We got used to that word in Portuguese, so that's what we use instead of scouting. It does sound negative, but I see no harm. Plus, no one actually knows what it is. At least, until now...
DOH! :D

scouting
 

If you are on the drive team you should scout. A problem many have is that they heavily investigate their opponent and trust their ally. Every robot on the field with you, you should know all of its motors, its pneumatics, its electrical problems,

Ok. I'm not sure that you all are getting the poll right. It isn't to change what scouting does or who does . It is just to change the name of scouting to intelligence. I think that it just sound cooler. :)

In the world of engineering just because something is cool, it doesn't mean it works.

My point? Intelligence sounds cool, but it isn't practical, as it is only a noun. Scouting sounds fine, and it's a verb and noun in one.

If you wanted cool, then why not "espionage", "pit spies", etc?

I must admit, 'pit-spies' is pretty cool. And, as i said before, i just wanted to know what other teams call their intelligence (scouting) teams. Ya, scouting might be practical, and i'm sure quite a lot of people like it. But, personally, i think that a cool name is sometimes better even if it isn't as practical.

Well... what other cool names do other teams call their intelligence team?

scounting sounds cooler..
 

Scouting sounds so much cooler than intelligence.. you can't say, "Hey, I'm intelligencing team <insert your team number here>, and they look pretty good!" On our team, it is a great honor to be consitered a scout. You are either Competition Team, Pit Crew, a Scout, or a stand warmer. Our scouts do everything from talking to other teams, watching everymatch and becomming experts on all of the robots there to judging for our awards we give out to other teams. Whenever we are briefing the Competition Team, we have a Scout Expert for each of the teams we are against and with so we know exactly what we want to do.... Scouts are a vital part of our team... as well as the intelligence they gather. So what I am really trying to say is.. Scouts are the way to go, intelligence is what they gather.

I really don't think we should change "scouting" to "intelligence" because it sounds too much like some CIA operative. It doesn't really matter what you call it, as long as it works for you...

I don't agree with changing from Scouting to Intelligence. If scouting does get changed, I think it should be changed to something other than intelligence. I don't mind calling it scouting but I would mind calling it intelligence.

Scouting-Intelligence
 

I personally think that the whole idea of changing the name scouting to something else is completely and utterly ridiculus. First of all I think the name Intelligence makes it sound like it some kind of secret mission to get information from teams. Second of all the term "scouting" isn't the official name, people just use it commonly, so to make an official name for it is just plain stupid. Teams call it whatever they feel like, like that one team that used to call it espionage. No offense to Jack, whose idea this is, but you try and make everything to official. For example your little rules on scouting through CD. If someone doesn't want to spend half an hour e-mailing every team they need to scout when they could just post a thread they should have the right to do so without being scorned. I don't think FIRST is about rules and regulations, except for the robot and the games, but its about individuality. So while I'm sure some people like your ideas and suggestions, don't make them seem so final or official, because to some people they aren't. I'm not trying to sound rude, just trying to voice my opinion. So please don't take out what I am saying on my team, they aren't saying this, I am.

Actually, from what I've read, the poll seems to accurately reflect the views expressed in this thread.

Personally, I think the name should be changed to the Intelligineerify team. It sounds cooler than Intelligence, and serves just as little purpose. ;)

yep, that's what the last 30 posts were saying.

[edit]sorry, just saw that it was new & an old thread. I think all comments have been said by now ;)

Post Count
 

Actually Jack, mine was the 4th post in the thread in the last 2 days. It actually wasn't a dead thread.

espionage is way cooler than both of them!!!

For what its worth...
If you really want a word that applies more accurately and conveys the correct context in terms of engineering (since engineering is a lot of what goes on here) I would use the word "research".

For the last two weeks, I have been researching all the potential strategies that different team or robots might employ. In my job (as an engineer) I frequently research different companies that I might end up paying for their services, or that might be competing with a product I develop. I might also research a user group to see if something I want to develop might have a market (but now I am diverging into marketing).
So the gist of it is that what we are doing is researching our potential allies and/or opponents. The other aspect of research is that it implies learning. Things that you research this year will change next year's design.

Research is both a verb and a noun (as well as an adjective).
You want cool, you can become the "research specialist" - in some companies this is a highly paid professional. You can also be part of R&D - Research and Development - the guys who actually get to make up the cool ideas that the rest of the engineers turn into real products.

I can agree that scouting is not as exciting as [gathering] intelligence, but the term intelligence is not really used in engineering in my experience.

* gets off soapbox *

PS: Guys, I know you are still in high school, but you can show your intelligence by reading what you typed and fixing at least the gross mistakes and typing errors.