[Cal578]

Too many of the Q&A responses are non-helpful one-word answers like "No", or equally non-helpful quotes of the rule in question. In other words, the response is not an answer.

My suggestion is to encourage the Q&A people to give more verbose answers. Maybe break it down into the official answer, which would be concise, and the unofficial explanation or rationale. This would allow teams to understand a rule much more thoroughly, and design a robot and strategy that follow the intended spirit of the game.

Another suggestion is to make the Q&A more like a discussion forum. I realize that the good folks working on the Q&A don't want to get dragged into debates about their answers (and the questions and rules), but they obviously have the power to not respond when the discussion isn't fruitful. Maybe they would actually like the opportunity to explain an answer in plain English, or to clarify a less-than-perfect initial response.

We've been asked not to "lawyer the rules", and I believe the vast majority of team members are trying in good faith to simply understand the rules so they can play the game as fairly as possible. When the Q&A gives terse, lawyer-ish answers, the community has no choice but to work within that system. Open up and make the system more friendly, and I think everyone on all sides will find it a more satisfactory experience.