[Steven Smith]

There is a lot of overlap between team mentors, FIRST volunteers, forum moderators, etc...

There is a huge amount of work to get done before kickoff, that requires a rather large group of people to sign NDAs and commit to keeping quiet. Part of the reason is to ensure the integrity of the game, and the other part is because it frankly ruins the fun for anyone who finds leaked information. I think it is a testament to the FIRST community that this is able to happen every year with the only known leaks being pure accident or not benefiting the most competitive teams.

Finding this information out a few days before kickoff is immaterial. There are plenty of other ways to cheat at FIRST, but at the end of the day, the best teams/mentors don't cheat because the advantage is minimal and the risk to their reputation far outweighs any "benefit". Personally, I'd hate to act on some leaked information to gain a benefit, because if we did place well, I'd always wonder if we deserved it.

I believe the moderating community was acting out of respect for the hundreds/thousands of CD readers that have the technical ability to hunt down the leak, but choose not to out of respect for the game. It wasn't to protect any personal advantage, or anything else. If you care about FIRST, I'd recommend you ignore it as well until Saturday. If you've seen it, you have a decision to make. Do you act on the information, and cheat... or not? It doesn't matter how many people have seen it, if you find information out before the game and start designing around it, you are cheating. We (FIRSTers) manage to avoid chances to cheat such as designing robot parts before kickoff, working past bag and tag, managing conflicts of interest between refs/judges at events and the teams they are associated with, etc. I don't see how this is any different.