Annual Reminder--Please Read the Manual!

[Pault]

Originally Posted by EricH

Date: 1/4/2013

Sigh... It begins.

Anyways, can we get this posted on the FRC blog or something more noticeable like that. Maybe have it announced at the kickoff broadcast . Although people still probably wouldn't listen.

[GaryVoshol]

tl;dr

[apples000]

Are we allowed to tell people RTFM? (Read the FRC Manual)

[DonRotolo]

Best you don't, some may misinterpret the F

Ultimately, The Manual answers All Questions. Use it wisely.


Bad information is worse than no information.
Please avoid spreading bad information.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Pault

Sigh... It begins.

Fixed the date.


My favorite trick for remembering if I've got the rule right when I answer a rules-based question is to check the Manual right before, exception being if I've answered the same question 47 times in the last week or so, in which case I've probably got the rule in short-term memory pretty solidly.

[PayneTrain]

[DampRobot]

Also, read the Tournament section of the Manual in addition to the Game, Robot, and Arena sections. You'll never know when FIRST will decide to mix up the ranking algorithm...

[cadandcookies]

Originally Posted by DampRobot

Also, read the Tournament section of the Manual in addition to the Game, Robot, and Arena sections. You'll never know when FIRST will decide to mix up the ranking algorithm...

Much truth, considering the game hint seems to be pointing towards assists and we all know how well coopertition rankings went down in 2012/2010...

[Brandon Ha]

Is the manual even out coded so that we can download it pre kickoff?

[Anthony4004]

Originally Posted by Brandon Ha

Is the manual even out coded so that we can download it pre kickoff?

On usfirst it says that it will be released on January 4th. I remember downloading it in the morning last year.

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by Oblarg

It seems to me that this is a fundamental problem with the consistency of the rules; if they can't give reasonable rulings of this nature during the Q&A session, how are they supposed to do it at competition? Do they really think the inconvenience of hampering the Q&A process outweighs the inconvenience of teams showing up with illegal designs which they could not have possibly known were going to be illegal?

Obviously, a picture can be flawed, and the judgment given based on a flawed picture will be flawed. That said, is the proper way to address that really to take a blanket approach of "we will not give rulings on the legality of specific designs?" I think that this cannot possibly be the best solution.

I think that it (unfortunately) has to be the way. It keeps the Q&A 'clean'/simple; you don't want to see Q&A's possibly contradicting themselves. And, if they reviewed/responded to pictures, I'm sure we'd see at least one instance of a team taking the (similar) design, not copying it exactly, and trying to use the Q&A response as a defense.

Basically, I feel that the line should be drawn at analyzing pictures/actual designs. Obviously, in the case of 118, that was a fault of the GDC's in my opinion, because the GDC didn't expand on the definition of "grab, grasp, grapple".

Originally Posted by tondogone

On usfirst it says that it will be released on January 4th. I remember downloading it in the morning last year.

That's the manual in the non-pdf form; hopefully tomorrow or Friday they'll release the encrypted PDF to download beforehand when the manual servers get slowed down(which they usually do). And hopefully this incoming NE snowstorm doesn't hurt that...