It's no secret that this year the Sidepodcast community has rocketed. In 2007, we were excited to get double figures in the comments. This year, we've had so many amazing people leaving their thoughts and feedback, and some great ideas have sprung up because of them. If you've been following the comments for a while, you'll know we like to blame Steven Roy for everything, but actually, a lot of people have offered suggestions that have added to the Sidepodcast empire. Here's a celebration of some of them.

Don't Quote Me

On the difficulties of manually editing html in comments:

Well, tried blockquote here, will only know if I’ve done it right after I’ve posted. I’m sure creating that quote button shouldn’t prove to be too hard. Alenyaa

After a lengthy campaign, Alenyaa finally managed to get Mr C to introduce a quote button. With one objective successfully achieved, Alenyaa began chanting for an edit button. This was also forthcoming, although took a little bit longer.

Facebook Group

In early January, Paul Gibson emailed me with some ideas for promoting the podcast. He suggested a few forums, and casually tagged at the end of the message:

Also, why not set up a group on Facebook? Crash.net have one with links to their website etc. Paul Gibson

So, less than 30 minutes later, the Sidepodcast Facebook group was born. It soon went from strength to strength, with almost 100 members by Silverstone, and currently almost 400. There have been photos, videos and links, but more importantly, the "You Know You're an F1 Fan When..."

Just answer this question: You know you're an F1 fan when...

For example: You know you're an F1 fan when you celebrate all of life' achievements with a bottle of champagne sprayed all over the place. Dan Brunell

This game has proved incredibly popular, and there are some real classics. There are too many to list here, so I will just point you in the direction of the Facebook thread.

Fantasy Racers

Another topic on the Facebook Group was about which fantasy F1 games were any good. It was a subject I'd been thinking about, but thankfully, Dank beat me to it.

The alternative I've found is something called Fantasy Racers which is free to join. I've set a team up already and it only took about five minutes.

Perhaps consider setting up a Sidepodcast league on each? Maybe even the majority take part in the freebie one someone could conjure up a prize or two to make it interesting?! Dan Cross

Who would have thought that the league would be so popular, cause so much competition between everyone in the comments, and that in the end we would win it? A great addition to the year, and we can only thank Dan for dreaming it up. Never did manage to conjure up a prize though.

Sidepodnoun

The idea of the Sidepodnoun appears to have started with the introduction of Sidepodnews. Having seen some dodgy Sky programming, we thought we could do a better job. It would be a piece of Sidepodcake. Since then, there have been all manner of nouns, such as:

Well this is a sidepoddandy of a sidepodpickle isn’t it? Scott Woodwiss

The answer to that question might be sidepodmurder, you know. Dom

Aw come on, please, pwetty please with a sidepodcherry on the top. R.G

Now it is a matter of course to write Sidepodnouns whenever possible.

Drinking Game

We were honoured to have Stuart from F1 Racing comment on the site this year, but I don't think even he could have predicted where this comment would lead:

“Speaking of commentators, Bob C managed to do a 28-second ‘Champaaaaaaaaaagne’ into my colleague’s Dictaphone last weekend. Perhaps Sidepodcast’s listeners could be persuaded to ring in and see if they can match that?” Stuart Codling

The challenge was set, and several brave souls had a go live on the very next Parade Lap show. The results can be reviewed here, and are always worth another look.

Live Commenting

All of the above have added to the Sidepodcast community no end, but there really can be only one definitive idea that has changed us for the better in 2008 and this one came about five minutes before the first free practice session of the year.

Will there be a live chat here? or is there somewhere you can recommend? It would be great if there was a live chat here for races. Lou

Live Commenting was born, and where would we be without it?

There's bound to be some important ideas we've missed from the list, please do jog our memories in comments and please keep the fantastic ideas coming in 2009.

As mentioned during yesterday's live show, we had an email from Nigel, who's been in touch with the team behind the Fantasy Racers site, notably Danny.

It's no secret that we're big fans of the Fantasy Racers, the competition has provided hours and hours of entertainment this season. It has a low barrier to entry and you're free to take it seriously, or not so seriously, as you see fit. As a result of everyone's involvement, Nigel was wondering if we had any feedback about the game this year, in order to gather together a list of improvements or things that you'd like to see implemented next time round.

Last year by all accounts, it was a little bit more complicated. There was no budget, and you picked five drivers from different pools of comparable names. You also selected an engine and a chassis, and gained points for all your elements. There were also points available for bonus items, like the fastest lap, and the first driver out of the race.

This year, it was simplified, with the introduction of a budget. Now each driver has a price, and you buy as many as you can afford and rake in the points depending on how well your chosen team fares.

As Nigel says:

This years system has been a lot simpler so is great for the casual observer, but I think last years had merit too and was more geared to the F1 aficionado / anorak / petrol head / geek! I suggested to Danny a combination of both would work well to bring the best of both, for example, you have a set budget limit, from which you must select x numbers of drivers, 2 engines, 1 chassis. And then these all earn points per lap as well as the bonus or minus points depending on how they finish relative to their qualifying position. Obviously the more of your budget you spend on drivers, the less you have to spend on a decent engine or chassis, and vice versa.

I thought this might be a good talking point from your other listeners as we are nearing the end of the season and we could collate the ideas and put them forward to Danny for next years competition, and I'm thinking that as we are going to win the Team League he's got to take our suggestions seriously!

Some interesting ideas in there. The only thing I would like to see added, particularly, is for driver prices to change as the season progresses. It makes no sense that Vettel is still the same price as Bourdais, as one has clearly come on a long way since Australia.

We'd love to hear your thoughts, ideas and suggestions and we'll point both Nigel and Danny in the direction of this thread.

You may have already heard about this from Episode 49, or you may have found your way there by yourself, but today I'm here to promote the Facebook group.

A while back, I had an email from Paul Gibson who suggested: "Why don't you set up a Facebook group."

Ten minutes later, I mailed him back: "Done. Enjoy."

This is what we're like here at Sidepodcast Towers. Tell us what you want to see, or something you think we should be trying and we will do it. I'm not talking bungy jumping or anything like that, though, so don't get any ideas.

Anyway, the group.

I didn't really know what the point of a Facebook group was before, but every day I'm starting to see how fun it can be and what cool things we can do:

• Share photos
• Upload videos
• Submit links
• Discuss stuff
• Post on the wall

I've got to be honest and say the wall is my favourite because we get comments like this:

I'm assuming that being the crack cocaine of something is a good thing? Or is it not? I'm going to take it as a compliment.

At the moment we're discussing the merits of Honda's livery and how it may or may not be growing on us, and I'm posting links about Max Mosley and Rubens Barrichello.

If you're a Facebook user and you want yet another place to catch up with Sidepodcast and other like-minded individuals, please sign up to be a member of the group. We welcome one and all.