OTA Communication Channels

[LemonJus]

Hi folks,

Just to clear up some misunderstanding here with the recent email that was issued by the OTAO.

Ontario Time Attack has had a VERY good turnout for our OTAeRacing series in which we've used Discord for communications and announcements and it's brought a lot of attention to OTA with new faces. Some are long time sim racers, others intermediate, some brand new (from actual OTA). All of it is good publicity and keeps OTA in the limelight especially with the interview with Ross Bentley (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFxtyXTluqg) to close out our inaugural season. Now, with the government's recent announcement (which coincided with our season finale), it has generated a LOT of interest in the real life series from faces we've never had before. This is great news for our series growth and health especially in light of the pandemic and the uncertainty it wreaked on this season.

We are NOT abandoning the forums or website. We are simply moving INTO Discord as an easier way to commune (without breaking social distancing rules) and hang out. For those of you who don't know Discord, it's a great communication app that allows moderators to host sub channels, have voice chatting, play games together and in essence, hang out without leaving the comfort of your home. If you can use Skype or Facebook Messenger you can use Discord in a similar and easy fashion.

OTA now has the following outlets for disseminating information:
- the website (www.time-attack.ca)
- the forums (http://forums.casc.on.ca/forum/casc-...specific-forum)
- FaceBook (www.facebook.com/OntarioTimeAttack/)
- Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ontariotimeattack/)
- Discord (https://discord.gg/rtjenvw)

We highly suggest one of the latter three methods bolded to be one of your primaries as it allows for messaging people directly and being part of the community. We understand there are privacy concerns with Facebook affiliated apps (Instagram) but Discord requires none of that and is not affiliated.That being said, we will update all fronts together.

Cheers.

Kevin "LemonJus" Wong
2020 OTA Chief Timer

[jimmo-san]

Kevin,

I'm very disappointed that someone has apparently made this decision - without consulting the members of OTA - to make the Time Attack Forum on the CASC-OR site an "afterthought" means of communication in favour of Discord, Instagram and Facebook. I disagree with this decision for the following reasons:

1) Time Attack, as a division of CASC-OR, should use the same site for communication to its members as the other divisions, namely, Race, Autocross, Ice Racing

2) Competitors who have been involved in Time Attack in previous years, and who are looking to come back or for up-to-date information on Time Attack, will not be aware of "Discord" and may not be Facebook or Instagram users. They will look for information about Time Attack on the CASC-OR web site

3) Use of the CASC-OR web site promotes the sharing of information between divisions. If Time Attack suddenly goes silent, competitors in the other divisions will lose information about the activities in Time Attack

4) Competitors in other divisions may discover Time Attack by reading about our activities on the forum and may be prompted to join. If there are no posts, they may think Ontario Time Attack is no longer active.

For these reasons, I suggest that use of other tools - Instragram, FaceBook, this "Discord" site - be discontinued for communication to Time Attack competitors, and that every news item be communicated via the Time Attack Forum, not just the e-mail list, without exception, and immediately.

After having competed in OTA for seven seasons and thirty-seven events, I can say that, until this year, communication to OTA members via the Time Attack Forum has been well done. I would like to encourage that it continue.

Jim La Fave, OTA Car #78

[LemonJus]

Kevin,

I'm very disappointed that someone has apparently made this decision - without consulting the members of OTA - to make the Time Attack Forum on the CASC-OR site an "afterthought" means of communication in favour of Discord, Instagram and Facebook. I disagree with this decision for the following reasons:

1) Time Attack, as a division of CASC-OR, should use the same site for communication to its members as the other divisions, namely, Race, Autocross, Ice Racing

2) Competitors who have been involved in Time Attack in previous years, and who are looking to come back or for up-to-date information on Time Attack, will not be aware of "Discord" and may not be Facebook or Instagram users. They will look for information about Time Attack on the CASC-OR web site

3) Use of the CASC-OR web site promotes the sharing of information between divisions. If Time Attack suddenly goes silent, competitors in the other divisions will lose information about the activities in Time Attack

4) Competitors in other divisions may discover Time Attack by reading about our activities on the forum and may be prompted to join. If there are no posts, they may think Ontario Time Attack is no longer active.

