I filed FL430 on a westbound departure from an airport in NW Europe. The controller working clearance delivery told me that I needed to file either FL420 or FL440 when going west, and I ended up cleared for FL420.
AFAIK the valid westbound flight levels above RSVM airspace would be FL430, FL470, etc. Is that not the case on VATSIM?
(I did mention that I was going above RSVM, but the delivery controller did not pick up on that, and I didn’t really want to discuss further on the frequency).
Yes, that is also the case on VATSIM and the controller should know this. As Delivery controllers are at the lowest level of rating needed at VATSIM, it might be the case that he/she was inexperienced.
I think it is very civil of you not to take up the discussion at the time, but you can always send a message to the approbiate FIR staff, to make them aware of an issue, which they might not have stressed enough for the controllers or explained clearly in their training material.
Well, educating a fellow member with obvious lack of knowledge is something positive. It’s not about discussing it, but in this case Tom could have sent an URL to Wikipedia (or whatever) by private message. This would have corrected the ATCO’s knowledge.
Why are we to shy away from educating others (in a factual way, of course) ? The ATCO would not have become upset, but rather thankful.
I suppose I could have. But I wasn’t 100% sure that this particular rule applied on Vatsim, which is why I asked here.
I did as suggested and gave feedback to the Vacc via their web page.
Yeah, that is fine, I understand. In general we strive to simulate to the highest sensible level of realism.
As I read the post, Tom did try to educate the controller, but without a positive result. In that situation I find it better to let it rest and give a feedback to the FIR, rather than risk an escalation noone wins from.
Yes, I do agree with you 99%. However, the only way to improve someone’s level of knowledge is by providing facts that cannot be disputed, e.g. an official website that explains the RVSM flightlevel concept.
To close this, @1773649 has now sent feedback to the VACC in question and they will take care of it. All good 
Because people tell you to get lost and mind your own buisness, thats the state of the current generation.
Yeah, that’s why I usually not just claim something is as it is, but I provide evidence so the “candidate” can see it for himself.
But I know exactly what you mean, it can be frustrating.
I have no reason at all to believe there would have been an issue.
I wasn’t sure of my facts, and I didn’t know exactly how non-RVSM flight levels were applied on Vatsim. Now I do, and should it come up again, I might well dig up a relevant reference and DM it to the controller, if they are not too busy.
I expect most Vatsim controllers are interested in getting things right, and probably won’t mind a polite and to-the-point DM if something is off.