It’ somewhat hard to believe but VirtualR is already starting its third year of existence today. It almost feels like yesterday that I started playing around with the blogging software, starting the site with no particular goal. To celebrate the site’s second birthday, the design has undergone a major change, more info on the new look and its features can be found below.
But first, it’s time to take a short look back at what was the second year of VirtualR. The site’s rapid growth has continued both in terms of visitor numbers and posted content. Until now, almost 3.000 news stories have been posted, enriched by over 12.000 screenshots and images.
The most impressive change has happened in terms of comments. While the first year had less than 2.000 comments, over 14.000 postings have been submitted in the past twelve months, posted by over 3000 signed up-users. VirtualR has not just become a place of news but also of discussion. Sometimes heated but mostly level-headed and interesting, the site’s comment section has earned a reputation for giving modders constructive feedback and offering interesting discussions.
2009 also put the site to its biggest test as the continued demand forced a rather problematic change to a powerful dedicated server, taking the site offline for over a day – A first in two years of operation. While running the site has certainly become more complex, it becomes more rewarding each day as I very much enjoy seeing it become a crucial part of the community.
An occasion like this is the perfect time to say “Thank You” and while I specifically thanked some people a year ago, it would be pretty much impossible to do so now as so many people have helped making this site a success during the past year. That’s why I want to thank everybody who submits news, gives me feedback, writes comments and e-mails, giving me motivation to carry on every single day. I appreciate the trust that countless modding teams, companies and other sites have put into VirtualR, every bit of support is very much appreciated.
My biggest thanks go out to the modding community and the sim racing community in a whole though – You guys are the ones making this hobby worthwhile, without you the site would have no reason to exist!
Off to year three….and many more to come 
Facts about the new site design
As you can see, the design of the site has changed quite a bit. Even though it looks a little different, the site continues to work the way it did before. The new design features a wider main-frame that allows me to post even more content and embed higher-resolution videos.
The category listing has been moved into the header, if you´re looking for category-specific RSS feeds please visit the category to find the link on the top.
A major new feature in the comment area are avatars, helping to personalise comments and bring commenting on VirtualR a little further to the comfort you´re used to in forums. To add your personal avatar, please register at Gravatar.com with the same mail-address you´re using here, your avatar will be connected to it. Signing up there is done as quickly as signing up around here, you´ll only have to do it once of course.
The theme has been tested on all major browsers, including Firefox up to version 3.5, Safari, Opera, Chrome as well as the Internet Explorer 7 & 8. The site should look the same in all browsers, if you find any errors please let me know so that I can jump off a cliff, try to fix them.
I really hope you like the product of several nerve-wrecking webdesign hours. If you don’t right away, please give it a few days to adjust
Gerdoner
July 10th, 2009 at 00:56
Happy birthday
Bjorn
July 10th, 2009 at 01:04
Happy birthday :)
dtruemca
July 10th, 2009 at 01:05
Yup Happy birthday
F1Racer
July 10th, 2009 at 01:07
Congrats on 2 years, looking fwd to the future.
navalhawkeye
July 10th, 2009 at 01:09
Happy birthday! Love the new design too!
acti0n
July 10th, 2009 at 01:11
Hi nice new Design :)
BSR-WiX
July 10th, 2009 at 01:13
i am glad the best just got better.
GeraArg
July 10th, 2009 at 01:16
Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mitos
July 10th, 2009 at 01:17
My congratulations! Wonderful job every day! THX 1138!
JimmyB
July 10th, 2009 at 01:18
Happy Birthday VirtualR.net!
Big congrats Montoya, your work is much appreciated.
Brad
July 10th, 2009 at 01:21
Hey man, one quick thing though. Why don’t you use a mod call avatars. I think it’s better because it allows for ppl upload a photo here instead (say they may want a different one from gravatar), but at the same time still allows gravatar, and also others (like if you want to integrate facebook login etc). It also has auto picture scaling and everything.
Anyway, I like how the new template is much fast to load now and I am very drunk right now celebrating the 2 year anniversary.
Uff
July 10th, 2009 at 01:25
Happy birthday, VirtualR!
