As a totally crappy racer when it comes to playing well with others, I think it's a pretty decent idea. I'm of the opinion server admins should be able to do what they want..after all, it's their server.

If there is a sudden lack of servers that allow slow drivers to play, I'll be more than happy to host one (or 5, I've got a lot of bandwidth). I'd host one now, but there seems to be little point..there are already a million and five compared to the number of racers.

In the interim, perhaps a better solution than a ban is a gentle reminder that perhaps it's better for them to spectate for a race or two to get a better idea of what they should be doing and where. If they don't respect the admin's wishes in that regard, they have a much bigger problem than not knowing how to drive.

I think there's a bit of a misconception here. It's not 'slow' drivers per se, that is the issue. It's the totally inept 'drivers'
Believe me nathan, we try to communicate with these guys but it's an uphill struggle. It's hard to know what to do for the best for all of our guests, but OldBloke's suggestion is pretty much on the money.

@felplacerad: Do enlighten us.

Quote from nathanm :

... In the interim, perhaps a better solution than a ban is a gentle reminder that perhaps it's better for them to spectate for a race or two to get a better idea of what they should be doing and where. If they don't respect the admin's wishes in that regard, they have a much bigger problem than not knowing how to drive.

As an admin, what do you do when you can't even get the person to reply to your ingame requests?

This is a failing of LFS. If you kick or ban a racer they get a simple 'disconnection' message. Many will assume it's a network issue and try to reconnect. The 'kicked' get back in, the 'banned' don't. It would be a great help if LFS could emulate one of the mods we used to run on CounterStrike where the following could be used ...

/kick user reason
/ban user period reason

Where 'reason' is 2 character shorthand referring to a set list of reasons. An example ...

/kick user dw

This would put a message on the screen saying that 'user' is about to be kicked for deliberate wrecking. Then no-one is in any doubt as to why they were kicked/banned.

When they don't listen, you whip out the temp ban. A note in the motd might be helpful, too. Something like "If we tell you that you need to spectate for a while and you don't listen, expect a ban." Sure, many people ignore the motd and the admins..those are the people I mentioned as having a bigger problem than not knowing how to drive, like expecting that they can do whatever they want in someone else's house.

It would be really nice if there was more than the generic disconnection message, so the message could be beaten into the more oblivious without a need to restrict the server as much. Another thing that would be nice, but unlikely to happen in the absence of some sort of scripting engine, is to make it so the inexperienced drivers have to spectate for a bit to get a feel for how everyone else is racing before joining the race, presuming that's how the admin wants to run their server.

I guess the problem is that a lot of people (not me) find spectating boring, so will just go elsewhere instead of trying to learn something.

And s/slow/overly inexperienced/

Quote from OldBloke :

<kick/ban reasons>

+1

Maybe

AU - Automated system
RW - Driving the wrong way around the track
IW - Intentional wrecking
EX - Use of exploits
CH - Use of cheats
AS - Antisocial tactics/behaviour

What more ...

Quote from nathanm :

...A note in the motd might be helpful, too.

The MOTD is, in it's present form, too limited to be much use. And if/when it's expanded ... will anyone read it?

Before I give some more, I'm wary of this system being used to make some servers elitest.

Some more ideas:

TS: Too slow
CC: Course-cutting
PIT: Pit window violation (eg pitting on 1st lap, or outside of agreed-upon pit window)
CAR: Driving the wrong car

Quote from OldBloke :

The MOTD is, in it's present form, too limited to be much use. And if/when it's expanded ... will anyone read it?

It is too small, especially if you feel the need to spell out the rules in it, which you essentially have to do if you don't want some idiot posting on the forum about how they were banned for no reason. A conundrum, for sure.

DieKolkrabe, a server admin can already make his/her server elitist, although it would require a bit more work.

Quote from DieKolkrabe :

Before I give some more, I'm wary of this system being used to make some servers elitest.

Some more ideas:

TS: Too slow
CC: Course-cutting
PIT: Pit window violation (eg pitting on 1st lap, or outside of agreed-upon pit window)
CAR: Driving the wrong car

Aaaalrighty then !

Anywho' guy's I must confess, I drive on probably a dozen LFS servers most nights of the week and I NEVER see anither driver that makes as many mistakes and indirect wrecking as myself , :sadbananaI is a bad driver and have terrible pb's and wouldnt beabl to connect to that kind o' server...

Quote from CSU1 :

Aaaalrighty then !

Anywho' guy's I must confess, I drive on probably a dozen LFS servers most nights of the week and I NEVER see anither driver that makes as many mistakes and indirect wrecking as myself , :sadbananaI is a bad driver and have terrible pb's and wouldnt beabl to connect to that kind o' server...

Correct.

Quote from Doorman :

Correct.

Lmao! I'd kick your ass doorman!

Edit: ? whats that I see a 1:38x in xfg on bl! .no chance

Quote :

TS: Too slow

I don't see why a slow (unless this is deliberate slow driving) driver causes problems on a server unless it is a really narrow track.

Quote :

CC: Course-cutting
PIT: Pit window violation (eg pitting on 1st lap, or outside of agreed-upon pit window)
CAR: Driving the wrong car

Other than the fact that I thought of 2 letter abbreviations, the rest are good ideas

@CSU1: You haven't seen me race. I'm not so much racer as grass-cutter (hey! Improvement suggestion. J/k )

@duke_toaster: You've not been on servers where people get kicked if they aren't within .01 of the WR?

More codes:

LE: Lack of experience
ND: Not driving/afk (VERY annoying)

DK