I can't help but feel

[ECW Dan Selby]

This forum's died even harder since being moved in to the 'midfield'.

Any chance of getting it moved back to its regular place?

Cheers!

Dan

[ScotsBrutesFan]

It's only been at this new location a week.

MagnetON has site stats at the end of every month, lets give it until then and see if being in this location has made a difference.

[MagnetON]

Originally Posted by ScotsBrutesFan

MagnetON has site stats at the end of every month, lets give it until then and see if being in this location has made a difference.

Month	Views	Overall %
April	3,973	0.30%
May	4,524	0.45%

13.8% increase over April

This currently puts "My Track Designs" in at #24 by section of Tenths.

[ECW Dan Selby]

Sounds good to me.

Sorry, it wasn't meant to sound like a knock, because obviously i'm sure everyone all wants all the sub-forums to do as well as possible.

It's just kinda sad seeing how bad this sub-forum's got. Long gone are the glory days of you, Luiggi, bio, Quintin....

Selby

[Yannick]

Well, I'm not sure if the new "place" has got something to do with it but the new name might.

It used to be just "My Tracks" whereas now, it reads "My Track Designs". People might not notice they are the same, especially since on here, when talking about this board, it always gets called "My Tracks". So changing back the name might help.

But over the years, as people grow up and need time to do other stuff, interest in designing circuits slowly fades. That's also the reason why I haven't posted a design of my own in what seems like years.

Also, having witnessed, on live TV, a second driver's deadly accident, has been a blow to my motorsport interest. I have written about this in detail before. If you're interested, look for it.

So in general, I can say quite a few people who frequently posted their designs on this board have drifted away towards other interests. But that's normal.

I seriously wonder, though, what kind of solutions we could come up with in a joint effort of brainstorming to improve the safety of fence posts of the catch fencing on oval racetracks (RIP Dan Wheldon)
There should be a thread about this.

[MagnetON]

1. Originally Posted by ECW Dan Selby

   This forum's died even harder since being moved in to the 'midfield'.

   So rather than complain why not start more threads on slightly varied topics and see what happens, it's worked well in the Road Cars forum.

2. Originally Posted by ScotsBrutesFan

   MagnetON has site stats at the end of every month, lets give it until then and see if being in this location has made a difference.

   Looking at the first 17 days of May against the first 17 days of April shows a slight drop of around 2%

3. Originally Posted by Yannick

   It used to be just "My Tracks" whereas now, it reads "My Track Designs". People might not notice they are the same, especially since on here, when talking about this board, it always gets called "My Tracks". So changing back the name might help.

   I honestly think users are clever enough to make the connection between the two. Especially as the description still says Building on the success of the "My Tracks" thread there is now a specific sub-forum for the budding and not so budding track designers on Ten-Tenths.

4. Originally Posted by Yannick

   I seriously wonder, though, what kind of solutions we could come up with in a joint effort of brainstorming to improve the safety of fence posts of the catch fencing on oval racetracks (RIP Dan Wheldon) There should be a thread about this.

   So start a thread about it and see what happens, see my point 1 above.

[Yannick]

Originally Posted by MagnetON

1. So start a thread about it and see what happens, see my point 1 above.

Well, currently, I'm afraid I just don't have the time for that due to workload. Sorry, guys.

Originally Posted by werner

What I dearly miss are fantasytracks that are located in the real world, where challenges of economical, logistical and topographical nature are dealt with. Also interesting is to propose changes to existing tracks to make them better in some aspects.

I agree with Werner, even though people posting some over-the-top circuits would also be quite refreshing. I'm not sure I have run out of ideas, like he said he had, but I definitely have other things on my mind at the time. So I can only say maybe later.

But looking at the economy in general, real world racetracks probably are facing some challenges at the time, especially if they are located in Spain or Protugal. So maybe people on this board have any ideas on downsizing some of these circuits to club racing and F3 level? (Portimao, Algarve, Circuito Monteblanco, maybe Imola, Mugello, Misano and Adria as well?)

[dyewat808]

Originally Posted by Yannick

...But looking at the economy in general, real world racetracks probably are facing some challenges at the time, especially if they are located in Spain or Protugal. So maybe people on this board have any ideas on downsizing some of these circuits to club racing and F3 level? (Portimao, Algarve, Circuito Monteblanco, maybe Imola, Mugello, Misano and Adria as well?)

I like that idea!

[ECW Dan Selby]

Sorry if it's coming across a bit negative, MagnetOn. I'm not sure I voiced my opinion properly.

I'm just a bit gutted more than anything because this was always my most regular forum to visit. I now spend alot more time in Formula One.

I loved the creativity, the competition, the feedback. We don't really have any of that anymore.

Yes, I could create more topics, but will it make a difference? I'd put money on 'no'.

Someone a few months back really made a solid effort (I can't remember who, but they started the 'Post 1 track a month' competition) but even that didn't work. You need more people viewing and chipping in. People more seem content with just viewing and leaving.

Yannick, i'd like to see what you wrote. Perhaps start a thread. I'll contribute my bizarre idea I had. I started brainstorming after that accident, too.

Selby
---
And the reason i'm a bit unsure about moving the forum/renaming it, is that when we get old-timers (potentially) coming back to visit, they may just think the forum got closed due to lack of activity. Afterall, that's honestly what I thought at first glance.

[MagnetON]

For those that like pictures, the number of page views per month for "My Tracks" from January 2008 to April 2011.

My Tracks Traffic.jpg

The intereting thing is the "Bounce Rate", the lighter blue line. It shows people are visiting, looking at a single page and then leaving, so people are not really reading threads or not posting.

So, over to you guys, what's the solution?