It will take some days to get used to the new layout, but I’m already enjoying it.
computer7
July 10th, 2009 at 01:36
no ads, simple layout
i love it
AeroMechanical
July 10th, 2009 at 01:37
Lovely site. I pop by every day at least once, usually more than once, sometimes a lot more than once. New layout looks great.
Thanks a lot.
carbonfibre
July 10th, 2009 at 01:41
What a random surprise!
Jos
July 10th, 2009 at 01:47
happy birfday…
and may there be plenty of sim news to post about in the future!
f0xx
July 10th, 2009 at 01:49
Happy Birthday!!!
I like the new look ;)
Btw who is the poster? :P
Montoya
July 10th, 2009 at 01:50
Whoops, thanks for reminding me to put the two missing adcodes back in
Sorry, but the server bill needs to be paid I´m afraid….
@All
Thanks for the kind words, means a lot after putting quite some effort in the new layout!
@Brad
Very helpful suggestion, thanks mate. Had no idea such a plugin exists, will take a look at it
Jack_NL
July 10th, 2009 at 01:50
Happy birthday!
2 years allready?
Yup same here, i check VirtualR everyday its even my startpage!
now gonna check out the new layout
AmericanTGMan
July 10th, 2009 at 01:56
Sweet. VirtualR V3.0
Happy B-Day, Montoya.
/Now if only Gravatar supported animated avatars…
Mr. A
July 10th, 2009 at 02:03
Happy birthday!
This is definitely the best site for simracing news!
PvtStash
July 10th, 2009 at 02:24
Did you blow out all the candles first time? I mean your getting old now and we know that gets harder with age….. Congrats on sticking with it and hope there’s plenty more anniversaries to come.
Sodapop
July 10th, 2009 at 02:38
Great site you have here Montoya. Keep up the good work! Also I hope someday you’ll be able to grow this site so big that tossing those Cease and desists in the trash won’t cause a fuss.
rasfigjohn
July 10th, 2009 at 02:43
Happy Anniversary!
Thanks for what you do Rob, I’m addicted to your RSS feed.
O11
July 10th, 2009 at 03:09
Your work is very much appreciated.
Kaiser of Nurburg
July 10th, 2009 at 03:11
Happy 2nd Anniversary!!! and thanks for being sim racing’s news website.
stabiz
July 10th, 2009 at 03:16
Happy birthday, #42!
Still the best site for sim racing news!
gears
July 10th, 2009 at 03:17
Site looks great! You are the man!
Siggs
July 10th, 2009 at 03:51
Wow, this was unexpected! A very pleasant surprise, I really do like the new design. Thanks for the time and effort you put into the new site. I like the slimmer, cleaner look
And of course, thank you for the time and effort you’ve put in during these last couple of years Rob. I’ve not been coming here since it’s conception, but as soon as I discovered it, it has been one of my regularly visited pages, often on a daily basis. You can leave off coming here for only a couple of days, and often be swamped at the amount of posts that have gone live in that time. And I’ve witnessed some fo the decent discussions that the comments sections can throw up (p.s. well played on the editing and quoting too
)
Your dedication to the community, and this site, is a credit to sim racers everywhere
Best wishes for the future, and long live virtualR!
Ross.
.
fpol
July 10th, 2009 at 04:11
Great site…part of my daily MUST read. Good luck.
amgsport
July 10th, 2009 at 04:15
Happy B-Day VirtualR! Congrats Montoya – nice to see you take so much pride/enjoyment from your efforts – its shows. Fantastic work!!!
Brad
July 10th, 2009 at 04:40
Also, the link to edit your profile is still missing, not sure if you don’t want people accessing it or not.
heh and I just realised how many spelling mistakes I made before
modbaraban
July 10th, 2009 at 05:13
Happy 2nd Birthday, Rob… I mean VirtualR
Definitely this is THE place to look for simracing news. I visit here F5′ing often.
The new design looks good. It’s like a B-spec of a good racecar, pretty much like the old one, but even better. All that stuff in the header is much more usable than on the side, and the avatars is a good idea.
+1
Thank you!
Den.
Brad
July 10th, 2009 at 05:43
dont bother, i saw the link.
Paul Kelly
July 10th, 2009 at 05:44
Love the new layout, Montoya. Clean, clean, clean!
Thanks for all of the wonderful work you have done on this site. It is destination reading for me seven days per week.
