks such as "a collection of half hearted pipe dreams strung together by a handful of governmental wannabes with little or no respect for the community, few qualifying qualities and a total absence of jurisdiction for the matter. More than anger us, we were collectively hurt. Perhaps one day if FILSCA does become some William Gibsonite reality, our posts to one another - which totaled far more than these two guys deserved - will show that our reaction was one that ran from anger to astonishment to, what the hell - let's just stick to what we want to do because we know our motives, and they are, morally at least, correct. In the end, many of you know "us". We're doing this for you. So, here is who we are, for those that don't know, and our credentials. One last thing (and this time it really is a last thing!): although the white-paper was meant to stimulate debate, we are in the process of launching FILSCA within the next weeks. The leagues are in place, the structure is in place, the infrastructure is in place. The white-paper was a way for us to determine if we had "missed" anything in our collective thinking, both amongst one another, and amongst many in the sim community. The tons of mails in support are acting as fuel for all of us to take the final steps to launch. We admit a certain pride in FILSCA - and we have no doubt that those leagues, and their drivers who will take-over our baby, will do us, and the sim community, equally proud. The FILSCA start-up team are as follows: Jon Andersen. 33 year old Norwegian Economist. Likes racing virtual cars (TOCA 1 & 2, CMR). Completely hooked on sim racing after picking up GPL 2. Dec 1999. Raced in MoG. President of the Court in MoG. Newbie at N4. Used to have astronomical phone bills because of racing at Vroc. Michael Barlow: Age: 33 Shortsville, NY Lived there in a big metropolis of Shortsville in Upstate NY since his mother launched him. Has been on Pitcrews for both DIRT races and SCCA Club, as well as on a Trans-Am team with many different responsibilities and was also on a Formula Atlantic team as a "Go-For" Purchased a 8-bit sound blaster that came with papy's Indianapolis500 way back many years ago. Shortly after that found a Newsgroup where people were talking about fast lap times using the Sim and offline leagues such as the CompuServe league. A Joystick and a DX chip for my 486 later and he was getting heavily into SimRacing. Found out about Indycar and ran that for a while then bought his first wheel/pedals (TM-T1). Next was NASCAR1. In '96 he ran on Papy's open beta Hawaii system and ran up a $1200.00 phone bill. Later TEN arrived and he was able to start saving money again both on Hawaii and on TEN. Has run in many online leagues. At one time he was actively participating in 8 leagues all at once. Each league he ran in, he always finished the season in the top 25% and many in the top 5. Since GPL came out, he has run in several online leagues and won two championships. Currently running in two leagues and in the top five in both. Mikkel Gram-Hansen Age: 28, Denmark. Danish, self-employed Web-designer and self-taught sim-racer. Has been sim-racing since the good old Amiga days, tried every driving game on the market but found true happiness with GPL. Admin at Simracing.dk and active racer in the Danish GPL Society 1.division, the Danish "Virgin Territories Cup" and the "Euro F2" league. Races at the VrocF2 Saturday races whenever time allows, and has found many good friends and opponents there. Can be found in the famous Vroc Monza T1 crashes on a regular basis... he's the one in the Ferrari in the bottom of the pile. Notable contributions: Started Simracing.dk along with trusty co-admin Karsten Borchers, now awaiting member number 100 after starting out with just 6 drivers a year ago. Has been blessed with a generous web-sponsor and therefore still welcomes "serverspace challenged" simracing sites to come live with him and his buddies. Simracing.dk hosts Alison Hine's "Eaglewoman", Bill Tillman's "Turn 1", Jonathan Merry's "F2Festival", Paul Harrington's "EuroF2", as well as Danish sites for STCC2, F1RC, GP3, SCGT, WSC and Nascar4. Most of his sim-racing community time is spent on "JC's" as he took over the job of running "JeanClaude's F2/FD hotlaps & Setups" when JC could not find the time anymore.... "JC's" is now the semi-official site for the F2/FD community. Shane Addison has been "hired" a few months ago and he is doing a mighty fine job helping Mikkel out at the site. Currently involved in making the "Elite Series" a nations cup for GPLteams.... coming soon to a server near you The idea is to make closer bonds between the different drivers of different nations, in a hopefully fun and friendly spirit. Oh and in starting up the "Nordic Nascar4 Challenge", which you might guess is a Nascar4 league for us true Vikings. Christoph Schirmer (ICQ# 105147425): Age: 36 Berlin. Simracing since 1995, started GPL in Jan. 1999, initiated to online racing by a hard but fair figh t with Dave Scott jnr. at Kyalami over a whole Int' short race. Founded the first and only full-race length racing series, REAR MC, which then turned into MoG. Apart from the race length, theses series succeeded with a strong and entertaining organizational concept and the team work of many people involved in establishing it as the series with the highest attendance rate, including all top GPL drivers of the world, as well as in generating a highly competitive series where at the same time the drivers showed high mutual respect. Herko ter Horst. Software engineer by day and sim-racer by night ever since the days of GP1/WC, whose current addiction is Grand Prix Legends. Takes part in several onlineGPL leagues. Notable contributions to the sim-racing community: provides hosting to several sim-racing related sites, among which is Eric Cot�'s SimRacingMag, the Dutch national GPL championship "NLGPLK", as well as some other leagues and sim-racing teams. He is also part of the three man team that has, so far, organized three very successful GPL LAN parties in The Netherlands, attracting top drivers from all over Europe. Alex Martini Age: 33 Manhattan. Ferrari Legend wannabe, used to run his Autolegends site which was, without a doubt, the ugliest damn website ever seen in the history of the WWW. Is a freelance writer, student and is currently enjoying the guilty pleasures of Nascar4. Was called "chrome-head" by no lesser an authority than Randy Cassidy, and was involved in the beta-test-team for GPL 1.2. Also the only man in the sim community accused of "violations of international law" and "inciting racial hatred", charges to which he, of course, pleads .. since pleading remains his general demeanor, working, as he does, as a freelance word-monkey. Eric Sheehan & Jesse Black were unable to fill in their bios, as they are currently unavailable. However, they are actively involved in creating a Driver's School, and are regular visitors at WinVroc as well as active drivers in quite a few GPL and Nascar4 leagues. Others that have either contributed to FILSCA are Eric Cot�, Chris Cosby and Colin McSkimming. The whole project was initially conceived by Christoph Schirmer, and goes back to an email discussion with Chris Cosby in 1999, and we all hope that Chris returns to us once his life is settled again, as will Eric Cot� and Colin.

