I understand that the CTRA admins can only process so many reports at a time, and that you won't sacrifice quality in the face of a large backlog. We appreciate the effort being put in, but it has become abundantly clear in the last few months that the current system is lacking.

We have some reports that were filed over three months ago which still have yet to be resolved. This is a glaring issue in the whole CTRA system which has dramatic effects on day-to-day server operations. Simply put, offending drivers are not being reprimanded and disciplined for rule breakage and can in some cases continue to offend over and over without consequence. A few days or a couple weeks to process a report isn't a problem, but several months is. I have seen a few drivers repeatedly break rules, yet when called out on it by someone else in the server, they claim "I didn't know". These are very experienced (multi-year drivers) in well-established teams, so they are clearly lying about their ignorance of the rules. Yet, because they have not had any official admin response to their actions, they continue to join CTRA and break rules. This creates exactly the sort of disrespectul, unfriendly atmosphere which CTRA tries to minimize.

If rule breakers are not punished for their actions within a reasonable time frame, the rules become irrelevant. CTRA may as well be a free-for-all. Which is a shame because the CTRA system, when it works, is easily the best in LFS.

Something needs to be done to speed up the whole process. Hire a few fair-minded, experienced people in the community whose sole job is to process reports. Have them bear some of the workload that is currently resting entirely on the shoulders of the current CTRA admin team. You guys are doing a great job, but the quantity of reports necessitates changes to the system.

I _would think_ that if someone gets reported more than once in a short space of time then the X-system would flag that and get it processed quicker? As these people are more likely to be a serious danger to others?

have a little idea to help identify serious cases:

on the ctra web page, when you submit a report you have to chose frome a list of options dependinding on seriousness for example you could have: wrecking, serious rule break, minor rule break, small misdamenor (i know thos are rubbish but just to give an iea of what i mean, a bit like a 1-5 rating but with numbers what is actually classed as a 1 or a 5 etc is not always obvious) and then the higher the rating the high proirity it is to check. and also to limit people using it wrongly anyone found abusing the system by setting them all to say wrecking when there not would be subject to a penalty of some sort(obviously after being preiously warned)

Quote from J@tko :

I _would think_ that if someone gets reported more than once in a short space of time then the X-system would flag that and get it processed quicker?

That would only stop a wrecker, not a driver who's deliberately trying to get around the rules, though. I don't know who Lateralus is talking about, but I think he has a point on the general principle.

Also I was wondering what will happen if/when 0.6A will be released, then all the old reports will get cleared?

Quote from james12s :

on the ctra web page, when you submit a report you have to chose frome a list of options dependinding on seriousness

Bug trackers usually have this kind of control, some of the reporters are honest and rate the bug accordingly, while many other - probably thinking 'WTH?' - deliberately inflate the seriousness rating. I can easily see why some angry person would do this.

So in the end admins still have to check the reports and re-rate them if necessary.

I have to agree that allowing reports to build up like this is not a good thing.

An idea, perhaps if the report system was split into two, especially if you get were to get more people to review reports, it would be better. Much like in real life motorsport where you have "judges of fact", reports could be reviewed only on whether the reported driver has in fact broken the rules, wrecked/crashed deliberately etc, and previous reports would not be taken into account. Then, if the reviewer feels the aforementioned has occurred, this would be passed to an admin - with reviewers being able to set the priority of the report - who would rule on the punishments, taking into account everything regarding the reported driver's history.

I thought it was the concept of CTRA that the reports are processed by a fieldmouse who's mostly on vacation?

There's only 3 solutions for the problems described earlier: Automate the whole rule-enforcement (=the x-system does everything which isn't possible afaik) (1) ; Get more people to process the reports (2) ; People stop filing so many reports (3)

I think it is just that the people involved are more busy with real life or other stuff at the moment. I know at least one of them has fairly recently got a new job and has very little spare time any more.

SamH has said that he is making a dedicated attempt at clearing the backlog over the new year period, hopefully once the waiting reports are dealt with then things will tick over like they used to.

Quote from Bean0 :

I think it is just that the people involved are more busy with real life or other stuff at the moment. I know at least one of them has fairly recently got a new job and has very little spare time any more.

SamH has said that he is making a dedicated attempt at clearing the backlog over the new year period, hopefully once the waiting reports are dealt with then things will tick over like they used to.