Cheers!
PK
schoelle
July 10th, 2009 at 08:10
Happy Birthday virtualr!
The new layout is nice, please continue your work like you did in the last 2 years.
Delorean
July 10th, 2009 at 09:23
This looks brilliant!!
Nice job Montoya!!
Jdz
July 10th, 2009 at 10:01
Didn’t notice the change to be honest, that’s a good thing, I like it. VirtualIR is a nice site, its a hub for all sim racing related news and there is a healthy community that grill each other over the news.
BariCZ
July 10th, 2009 at 10:06
Great work Rob. Thank you that you are providing us best simracing news site.
Best wishes to the future.
Jan Baros / BariCZ
opc
July 10th, 2009 at 10:45
Herzlichen Glückwunsch ! Ich blicke nahezu stündlich auf die Seite ! Die Infos sind zu 99% interessant für meine Belange ! Weiter so !
gtrNL
July 10th, 2009 at 11:08
Very nice job on the new layout and happy birthday to your great site.
Thanks for all the hours you put into this site to give us the latest Sim Racing news.
trebor901
July 10th, 2009 at 11:29
Nice, good luck with the next few years, new design looks great aswell :D keep up the good work, its much appreciated.
paupau
July 10th, 2009 at 11:31
Happy Birthday !
6e66o
July 10th, 2009 at 12:24
Happy Birthday VirtualR,
thx for your efforts Rob, please continue like this
Mark
July 10th, 2009 at 12:34
H-Bay VirtualIR
Thx fo all the effort you put in to this site Rob and may it continue growing for a long time.
Like the new layout, few extra smilies for the comment section would be welcomed ;)
DeDios
July 10th, 2009 at 13:19
Happy birthday VirtualR, imho is the best place for simracers and modders. Really beautiful, clear, simple….top site!! thanks!!
ForzaBarca88
July 10th, 2009 at 14:19
Well I’ve gotta echo all these other comments, happy birthday and thank you very much! Long live VirtualR
ibyte_dk
July 10th, 2009 at 14:30
best sim racing site in the world!
DevonK
July 10th, 2009 at 16:00
Thanks for all your work on this site, I find it’s a great way to stay current with the latest mods for the Simbin series, and for getting the latest news.
You asked for feedback with bugs – one minor issue: when you have scrolled down the main page, if you click on a image down the page to view it, the view window does not open where you are but instead is up at the top of the page and so you have to scroll back up to view it. That in itself is not so bad, but if there is a window for video already embedded in the top area of the page’s text, the video window floats on top of the image you have opened to view, partially obscuring it, and scrolling can’t get rid of this problem. (This is in IE8.)
JGoenR
July 10th, 2009 at 17:58
Happy Birthday VirtualR.net! This new design is nice and strange at the same time. I will need time to get used to it.
mbeast
July 10th, 2009 at 18:49
In 2 years this site has grown from a little known curiousity to the best place on the internet for sim news and discussion. Best of luck for the next 2
ScHiRoCk
July 10th, 2009 at 19:22
Happy Birthday ;)
Hope this site will stay around for a long long time, because i like it very much!
Montoya
July 10th, 2009 at 20:09
Thanks, I didn’t spot that problem. Will be working on a fix ASAP
eddiespag
July 10th, 2009 at 21:16
Congratulations and Happy Birthday!
I concur with DevonK with the image clicking issue. Thanks for looking into this.
Apparently where you really got your huge growth and thus opportunity to really cement your golden reputation and need (for the community), is when RaceSimCentral shut down for all those months. What makes your site so attractive is the uncomplicated ‘get to the facts’ type of content that many of us are so interested in; the latest juicy ‘details’ of our sim sport and it’s developing future. If we want more, you often have links so we can delve further if so desired. You don’t over clutter this incredible site.
edit: to DevonK’s comment down below… yes, I can confirm this about the video issue. Also when editing a comment one has to scroll to the top of the page too.
All the best to you!
DevonK
July 10th, 2009 at 22:02
One further comment on the bug – it appears to me on brief testing that the “floating video window” problem only occurs when there are YouTube videos near the top of the page, not other video formats, but you will want to confirm this.
Again, thanks for all the efforts on this site, and thumbs up for the format changes – a really clean look.