suggestions for alternative sim forum?

Hi,

After 10 or so years as a regular reader (if not contributor) on R.A.S, I
think the time has come to abandon USENET for a web based forum. The usage
of R.A.S is in decline, and most Internet users these days wouldn't know
what a newsgroup was.

I would appreciate some suggestions of where I can find a friendly,
reasonably mature, sim racing forum on the web. I am familiar with
RaceSimCentral, but find the compartmentalised forum structure frustrating.

Tim

(Tim Epstein) wrote:

> but find the compartmentalised forum structure frustrating.

Which is why, despite Mitch, despite the bickering, despite the ancient,
olde worlde newgroupe technology, we're still here. :-)

Andrew McP

Uwe,

Many thanks for your reply - much appreciated.j

Whilst I agree with most of your points (and Andrew's) - especially:

> I'm simply tired of wading through millions of bouncing smileys,
> flamewars, incomprehensible forum layout and non-existent threading, or
> being able to use the newsreader of my choice

I unforutnately have very good reasons to believe they are in vein :-(

25 years ago I flicked the 'auto-answer' switch on my 300 baud modem on
evening and set up a BBS. Soon I was to join Fidonet, a global amateur
network for email and forums that grew to around 10,000 systems by the early
1990s. In 1995-6 the rise of the Internet saw an 90% decline in the number
of text based Fidonet systems, and the widespread adoption of broadband saw
the demise of most of the remainder. However, there are still some die hards
out there, and Fidonet still lives on. It is almost a zombie experience.
Each week, an autogenerated copy of 'fidonews' the official newsletters
comes out, mostly with zero human content for that week. The official
newsletter site www.fidonews.org. hasn't been updated for longer than Racing
Legends!

I walked away from Fidonet 10 years as I saw the decline become terminal. I
didn't want to become one of the living dead that couldn't adapt to new
technology. Yes, the Internet didn't seem to be so friendly and communal,
but I adapted and didn't look back. I looked to experience the future rather
than be locked in the past. Now I again have my small groups of real friends
on Facebook, and enjoy a very rich and rewarding experience sharing my life
with friends all over the world.

USENET is dying, and its time to move on. Many ISPs are turning off their
newsgroups servers, and this trend is bound to accelerate now that the RIAA
is in court trying to shut down usenet.com

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/...e_riaa_cl.html

I am personally willing to assist in setting up a 'home away from home' for
R.A.S. on the web, as I wouldn't like to suddenly lose contact with the
people such as yourselves whose messages I've been enjoying for so many
years. Let's focus on the experience and the community, not the technology
platform.

Cheers,
Tim

p.s. Please contact me eppy a t pobox dotcom if you would like to take up my
suggestion.






However,
"Uwe Schürkamp" > wrote in message
...
> On Sat, 03 Nov 2007 07:36:42 GMT, Tim Epstein wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> After 10 or so years as a regular reader (if not contributor) on R.A.S, I
>> think the time has come to abandon USENET for a web based forum. The
>> usage
>> of R.A.S is in decline, and most Internet users these days wouldn't know
>> what a newsgroup was.
>>
>> I would appreciate some suggestions of where I can find a friendly,
>> reasonably mature, sim racing forum on the web. I am familiar with
>> RaceSimCentral, but find the compartmentalised forum structure
>> frustrating.
>>
>
> Hi Tim,
>
> while I agree that RAS participation has been better in the past, the
> popularity of "web forums" are a blessing and a curse at the same time.
> I'm simply tired of wading through millions of bouncing smileys,
> flamewars, incomprehensible forum layout and non-existent threading, or
> being able to use the newsreader of my choice.
>
> Several good people still lurk here, and whenever I have a question I
> usually get some helpful and good replies within a couple of days.
>
> Maybe you should point other interested simracers here and educate them
> about usenet, the decentralised structure is a big plus as is the lack
> of the all powerful mods stroking their egos in several forums (of
> course, that also has a downside as we've all seen a few times, but
> that's what killfiles have been invented for).
>
> I don't think usenet is going away anytime soon. As they saying goes,
> the whole internet thing went downhill after they added pictures. ;-)
>
> All the best, uwe
>
> --
> GPG Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61

