Quote:
Originally Posted by JVN
Hi Everyone,
I posted my thought process on this, but I don't think there is anything in my writings as a whole to agree or disagree with. There are literally contradictions in my writings just like there are contradictions in my feelings on the matter.
I don't like seeing "I agree with John" or "I disagree with John" because... I don't know HOW I feel. You'll note that 148 is one of the biggest posters of our designs, and I've been one of the biggest proponents for "raising the level of competition" by sharing what we do. So I hope if anything you'll let our actions speak...
However, I'm curious what others think and feel. I dislike absolutes. I know there are others out there like me who are conflicted about certain aspects of this, and I would love to see them put these feelings into words, to hopefully help me put my feelings into better perspective.
Please continue the discussion!
-John
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Keeping this in mind, this is what I have been thinking about minibot "copying". I know my team will be giving out minibots to other teams, and those teams will not necessarily compete against us with the minibots we have designed and built for them, but even if they did I wouldn't mind it. I don't consider what we are doing as allowing another team to copy us, I would consider it helping another team in need, in fact I consider it an ultimate sign of friendship between our team members and the members of teams we are sharing our minibots with, I am proud of this. The minibots will probably be sporting our teams logo on them when used by our friends and I know if we ever needed their help they would give it to us and we would credit them the same way. To some I think this would be walking the line of copying or just completely over the line but its well within the rules this year, in fact it is incouraged.
As for the general topic of copying designs, not just minibots, and under what John has described as what he feels is copying, I feel the same way. If someone were to copy a design of mine I would feel like the I've often felt in school, feeling as if someone eyes were on my answer to a problem as I bubbled in my scantron. However, I have never felt this way about our robots, but I imagine if I had as much experience as John I might have been more exposed to this type of behavior. My outlook at what could be interpreted as copying in FRC today is just plain coincedence or inspired design as John has described it. Not saying that there isn't copying going on, I just haven't seen much, but if there is it just seems like it would be difficult to directly copy another design without feeling a hollow sense of accomplishment.
Where does sharing of a design come in to play here, or does it at all? Many teams share designs, some even collaborate, I would be interested to know what is everyone else's experience with this.