Ideas on improving the F1 forum

[sameerrao]

The following is my take on the F1 forum. I would like to make it clear that I am not singling anyone out for criticism but am stating things as they are and should be (IMHO)

Analysis of the JW F1 Forum as it stands today:

- Too many repeated comparisons (Senna v/s Schumacher ad nauseum) or "is driver X the best ever" with X being Schumacher, Senna, et al.

- Slightly delayed stickies for races - causes numerous posts to record comments on a) Race schedule times on TV b) practice and quallys c) race results. Where 3 or four posts would do there are sometimes 8 posts for each race

- Too many race result stickies in the beginning of the section - caused the first new post to appear way down the screen -- NOTE: I requested Jabba to fix this and now I think it looks much better.

- More focus on news and rumours than anything else

My recommendations:

- Have a couple of stickies in the beginning - for capturing a) Multimedia posts (race clips, etc) b) Good websites to visit, c) Pictures from the races, etc. This will keep things better organized in one place and avoid too many posts.

- A historical section - to give a perspective of F1 over the years. Most of the young people on this site have been exposed to just the Schumacher era.

- A world champion review section - a) describes the drivers b) their achievements c) video clips if any

- A technical section - to argue/discuss FIA rules, aerodynamics whatever tickles your interest.

- A trivia section - with F1 related quizzes, etc.

- A competition to predict the results (Pity the man who put his money on Raikkonen :lol: )

For each race we need:
- One sticky each for Practice/Qual and Race to capture the results and analysis thereof
- pictures and video links - onboard laps, incidents during the races
- Race Analysis - by JWites as well as analysis from itv-f1.com and others

This is my first cut. I will add more stuff when I think of it.

I would love to hear all your suggestions to make this site more rewarding

[TT]

As for the sticky, it was indeed way to much :D we think from now on, only the topic(s) about the last GP should be sticky :D and de-sticked when the next GP come :)

You talk about "sections" in your suggestions, but you actually mean "topics" I think, right? :)

[sameerrao]

You talk about "sections" in your suggestions, but you actually mean "topics" I think, right?

Correct

[mindgam3]

Agreed with just about all of the above ^^ Although maybe too many stickies may clutter up the forum?? Unless there's a sticky for every aspect that could be written about?

[sameerrao]

Agreed with just about all of the above ^^ Although maybe too many stickies may clutter up the forum?? Unless there's a sticky for every aspect that could be written about?


I agree. A good template to use would be the StAnger Porsche forum for handling multimedia and news

[TT]

No need to have them all sticky. When somebody has a tech question or a tech article he can post it in the tech topic for instance, and same goes for multimedia stuff and so on. And for ppl to find them, there is no need to have them all on top I guess ;)

[Jabba]

The following is my take on the F1 forum. I would like to make it clear that I am not singling anyone out for criticism but am stating things as they are and should be (IMHO)

Analysis of the JW F1 Forum as it stands today:

- Too many repeated comparisons (Senna v/s Schumacher ad nauseum) or "is driver X the best ever" with X being Schumacher, Senna, et al.

- Slightly delayed stickies for races - causes numerous posts to record comments on a) Race schedule times on TV b) practice and quallys c) race results. Where 3 or four posts would do there are sometimes 8 posts for each race

- Too many race result stickies in the beginning of the section - caused the first new post to appear way down the screen -- NOTE: I requested Jabba to fix this and now I think it looks much better.

- More focus on news and rumours than anything else

My recommendations:

- Have a couple of stickies in the beginning - for capturing a) Multimedia posts (race clips, etc) b) Good websites to visit, c) Pictures from the races, etc. This will keep things better organized in one place and avoid too many posts.

- A historical section - to give a perspective of F1 over the years. Most of the young people on this site have been exposed to just the Schumacher era.

- A world champion review section - a) describes the drivers b) their achievements c) video clips if any

- A technical section - to argue/discuss FIA rules, aerodynamics whatever tickles your interest.

- A trivia section - with F1 related quizzes, etc.

- A competition to predict the results (Pity the man who put his money on Raikkonen :lol: )

For each race we need:
- One sticky each for Practice/Qual and Race to capture the results and analysis thereof
- pictures and video links - onboard laps, incidents during the races
- Race Analysis - by JWites as well as analysis from itv-f1.com and others

This is my first cut. I will add more stuff when I think of it.