Hi Mike, I think people's reaction (abuse aside, just ignore that) is sort of understandable, I certainly heavily filter my r.a.s reading but I don't recall reading any ground swell plea for an overall governing body. Now to hear it's structure and governing rules are more or less set without any sort of public "what if" or "how about" discussion would certainly set peoples backs up. Imagine if a group of your neighbours arrived on your doorstep offering to help paint your house, regardless of well intentioned they were, if you didn't think you're house needed painting you're going to be pissed.

Hmmmm.... I don't really understand the stink.... Just what is the evil conspiracy organization (ala Illuminati) gonna do? Force one to join? Destroy the sim community as we know it? It's just a group of dedicated sim racers that feel like they should do something to further their cause. Bring a reign of terror that will have us all quaking [pun intended] in the privacy of our homes? Lighten up.... relax and enjoy.... god, one would think they plan to taking away those Americans' hand guns. <G> Art McEwen wrote:

Quoted text (12 lines)

> Hi Mike, > > I think people's reaction (abuse aside, just ignore that) is sort of > understandable, I certainly heavily filter my r.a.s reading but I don't > recall reading any ground swell plea for an overall governing body. Now to > hear it's structure and governing rules are more or less set without any > sort of public "what if" or "how about" discussion would certainly set > peoples backs up. > > Imagine if a group of your neighbours arrived on your doorstep offering to > help paint your house, regardless of well intentioned they were, if you > didn't think you're house needed painting you're going to be pissed.

