ACC Getting some visibility on the web

Discussion in 'ACLOZ Past Seasons' started by Wally, Aug 31, 2019.

  1. Wally

    Wally Team Driver

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    If we want to get more numbers for ACC we should boost the visibility on the web. Can we rename this forum to "Australian Assetto Corsa Competizione League" now, instead of Assetto Corsa? For example, the XGN forum is called "Australian Assetto Corsa League, Tuesday nights", and it's the #1 hit when you search for "Australian Assetto Corsa league".

    We should also create new threads for every race, instead of piling on the one thread. It's all about increasing the ACC footprint for search engines.
  2. KoAStR

    KoAStR Like a bowss Team Raceonoz Gold Member Super ROOZ

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    Hey Wally. Good thinking.
    "Competizione" has been in the forum description since we started running it. Have added it to the title as well now. Title is now constrained by 50 character limit so just added "Australian" to the description. We'll still get hits on thread titles and content. Personally reckon a thread per race is a bit much unless it's a special event.

    The welcome guide is loaded with similar terms with search hits in mind.
    Wally and SteveDrivingSlowly like this.
  3. marty

    marty AC Server Legend

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    Maybe have a thread per race night at least with one for Mondays, one for Thursdays or Wednesdays as they are currently. ;)

    Season proper usually has been one thread per season here.
  4. tezpez85

    tezpez85 Professional Gold Member

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    We should not have Thursday if we're not running it currently, maybe slot it into an archived thread thingy like past AC seasons
  5. Wally

    Wally Team Driver

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    We should try a thread per round, because to Google that makes the forum appear more active and pushes it up the rankings. That's what we do at XGN and we're #1 in the search results.

    It would give Marty a place to start each thread with track/car combo, format, game-time race start etc. Also results, and post-race comments. At the moment, you have to scroll through one monolithic thread to find that info.
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  6. KoAStR

    KoAStR Like a bowss Team Raceonoz Gold Member Super ROOZ

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    The only downside to increased visibility on the web is it seems to coincide with surges in the amount of spam accounts I have to process and reject! :rolleyes:
    SteveDrivingSlowly likes this.
  7. Wally

    Wally Team Driver

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    So what you're saying is you'd rather have a website that no one can find so you don't have to deal with spammers :) That's not exactly the point, is it.
    marty likes this.
  8. KoAStR

    KoAStR Like a bowss Team Raceonoz Gold Member Super ROOZ

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    Exactly :roflmao:
  9. Captain Barracuda

    Captain Barracuda Rookie

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    How much works is it to deal with the spam? Does the potential growth outweigh the effort required to ban a few spammers? Or is there a more targetted way we can promote?
  10. Wally

    Wally Team Driver

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    We get (and deal with) masses of spammers at XGN. But spammers aren't necessarily looking for "australian assetto corsa league". So just boosting ACC league visibility isn't really going to make the site more attractive to spammers.
  11. KoAStR

    KoAStR Like a bowss Team Raceonoz Gold Member Super ROOZ

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    Haha it's all good. :) I was being facetious and posted after just having rejected a wave of spam accounts. While it can be a pain it's not really a big deal. It certainly doesn't outweigh potential growth or pose a deterrent to promoting the site.

    Years gone by the effort to clean up spam got a bit out of hand. The mod team was just a few and we couldn't afford forum software that offered any protections. Nowadays the system is streamlined and suspected new spam registrations are usually quarantined before they can create a mess on the forums ;)
  12. SteveDrivingSlowly

    SteveDrivingSlowly ACC Results Ste(ve)ward

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    Out of interest, how do you identify spam accounts?

    it may be possible to add an existing or make a new tool that will filter these out for you, or prevent the sign-up in the first place.

    e.g. recaptcha etc etc
  13. KoAStR

    KoAStR Like a bowss Team Raceonoz Gold Member Super ROOZ

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    Yea there is recaptcha and a tool that matches registered details with other instances of reported spam (with a hit count). Sometimes it catches legit users so this system flags the accounts for admin review to approve or reject.
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  14. SteveDrivingSlowly

    SteveDrivingSlowly ACC Results Ste(ve)ward

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    Yikes ok the spam is strong.
  15. marty

    marty AC Server Legend

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    Another forum I used to admin at with much bigger user base used to be a massive spam magnet. I honestly cant see how anyone could possibly make money from spam as its so generic and blatantly scammy. But you will never run out of spammers, the bigger the site or forum the worse the problems seem to be.

    But even that forum with millions of users it was possible to get ahead of the spam with a few admins needing to manage it a few minutes per day.