I would love to hear all your suggestions to make this site more rewarding

When JW first started I kept this section updated on a fairly regular basis.

Once things started to get busier however and with the loss of my ADSL connection at home obviously some things were not updated as fast as they should have been.

Hence the need for a dedicated moderator.

With reference to the topics/sections we may upgrade to a newer version of php that supports sub-forums that I think would work great for what you want to do.

My contribution to the section will be the highlights show after every race and maybe the actual race and qualifying...I think we should start a dedicated F1 club for people that would like to download these videos as for obvious reasons they cannot be hosted publicly.

[sameerrao]

My contribution to the section will be the highlights show after every race and maybe the actual race and qualifying...I think we should start a dedicated F1 club for people that would like to download these videos as for obvious reasons they cannot be hosted publicly.


The highlights/race/qual vids will be awesome. The ITv coverage is the best English speaking review for sure. Hip hip hooray!

[No.1]

My contribution to the section will be the highlights show after every race and maybe the actual race and qualifying...I think we should start a dedicated F1 club for people that would like to download these videos as for obvious reasons they cannot be hosted publicly.

Count me in Jabba.

i haven't got enough time to watch race/qualifying shows, and often miss the highlights.

It would sure be great to see an up to date F1 Section (not that i don't appreciate the current section, but it could clearly be improved). This would allow me to see the best bits of the races, and also take part in the many discussions in the F1 Section.

BUT - one race i won't be missing will be this weekend's British Grand Prix 8) :wink:

[Jabba]

Well the videos will be for everyone already in the downloading group and also for members of the F1 group decided by the section moderator (only the F1 videos)

Obviously TT reserves the right to remove anyone that we have listed on our "pain in the ass" black list.

[No.1]

Well the videos will be for everyone already in the downloading group and also for members of the F1 group decided by the section moderator (only the F1 videos)

Phew :P :wink:


And it is great for there to be a spread of power through 5 or 6 moderators, rather than only a couple who have to deal with all the admin and mainteneance :)

[Toronto]

i think a media section, like scans and small videos. would be good

i have a subscription to f1 racing, and would love to share some scans :D

[sameerrao]

i have a subscription to f1 racing, and would love to share some scans


Great idea...

[X-ale]

"pain in the ass" black list.

:o :!: :? :idea: :( dam now i think i'm in it and it would just be stupid to ask so no need to reply unless you actually pitty my curiosity :oops: :P

[mindgam3]

Do you have motorsTV on sky jabba? They do a very good F1 "magazine", one before every race called inside grand prix. If you do have this and have the time i think this owuld be a great program to put up for d/l too; it gives a preview of the race coming up with news and some technical highlights....

[Jabba]

"pain in the ass" black list.

:o :!: :? :idea: :( dam now i think i'm in it and it would just be stupid to ask so no need to reply unless you actually pitty my curiosity :oops: :P

I dont seem to remember you doing anything wrong...is there something I should know about ?

[Jabba]

Do you have motorsTV on sky jabba? They do a very good F1 "magazine", one before every race called inside grand prix. If you do have this and have the time i think this owuld be a great program to put up for d/l too; it gives a preview of the race coming up with news and some technical highlights....

Yes I have it...but I havent seen that show yet...I will look into it.

[mindgam3]

Its repeated a few times throughout the week running up to a grand prix, so you should be able to find it sometime ;)

[stracing]

you're really going for it aren't you sam? but its all good. i would like a technical section. there are some minute details on a f1 car i like to be explained

anyways i voted for you

[he7lius]

First of all i just hope that the very good ideas stated above will be updated regularly and they are just good ideas. If everything goes as “planned” this is going to be a very hot section and one which i will visite every day. :D :D

But there's one thing that is worrying me, and that's the videos.
The download members group is very limited and lately it has been very difficult to become a member for obvious reasons. :(
I know TT doesn't like it and i don't know about Jabba but i think the videos could be shared on Bit Torrent.
I say this because ITV's coverage is fantastic not just during the race but also before and after the race. This is something that (from what i know) is not on the uploaded videos. ITV usually goes around every weekend meeting the teams, doing interviews, talking about the rumors, etc. This is something everyone would like to see.

