[dlavery]

Calm down Lucien. The post above was not meant as a kvetch about YMTC or a desire to make these threads go away. The reference to YMTC was included simply because this is an YMTC thread. My post is a simple public acknowledgement that the effort that goes INTO creating the rules and game each year is about 0.1% of the effort that the teams expend TAKING APART and analyzing the game and rules each year. With such an imbalance, the teams will ALWAYS find things that the designers did not consider/cover/address during the development process. The fact that these thing occur is not because the game designers are trying to make the lives of all the teams as difficult as possible, it is simply the result of an honest effort applied to an imperfect process constrained by an unrealistic schedule.

The group that designs the game each year understands that going in to the process. The vast majority of teams understand it as well. All that is being asked of the community of FIRST teams is that point be remembered when they start to dissect the game and rules at the beginning of each season. Participating in a YMTC thread will comments like "if Bluabot just tilted the red tetra with 3 seconds such that the tetra is not scored and is still supported by the goal and lower tetras, it would probably count because Bluabot DESCORED the tetra (I may be very wrong about this)" is great. This is a statement that makes a point, while conceding that there is an alternate point of view, and remaining respectful of both the author's and opposing opinions. Conversely, snide comments like "three words come to mind that explain this mess: 'Design by Committee'" and "reading the rules as written this year is often an exercise in futility" do nothing to contribute to the discussions and just serve to tick people off. YMTC threads with debate like the first example are fun, educational, and a great way to fill the time in between competitions. Threads full of comments like the latter examples make many of us realize there are other ways to spend our time, and we head back to the technical forums...

-dave