I don't think any of these types of posts are in any way meant to play down the immense contributions of time and energy that volunteer refs give to FIRST. But being grateful for all the refs do and having an open discussion about the validity of calls are not mutually exclusive. Saying that all refs should be immune from public criticism is absurd.
Most posts of this nature that I've seen have been predominantly constructive. Yes, people can get heated and angry if a bad call (something completely beyond their control) negatively impacted their team. But most posts also contain suggestions for FIRST in future years, such as to clarify ambiguous terms in the manual. Simply saying "Oh well, bad calls happen" and ignoring the issue doesn't fix anything and isn't constructive. By having these open conversations and providing suggestions to mitigate problems in future years, we help make future games more enjoyable for everyone involved.
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Originally Posted by jvriezen
Ref's don't want to see their calls analyzed in a public forum, if they did, the refs would be posting videos here and saying "In this match at 1:30, did I make the right call?"
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If refs don't want their calls analyzed publicly, perhaps they shouldn't be making said calls in front of thousands of people.