I know this is not a conscientious idea. I’m not really sure why some members are against Bit Torrent but I think it is a very good tool to share videos and also to keep the cost down as everyone would be doing there bit to help. :)

Here are some of the well know sites that use Bit Torrent to share videos with there fans.
www.blizzard.com
www.3dgamers.com

[chipanggo]

now this looks much better. too many stickies before. it's a lot easier to navigate now. good job. :)

[Jabba]

I know TT doesn't like it and i don't know about Jabba but i think the videos could be shared on Bit Torrent.
I say this because ITV's coverage is fantastic not just during the race but also before and after the race.

That wont be happening. All the ITV coverage has and will be uploaded for the members of the F1 / Downloaders club.

[mindgam3]

Building on my initial few examples that i set out in the moderator post, here is my plan if I were to become moderator...

A more structured race review

As this is probably the main purpose of the forum i think this should be a lot more detailed and structured. This would be in the form of a sticky, to be deleted say a week after the race has ended. It would be created friday/early saturday of the race weekend. The sticky would include the following sections for each and every race review:

:arrow: Race name, circuit name, circuit facts, circuit lap record, a link to the circuit website, time of qualifying, time of race and any relevant TV coverage that may be available.
:arrow: Any relative news that affects this particular race meeting
:arrow: Qualifying positions, times and significant events that have occured during qualifying and/or free practice
:arrow: Possible race strategies that may play an important role in the race
:arrow: The actual race review including important and decisive events that occured (with pics?)
:arrow: Full and final positions at the end of the race with any driver penalties stated and all DNF's shown


Stat tables for qualifying/race

After every qualifying and race session, stats would be updated. Stats would include qualifying times for each driver. Race times, positions, no. of stops, fastest lap etc. This would probably best implemented as a seperate sticky, to be deleted after a week.


A more detailed constructors and drivers standings table

This would be as a permenant sticky, to be updated after every race weekend.
:arrow: The constructors table would just contain the name of the team and points
:arrow: The drivers table would contain total points and the position that driver finished each race

Note on tables: As tables are pretty hard to read in forums, I suggest the best way of making this data redable would be for me to create a spreadsheet and take a screen dump of that spreadsheet. I would advise this method as apposed to a direct link to the spreadsheet as excel always takes ages to load, but this could be done if preferred


A technical sub forum

This would be, if possible a sub forum for members to ask and post different technical aspects of F1 related to tyres, chassis, aerodynamics, car set ups, what all the engineers/mechanics do and F1 rules etc.

As a frequent buyer of magazines "Racecar engineering", "RaceTech" and "F1 Racing" I can scan relevant F1 sections which contain more detail than just about any F1 website can provide although its not so complex that you have to be an engineer to understand it.

News/Multimedia Sub forum

As it works well in the porsche forum i suggest this combined topic is taken into the "new" F1 forum too. Although i suggest it is made a sub forum if possible? News would contain any relevant information about driver signings, new rules, new cars etc. Multimedia would include any F1 related photos, sounds, videos, articles and TV coverage (If jabba is allowing all members access to ITV coverage?).

Rumours Sub Forum

As a lot of F1 is rumours, which is to do with the secrecy with which the teams and governing bodies operate I think we should have a rumours sub forum. Also becuase a lot of the posts made in the current F1 forum are rumours and not neccesarily fact. When posts in the rumour forums become fact, they will be moved to the news section.

Other sections such as historical, facts and figures, and trivia sections etc i dont think will be needed as the majority of posts will be made in the above sub forums. However if many of these types of posts are being made, a couple of sub forums will be easily made although i don't see many of these posts occuring.

Best of luck to all potential moderators, i hope you take me into consideration ;)

[Jabba]

You cant help but be impressed with everything you have posted so far 8)

[mindgam3]

hehe thank you ;) ill post any new ideas as soon as i get them

[stracing]

can't be bothered reading back for now

but if it hasn't been mentioned, i'd like ppl to stop making multiple threads about a race result at end of each race. either move the posts someone has started and delete(or rename heading) or only start the discussion in the results thread when the mod posts it up.

[Toronto]

can't be bothered reading back for now

but if it hasn't been mentioned, i'd like ppl to stop making multiple threads about a race result at end of each race. either move the posts someone has started and delete(or rename heading) or only start the discussion in the results thread when the mod posts it up.

very true i was going to stop the other thread today, but the fact that I posted the results 25 min after the end of the race (watched press con.) and already another thread was opened, from now on i think i will lock the threads if a sticky topic is open on them.