Planet F1 forum - stupid issues!

[Bloodwych]

As I've mentioned before, I'm a motor sport fan and after the weekends F1 race I felt like holding a discussion and replying to some posts over at the website planet f1.

Well, I tried to register and had my registration declined. So I tried again, and some mod once again declined my registration. My frustration grew, as I've never had my registration declined at any other forum before in my life!

The email asked me to contact p-f1mod@hotmail.com if I needed to know why my registration was declined. So I did:

Hello.

I've been a regular visitor to your forums for many years now and finally decided to join the community as I have done with many other forums around the internet.

This is the first time I've ever had an account declined. Can you please explain the reason?

My internet service provider is Virgin media which uses a proxy server so are you reading the incorrect IP address and banning a large number of virgin media customers unwittingly? All virgin customers have similar IPs, but if you send the correct request to the virgin servers the customers unique IP address is reported, as shown by countless websites and the famous firewall test site shields up!

I can't really think why else you have declined my account? Like I said above, your site is the only one out of the countless others I've joined that's declined my registration. What makes your site different?

Thanks for your help.

Ok, a little abrupt but I was getting frustrated. Then as I clicked send, the server rejected my email! GGGRRRAAARRRHHHGGGGGGGGGGG! Stupid planet F1!

[Submeg]

that is all I have to say

[Tiago]

Bloodwych, just ignore does guys, i also had problems with then some time ago.

I usually go to:
www.formula1.com
www.f1racing.net
www.pitpass.com

i think those 3 are the best F1 sites.
The first one is the official one so news could be a little bit more "prepared/elaborated"
the
the other 2 sites, are quite good, and have lots of good information.

if you never tryed before, go to formula1.com during a F1 race and click the live timming, it's fantastic, you get real time for all cars. You have total lap times for each drivers, and also partial times for each driver/car, thru this feature you can really see who is doing what, and all the times, who is in pits, time in pits, fuel added in pits, everything...it's really cool. I allways what F1 on TV with www.formula1.com (live timing) on the laptop. It really is a big difference, in TV you dont allways know how is in what position, and what time separates 2 drivers, with live timing you know everything!

[Harrison]

What domain was the email from you were trying to register with and email them using? If it was a webmail email address such as hotmail, yahoo or google then they might reject it. I have the main classicamiga site setup to automatically reject some including hotmail email accounts. This is because many spam bots use such accounts to register false registrations.

[Bloodwych]

Submeg, the guns are coming out, I tell the!

Tiago, thanks for the suggestions! I sometimes follow the live timings on the eurosport site, but I'll definitely give those links a try.

Harrision, it was just a normal ntlworld/virgin email address that's registered with my ISP. It wasn't automatically rejected either - it had to be verified by a mod, who decided to reject it twice.

I still think they're banning a proxy IP addresses used by virgin and not requesting or displaying the unique users IP address. If so, loads of people can't register if one person using the same proxy has been bad! Or they think I'm a previous user who is covering up my true identity using a proxy, which is also rubbish - I can't disable virgins default proxy system.

Most frustrating thing is not being able to contact them. I'm going with Tiago - if they are that silly in handling registrations, then I'm done with them.

[Harrison]

I agree with that too. If they are being that difficult over the registration process then what must the mods be like on their forums? Probably on par with GameFAQs!

[AlexJ]

I wouldn't bother with PF1's forums. Their website's great but the forums are full of fanboys who pick up on the most tenuous (sp?) point and try to use it against fans of other drivers. I love debate and argument providing it's reasonable discussion and sensible points made. PF1 is just full of people looking to start a flame war.

[Harrison]

Actually talking about the current F1 situation, what are all your thoughts regarding Alonso at the moment?

It's obvious he can't handle direct competition and is acting like a child over Hamilton being treated equally to himself, when instead he had expected to come to McLaren this year as the World Champion and be given preferential treatment. Instead he has found himself to be losing to a rookie.

It is this behaviour that is the main reason I've never been a fan of Alonso. Throughout his F1 career I've noticed that when everything is going his way he acts very big heading and arrogant, but when something, no matter how small, goes wrong he can't handle the pressure at all and often looks like he is about to burst out crying. You can often see this in press conferences or when he is not standing on the top step of the podium.

In complete contrast Hamilton is the coolest driver in F1 at the moment and even when it all goes wrong he never loses it and that must really wind Alonso up. Quite funny.

Also interesting news about Renault offering Alonso his old drive back if he leaves McLaren at the end of this season. Could we then see Renault finally competing again for points? I bet Giancarlo Fischicella is worried.

[Tiago]

The rumors about Alonso are everywhere.
I read some Spanish newspapers and they talk a lot about a contract with Ferrari (Ihope not).
Others says that he has a contract with both Ferrari and Renault and that hewill go 1 year to Renault and then to Ferrari.

I hate Alonso so much you just cant imagine.

The press conferences when he speaks in Spanish sometimes he dont say the same thing as in English. He is a big #$%"& !

I really hope he is not going to my loved team Ferrari.

[Bloodwych]

I can’t argue with what you said Harrision because it’s very true. I do think it isn’t as black and white as that however and every driver comes in shades of grey.

Alonso can act cold, spoilt, unreasonable and selfish at times but in the sport of F1, you can’t be nice. Although I enjoy watching the drivers dual it out, I certainly don’t respect many of them as people as they have to adopt negative traits for success in what has to be one of the most cut-throat and capitalist business environments around. He certainly isn’t afraid to embrace his true selfish feelings and just can’t help letting his thoughts slip out to the world.

In the championship battle I’m obviously behind Hamilton although ITV’s shove-him down-your-throat coverage and the media’s quotes have done him no favours. I try not to believe everything I read, but the media have painted a picture of a young man who’s had everything on a plate, the best prepared rookie of all time with multi-million pound simulators, who started out the season naïve and respectful but is ending it arrogant and full of himself. He’s certainly leaned fast as to what it takes to be at the top! If he wants success, that’s the kind of attitude you have to have.

Hamilton may be acting cool, but those negative traits that each driver needs are now beginning to show. He’s made some very public digs and dropped comments that really are disrespectful. Calling the backmarkers “monkeys”, implying Mclaren know who to support in the championship, hinting that his bosses should off-load Alonso next season and support him, chopping up people on starts then complaining when others do the same…the list goes on. A cool demeanour and smile doesn’t hide everything, he’s just been coached at pulling the Mclaren cooperate line a little better than Alonso. Deep down I’m certain he has the same selfish and unreasonable urges.

Back to Alonso, he isn’t all bad however. Unlike most F1 drivers, he remained grounded in his off-track lifestyle, much to the annoyance of Bernie who wants F1 champions to be as flamboyant as possible. He hasn’t run off to Monaco to protect his millions from the taxman, instead living in Oxford and walking its streets in the off-season. He’s a very grounded individual, not seeking a totally materialistic way of life like Jenson Button and David Coultard. Hamilton started the season claiming he wasn’t going to move to Monaco but now he’s done a u-turn and is likely to join the playboy club. Don’t forget that after he (Alonso) almost certainly lost the championship last weekend, he calmly made his way to the pits and gave ITV a very polite interview even though he knew the British broadcasters were behind Hamilton. Schumacher won’t even talk to most of the media and ignored ITV.

I’m a big fan of Hamilton as an English driver in an English/German team taking F1 by storm. It’s great to see the flag flying on race weekends and as a sports person, he has what it takes. I’m not sure what I think of him as a person in comparison to Alonso until he’s got a few seasons under his belt.