For these reasons, I suggest that use of other tools - Instragram, FaceBook, this "Discord" site - be discontinued for communication to Time Attack competitors, and that every news item be communicated via the Time Attack Forum, not just the e-mail list, without exception, and immediately.

After having competed in OTA for seven seasons and thirty-seven events, I can say that, until this year, communication to OTA members via the Time Attack Forum has been well done. I would like to encourage that it continue.

Jim La Fave, OTA Car #78

Jim,

Sorry to hear you feel that way but there has been no instance of information being disseminated on one platform without the other. We are NOT abandoning the forums but adding to our arsenal - we want to make that very clear. The future of OTA has and always will be to bring in new blood and so OTA has to take on the burden of adding more methods to reach out and keep the attention of all our existing and potential new competitors - it also provides valuable data for sponsors to look at. Limiting ourselves to just the forums is exactly that.

The website and forums have been updated with co-ordination with social media between Joe and myself everytime the OTAO makes an announcement. This goes back to when we announced the 2020 pricing (same as last year - as soon as it was determined) to when CASC made the first cancellations for Covid 19 and the new announcement by the government 2 days ago about tracks potentially reopening. Covid 19 has been keeping all organizing bodies on their toes (look at all the false starts by other bodies) and we do not want to make any wrong announcements.

There is a lot to line up before we can get an event going in light of Covid 19 - we simply don't know what is happening until VERY last minute. The problem with 2020 is that the public seems to be getting the information first before the organizers can even do anything and it puts us in the wrong light.

We will be updating everyone soon again regarding when our first event is allowed to run. Please be patient - the OTAO is working around the clock to get all the bodies we need to line up for running this with VERY little notice.

Kevin

[wparsons]

Jim, most of the younger competitors have completely abandoned forums altogether and only use social media. If the organization ignores that they lose reach to a large group of competitors as well.

I'm not sure what you're upset about though, they very clearly stated they're going to be posting the same information to all the channels, it's not like the site or forums are being discontinued.

[Ujjwal]

Hey Will and Kevin, you guys are doing a great job, keep it up, it cant be easy.

I do have a question in line with Jim's post. If there are multiple platforms where communication goes out, and a subset of people interested in OTA are on each platform, how does the whole set of people stay upto date on all discussion? A reply on discord wont be visible to someone on the forums, or facebook. Is it fair to say social media platforms are more so for reaching out to new people and answering newbie questions and the forums are where the community ask more focused questions? Or should folks start asking the CCC to class new cars, or discussion on rule questions on facebook as the main mosh pit?

[wparsons]

Hey Will and Kevin, you guys are doing a great job, keep it up, it cant be easy.

I do have a question in line with Jim's post. If there are multiple platforms where communication goes out, and a subset of people interested in OTA are on each platform, how does the whole set of people stay upto date on all discussion? A reply on discord wont be visible to someone on the forums, or facebook. Is it fair to say social media platforms are more so for reaching out to new people and answering newbie questions and the forums are where the community ask more focused questions? Or should folks start asking the CCC to class new cars, or discussion on rule questions on facebook as the main mosh pit?

I'm not doing anything with the communication, it's all Kevin and Joe really. I'm just making timing's life easier (hopefully), and trying to get better data in the hands of competitors

[LemonJus]

Hey Will and Kevin, you guys are doing a great job, keep it up, it cant be easy.

I do have a question in line with Jim's post. If there are multiple platforms where communication goes out, and a subset of people interested in OTA are on each platform, how does the whole set of people stay upto date on all discussion? A reply on discord wont be visible to someone on the forums, or facebook. Is it fair to say social media platforms are more so for reaching out to new people and answering newbie questions and the forums are where the community ask more focused questions? Or should folks start asking the CCC to class new cars, or discussion on rule questions on facebook as the main mosh pit?

Hi Ujjwal,

That's a great question and one of the biggest issues facing OTA right now - there's a long term plan to unify and standardize things but it will take some time. One of the biggest knocks against OTA is the fact that signing up and getting to the track with us involves a lot of levels (CCDB, MSReg, a CASC club, etc.) and we're working to make it as simple as possible.