Yep, I see your point... The problem probably was that we were all so exited about getting public, that we sort of forgot to tell the whole story. It's much easier seeing the good points to FILSCA when you know more of the whole picture, and I admit we were not good enough to overcome our own excitement and present some more hard facts to open the discussion. To use your own image... we your friendly neighbours;) believe we have made a new super paint that would do wonders to your house, doubling the value or whatever, and we stand on your doorstep jumping up and down in joy .... but manages to mess up the point of telling you why you should accept our help ;) This also helps you understand our initial wonder at why people were more or less bashing us... we wanted to help paint their house and they threw us out like we were Jehova's Witnesses !! I hope we are more tuned into a common manner of communication... we won't just jump up and down at your doorstep, and you'll hopefully invite us in for a cup of coffee and a chat about housepanting ;) Mikkel PS: I speak on my own behalf here, and several of my trusty colleagues in FILSCA might object to the doorstep jumping part... :) "I was the lone doorstep jumper in this, and I'm sticking to that story !" Art McEwen <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:9mg8sn$f97$[email hidden]... > Hi Mike, > > I think people's reaction (abuse aside, just ignore that) is sort of > understandable, I certainly heavily filter my r.a.s reading but I don't > recall reading any ground swell plea for an overall governing body. Nowto

Quoted text (9 lines)

> hear it's structure and governing rules are more or less set without any > sort of public "what if" or "how about" discussion would certainly set > peoples backs up. > > Imagine if a group of your neighbours arrived on your doorstep offering to > help paint your house, regardless of well intentioned they were, if you > didn't think you're house needed painting you're going to be pissed. > >

"Michael E. Carver" wrote:

Quoted text (7 lines)

> Hmmmm.... I don't really understand the stink.... Just what is the evil > conspiracy organization (ala Illuminati) gonna do? Force one to join? Destroy > the sim community as we know it? It's just a group of dedicated sim racers > that feel like they should do something to further their cause. Bring a reign > of terror that will have us all quaking [pun intended] in the privacy of our > homes? Lighten up.... relax and enjoy.... god, one would think they plan to > taking away those Americans' hand guns. <G>

Well said Michael. Such negativism does sound alot like reactionary gun nuts. Marty

Quoted text (15 lines)

> > Art McEwen wrote: > > > Hi Mike, > > > > I think people's reaction (abuse aside, just ignore that) is sort of > > understandable, I certainly heavily filter my r.a.s reading but I don't > > recall reading any ground swell plea for an overall governing body. Now to > > hear it's structure and governing rules are more or less set without any > > sort of public "what if" or "how about" discussion would certainly set > > peoples backs up. > > > > Imagine if a group of your neighbours arrived on your doorstep offering to > > help paint your house, regardless of well intentioned they were, if you > > didn't think you're house needed painting you're going to be pissed.

"Michael Barlow" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:LIEi7.399115$[email hidden]... > > The FILSCA start-up team are as follows: > > Jon Andersen. 33 year old Norwegian Economist. Likes racing virtual cars > (TOCA 1 & 2, CMR). Completely hooked on sim racing after picking up GPL 2. > Dec 1999. Raced in MoG. President of the Court in MoG. Newbie at N4. Usedto > have astronomical phone bills because of racing at Vroc. Most of all............he's my best friend. David G Fisher

>"Michael E. Carver" <[email hidden]> wrote > Hmmmm.... I don't really understand the stink.... Just what is the evil > conspiracy organization (ala Illuminati) gonna do? Force one to join?Destroy > the sim community as we know it? It's just a group of dedicated simracers > that feel like they should do something to further their cause. Bring areign > of terror that will have us all quaking [pun intended] in the privacy ofour > homes? Lighten up.... relax and enjoy.... god, one would think they planto > taking away those Americans' hand guns. <G> Glad to see you're still taking a peek here in r.a.s. Michael :-) Long time no see! -- -- Fran�ois M�nard <ymenard> -- May the Downforce be with you... -- http://www.ymenard.com/ -- This announcement is brought to you by the Shimato Dominguez Corporation - helping America into the New World...

