[KeeganP]

Originally Posted by fox46

The self-righteous trolls of CD strike again.

I must applaud you; you people who art more gracious than me. It takes a certain kind of person to stand up on a soapbox and berate someone who has done so much good in this community for expressing their thoughts and for this I am truly in awe of you.

I have seen many people on this site be pulled apart by these most gracious trolls. You berate someone for posting something negative or that deviates from the norm about something or other. It's become so bad here that it's nearly impossible to post any kind of criticism on this forum. You have driven away so many knowledgeable and educated people and are slowly watering this place down to nothing more than a pink fuzzy spot on the internet to post your robot pictures and pat each other on the back.

It is impossible to live life by ignoring every distasteful situation or negative occurrence. It's just not possible. To try and do so is to look at the world with blinders on. The fact that you're still trying to protect your children from this fact of life is just bad parenting. They need to know that not everyone thinks the same way they do and not everything is happy and good. In life, people have opinions. Good or bad, their thoughts are their own and it is NONE of your business to slap their hand and tell them otherwise. CD is supposed to be a place for these discussions. Squelching anything that doesn't agree with the general consensus should be unacceptable. It is important to have other ways of looking at things and have an open mind and acknowledge the situations that might not be all rainbows and butterflies.

Karthik- I understand your decisions and although I'm going to miss your awesome introductions, I support you in whatever your choices may be. We will always have a spare hat for you!

^This. Very, very well said.

On the topic of Waterloo itself, I throughly enjoyed watching all of the matches that I had the chance to -- some truly amazing and inspiring teams built simply incredibly machines. It was a show to watch and I was compelled to smile just watching the matches from my desk. The level of competition was simply amazing. Thank you to all involved who made it possible for those of us at home to participate and enjoy.