Since my join of the ChiefDelphi forums, I have come to love the quick and knowledgeable responses that have led both my own and team endeavors to success. But I have also noticed some negatives as time goes on. Forum posts have slowly lost basic grammar skills and respect for others, fewer and fewer people are reading the manual and just relying on CD is their quick fix to their problems, and more and more teams are just coming to CD to ask how their robot should be built.
Now don’t get me wrong here, but this is not the ENTIRE CD community. There are several people on this forum that are an exception to this post, and I thank you for your years of help and knowledge.
However, this post still has many requests for those who use the forums here.
A. PLEASE read the manual before posting, and make sure it is the current seasons manual. Now this many sound silly or you may be saying to yourself “yeah, yeah I read it”, but I would have to say nearly half of new posts during build season are simply answered by reading the manual thoroughly. Don’t give me the “I don’t have time to read the manual” response, because guess what, the people who spend time answering your question had the time too and many of us have full time jobs and have little free time to begin with.
B. Don’t lawyer the rules. Use common sense when reading the manual and think what the intent of the rule is before going to the official Q&A or CD and wasting the GDC’s and the community’s time. Every season more and more of this happens, just use some common sense, it makes everyone’s life easier.
C. If you can’t find a part that you need, do a google search. If you still can’t find it, do a CD search. Still no luck, NOW you can make a post to ask for help.
D. When starting a thread, search the forum first. More than half the time, someone already asked the question that you are about to ask. Do not post the same question in more than one place. It doesn’t help your situation.
E. When posting, read the thread first to make sure you aren’t adding information that is already there and correct. No need to confuse others. Also check the date of the original post. You might be surprised by how many threads come back from the grave even though they have no need to.
F. One of the more important ones, take the time to use proper English and grammar. (Spell check is your friend). Doing this makes you look more educated and you will get faster responses.
G. You EARN rep. That little green bar shows others that you have taken the time do ALL of the above.
I am sorry for this long winded post, but I have been holding it in for too long and needed to share my thoughts. I may receive some flak for this, but it needed to be said. I am sure I’m not the only one who has been thinking this.
Good luck to everyone this season, have fun and remember, it’s not always about winning, it’s about the experience.
