Read the Rules!
 

I've been browsing this forum the last 2 days and there have been a lot of questions.

Some, cited and questioned a rule. Some, asked if ___ was legal. Others, repeated those types.. and then there was the general riff-raff.

Here's a big tip: Read the rules. If you aren't sure if it's legal, check. If you can't find an explicit no, double check that you are in the right section. (i.e. The Game vs The Robot) and do a search within the pdf for a keyword. Many threads with questions have been directly answered via copy and paste of a rule in the rule book.

Still can't get an answer? Then come here. If you look up on the top right of every page, there is a search feature. See? Top right, next to FAQ. Go to that, hunt you some keywords, chances are you'll find it. There have been 2, 3, even 4 threads asking basically the same question. Each start their own discussion on the matter and facts get lost if you don't read each one.

So for your sake, for the moderators sake, for the sake of the people routinely answering questions, and for the sake of the community.. do a bit of legwork before you ask a question. Spend 5 minutes and you'll save a lot more. Especially when waiting for an answer that's already been answered.

Good luck to all teams this year, it's an interesting game.

I second that.

Oh. The 'Site Navigation' drop-down will be changing to a 'quick-search' box shortly. That will help motivate people, hopefully, with one less click.

yeah
 

lol, i wonder how many people actually have read it. we are quizzed on the rules by our advisors, and are supposed to read them. so, i agree....

aka. RTFM! Or as team 84 came up with...RTCM: Read the Chucking Manual :) (Since our robots name is Chuck)...

(Sorry if that could be considered vulgar in any way...)

everyone knows that RTFM means Read The FIRST Manual

The 'Site Navigation' drop-down is gone.
The 'QuickSearch' box is there now.

Please use it. Please.

Thanks.

Brandon, you rule :)

- Katie

Wow...I never thought about that...

Brandon,

Any way you could sticky something like this to the top of EVERY forum? With a title like "Read this before posting or I will track down your IP and send a herd of angry elephants to your door?"

haha.

I will do an announcement [sticky on all forums, not a post in the announcement forum...]. Good idea Rob. :)

Very nice. Hopefully people listen...

Gadget, you beat me. I was just about to post a thread on this same subject, but then a revelation hit me: The search box, Jeff, the search box! So, let's try to keep repetition down, and use this handy feature.

Honestly people, not to be rude, you should have read the manual by now. I have been reading the questions asked not only here but especially on the FIRST forum and 75% of those questions are specifically answered in the manual. I spent only 30min of my time to read through the game section and another 45min to read through the robot rules. If everyone just read the rules then there would only be like 50 posts on the FIRST forum and then the FIRST staff could spend more time answering those questions better instead of wasteing time referring people to the section of the manual where the answers are.

just take the time to read the rules, its really not that difficult.

Our team has a 'Rules Nazi', and, well, I'm it. :) Get one person and a back up to remember all the rules and then they can answer them.