Racing Etiquette and Techniques

I think that everything currently in the OP is the way to go as far as 'active at all times' in-crew rules.

I'll generally stick to pavement, but if I can take a wider turn onto/from the sidewalk and carry more speed, I'll try to take that line. If I can cut the inside corner off a sidewalk, I'll take it. Because of this, I'll use off-road tires until someone tells me otherwise. I don't hold up on the stick. Until it's done away with, I'll 'super boost' every time unless told otherwise, I'm in it to win it (or try).

I don't think only sticking to pavement is indicative of a good sportsman or not. IMO, good sportsmanship is respecting others enough to not intentionally wreck them and giving them back the position if you do.

In my perfect GTA world, I'd have barriers in place or change the physics to have an adverse effect on any sidewalk/curb use. I'd do away with any kind of boost start, and have everyone learn how to handle throttle control/revs at the start to get the best launch. I'd change wheelie (on a bike) physics to negate wheelie boost and make it easier to loop the bike.

Sensible Sensei

That was my attitude for a long time as well. Unfortunately, as you get more and more consistent on the fundamentals, and people keep zooming past on the kerbs after taking a really bad turn. Simply because of the speedboost. Eventually you will find yourself doing the same, simply because it's the only way to survive in competitive racing these days. I hope they will patch it, but I also hope I some day will have a Pagani Huayra. At this point I'm rather pessimistic about R* and their interest in doing anything for the community other then running a few Twitch streams now and then and adding a few new vehicles derived from the modelling work they have already done for their other vehicles. Anything to squeeze out the last few bucks before nextgen, and even then it will be the same story I suspect. Not that I'll be able to afford nextgen for the next year anyways, if it wasn't for the fact that there is no viable alternatives for 360 with a good UGC mode I would've probably dropped the game already. The kerb-riding is really drawing the fun out of racing for me, yet I find myself forced to do it because that's simply how the game works... And it's so stupendously advantageous.

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx_tHjuVuROCLZ0sfTQCj0koZ1Fv6cNpM

Here's the link. I think something went wrong in formatting the post, as the link tries to include the "The" that follows it, making it invalid.

Agree with all the OP points, w/a minor caveat...
In a race against randoms, if I KNOW that a racer I'm about to pass is dirty, a pit is the only way to go. Why would I give this *&%@#$^ the courtesy of a clean pass when I'm SURE he's gonna either take me into a rail, a pole, a ditch... or just pit me after I make my clean pass.
Again, only when sure... taking out an iffy racer isn't worth the bad karma.

To some of the new members: I will not hesitate to throw you off the track if I see you continually swerving to block my overtakes. That is not how to defend.

I agree that people should be swerve, but I don't think it's OK to knock them off the track on purpose still. By doing so you're just putting yourself down at their level, and opening up for a lot of drama about who did what and whether they swerved to block or to avoid something for example. It's extremely hard to tell given how different it can look at different screens at times with GTA, it's better to stay on the safe side and just stay patient still. With Next Gen you will also be able to record their behaviour to get second opinions and have it dealt with the proper way.

Yes it can be frustrating to stay behind them, but it's frustrating to stay behind someone who's defending well too. So consider it good practice for managing that frustration which will help you make better decisions when trying to overtake a better driver who's good at defending. ;-)

EDIT: Of course, if them being knocked off track is just a result of their poor spacial awareness or swerving to block where you didn't intentionally take them out it's a different matter. I wouldn't bother waiting up for them if I feel the incident is a result of their behaviour and not mine...