I could be wrong, but I think this thread started with the intent on the issue of counting balls.... not on how nice or worthwhile the volunteers are.
The issue of counting balls is that if an electronic system cant do it correctly, how on earth do you expect a human?? Thats like asking a human to do in his/her head at the same speed a math problem that you would only use matlab to solve. To be honest, I think the game/field should have been designed such that you NEVER had to rely on human counters. There is too much room for failure, laziness, or possibly even bias. Mostly the volunteers honestly tried hard (Im sure), but mistakes can be made. Thats frustrating for teams... but this thread should not take a turn towards whether or not volunteers did or didnt do a good job. They are volunteers. Thats like walking up and telling a mentor they did a bad job this year. Do you think they are going to want to come back?
I think it got off track when tetraman thought the count was a reference to grumpiness... last I checked that was eyeore or someone else... the count always seemed happy to me!
After volunteering at GTR (and several times in the past), I know volunteering is not an easy job. And I know at GTR there were many teams that thought I didnt like them because I told them 10 times to plug in their battery or turn their robot on... but it was worth it for the one or two rookie teams that we actually did save from not running in the match
Lets all take a deep breath, volunteers, realize we love you and appreciate you
FIRST has a hard job as well... reliable sensor work is not easy when you dont have a lot of time to do it. The games are fun, challenging, and we are changing lives. That is what matters.