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Herr Otto Partz says you're all nothing but pipsqueaks!

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Messages - zaqrack

#1
Competition 2023 / Re: Cars and rules for 2023
December 17, 2022, 09:25:35 PM
Howdy :)

Let me drop my 2 cents here...

It is not a coincidence ZakStunts had most of the time a linear scoreboard.
IMHO there are two key - and contradicting - factors, which always drove the point system:

1) Value regular participation as much as possible (which if I remember well is also the reason why LTB was born in the first place ... then came quiet days to make it even more important)

2) Do not discourage regularly participating pipsqueaks if they skip a few races (hence ignoring the worst races)

Most of the time we struggled with a low amount of regular pipsqueaks and hence the point system was always somewhat biased for participation. The one exception was 2003 when we had plenty of pipsqueaks, so we switched to nascar-style, as it was not really a problem for most to be present throughout the season.

I still feel that race winners are awarded in other ways well enough (hall of fame, etc.) and we you can never encourage enough the "middle class", who are enthusiastic and very often the backbone and driving force of the community, even though they cannot even dream of finishing on the top.

That said, I have not been really around recently. If you feel the situation has changed, do not hesitate to change the points system. Just wanted to share the key ideas that drove my thoughts back in the early ZS years and hint that -at least for me- the key driver for the system was always the incentive to keep the community active and engaged.

The points for the 12+ positions were a technical compromise. Any change to this part can just improve things.
#2
Competition and Website / Re: Team logos size
February 23, 2022, 10:15:27 AM
Nice find, Alan LOL :)

Back in 2000-2003 I was still actively involved in the demoscene :)
So actually, the squatting/standing guy images were kindly provided by tomcat (Hungarians: yes, THAT tomcat) the main organizer of the Flag2001 demo party (and the creator of the intro video, featuring similar figures):
https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=9929

Btw. our group has won the demo competition on this party with a demo written in _Pascal_ LOL.
Not that I had much to do with it - I was mostly the logistics/driver guy for the group at most.

The source of Cork's image is a secret - it may not be the real Cork anyhow ;)
#3
Competition and Website / Re: Team logos size
February 22, 2022, 02:45:08 PM
I certainly don't have a higher res Cork's Crew logo :(
Maybe on an old archive CD but I threw out all CDs several years back.
#4
Competition 2022 / Re: Guest tracks 2022
November 19, 2021, 09:19:59 PM
I'll take the last one again ;) 257 please!
#5
Chat - Misc / Re: Coronavirus
November 18, 2021, 04:34:09 PM
Glad to see everyone healthy!

I'm in quarantine right now. My son tested positive - more than 25% of his class did in the past two weeks. His temperature was 37.2 for a day and had a headache for two days - and that's it. He is as lively as ever.

So by the end of the week I'll finally know whether my tests from late October were false negatives...
Me and my wife and my smaller son had direct contact with a covid+ person (his teacher), then four days later a slight fever, weakness (extreme weakness for my wife), sore throat, complete loss of smell for 3-4 days and I have a slight eye inflammation ever since. And we both had negative PCRs. I actually had two.

Quarantine rules and testing are a joke in Hungary right now. No wonder the virus is spreading heavily. We paid for a PCR for my son to be sure we don't infect others.
If you opt for the free test, you have to call your doctor first (sometimes impossible as they are super overloaded) then it's roughly 3-4 days until you are tested and 2 more to get a result - at least in my area. During which you can freely move subject to your own judgment.     


#6
Competition and Website / Re: Sent replays analysis
November 18, 2021, 04:21:57 PM
2001-2014 naturally has a lot of parallels with my life.

