And again one more..

Here are a couple more I've received.. It seems we are getting a good poll

Many designs to choose from..

New season will definitely be organized. And many more after that!
OLFSL has received many offers, thank you all. We most likely don't need them all in every event, but we can use them occasionally, that way every server gets a break. Besides, we only have 3 hosts

Again, thanks a lot for the help, it's nice to have people who are happy to help us out in situations like this.

We are currently planning a new season, and it will begin as soon as we get everything figured out.

See you on track!

Here's one suggestion we've received, take a look at it and tell me what you think. I won't say who designed it, that will be public information IF this becomes the OLFSL logo.

If anyone wants to design a logo for OLFSL, post it here and I'll arrange a poll later. Or you can email it to me ([email protected]) if you want to stay anonymous until a decision is made. If they're all posted by me, no one knows who made the logo until we get the poll results.

OLFSL seems to be perfect already

No suggestions at all..

Quote from russraine :

doesn't mean it would not be a damn good solution though does it?

I agree, that it would solve the income issue. But, it might also cost us a lot of members. That's why we are now working on the donation account and OLFSL Shop. Then people can still race for free, but if they want to pay some of the costs, they can donate a few euros/pounds/dollars etc or go buy something from OLFSL Shop.

Maybe if 65% (or more) of our members wanted us to change this and start selling season/race tickets, then we might re-think this. But for now we'll stick with the plan above.

Neokiller.. If you read the whole thing I wrote, you'd notice that it was JUST A SUGGESTION and mainly made because people kept debating about team strategies etc. I offered one solution, which I'm sure no one wants. No one said it's gonna happen, but it's a possibility if we can't come up with another solution to this. It seems to annoy a lot of people, which makes it a league issue.

But like I said, it was just something I pulled out of my hat to end it.

Quote from Linsen :

Is the option to donate money to OLFSL via paypal out of question? Someone suggested this before in another thread, and I think it's a good idea. I would be willing and able to donate a little money. And I'm sure others feel the same if that ensures that we can have our full OLFSL season soon .

No, I'm working on that. We just need to find out all the legal stuff and tax issues to avoid unpleasant surprises This may take a while, but it's coming..

We also have an idea about how to get access to a 100 Mbit connection, but that's still a dream.. We have to put together a GREAT presentation to win the people over who decide if we get access to it or not, but before that we have to find out who has enough power to decide about that stuff. And then there's once again this legal side and permits and everything.. *sigh*

Quote from Solar Hydro :

Let me be clear: I responded specifically to the suggestion that a team would, at some stage in an ongoing season, suddenly call upon a bunch of NEW (experienced) racers to join OLFSL, in order to protect the standings/race position of one (or more than one) of their team's members. This looks anticompetitive to me.

After reading this part, I figured out one more way to prevent this.. I used to do that a few seasons ago in every race, but then we dropped the old system and started with this current point system and due to that I changed my way of making the pools and forgot all about this. Luckily I remember it now

I used to arrange the pools so that all new members race their first event in the lowest pool, and then in the next race they're racing in the pool they're supposed to be racing in. It makes the lowest pool very uneven, but this is one way of doing it. It doesn't prevent team strategies completely, but it makes it a bit harder for them.

But I'll say this only once: I do not, under any circumstances, approve team strategies in our events. It is unfair, unsportsmanlike, and can be arranged to be a rule violation as well. How - that I haven't figured out yet, but I will if I have to.

I used to watch F1 when Mika Häkkinen was still racing there. Even then I thought it was pathetic not to let one guy win because the other one has better chance of winning the whole season. Or that the other one blocks racers who are behind his team mate, to let him get away so others can't reach him.. If he can't do it himself - then let him lose. It's about driving skills, not about how well your mate blocks people.

Quote from Solar Hydro :

Again: this comment was only made in response to a suggested team strategy.

I know

Quote from DasKlee :

actually i think a larger difference between pos. 15 of pool 1 and pos. 1 of pool 2 should do the trick

Me and FienDi have been talking about increasing the gap between pools. That may happen before next season.

Quote from DasKlee :

disallowing racers to join mid season..

This issue has been on the table for a loooong time. Sorry, but not gonna happen as long as me and FienDi have anything to say about this. When André started OLFSL, he wanted it to be a league for all, and we're sticking to that. Not allowing people to join during an ongoing season would not be that. We get dozens of new members during seasons, especially since S2 was released, so excluding those racers might kill their interest. We want to encourage people to join us, organize fun events and provide a server where they can practise fair racing. What's the point in practising if you can't race until next spring? OLFSL seasons are usually long, so this is not an option to us.

Quote from DasKlee :

i wouldn't force the drivers to race in every race there is though, because we all have a real life away from LfS and it simply is impossible for every interested driver to be in every single race

We're not forcing anyone to participate in every race. We didn't have this part in the point system before, but it was created because our members wanted it. They wanted to be rewarded for being in every race and prevent people who participated in 2 or 3 races to stay on a high position in the standings.

