Quote:
Originally Posted by BJC
Really!? Then why doesn't 67, 1114, 217, 148, 254, etc ever show what they are building before build season ends? Answer: People will copy them. They retain a huge competitive advantage by keeping their designs in the dark. Really effective claws and minibots are especially vulnerable to copying this year.
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I imagine they don't because they are very busy making cool robots, not because they have any hard and fast rule about being secretive. If they do, well, that's their prerogative, but I think they're wrong. And that's cool. To my way of thinking, anyone who could effectively copy a robot design with any fidelity from one photo is probably already skilled enough to not need to 'copy'. And if you could do it in week five, man, you're something special.
Should you get clearance from a coach before posting a photo of your robot? Well, I'm not going to encourage a student to do anything that would run counter to a teams leaderships wishes. However, I will suggest that anyone who thinks it's really a problem to do so is mistaken. People are going to see your robot up close eventually, minibots in particular. Any competitive advantage is, in my humble opinion, imaginary and, in fact, fleeting.