Rules - to follow or not to follow, that is the question

[Ken Streeter]

Originally Posted by Don Wright

However, it gets interesting when we go to competitions and we very clearly see robots (even by very well known and admired teams) that violate this rule. ...

So...when can you ignore a rule? When should you say something? What is the general consensus?

I just realized when re-reading the original post, that because of the fact that the thread title touched a nerve for me with one of my rules-related complaints, I posted a lengthy follow-up about rules enforcement, but went a bit off-topic.

Upon re-reading the original posting, it seems the original poster may have instead been seeking the collective opinion of CD readers of what a team should do when they observe another team who is violating a rule.

If that is the correct intent of the original poster's question, then that is a *hard* question. There are lots of aspects to the matter.

In general, if I see another team committing a rule violation, I would like for my first action to be to inform the other team of the violation in case they are unaware that they are doing anything wrong. For most rule violations in FIRST, I think the offending team simply being unaware of the problem is the most common issue. Helping to show the offending team that they are breaking a rule is probably sufficient in the majority of the cases. Usually, after the team realizes they are violating a rule, they'll work on their own to remedy the problem.

For teams that we have an ongoing familiarity or relationship with, letting them know that they are breaking a rule is relatively easy and not too uncomfortable. However, for teams one doesn't know, this can be a very awkward situation -- it's not easy to go up to somebody on a team that you've never talked to before and say something like "Hi, I'm Ken Streeter from team 1519. While watching your robot in the last match, I saw that you're regularly possessing two balls, but that's against the rules." Such a conversation isn't the easiest of ways to get to meet somebody! I don't think I've ever had to do that in FIRST before, so I can't provide much practical experience. However, I think that we do have a responsibility to let teams know when they have unintentionally broken the rules.

The really complicated issue comes up when you do let the team know that they are breaking the rules, but they aren't doing anything about it. Instead of fixing the problem, they either deny that they are breaking the rule or instead simply let the problem persist. I'm curious to hear what others have to advise about such circumstances...