In the mean time, announcements will always be issued out through the six channels.

For items like that require discussion, there are a few levels:

Casual items (like can we camp for CTMP?) can be done via OTA official email, Discord, FB, Instagram and here. We have always made it a point to trawl through the methods to make sure we capture all the Q's for A's.

General Inquiries: https://time-attack.ca/contact-us/ still has a general inquiry page. Nothing new here.

Serious items (like safety, tech, CCDB, etc.) are still done via the current methods shown on the appropriate websites. Specific to your question about classing: http://ccdb.casc.on.ca/ContactUs.aspx. For new cars, the forum still applies and folks on the CCC will still keep looking at that when someone asks for a new car classing.

We also have our official open house (normally in non Covid situations) and the competitors meeting - both are for airing out issues and suggestions.

Again, I'd like to stress that nothing has changed, it is still business as usual. Whatever method you were using before will still apply. Forums still get visited, but now we have new ways of getting ahold of someone.

I'm sure everyone who's been to this forum understands the issue of signing up. We want to make it easier for people to join OTA.

That's the goal.

Kevin

[wanJoe]

Hey Will and Kevin, you guys are doing a great job, keep it up, it cant be easy.

I do have a question in line with Jim's post. If there are multiple platforms where communication goes out, and a subset of people interested in OTA are on each platform, how does the whole set of people stay upto date on all discussion? A reply on discord wont be visible to someone on the forums, or facebook. Is it fair to say social media platforms are more so for reaching out to new people and answering newbie questions and the forums are where the community ask more focused questions? Or should folks start asking the CCC to class new cars, or discussion on rule questions on facebook as the main mosh pit?

Hi Ujjwal, just to add to Kevin's explanation.

From the organization's point of view, we want our reach to be as wide as possible, therefore we made the decision to branch out to all social media platforms in order to grow. Unfortunately we can't force people to adopt to a platform they are not familiar with, so the only solution was to update all outlets simultaneously. I understand Jim's concern with CASC-OR forum but there are also a significant group that only operate in Facebook/Instagram space.

We created a catch-all directory at https://linktr.ee/ontariotimeattack and that is where we point new competitors to and they can choose their own platform.

Regards,

[jimmo-san]

there has been no instance of information being disseminated on one platform without the other.

Kevin, in fact there has been an instance of information being disseminated on one platform without the other.

In the 2019 season, I was in second place in T2 going into Events 6 and 7, Luke Lay was in first place. On Facebook, you reminded everyone on August 20 that the "double points" rule was in effect for Events 6 and 7, but there was no reminder on the Time Attack Forum. I had forgotten about the "double points" rule, and didn't read the Facebook post either, but planned to compete in both events anyway. Luke did not compete in Event 7 and, because the double points rule was in effect, I took first place in T2 in the overall season standings. I was completely surprised by my first in T2, and had to go back to the rules to try and figure out how it was possible that I came in first.

Perhaps Luke was aware of the double points rule. Perhaps not. But this is precisely the danger of having multiple platforms for dissemination of information. Missing information can mean people make decisions without the benefit of necessary information.

My point is simple: put everything on the Time Attack Forum first, without exception. Then, if you feel that you can reach a wider audience using Facebook, Instagram, Discord, repeat the information there. But the CASC-OR Forum should still be the go-to site for information about OTA.

[kmorris]

Thumbs up for the link tree!

[GT42RR]

This is a MEME....

Definition
An amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online especially through social media.

We use things like this on Facebook and Instagram when people are being ridiculous instead of insulting them.

[Ujjwal]

That linktree is really handy, needs an r factor of 4! Maybe I missed the pathway to facebook but noticed facebook was missing from linktree, and the website links to this forum.

[LemonJus]

That linktree is really handy, needs an r factor of 4! Maybe I missed the pathway to facebook but noticed facebook was missing from linktree, and the website links to this forum.

Yeah, we're still learning the Linktree ourselves and there are limitations to what we can do with the unpaid version. We noticed the missing part to the Forum and FB. Will be adding.