"Tim Epstein" > wrote in message
.uk...
> Hi,
>
> After 10 or so years as a regular reader (if not contributor) on R.A.S, I
> think the time has come to abandon USENET for a web based forum. The usage
> of R.A.S is in decline, and most Internet users these days wouldn't know
> what a newsgroup was.
>
> I would appreciate some suggestions of where I can find a friendly,
> reasonably mature, sim racing forum on the web. I am familiar with
> RaceSimCentral, but find the compartmentalised forum structure
> frustrating.
>
> Tim
>
Well there's........

http://www.bhmotorsports.com/board/

http://www.drivingitalia.net/ (mainly Italian)

http://www.thewayiplay.com/mainforum...p?action=forum

http://www.nogripracing.com/

Uwe Schürkamp wrote:

> Several good people still lurk here, and whenever I have a question I
> usually get some helpful and good replies within a couple of days.

Not one person responded to my post asking about how to get NR2002 to
use widescreen resolution so for me this newsgroup has become close to
useless. I only still come here out of habit. The flight-sim group is
even more useless. It's a sad state of affairs. All Usenet is really
useful for now is downloading porn.

John Adams wrote:
> Uwe Schürkamp wrote:
>
>> Several good people still lurk here, and whenever I have a question I
>> usually get some helpful and good replies within a couple of days.
>
> Not one person responded to my post asking about how to get NR2002 to
> use widescreen resolution so for me this newsgroup has become close to
> useless. I only still come here out of habit. The flight-sim group is
> even more useless. It's a sad state of affairs. All Usenet is really
> useful for now is downloading porn.

There is an element of quality over quantity on RAS though. With busy
web forums it can be hard to find answers especially when threads
digress. Plus there are those on here I whose judgment I would regard
highly.

NR2002 is maybe a little too obscure. If it had been NR2003 I am sure
you would have had an answer. I used a Matrox Parhelia across three
screens successfully with NR2003 but couldn't answer for NR2002.

Cheers
Tony

I doubt usnet never dies, because there is no way one person can kill it.

Which is exactly the point

As long as everyone has there Mitch-The-Bitch filters on, it's not so bad
around here other than a general aire of bordome about. Hopefully we'll
have new things to talk about some day

