[EricH]

I'd like to apologize for my first post here--it came off quite a bit harsher than I meant it to.


Besides the whole aspect of being a couple of days* late to the party, I do think that having something in writing between teams and/or alliances would have been a good idea--after all, if it's in writing, it's a lot harder to turn any potential disputes into a "he said/he said". Whether it was in fact an agreement to participate, or an announcement that the team would not willingly participate (as seen occasionally in 2003 during that year's collusion discussion), having writing would have made everybody's positions clearer--though, as Tristan pointed out, some further use of clarity would have helped.


*Some may quibble this; I note that the rule change was actually announced about three days before it actually happened, and was thus anticipated by most CDers.