poor job with the Q&A?
 

Please don't hang me for speaking against the institution here. Does anybody else think FIRST is doing a poor job with the Q&A? There are alot of ambiguous rules this year that really need some clarification. Can they not take half an hour to deal with some of the important questions?

Re: poor job with the Q&A?
 

Patience, grasshopper. They'll get to it.

(ReGrasshopper: OK, most of you are too young to know what that means. It's an ancient TeeVee reference. It's affectionate, not insulting.)

Re: poor job with the Q&A?
 

I think the team that answers the Q/A and does Team updates is quite small. Right now I bet they're working on a team update that was due 2 hours ago according to their schedule.

Re: poor job with the Q&A?
 

I like it and I think the new format will be better as build goes on. Give them a chance to catch up.

Re: poor job with the Q&A?
 

yes there could be a better system but we have to be patient. they will clarify it as we go on. It will even change during the season. One of the regionals we went to last year the pretty much made up some of thier own rules that is the refs anyways. which shouldn't be allowed.

Re: poor job with the Q&A?
 

i doubt anyone would take offence to being called team 95 especally with this years game needs :D

Re: poor job with the Q&A?
 

I'm more willing to have patience given the roller coaster they once put us through. In 2003 they made changes to the game in the updates that had our team changing our robot design every day. I'd rather wait and let them think it out then have to start from scratch multiple times.

I'd also just like to say incase they read this: thank you for putting up with us :) The rules could stand alone and FIRST could leave all these questions up to the Ref.s and inspectors. I don't think I'd like that very much though.

Re: poor job with the Q&A?
 

Where are there ambiguous rules? If anything, I'd say they've done a fantastic job with the manual this season.

Re: poor job with the Q&A?
 

I completely agree. Remember last year with all of the triangle zones that turned into rectangle zones and and breaking planes and touching various surfaces... Remember all that? It was a disaster! Compared to that this year is cake.

Re: poor job with the Q&A?
 

I think keeping the Q&A system offline for the first week of the season is a good idea (even if it is working). That way, it gives teams a chance to read the manual/consult CD/talk to their friends about questions they might have rather than flooding Q&A with questions like "can we use two batteries at a time on our robot?" that are already answered with a bit of further reading.

And I agree with the posters who said that GDC did a great job with the manual this year! After reading through it once, I only had a few questions ... and after reading through it a second time, only one remains. :)

Re: poor job with the Q&A?
 

Except that if i remember correctly the rule never actually changed, From day one it said you had to be touching that triangle. Everyone assumed that breaking the plane would count :D

in any case, i want to see the QA system up :D

Re: poor job with the Q&A?
 

I may be mistaken, but I think M. Krass was referring to the human loading borders (where the HP's stood to place the tetras), which I believe were originally triangles, but were changed to boxes after the first few regionals.

The rules were for the most part very clear this year. There will always be things that the GDC doesn't not clarify enough or account for, and that's why the Q&A system is there. I've been very dissapointed at the number of questions posted that can be answered simply by looking at the right rule.

Re: poor job with the Q&A?
 

By all means, if you think there are ambiguous rules don't hesitate to ask them on CD. If they are not answerable here, then ask your team leader to post them in Q/A. FIRST has asked that students not be allowed to post in Q/A system.

I also agree that the GDC did a great job with the rules. I've mentioned it several times since the rules came out that they are extremely well written, clear, and cover just about all the ambiguous-ness there could have been. I have noticed that they tried to take into account prior year confusions and loopholes and address them in the rules. I think it's great.

FIRST has also kept teams up to date on the status of their Q/A system and let them know they were working on it. It was open previously but not working according to the way they wanted it. I also agree that it's useful to keep Q/A closed at least for a few days after kickoff so that everyone can let the rules sink in.

And is it just me or does it seem like there are a LOT less rule questions/confusions on CD at this time than there has been in previous years? That right there tells me there's very few areas to find loopholes.

Re: poor job with the Q&A?
 

You might be right, that was changed after the first week right?

The "Robot touching triangle" rule sticks out in my head only because even me and my own team misunderstood it.

Does anyone have an ETA When the QA system will be back up?

Re: poor job with the Q&A?
 

The forum is back up. Each team was sent a unique login.