If that's the case, great - there will be no reason to make any changes and everything will be gravy.

I'll say it again, if CTRA need help clearing reports I will make some time to assist. As usual, any offer of help I make will be met with silence as it usually is.

Quote from Becky Rose :

I'll say it again, if CTRA need help clearing reports I will make some time to assist. As usual, any offer of help I make will be met with silence as it usually is.

Just PM dOof. Everything will be sorted quickly

How about reporting less...
I've seen people texting "u noob...y u bla bla REPORT REPORT REPORT"
Errors happen, there's no need to fill a dozen of reports unless the other racer is really wrecking or racing really bad ... enjoy your time.

That's all well and good but when the other guy punts you off or takes others out and just disappears into the distance and says sweet FA even though I ask him what the hell he just did then what else can you do but report?

Quote from boothy :

That's all well and good but when the other guy punts you off or takes others out and just disappears into the distance and says sweet FA even though I ask him what the hell he just did then what else can you do but report?

Exactly. People need to report any violations to keep the standard up and remind people that there are rules in the first place. I agree, though, that one shouldn't raise a report just because someone said a swear word on the server. I don't know if anybody does that, it doesn't seem worth the trouble IMO.

I guess my point is that we shouldn't be more "forgiving" just because the reports are piled 50ft high, so to speak. I understand that there may be too few people to process reports - especially during the holiday period - but if it's really becoming a problem then something needs to change on the admin side of things, not about the reporting system. Simple as that.

Quote from toddshooter :

just pm doof. Everything will be sorted quickly

rofl!!!!!

Quote from boothy :

That's all well and good but when the other guy punts you off or takes others out and just disappears into the distance and says sweet FA even though I ask him what the hell he just did then what else can you do but report?

There's spuns and take off's everywhere, even in the major leagues, on CTRA there is a tool to report bad players/racers, not to give self pleasure reporting someone.
If you don't trust someone, avoid close situations with him, awareness ...

Quote from fujiwara :

If you don't trust someone, avoid close situations with him, awareness ...

And if you don't trust the whole grid, avoid the server. Isn't that the perfect solution?

Quote from fujiwara :

There's spuns and take off's everywhere, even in the major leagues, on CTRA there is a tool to report bad players/racers, not to give self pleasure reporting someone.
If you don't trust someone, avoid close situations with him, awareness ...

Not being able to race because someone wants to overtake you is far from giving self pleasure. In fact is a pain in the a.. to report other people, and most of the time I let them go with their behaviour.

I haven't entered race 1 in a while because I can't finish a race without people crashing into me. Even if i'm easy and leave them all the room to overtake.

Quote from fujiwara :

If you don't trust someone, avoid close situations with him, awareness ...

And in the case of the server I was just on. A very slow and unpredictable driver joined who a lot of people were crashing into simply because they didn't give enough SPACE. People complained and one person even rammed the poor guy into the wall and he eventually disconnected. I ended up reporting the rammer and not the slow driver!

2 of my 3 reports awaiting inspection have now turned from "pending" to "under review".

Hopefully the wrecking blighters will be banned.


It's getting done, just be patient.

If you want to make it easier and quicker for the admins to check the replays put the exact time of the incident in the report.

Quote from March Hare :

If you want to make it easier and quicker for the admins to check the replays put the exact time of the incident in the report.

You already have to specify which lap(s) the incident(s) took place. With the improved replay control it should be easy enough for admins to fastforward to the relevant lap(s).

Sam is on it...

i have three that are still pending.

I know Sam is most likely trying his best to get to the reports, but they are climbing at an alarming rate...

Reports Pending: 246
Reports Under Review: 175
Total reports awaiting processing: 421

Warnings Issued: 625
Cautions Issued: 575
Bans Issued: 1,159

412 is a pretty high number and if you imagine it probably takes something like 10 minutes to view, asses and process a report thats 68 hours of work!

I wonder if it is possible to change the system a little. How about having reports processed by all Platinum drivers and above. A report must be viewed by at least 3 people so that a fair response is given? Then maybe admins only deal with appeals? Might be over complicating but with the fact that most CTRA admins have busy full time jobs, families etc, it's going to need some serious commitment to reduce that number down.

That's over 111 reports in just 11 days since my previous post http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=1022818#post1022818!!!