[werner]

I've posted a lot less recently compared to when I started posting here. In my case one of the bigger reason is that I slowly have run out of ideas. When I discovered this board I had a lot of ideas in my head, waiting to be worked on and shown. So I did. Those old ideas, that have been gathering in my head for years are all used, so now I only post something new when I have a new idea, that is interresting enough to a) work out in detail and b) show to the members of this board.

Other than that I miss the sometimes heated debates that we used to have here. Most tracks that are posted here are maybe just to good. When there is nothing to complain about, all you get are posts that say something like 'well done', not very spectacular.
The default way these days to draw a track is to use sketchup. It is a great piece of software, but the designs it seems to create are all the same. A big green flat rectangle, where a grey ribbon snakes its way round, at a straight piece joined by a pitlane, a pitbuilding and a grey rectangle square witch makes up the paddock. Yellowish graveltrapps have been added for safety when nescesary. I have only seen a few examples of Sketchuptracks that not only are flawless, but also tingle the spine. I believe that the lack of change in altitude and details of the surroundings are the main reason for it.
What I dearly miss are fantasytracks that are located in the real world, where challenges of economical, logistical and topographical nature are dealt with. Also interesting is to propose changes to existing tracks to make them better in some aspects.

[MagnetON]

Originally Posted by werner

What I dearly miss are fantasytracks that are located in the real world, where challenges of economical, logistical and topographical nature are dealt with. Also interesting is to propose changes to existing tracks to make them better in some aspects.

So.... pick a track, get a hold of a good google maps sat view and set people a challenge: "How would you adapt Brands Hatch to include an "intermediate" track length rather than just the Indy/GP layouts".

[dyewat808]

Originally Posted by werner

I've posted a lot less recently compared to when I started posting here. In my case one of the bigger reason is that I slowly have run out of ideas. When I discovered this board I had a lot of ideas in my head, waiting to be worked on and shown. So I did. Those old ideas, that have been gathering in my head for years are all used, so now I only post something new when I have a new idea, that is interresting enough to a) work out in detail and b) show to the members of this board.

Other than that I miss the sometimes heated debates that we used to have here. Most tracks that are posted here are maybe just to good. When there is nothing to complain about, all you get are posts that say something like 'well done', not very spectacular.
The default way these days to draw a track is to use sketchup. It is a great piece of software, but the designs it seems to create are all the same. A big green flat rectangle, where a grey ribbon snakes its way round, at a straight piece joined by a pitlane, a pitbuilding and a grey rectangle square witch makes up the paddock. Yellowish graveltrapps have been added for safety when nescesary. I have only seen a few examples of Sketchuptracks that not only are flawless, but also tingle the spine. I believe that the lack of change in altitude and details of the surroundings are the main reason for it.
What I dearly miss are fantasytracks that are located in the real world, where challenges of economical, logistical and topographical nature are dealt with. Also interesting is to propose changes to existing tracks to make them better in some aspects.

This is largely my problem as well.

Although it is interesting that you mention track challenges that take into account economical and logistical matters as well - I was going to start a thread with just that in mind. When I next have more time I'll start it and we can see what the interest levels are!

[ScotsBrutesFan]

OK so using this thread to bounce ideas around

Why computers and real world dominate lets not forget the back of an envelope/notepad designs or circuit modifications, that can be brought to us by way of Scanner or a quick pic using your camera phone.


However there are lots of different ways of doing real world circuits/locations these days thanks in most part to the "all mighty Google" ...

the Path tool" on Google Earth and then taking a screen shot,

for the slightly more adventurous screen shots from Google Earth or Google Maps loaded into something as simple as MS Paint and draw the circuit onto it.

Gmap-Pedometer for accurate street type circuits

The Geo-location tool within Sketch-up for capturing areas of land, as a base for a sketch up design.

So looking at using the above tools to entice more visitors are challenges the way to go ?

An obvious one if a bit boring would be something like airports around the world, Ever major and not so major city has at least one, so lets have a fantasy moment and shut one down for a weekend... Chicago Midway was done many years ago is an example.

How about something to try and attract something other than the closed circuit folks, with design tarmac rally stages around your nearest town, city... it could be something like 4 stages each no more than 2 or 3 miles each. Again it's fantasy so shutting down an entire town is possible, but more likely shutting each bit for a couple of hours at a time.

Again design a longer single time-trial stage. It could be point to point using roads that you travel on every day, or have the Start and finish at opposite ends of a large park area and have the stage loop around the town.

The fun with these last 2 could be that street view on Google could be used so that we can all get an idea of what the route would be like to drive.

Lets hear some more, and then we'll get some started, and as I say maybe publicise in trackside or the Rally section etc.

[Purist]

Adria, Imola, Misano, and Mugello are in Italy, not on the Iberian Peninsula.

Algarve has some shorter layouts than just the GP circuits for bikes and cars. Adding other short-cuts may be impractical given the elevation changes in the terrain it's built upon.

Monteblanco is a test track, and I think it gets rented out a fair bit. With no major series visiting (that I know of), they don't have to pay out any large sanctioning fees. Also, Monteblanco already has a multitude of configurations covering a fairly wide range of lap lengths.

I'll cover the Italian tracks anyway.

Adria is short to begin with. The full course is under 3.0km, and it has two, independent layouts that can be run that are even shorter.

Imola probably can't pracctically be cut in half or whatever. The hills and trees, not to mention the privately-owned buildings within the track, make building a link road probably more hassle than it's worth to try.

Misano may have some short-cuts already, but even if it doesn't, some could pretty easily be added by the look of things.

Mugello already has a link road that departs at the entry of Turn 7, and rejoins the pit straight right at the pit entrance. This cut-off creates a substantially shorter lap than the 3.259-mile GP Circuit. However, I don't think it's a concern anyway; the circuit's operators seem to be doing alright, and Ferrari looks to have no intention of selling Mugello anytime soon.