Rules of Thumb for New posters and FRC Participants

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Ladies and Gentlemen,
There is some great advice in these two posts...
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=42238
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=42239

Since we are now past the halfway point in the build it is time to get a little more efficient in our posting and question asking. To summarize the two threads above, here are some words to live by here on CD

1. First has taken a lot of time to provide you with all the tools you need. Download all the documents (and check back for revisions regularly/weekly) and check all team updates. The documents are in PDF format and they are easily searchable for key words, i.e. "scoring". The Tips and Guidelines document fills in the gaps in the robot section. These documents are your friends, they want to be read often.
2. Use the search feature here on CD to find a thread that already has asked and answered your question. The hundreds of posts on the IR receiver are a great example of repeated questions about the same problem (I searched IR receiver and CD responded with 370 threads).
3. Answer questions if you really know the answer and can back it up with a rule quote, a copy of a Q&A, or a quote from a manufacturer's spec sheet or website.
4. If you are the asker, then do not depend on the answer unless it is backed up as outlined in 3 above and you have double checked the answer. You may make the fatal error to believe what is written, make a design decision and charge off on a false response. In general, posters who have been a member of CD for several years or whose rookie year was near or before the turn of the century know about FRC robots and the KOP.
5. When you post, please keep in mind that thousands of members in many countries, may read your post. Internet shorthand means nothing to the people who can help you the most. Failure to use punctuation and upper case letters may cause less people to answer.

I hope everyone is almost on schedule and you have been driving.
Thanks for listening...