Impossible to please everyone, but we still try..

I have just found out, that the OLFSL Staff is once again shrinking. Now we are in a situation, that we only have ONE SERVER that can take 20 racers. Basically the only available hosts are me and FienDi.
Our connection can take 13-14 racers/pool. We would get a faster connection, but that's not possible in Finland if we don't have a company. Fastest connection available here is 8/1, but 1 Mbit is still slow. Atm me and FienDi have a 2 Mbit/512 kbps connection at home.

This is why I'm asking our members to help us out. If you have a server we could borrow or better yet; you want to become a host, please contact me ASAP (email address below). We can't pay for it, since OLFSL has no income, but help is very highly appreciated.
We are in the middle of re-organizing OLFSL, and there may be vacancies in the staff as well.

We are really desperate to get someone to help us with the servers, because otherwise there are 2 options: 1. pools will get a lot smaller and we still can't run the league as it is. 2. this is the end of OLFSL. If not for good, then at least for a long time, until we can get a sponsor for the servers.

This is the situation now, and it might get even worse.
All volunteers (if there are any).. contact me: [email protected]

--
Mrs FienDi

Problems with the webhotel... Happens occasionally, but should always go away in an hour or so.. I've contacted them many times, so far no explanation..

We can of course try to prevent these things (sandbag driving and team strategies) by making new rules.

How about something like this..

"If a racer is known to be one of the fastest racers in OLFSL races, but suddenly drops to one of the lower pools in several races, he can be punished for it."

"Team strategies are not allowed. If we see a team strategy (for example 2 racers protecting their team mate by blocking other racers) a penalty will be given."

Would this be good? I doubt you want to see this in the rules but it can be arranged.

Quote from BBO@BSR :

but you always have to live and to deal with criticism. If you can't stand it don't do things like that.

Criticism is something I CAN take. But there are many ways to express yourself.

Quote from BBO@BSR :

There is no need trying to provoke something with things like in that quote.

It's not provoking, there IS a difference.

Quote from BBO@BSR :

With things like that you really give me the feeling that complaints are not welcome in the OLFSL. Because after you did one you will be hated by some of the staff ;-)

Surely we are "happy" to get those complaints, that way we can fix things that are wrong in our league. But let's just say, that we all need a good long look in the mirror every now and then.. Besides, I don't hate anyone. Can't speak for others.

Quote from BBO@BSR :

Use your short free time with nicer things then getting angry about people like me who have sometimes another sight of things.
It was just a complaint and nothing more.

Oh don't flatter yourself! I would have happily strangled 3 people last Sunday, but that's the kind of anger that comes, stays like an hour and goes away. It was a crappy day, so what, I've had quite many of those since I started running OLFSL with FienDi. So far a lot more good days though.
The part that was personal, was when Bismarck attacked FienDi on the server. Don't know exactly what part you played in that. I saw some of it, and that made me angry as well. Attacking him = attacking me, has been that way since we started dating 7,5 years ago. Got even stronger when I married him 6 years ago.

I wanted to publish my opinion as me, not as a OLFSL staffmember. I think I have a right to do that. In Finland we tend to talk things through, even if it means the biggest fight of the century. It clears the air and brings people closer to each other.

This was never about the complaint, which I hope you will see if you read my first post and really concentrate. It was about how it was presented and everything that came after that.

Just out of curiosity.. which bugged you more, the fact that priits disconnected and rejoined, or that he still managed to kick your butt out there?

Quote from BBO@BSR :

I don't know what happend on other servers but to hear seconds before race2 of pool1 started that there is no rev. start confused me and others. And thats why i asked "Why?" That's pretty normal i think most of the others didn't have a problem with it because they never ever read the OLFSL rules on the site where this reverse starting order thing is stated!

I'll say it once again: THIS WAS NOT A NORMAL 2 START RACE. If it was, the rules would have applied to it, but IT WASN'T. I also said, that the rules haven't been up to date in a long time, but update was postponed until S2 got released. Go back and read my post again, I hate to repeat myself.

Quote from BBO@BSR :

But a complaint has nothing to do with the respect that i have for all of you that keep the OLFSL running (you know that because i'm long enough related to the OLFSL).

Depends on the complaint.

Quote from BBO@BSR :

Do you really want a horde of sheeps that say in front and after every single race "YOU ARE THE GREATEST" and "I am satisfied with all and everything". I don't think so, because the OLFSL also lives from new ideas and improvements and fun.

No, and we've never asked that either. The whole point was, that if you do as much for something as we do, you certainly would like to see some appreciation! Being petty ain't that..

Quote from BBO@BSR :

To a few guys in the chatterbox (like GS or Johnathan Russ): I understand that when you are driving around place 40 or 50 of a league just for fun that you don't think about things like that or understand it. But others are driving in the top 10 and some people in Teams drive not for the fun only, they also drive for sponsors and or a good Team reputation. They also like to finish as good as they can and they plan race events and they think about strategies etc. so when you hear about changes, seconds in front of a race you have to say something no matter how much you like people or a league.

