I have no experience with this sort of thing, but Black Cat's posts
about an informal online racing group really sounds good.
A couple of random thoughts:
1. Does this group have a name yet? If it has a name, then hosts
from the group could post the name of the group in the name / hostname
(is this right?) for the race to identify a race that others from this
would be able to instantly recognize, even if there is no "scheduled"
race at for that time. What do you think? My suggestion would be "Cat
Racing 1" and if more than one race for this group is ongoing at a
time, then "Cat Racing 2" , "Cat Racing 3," etc... .
2. Another suggestion, for those who want to race informally
every night with persons from this group, why not agree that practice
will begin "on the hour" with a set number of practice minutes (how
many - how about 15 min) ? That way, someone can jump in as a host at
the top of the hour and anyone else that is around at that time can
see and recognize the group name and begin to practice. When word gets
out, those of us who have wonky schedules will know when to go online
and look for races and/or become host racers. For that matter, the
group could be named "Top Of The Hour Racing" ??
3. The password for races will be (as is already being done)
posted on Black Cat's forum and changes each week.
It could work??