-Larry

"Tim Epstein" > wrote in message
.uk...
> Uwe,
>
> Many thanks for your reply - much appreciated.j
>
> Whilst I agree with most of your points (and Andrew's) - especially:
>
>> I'm simply tired of wading through millions of bouncing smileys,
>> flamewars, incomprehensible forum layout and non-existent threading, or
>> being able to use the newsreader of my choice
>
> I unforutnately have very good reasons to believe they are in vein :-(
>
> 25 years ago I flicked the 'auto-answer' switch on my 300 baud modem on
> evening and set up a BBS. Soon I was to join Fidonet, a global amateur
> network for email and forums that grew to around 10,000 systems by the
> early 1990s. In 1995-6 the rise of the Internet saw an 90% decline in the
> number of text based Fidonet systems, and the widespread adoption of
> broadband saw the demise of most of the remainder. However, there are
> still some die hards out there, and Fidonet still lives on. It is almost a
> zombie experience. Each week, an autogenerated copy of 'fidonews' the
> official newsletters comes out, mostly with zero human content for that
> week. The official newsletter site www.fidonews.org. hasn't been updated
> for longer than Racing Legends!
>
> I walked away from Fidonet 10 years as I saw the decline become terminal.
> I didn't want to become one of the living dead that couldn't adapt to new
> technology. Yes, the Internet didn't seem to be so friendly and communal,
> but I adapted and didn't look back. I looked to experience the future
> rather than be locked in the past. Now I again have my small groups of
> real friends on Facebook, and enjoy a very rich and rewarding experience
> sharing my life with friends all over the world.
>
> USENET is dying, and its time to move on. Many ISPs are turning off their
> newsgroups servers, and this trend is bound to accelerate now that the
> RIAA is in court trying to shut down usenet.com
>
> http://www.informationweek.com/blog/...e_riaa_cl.html
>
> I am personally willing to assist in setting up a 'home away from home'
> for R.A.S. on the web, as I wouldn't like to suddenly lose contact with
> the people such as yourselves whose messages I've been enjoying for so
> many years. Let's focus on the experience and the community, not the
> technology platform.
>
> Cheers,
> Tim
>
> p.s. Please contact me eppy a t pobox dotcom if you would like to take up
> my suggestion.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> However,
> "Uwe Schürkamp" > wrote in message
> ...
>> On Sat, 03 Nov 2007 07:36:42 GMT, Tim Epstein wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> After 10 or so years as a regular reader (if not contributor) on R.A.S,
>>> I
>>> think the time has come to abandon USENET for a web based forum. The
>>> usage
>>> of R.A.S is in decline, and most Internet users these days wouldn't know
>>> what a newsgroup was.
>>>
>>> I would appreciate some suggestions of where I can find a friendly,
>>> reasonably mature, sim racing forum on the web. I am familiar with
>>> RaceSimCentral, but find the compartmentalised forum structure
>>> frustrating.
>>>
>>
>> Hi Tim,
>>
>> while I agree that RAS participation has been better in the past, the
>> popularity of "web forums" are a blessing and a curse at the same time.
>> I'm simply tired of wading through millions of bouncing smileys,
>> flamewars, incomprehensible forum layout and non-existent threading, or
>> being able to use the newsreader of my choice.
>>
>> Several good people still lurk here, and whenever I have a question I
>> usually get some helpful and good replies within a couple of days.
>>
>> Maybe you should point other interested simracers here and educate them
>> about usenet, the decentralised structure is a big plus as is the lack
>> of the all powerful mods stroking their egos in several forums (of
>> course, that also has a downside as we've all seen a few times, but
>> that's what killfiles have been invented for).
>>
>> I don't think usenet is going away anytime soon. As they saying goes,
>> the whole internet thing went downhill after they added pictures. ;-)
>>
>> All the best, uwe
>>
>> --
>> GPG Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61
>

"Larry" > wrote in message
...
>I doubt usnet never dies, because there is no way one person can kill it.

You've used a double negative in the above sentance.