I hope you're not saying, that people who are like 40th or 50th in the standings, don't do it seriously? We all (at least most of us) are in it to have fun, but that doesn't mean we don't race seriously to win! Let's take me for example. I can leave a lot of people behind me, but there are a lot of people who I can't beat. So that makes me an average racer. Am I not a serious racer because I can't beat them all?? Or because I'm not in the top 10? If this is what you mean, then I suggest you take the plug out of your ear and let the yellow liquid come out.. If not, then ignore this part.
I'm also in it to win, but my priority is to have fun!

You (and your teammates) could just as easily have asked about the system before the race. Obviously it was not clear to you, that this event wasn't like those others have been, so why not ask to make sure? To leave a window open for complaining and make us feel bad?

Oh and just for the record.. Priits didn't LEAVE the server as you said in your complaint.. He got DISCONNECTED. Even though the result is pretty much the same, there is a HUGE difference you know..

Thanks guys.. If you want to help, send me an email and tell me what you can do. [email protected]

98% of our free time.. yeah, that's true. But there actually is room for more, because back in the André days everything had to be done manually, nowadays it's different. FienDi has made a lot of it automatic, otherwise we would have been forced to quit a long time ago. He keeps making changes to make our work easier and cut off some of it.

I personally am trying to learn html at school and FienDi is teaching me to update OLFSL website (as you may have noticed ), but it will take time before I can do anything myself, from scratch that is..

I've had this idea for a long time, so this might be a good time to bring it up.. If we would get a deal of OLFSL stuff, like t-shirts, hooded jackets, mugs, caps, towels, season cd's etc, would there be any interest in those? There would be a OLFSL shop on the site.
Let me know.. If there's interest, I'll start working on that, if not, I'll bury it deep

Last night was without a doubt one of the worst ever in OLFSL history. Due to that I want to clear/point out a few things.

This league currently runs because of 2 people: me and FienDi. We have one host, who helps out occasionally and 2 guys who have a task; Scirocco is working on the rules update, and Solar Hydro is the Appeals Arbiter.

Me and FienDi started thinking last night, and I think it's time to say this. We use 98% of our free time (what's left after FienDi comes from work/school and I come from school and get my homework done) to keep this league running, we do not only do this for free; we actually pay to keep OLFSL going. The league has no income, so we take the money out of our own pockets. Also even when we're at work/school, we think about new events and ideas for fun minievents, just so you guys would have a lot of fun racing! Often our own personal life comes in second, because we put the league first.

Now my question is: is this what we get in return?

To be honest this doesn't exactly make us want to think of new fun minievents. Luckily most of you enjoyed it and had fun!

Some of you entered the server just to start complaining and went on and on with it even after FienDi apologized twice. What more could he have done at that point?? It was the last pool of the evening, and no one else seemed to have a problem with the concept.
The official complaint about us letting priits continue after the disconnection I kind of understand, but complaining about the fact that we didn't use reverse starting order in this one race, is to me nothing but being petty and making others feel bad because of very meaningless little things. As pointed out before, this was not a normal 2 start race.

I'm sorry if some of you got the wrong idea of what the race was supposed to be. Maybe we can improve the Race Calendar a bit and in the future this kind of things will be there as well.

Things don't always go your way, we have a lot of members and many of them have a request about our events. That's a good thing, but we can't always please everyone. If we do one thing, someone else wants the other. However, we do try our best with this league.

There are still many flaws in the rules, but those are being updated as we speak. Actually have been for months now. A lot of things have changed since me and FienDi took over, and because of that the rules haven't been up to date in a long time. However we agreed with the staff, that update will be postponed until S2 is released.

Some of us work really hard so you'd have a league to race in. We do improve it all the time, but no one is forced to be with us. We warmly welcome everyone who wants to join us and stay with us, but that doesn't mean we can take anything..

As long as we have those guys who stood up for us in the chatterbox and keep thanking us and participating in our events, this is all worth it.
This for all those guys: THANK YOU!

Btw.. this is just my opinion and has nothing to do with OLFSL. The thank you is on behalf of OLFSL though :thumb3d:

Sincerely

Mrs FienDi

Quote from varjsa-9 :

Besides, one doesn't need to use a lot of time to get a decent position in grid, I did about 30 laps to get mine.

I must agree with this one.. As FienDi's wife I know everything there is to know about his use of all the free time. Let me tell you, that the time he has left when he's done updating the site or improving it or what ever he needs to do - OLFSL work in short - is not much. He uses like 3 hours a week to practise - and yet he's once again in pool 2. And that has nothing to do with the fact that he's married to the Pool Manager! So it doesn't really take much time to get a decent hotlap.

He goes to work 5 days a week as most of us do, he's in school 2 evenings a week atm (last fall it was more than that), does all the league work, drives himself a decent hotlap, spends time with me.. Trust me, if it would take a lot of time to get a decent hotlap, he would have to stop racing! There's only 24 hours in his day too