    I guess @KoAStR and other admins here have it well under control as I havent seen any of them really make an appearance here. Really the main people thay see spam are the admins which makes it even less profitable to spammers but they just wont quit. :rolleyes:
    SteveDrivingSlowly and KoAStR like this.
  16. marty

    marty AC Server Legend

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    Regarding visibility on the web if more Rooz members actually used the raceonoz servers outside scheduled race nights, then this is the best way to get in game visibility. As hardly anyone here ever uses the servers then they are mostly empty 24/7, When I use the servers its mostly just a solo practice session. We have the ability to host multiple servers and so if anyone would have a suggestion on a server setup this could be easily put up too. Nobody has really ever made any requests and even in the past when running servers when people would make a request they often wouldn't join the server empty so it would always stay empty. :rolleyes:
    SteveDrivingSlowly and KoAStR like this.
  17. Cooper

    Cooper Rookie Gold Member

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    We have a run on Tuesdays nights @ 2030, often Pcars2, but when ACC, I will suggest we use the ROOZ servers. If there was a practice only server/s up for the next weeks track, i would be happy to use them all week. if the dynamic weather cycled through over the day, it would be good to experience the variation depending on when it was hit. Or, perhaps its time i found a job?
  18. marty

    marty AC Server Legend

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    You mean like this one that's been up for at least a few weeks. ;)
    [​IMG]

    I know most never want to search for or join an empty server but the practice servers will be setup similar to what our race nights will be. Also if your first to join you can pretty much choose your session start weather, if you join and dont like the weather, exit and rejoin it will be a new session with random weather.

    If someone else is in the server it will keep running but they only auto reset if empty for the first person to join. This is probably the same with the track rotation servers you should be able to join/exit/rejoin to make it switch tracks. That I havent really tested but most likely it will change using that method.
  19. SteveDrivingSlowly

    SteveDrivingSlowly ACC Results Ste(ve)ward

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    What about if we have a Q 10 R 15 server set-up with a rotating track list - and then we try and have an even more 'informal' rooz night on one of the off-nights?

    We could start at 8:00pm and finish at 10:30pm and just try and get 4 or 5 of us there throughout to keep the server alive. The short sessions would attract more people dropping in and out - we can spam the discord and forum links in server chat and try and encourage people to come in for a chat and find out about the more serious racing nights.

    With active admins booting dickheads/high pings I think we would find over a few weeks that people who are searching for clean racing would come back for more. Basically a regular pub server but with admin and friendly guys to chat too for advice etc.

    We'll have to deal with tools, but its a numbers game - a % will be good blokes :)
    nanlatt likes this.
  20. marty

    marty AC Server Legend

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    Most of the regulars have already been added as admins into the ROOZ servers. I can adjust the track rotation server to 10-15. The main reason I made longer sessions for that server is when the track changes I assumed people would want some time to adjust to the new track.

    Also having short qualy rarely gives time for people to join so the first in will often be the only one in when the race starts. If they have admin rights they can keep restarting qualy until others join as I often do in these servers. If a few regulars are joining similar times a few nights a week though this can quickly grow.

    Q10 R15 someone solo will likely use the race as an extended practice and so others may still join as its best to keep race session open for these.

    The other current issue with track rotation is while people are in the server it will always stay on the same server. It only rotates tracks when all leave so maybe you were thinking of rotating tracks between races, possibly in a future update but Minolin doesnt like that idea.

    If you keep SA restriction strict enough it will keep out most muppets, I set that server to SA60 thinking maybe others will join but I personally would rather use higher levels to avoid the need for a full time babysitter/admin.

    Its possible future ACC updates will give us more options for setting servers and if we can set scheduled races I would likely try to set something each day at a time that may be popular and allow people to race.

    In the past having servers setup similar to how they are would get guys practice during the week and give some casual racing many nights per week for anyone that wanted this but the servers mostly have been empty the last month or so.

    The server that I set to q10 r20 q10 r20 is just to allow different session start times between races. The single q10 r15 server will always start at the same time.

    Its good to have some discussion here and any suggestions can easily be tested, we can even put up more servers but theres little point in flooding the lobby with more unused servers atm.

    I will adjust the track rotation server to q10 r15 and raise the SA a little to avoid too many muppets joining. Would you prefer it on an Aussie or Singapore server? Singapore will be better for other regions as moat should be under 220ms but the aussie server will get euros at 300+.

    Any regulars here that want admin access just let me know and I will add you in via entry list.
    SteveDrivingSlowly likes this.