Quote from niels1 :

Well getting the accused also fill out a form would make life so much more difficult for the admin. The replay can tell everything a admin must know. They can select every view in each car and they can see if you applied any break or went on full throttle. They look at it in a objective manor. Becus they view several times from different angles. Report system works.

While any text will help us identify the incident we review the incident in clear light and do not take any feelings into account that came across in the persons text.

Understood, except, I believe there is a disconnect between what happened and what the admins see. In any case, it is "he said, she said" at this point and I've made peace with my accuser, not much else for it. Thank you for illuminating the matter here for me.

If you don't see the point in appeal then I'll just suck eggs. I am certainly going to be an active participant in this system now that I've suffered punishment under it (read: there is an incredible amount of nonsense on level 1 servers).

T-

Quote from SamH :

You've created a password for MyCTRA already, so filing an appeal would normally be a case of signing in at www.raceauthority.com/myctra. However, since the 7 day appeal window is closed now, you'll need to PM do0f on this forum or email at ukct.net if you want to appeal an existing warn. Bear in mind that the penalty is determined by the CTRA admin, not the person that reported you.. and having watched the replay myself this evening, I don't think appealing is going to get anything changed. We take that stuff really seriously. Entirely up to you, of course

Quote from niels1 :

Well getting the accused also fill out a form would make life so much more difficult for the admin. The replay can tell everything a admin must know. They can select every view in each car and they can see if you applied any break or went on full throttle. They look at it in a objective manor. Becus they view several times from different angles. Report system works.

I will say this much - the "sorry by actions" is NOT a good tactic when the silence of the accused does not mitigate a report (it is apparent that the text of all conversation is embedded in a replay). If I had of vocalized/typed what has since transpired between me and my accuser, the report would not likely have been filed.

Thus, the "let the other guy go if you have wronged him" advice has its flaws. Intention is hard to measure and I understand that all an admin (who is a volunteer, I realize) has to go on is what is apparent and empirically evident in the replay. Any extenuating circumstances: a distraction by looking elsewhere, an inadvertent key/view change (for instance an accidental SHIFT + TAB will make my view switch to another driver - this can easily happen when you are trying for CTRL + TAB to change player view/track view information - can't be accounted for. Hence, despite the true cause of the accident, an admin will piece together what is evident in the replay and then consider the position of the accuser. Should the accused, abidbing by the "don't talk about it, just let the guy pass you" rule, say nothing to explain the situation, the admin, in my case, sees the accuser's point and issues a ban.

There are alternative explanations for what looks like a blatant punt:

1) screen saver kicks in - I've had this happen with LFS several times before I went ahead and turned the screensaver off.

2) inadvertant key stroke (viz. my explanation of CTRL + TAB vs. SHIFT + TAB above)

3) Some other system/machine/peripheral related issue

With no foul language or repeated contact between an accused and accuser, there are alternative explanations which lead me to believe that a newbie's inexperience can cause crashes which seem otherwise malicious.

I realize these volunteers can't be nannies, but when a mid-term or full ban is afoot, it would seem as though some recourse would be available. I will give it more time, assuming I ever make it back, to get a feel for the system, but I've clearly seen that the ball CAN BE is in the accuser's court.

Don't mean to sound ingrateful, it's a cool and FREE service, but it sucks for a new guy to sit out for a month due to what I still maintain is a misunderstanding.

T-

Quote from tarball :

If you don't see the point in appeal then I'll just suck eggs.

I'm not the appeals admin so it's not for me to say. They may well see it differently.. and you make some good points here that I think are worth consideration. The CTRA admins are trying to encourage fair and competitive racing and discourage anything other than that (by force if necessary). The admin that handled this particular report perceived that you weren't acting in accordance with that ethos, but an appeal may bring more information, shed more light on the situation and achieve a different result.

Water under the bridge Sam - it's all good though. I appreciate your help and consideration. Now if I could just get this setup stuff down.

Back before we had a reporting system, before we had a licence notes system, when the STCC servers had just gone public I remember watching one race on BL RallyX where this guy right off the line turned hard into the cars alongside the moment the lights went green. I couldnt believe me eyes! I banned him on the spot of course, such delliberate blatant wrecking right infront of the admins eyes has to be punished.

He got in touch a little later to explain that he'd just got a G25 and had not realised he had the wheel turned 360 degrees from centre. A completely honest mistake, which just happened to have nasty repurcussions.

On the other hand I can cite 100 more incidents of wanton disregard for other drivers that never got as far as being dealt with because sometimes admins dont want to be admins, i've seen a lot of miscreants, a lot of bad racing - hell I even made a few bad calls myself in my time.

The point is when the tiered servers started and we had the early pre-cursor to the report system now in use, the emphasis from that point on became about the personal contact between admin and racer after an incident, it became about education.

Some drivers cant be educated, no-one knows better than a CTRA official how racing drivers are never wrong! Some drivers dont want to be educated, some drivers see it as a them and us situation, but every now and then we're rewarded with stories like this.

Communication is the key in breading a healthy respect between drivers, and between driver & race official. For sure the reporting system could be further enhanced - but it would become even more complicated and long winded.

It's taken a long time to get it to where it is today, and I gather Sam has made a few subtle tweeks since I left the project too, so its an ongoing thing - however I really do believe that the reporting system is bar far the fairest system in use on any server system today.

I'm proud to have been a part of the CTRA project and the main reason I take pride is not because it's been sucessful, it's because it's taught people, like yourself, to respect your fellow competitor.

Communication is key for sure, which is why for some reports, I get caught writing entire essays as replys of what happened in 1 incident.

I dunno, we had a good run for a while, where there was 2 - 3 weeks with no reports, and every time I went and scoped the servers, it was beautiful, and for the most part even with countless reports queued, it still looks like the same thing, people just have a moment where they're used to such high standards for a period of time, that stuff that's still within ranges of decency, they're reporting.

Regards the decision by the admins.
From what I understand they only look at the incident.
I submit that perhaps, though not practical, the driver's record and conduct through the race should also be taken into account.

As a rookie I spend lots of time being lapped. For those of you that were ever there, it's not as easy as it may seem being lapped. You may not know the circuit that well, tyres may be shot and you need to get around the corner ahead and keep an eye on the mirror. This is not easy!

I try my best to stay out the way, but I have caused accidents in the past and I wouldn't want one bad incident to be held out above all my good honest attempts to stay out of trouble.

The admins will focus on specific incidents indicated by the person filing the report. If they indicate a pattern over multiple laps or races, the admins will look at those too. The admins always welcome detailed reports.