> Which is exactly the point
>
> As long as everyone has there Mitch-The-Bitch filters on, it's not so bad
> around here other than a general aire of bordome about. Hopefully we'll
> have new things to talk about some day
>
> -Larry
>
> "Tim Epstein" > wrote in message
> .uk...
>> Uwe,
>>
>> Many thanks for your reply - much appreciated.j
>>
>> Whilst I agree with most of your points (and Andrew's) - especially:
>>
>>> I'm simply tired of wading through millions of bouncing smileys,
>>> flamewars, incomprehensible forum layout and non-existent threading, or
>>> being able to use the newsreader of my choice
>>
>> I unforutnately have very good reasons to believe they are in vein :-(
>>
>> 25 years ago I flicked the 'auto-answer' switch on my 300 baud modem on
>> evening and set up a BBS. Soon I was to join Fidonet, a global amateur
>> network for email and forums that grew to around 10,000 systems by the
>> early 1990s. In 1995-6 the rise of the Internet saw an 90% decline in the
>> number of text based Fidonet systems, and the widespread adoption of
>> broadband saw the demise of most of the remainder. However, there are
>> still some die hards out there, and Fidonet still lives on. It is almost
>> a zombie experience. Each week, an autogenerated copy of 'fidonews' the
>> official newsletters comes out, mostly with zero human content for that
>> week. The official newsletter site www.fidonews.org. hasn't been updated
>> for longer than Racing Legends!
>>
>> I walked away from Fidonet 10 years as I saw the decline become terminal.
>> I didn't want to become one of the living dead that couldn't adapt to new
>> technology. Yes, the Internet didn't seem to be so friendly and communal,
>> but I adapted and didn't look back. I looked to experience the future
>> rather than be locked in the past. Now I again have my small groups of
>> real friends on Facebook, and enjoy a very rich and rewarding experience
>> sharing my life with friends all over the world.
>>
>> USENET is dying, and its time to move on. Many ISPs are turning off their
>> newsgroups servers, and this trend is bound to accelerate now that the
>> RIAA is in court trying to shut down usenet.com
>>
>> http://www.informationweek.com/blog/...e_riaa_cl.html
>>
>> I am personally willing to assist in setting up a 'home away from home'
>> for R.A.S. on the web, as I wouldn't like to suddenly lose contact with
>> the people such as yourselves whose messages I've been enjoying for so
>> many years. Let's focus on the experience and the community, not the
>> technology platform.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Tim
>>
>> p.s. Please contact me eppy a t pobox dotcom if you would like to take up
>> my suggestion.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> However,
>> "Uwe Schürkamp" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>> On Sat, 03 Nov 2007 07:36:42 GMT, Tim Epstein wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> After 10 or so years as a regular reader (if not contributor) on R.A.S,
>>>> I
>>>> think the time has come to abandon USENET for a web based forum. The
>>>> usage
>>>> of R.A.S is in decline, and most Internet users these days wouldn't
>>>> know
>>>> what a newsgroup was.
>>>>
>>>> I would appreciate some suggestions of where I can find a friendly,
>>>> reasonably mature, sim racing forum on the web. I am familiar with
>>>> RaceSimCentral, but find the compartmentalised forum structure
>>>> frustrating.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Hi Tim,
>>>
>>> while I agree that RAS participation has been better in the past, the
>>> popularity of "web forums" are a blessing and a curse at the same time.
>>> I'm simply tired of wading through millions of bouncing smileys,
>>> flamewars, incomprehensible forum layout and non-existent threading, or
>>> being able to use the newsreader of my choice.
>>>
>>> Several good people still lurk here, and whenever I have a question I
>>> usually get some helpful and good replies within a couple of days.
>>>
>>> Maybe you should point other interested simracers here and educate them
>>> about usenet, the decentralised structure is a big plus as is the lack
>>> of the all powerful mods stroking their egos in several forums (of
>>> course, that also has a downside as we've all seen a few times, but
>>> that's what killfiles have been invented for).
>>>
>>> I don't think usenet is going away anytime soon. As they saying goes,
>>> the whole internet thing went downhill after they added pictures. ;-)
>>>
>>> All the best, uwe
>>>
>>> --
>>> GPG Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61
>>
>

"Larry" > wrote in message
...
>I doubt usnet never dies, because there is no way one person can kill it.
>
> Which is exactly the point
>
> As long as everyone has there Mitch-The-Bitch filters on, it's not so bad
> around here other than a general aire of bordome about. Hopefully we'll
> have new things to talk about some day
>
> -Larry

Hey Larry :-)

Wish we were still racing. I race at RACER and Race 2 Play pretty much
exclusively now.

I know that "new things" means iRacing, but I dropped out of the beta
testing.........2 years ago, and at that time a product was supposed to be
coming soon. :-/ Something isn't right obviously.

Dave

"Tim Epstein" > wrote in message
.uk...
>
> USENET is dying, and its time to move on. Many ISPs are turning off their
> newsgroups servers, and this trend is bound to accelerate now that the
> RIAA is in court trying to shut down usenet.com
>
> http://www.informationweek.com/blog/...e_riaa_cl.html
>
> I am personally willing to assist in setting up a 'home away from home'
> for R.A.S. on the web, as I wouldn't like to suddenly lose contact with
> the people such as yourselves whose messages I've been enjoying for so
> many years. Let's focus on the experience and the community, not the
> technology platform.
>

Shut down usenet??? That would be a very foolish thing to attempt.
Imagine how many technically gifted people would have a vendetta with said
idiot - it would be pure business suicide! And in any case, they are only
talking about the file sharing aspect of usenet.

Should usenet die, the interenet would be like apple pie with no cream -
it would still be pretty good but an important ingredient would be missing -
outright freedom - the jungle - with all it's jewels and horrors. Anything
other than usenet = moderation = filtering = missing information. For the
real facts about anything, usenet is the place to go. It's a simple matter
of distinguishing **** from fact - and that's a skill that should be
constantly exercised and sharp anyway.

Long live usenet - where you don't need to be told you are free and how
well you're doing - you are free (or cowardly) and doing well (or not)!