[UberDoober]

I'll offer my opinion here as a league simracer and as noob with a motorsports related website and forum of my own. (I run rFactor NAGT @ gtsimracing.com which is not my site but I'll have an ad for mine in the next AutoSimSport edition)

Technically, your site is way beyond my skill level but somehow I got lost on my first visit. I'll try to retrace my steps, hang on.......

Okay, I think I get it now? I started out on your site's home page but instead of clicking the Forum button, I clicked on Virtual Motorsports>Getting Started. Without knowing exactly where I was or what I was supposed to be doing, my very first inclination was to click My Application - Click, Read, Apply hoping to find instructions for signing up but instead I got a no permissions error and was mad that I had to register to read how to sign up.

I backed up and read your Notice, "Dear Unregistered", clicked on clicking here and got a nice pop up prompting me to register. I'm guessing this is a mod? I said no thanks again then backed up to the MY ONLINE forum and looked around to see a bunch of application posts and wondering what I was supposed to do next? I tried to view the MyRD forum even though it was marked for members only, this time, I expected to get a no permissions message but instead got an empty forurm that says "there are no posts in this forum". I was confused.

I suggest you do something with your Notices section to make it more eye catching and actually maybe say something about the nature of your community and the purpose of the board, even though it is obvious. If this is part of the normal vB notices system, even some basic HTML can spice it up. Your welcome message then slaps me in the face with "To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below" which, like the cake, is a lie.

FINALLY, I backed up to the home page, started over and things made a lot more sense when I clicked on the Forums button. As a simracer, I was like a kid in a candy store with all your forums and subforums but didn't take a whole lot of time exploring. I thought to my self, "this might be a community I want to join" and decided to start reading some posts to judge your content and quality of contributor. I almost cried when I realized I could see your threads but not read them. It's all just a big tease.

I would be your obvious targeted member and it does appear you have a successful, active community that I might even like to join? Unfortunately, without being able to read without registering, I have no idea if I might actually want to contribute. It must not be that big of a deal since you are doing well and growing but I found your policy irksome.

Beyond that, your site looks nice is clean and is very professional but for an enthusiast niche, it almost seems too sterile to me? I don't smell the burning race fuel or get much racing atmosphere or ambiance. As I said, you must be doing something right and have a strong and growing community so keep up the good work.