Some Guidance on Website Usage

In light of races gone by, I just wanted to offer some pointers to things I've noticed occurring occasionally. And offer some corrections and clarifications:

Appeal Room - it may sound blunt, but hopefully it will offer clarity: 'No Footage, No Appeal'

Whilst no-one I'm sure questions people's good intentions in pursuing justice for themselves, sadly no amount of passionate prose or hyperbole will influence anything unless the FiA committee can see your incident. Of course, your evidence doesn't have to be your own footage necessarily, if you see the incident in another racer's video, or the filming steward's, then please state the time reference within your appeal post.

But overall, I reiterate the advice that your moderators will have been stating in your pre-race lobbies - film your races. It doesn't need to be on a flashy capture card (of course do use one if you have ), a camera propped on a table in front of your TV, or a decent quality camera phone is also very effective (and often quicker to upload to the internet). When you come to upload, the website forum has facility to access your video from YouTube, Dailymotion, or direct Flash Player.

Equally, filming your races - which hopefully don't need to be used for appealing all the time - can also be nice for people's enjoyment of looking back to 'that' great race, a compilation of people's viewpoints from up-and-down the field can be highly entertaining viewing  

Race Highlights - With the above said about filming races, each League has space to post and upload your video footage of a given race.

If a collision or incident did happen to be a race highlight, then you are more than welcome to upload it in the section. But as I've noticed in one League thus far, Race Highlights should not represent an 'extended' Appeal Room. The section is for footage of a happier variety - whether it be replays of your entire race, or small clips of your best moments, or those of others. Please try and stick to that philosophy.


Appeal Room Protocol - In response to a query raised by Justanumber666 about the Appeal Room being locked, this was likely done by website admin due to the thread becoming a bit of an argumentative free-for-all.

I would recommend justanumber though that you appeal a bit sooner - of course, it is not planned that any Appeal Room be locked, so usually it would still remain unlocked by Monday. If getting footage quickly is an issue, then by all means state your intention to appeal with footage pending, and attach it at a later time.

Whilst not a formal rule, we encourage drivers to appeal sooner rather than later into the next week - it can raise suspicion as to genuine motives for appealing if one decides to do so very late, as it could have been influenced by events not alone related to the given incident. Undoubtedly not in your case, as I remember Stewarding the race when your problem happened - but hopefully you understand when such a scenario could arise.

In addressing all drivers now, the Appeal Room itself should ideally be a 'case' and 'counter-case' environment, no more. It isn't an 'argument' thread. Involved drivers should try and express their feelings concisely and in as few posts as possible - the Stewards and FiA committee will then absorb all the information available.

Furthermore, unless wholly necessary, it would be helpful for avoiding extra tension, that drivers not in the given league don't contribute to debates in another - each League has its own context and environment. Do remember, for example, that no-one from Pro League has charged in to proclaim opinions in the Assist Leagues.

Please do get in touch with me if you want to discuss anything further.

Best Wishes,
Derek.