FreeGameDev

here are some items from the todo list that I have stuff to say about
"Add a small message in the main menu screen that describes STK's open source nature and copyright."
maybe that should get added to the credits?
Add more karts and/or improve existing ones
maybe we should make a poll to vote about any add-ons karts that might be good enough to get added
Add more tracks and/or improve existing ones
maybe we should make a poll to vote about any add-ons tracks(and tracks that haven't been uploaded) that might be good enough to get added

Personally I don't think voting on which karts and tracks will be included in the main game is a good idea. There are various deciding factors when our project leaders decide these things, and players might be too much biased towards just one of these points.

Take graphics as an example: if a kart or track is too graphics-heavy it can exclude people with weaker hardware. On the other hand, we have to draw a line somewhere, or else we would end up with too blocky karts or tracks if older/weaker hardware was the only concern. So if the people voting have powerful computers they might not see why we don't include a particular track, or if all the voters have are 3 year old netbooks they might be too biased the other way. And graphics requirements is only one of the many factors that come into play when content inclusion is discussed.

That's not saying people can't have their opinions and recommendations, but making it completely a community affair would not benefit the game as a whole. And who has generally the best picture of the game as a whole? Yep, those who has been making it for years. That's why I always try to give my opinion on the development of the game, but leave it up to our project leaders to decide whether they think my advice is good or bad (I have disagreed with them at times, but later found that it did improve things after all).

I think that the poll to choose the tracks and the karts is possible using LOD. For example, for the tracks, the LOD system can have 3 levels:

1- Only the road and the indispensable
2- Some objects and animation
3- All stuff