David G Fisher wrote:

Quoted text (13 lines)

> > "Michael Barlow" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:LIEi7.399115$[email hidden]... > > > > The FILSCA start-up team are as follows: > > > > Jon Andersen. 33 year old Norwegian Economist. Likes racing virtual cars > > (TOCA 1 & 2, CMR). Completely hooked on sim racing after picking up GPL 2. > > Dec 1999. Raced in MoG. President of the Court in MoG. Newbie at N4. Used > to > > have astronomical phone bills because of racing at Vroc. > > Most of all............he's my best friend.

And........... -- Fester

lol@Fester. You read my mind...:) "Uncle Fester" wrote:

Quoted text (13 lines)

| And........... | -- | Fester | David G Fisher wrote: | > Most of all............he's my best friend. | > | > "Michael Barlow" <[email hidden]> wrote in message | > news:LIEi7.399115$[email hidden]... | > > | > > The FILSCA start-up team are as follows: | > > | > > Jon Andersen. 33 year old Norwegian Economist. Likes racing virtual

cars | > > (TOCA 1 & 2, CMR). Completely hooked on sim racing after picking upGPL 2. | > > Dec 1999. Raced in MoG. President of the Court in MoG. Newbie at N4.Used | > to | > > have astronomical phone bills because of racing at Vroc. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.273 / Virus Database: 143 - Release Date: 8/16/2001

"Thom j." wrote:

Quoted text (10 lines)

> > lol@Fester. You read my mind...:) > > "Uncle Fester" wrote: > | And........... > | -- > | Fester > > | David G Fisher wrote: > | > Most of all............he's my best friend.

Only thing I can figure is he's proud to have a friend, eh? -- Fester

I was being sarcastic. Who was it that wanted everyone to put me in their kill filter recently? David G Fisher "Uncle Fester" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

Quoted text (9 lines)

> > David G Fisher wrote: > > > > "Michael Barlow" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > > news:LIEi7.399115$[email hidden]... > > > > > > The FILSCA start-up team are as follows: > > > > > > Jon Andersen. 33 year old Norwegian Economist. Likes racing virtual

cars > > > (TOCA 1 & 2, CMR). Completely hooked on sim racing after picking upGPL 2. > > > Dec 1999. Raced in MoG. President of the Court in MoG. Newbie at N4.Used

Quoted text (11 lines)

> > to > > > have astronomical phone bills because of racing at Vroc. > > > > Most of all............he's my best friend. > > > And........... > > -- > > Fester

OMG I can't stop laughing between this and the Depression Book site!! Hahahahahaha :) "Uncle Fester" wrote:

Quoted text (16 lines)

| Only thing I can figure is he's proud to have a friend, eh? | -- | Fester | "Thom j." wrote: | > | > lol@Fester. You read my mind...:) | > | > "Uncle Fester" wrote: | > | And........... | > | -- | > | Fester | > | > | David G Fisher wrote: | > | > Most of all............he's my best friend. |

--- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.273 / Virus Database: 143 - Release Date: 8/16/2001

David G Fisher wrote: > > I was being sarcastic. Who was it that wanted everyone to put me in their > kill filter recently? Upon further investigation, I find you are correct. May I suggest <sarcasm> & </sarcasm> tags in the future? ;) Sry. -- Fester

[email hidden] (Michael E. Carver) wrote in <[email hidden]>: >.... god, one would think they plan to >taking away those Americans' hand guns. <G> Well if that's on their agenda then I'm behind them 100%. - Don Scurlock Vancouver,B.C. GPLRank -14.06 MonsterRank 104.55 Come see how you rank, at the GPLRank site http://gplrank.ringlord.com/

> >.... god, one would think they plan to > >taking away those Americans' hand guns. <G> > > Well if that's on their agenda then I'm behind them 100%.- > Don Scurlock When they take away our handguns, only criminals will have hands...... dave henrie