THE 2005 HINT!!!!!!!!!

[Gary Dillard]

Originally Posted by magnasmific

What is the point of this? Shouldn't it be classified as "useless posting" which is looked down upon by many people on CD? Why isn't this in the "chit-chat" section?

It's in the RUMOR MILL section, hence it is a RUMOR. Personally I find it entertaining to see what gets started in this particular forum section and have people go off the deep end. I doubt that any useless post would get a couple thousand views and a hundred replies (so far) in 3 days as this one has. It doesn't matter to me if the teacher actually said it or not, or if he made it up or not; anything here is hearsay so you can take it for what it's worth - usually nothing.

Originally Posted by magnasmific

I understand that people are excited, but this type of discussion is not productive. Speculation is never going to help you in the real competition.

I disagree. What are we trying to do in the competition / build season? Get kids to think, think out of the box, think through all possibilities. Look through all the posts - noone is off starting or changing their robot design based on this rumor, but they're thinking through "what could that mean?" How would we do it differently if there were 3 on 3, or 5 at a time, or no center structure? If I started a rumor that I heard the robot had to carry a cup of coffee for the whole match, I doubt anyone would take it seriously but they would start thinking "how would we do that?" Same thing with the FIRST is selling old motors threads, etc. - we may think we know the reason but until the game is announced it's all speculation.

It's also useful for teaching students that they need to read the rules, not rely on what what they've heard or remember. They change every year and relying on rumors is as bad as relying on "it was that way last year".

I'm very impressed with how well this rumor did; my attempt last week didn't generate much attention even after I recruited Arefin to help me. Nice job Aaron! And yes, it should have been a separate thread because it's a separate rumor.