2001-2003: fresh out of high school, new friends, getting totally disillusioned in becoming an engineer, not giving a shit on life&future, so lots of time on hobbies
2004-2007: settling at college, focus on studies and girls instead of hobbies. I did not check in detail but assume my relationship status had a huge impact on time spent on the competition. 2007 was my last year at college, while I was working on my thesis I was already working in parallel at two workplaces and my future wife moved to live with me, so...
2008-2009: stable relationship, eventually getting married, while not caring and eventually failing at my first (boring) workplace plenty of creative energy to direct elsewhere - results very visible :)
2010-2011: having a baby and a super stress-free new work I enjoyed a lot more, so I could sustain the 2008-2009 results with relatively little efforts
2011-2014: China years, lots of hard work plus time zone difference and internet issues gradually drowned my energy and interest in ZakStunts
2015-2016: Back to Hungary, picking up old threads. However, becoming a manager at work and having three kids makes it harder and harder to invest time in ZakStunts but thanks to dreadnaut I could focus my time on racing instead of managing.
2017 onwards: full time managerial position, three kids, founding and managing a kindergarten and a school and gradually cutting my screen time beyond worktime to zero - I'm really just lurking around but am super happy to see the community thriving :)

since 2015 I am really just lurking around :)

#7
Stunts Forum & Portal / Re: Forum stats
July 30, 2021, 03:19:29 PM
guys, this is great but impossible to catch up for a lurker like me, please post less!

Just kidding  8) ;D great to see such activity - I simply don't have enough time to join you...
#8
Stunts Chat / Re: Real names
January 14, 2021, 01:40:48 PM
You nailed it :D
#9
Chat - Misc / Re: Family topic
January 14, 2021, 01:37:57 PM
Great to see you lurking around :)

Yep, he looks very much like me and behaves also very similar like me at that age with some slight but major differences of course (no interest in math that I had, but an amazing artistic talent my wife had). Things like that. So an easy job for me to be his dad, just have to recall my own youth. However, I'm dreading his adolescence. I was an awful teenager. :D
#10
Stunts Chat / Re: Real names
January 09, 2021, 02:22:33 PM
When we married we were shown a combination sheet of the possible choices regarding surnames :) There were plenty options to choose from, which is good as we both hated the idea of "losing" our name when getting married. Appending is fine, but we ended up keeping our own and having the kids get a combined surname similar to how Akoss changed his. 
#11
Chat - Misc / Re: Family topic
January 09, 2021, 02:18:47 PM
@Daniel3D wonderful family! You are not the fist one with 4 kids - we had the legendary Krys Toff, who back in 2003-2006 managed to race very consistently and even attend the World Stunts Meeting in Denmark, already with 4 kids, while most of us were still youngsters without a family :)

Regarding screen time - all my kids are in Waldorf schools and we follow the same principles at home - no screens or electronic devices until they turn 14. Absolutely none - exactly for the reason Cas stated - so they can discover the world on their own, with their own hands. Of course for this to work we need a community where other parents also adhere to the same, so there is no tension between the kids. Sometimes it is very hard (especially trying to show a good example while my work is bound to the screen) but totally worth it. Their creativity and ability to discover new things is amazing - I truly believe they can later on contribute a lot to build a better world. 
And while they are growing up, they are doing well - e.g. this morning my oldest son was busy with building his own "treehouse" and setting up traps on the neighboring empty plot, my smaller boy (the dragon one :)) was helping me doing some woodworking and then I cooked lunch with my girl a bit later.

Attached a pic of the full bunch ;)
#12
Chat - Misc / Re: Family topic
January 08, 2021, 10:20:22 PM
Quote from: zaqrack on October 25, 2015, 09:46:41 PM
We had a list of 30 candidates, now reduced to 5 options:

Franciska
Karina
Natasa
Panka
Stefánia

Only one will be selected. :)

she ended up as Emilia and is soon already 5 yrs old ;)
#13
Competition 2021 / Re: Guest tracks 2021
January 08, 2021, 05:17:45 PM
I'll take ZCT245 if you allow me after my no-show in 2020.

Why the last track?

- this would give me a reason throughout the year to periodically check the site and perhaps be more active
- it would give me an entire year to design a track
- it is the last track which is still available :)
#14
Competition 2020 / Re: Guest tracks 2020
June 19, 2020, 02:23:25 PM
 8)

ZCT232 seems distant enough to sign up with confidence :)

So grateful for all of you for keeping things running. Haven't started Stunts in nearly two years. But I missed you and racing!

Should have a bit of time from August onwards Currently starting/forming a primary school besides my family and day job, so super busy times plus and a well-deserved summer holiday - completely without cellphones and computers - is starting next weekend.
#15
Competition 2020 / Re: Guest tracks 2020
June 18, 2020, 04:59:05 PM
I may as well sign up as for a track.  8)