Hard to say I'm sorry

Dear fellow sim racers,

last night I got kicked from a server.


By a somewhat short-tempered admin who went all VET behind HAM behind SC and even got more upset when I rejoined to at least ask what the exact problem was and to explain myself – the latter turned out to be a rather hopeless attempt, but that's another story.

Anyway, this is what happened:
After the start I lost the rear of my Porsche in Eau Rouge, gyrating towards Raidillon. The unavoidable (at least mid field at race start) happened: One of the guys – the mentioned admin – hit me in the side.
Dust settled, cars were realigned and the race went on.

Some corners later the guy in front of me had similar issues in Pouhon, lost his rear, spun and I could not avoid hitting him. This was about the time I noticed the admin was hollering at me in the chat and while I took the time (standing in the gravel anyway) to read what was up and type an apology, I got kicked.

After my rejoin the admin read my charge:

1. collision with him without typing "sorry" at once
2. collision with the other guy
3. being a disrespectful jerk by any possible means because of 1 and 2

Coffee break.



So here's my point of view.

First of all, I'd like to see myself as a humble guy to race with and against, and do my best to act as such.
I get way more Minorating CP by getting hit than hitting others. I stick to the MR Simracing Rules as good as possible and rather lose a position than risk a collision.

But still some incidents happen, because of reasons and racing. So far, my way of handling these is to continue / resume racing (if not totally damaged), saving discussions for later.
If I still feel like talking about an incident, I do it after the race. Which is good IMHO, because until then my temper had a chance to cool down, maybe I rethought the situation and decided not to call people names and yelling four letter words.
Also, due to my living room setup, I'd have to come to a full stop and grab my wireless keyboard to chat.

The mentioned admin accused me of not doing so. I call it ridiculous.

I mean, if the case is clear and I hit someone due to my own fault, I lift the throttle, let the other guy pass again and apologize after the race. Worked 100% fine so far. (Well, at least if the opponent didn't ragequit before the end of the race, but those people deserve no respect in online racing anyway IMO.)

But apart from that to me it makes no sense to stop the car and type a "sorry" before resuming the race. That's far, far away from the racing we try to simulate.
So as long as the car is running, I try to continue until the chequered flag drops. (I even do a pitstop for repairs if necessary.)
IMO that's not disrespectful by any means; while the session says "race" I expect everyone to do so and lick the wounds later.

I do know the meaning and importance of respect and an apology (if applicable), but since we're talking about sprint races with some 7 laps or so, a talk after the race in the chat should be soon enought, isn't it?

(By the way: I do know the possibility of mapping a "sorry" chat message to a wheel button, but apart from the chance of hitting that button by accident and sending random "sorry" messages, to me a button mapped message is about as personal as an automated birthday greeting email.)

What are your thoughts about this?

 

I don't have any messages mapped to buttons. If I know an incident is my fault, I slow down and wait for the other driver to continue (or return to the pits if I feel suitably ashamed). I always apologise to the other driver when the race is over, even if that apology is (for example) directed at "the guy who was driving the red BMW". If the incident is not my fault, then I carry on and finish the race. I guess some admins can be trigger happy if you are new to their servers, or if you happen to take out one of their Free Mason mates

 

I notice that some servers say have chat open, I never do, I don't have room for it in VR and wouldn't really be able to reply as I can't see my keyboard. I leave all that kind of stuff for after the race.

Are other drivers using the same set of skins though? IE: From your perspective it might be a red BMW from their perspective it might a white BMW.

I do find it hard to know who I'm racing, I don't have names on and don't use any apps when racing, especially since starting to use crewchief.

 

I guess that guy just had a Trump moment. Some races later he threw a tantrum and even banned another driver for merely nothing. Other regulars stated he just banned a super clean and fair racer for nothing, but he would refuse to even watch the replay.
The chat was all soap opera.

(And I had a hard time not to tell him to go for a good wank to cool down ffs.)

 

I use this chat app:
http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/esotics-just-for-chat.14379/

It allows up to 20 messages you only have to click on with your mouse, some of them I use as standard messages (Hi, sorry, gl, gr), but also for admin messages (for lag/warp, lapped guys, etc.).
Sometimes I write a message while I'm on a straight.
Though I don't expect another driver to respond while driving. If they do it's nice of them, but as an admin I would never expect that.
But slowing down and/or giving back a position or even waiting for the other driver shows that you have clean intentions.

Though if I'm certain I wasn't at fault at an incident I keep racing without slowing down, but that's a different issue.


But a reply or apology after the race is much appreciated.
Sadly many guys don't even respond if you try to chat with them after the race.

For me this is a No-Go.
I kick ppl. without watching the replay if I'm certain, watch the replay if I couldn't tell (for sure) what happened, but to ban somebody I either confirm my suspicions by watching the replay or it had to be blatant wrecking. But even then I usually watch the replay.

 

I need to make a better effort at not posting any chat messages at all when the race is in progress. I tend to respond with a couple of sentences if some idiot has taken me out with a careless (or deliberate) move, but I really should not be distracting other drivers during the race

 

Thread needs more Canada

 

I have to admit during that sopa opera part I almost lost control of the car because I eyed the chat window all the time.

But due to Plugins like pTracker, PPL (?) and such that use the chat for communicating, it's popping up all the time anyway.
Maybe AC should implement some kind of dedicated channel for plugin communication.

 

This thread needs a soundtrack.

 

Finally some got the quote, @LChaves

 

The other reason I don't use the Kunos chat app. The one previously linked also filters out messages by stracker, PLP, etc.

Sometimes I see only real chat messages while driving, then go to pits after finish and there is a wall of PLP and other stuff in the chat window.

Also no more color coded players where some colors are not easy to read, but maybe you can edit the default colors on the KS chat app.

 

afaik the ptracker chat also filters PLP as soon as I stop procrastinating the RegEx edit.

 

I did filter stracker messages, but not PLP. Maybe I didn't have it configured correctly.

 

http://n-e-y-s.de/ptracker_doc#auto_chapter_6

 

Nice app.

I use this one during races : https://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/courtesy-hotkey-chat-app.22479/

 

Nice, but since I sometimes (rarely though) type while driving I can't use a hotkey based app for it.
Also my keypad is already used for Joy2Key bindings.

 

I dont say sorry immediately most of the time, first of all because texting while in a car is illegal.

And then because its requiring me to find a good place to stop to write safely without impeding someone else race. And then the whole field goes by and it gets boring, we're here to race after all. Also, real life race drivers dont chat while driving. I'll let the other guy by, and try my best to safely express an apology, with soft and gentle lights flashing most of the time. Then we can get a beer and read poetry to each other.

 

After all, sim racing is about love and passion.

 

Completely agree, I never text and drive, though I have to admit to drinking beer at the wheel.

You can crash into me all day long mate if you are buying the beer, no need to write me a poem though