I have noticed a lot of threads that should be referee-only, and it makes me angry to think of people who know nothing about FRC refereeing having a say in clearly referee-only matters.
I have never volunteered at an FRC event myself (being something of a “virginteer”), because I have never been able to make the time commitment. But at least I occasionally check my virginteer privileges! I can be on an FRC field without having to know the rules! Or attend an FRC event without being expected to talk to people! Or, god forbid, be expected to please two groups of around ninety people each every ten minutes! (Although, I have seen threads where referees are considering putting in the effort to be perfect, but most of them just can’t be bothered)
I propose we create a system for Chief Delphi where referees and mods can mark threads as referee only, and only accounts recognized as referees can comment. In order to keep things “open”, other users can view and “post reply’s”, but their input will be ignored and a bot will reply by quoting their input and kindly pointing out virginteers have no right to comment on matters which they cannot even fathom. In order to be registered as a referee, they could either submit a picture to a mod of them in a black-and-white vertical-striped shirt or have another referee add them.
While in certain matters Referees definitely provide an important perspective, and as such I could see plenty of reasons for CD to provide a way for Referees to be easily identified, the point of discussions is not to silence anyone for any reason. While no one should be able to claim to know the Referee job better than them or disregard how hard the task is, everyone should be able to input their opinion.
Now if we could get people to read previous replies before posting…
First has several avenues for the lead volunteers to communicate with each other. Including private forums on the First site. You are free to put your roles in your CD signature and profile. Such as the Chief of all robot inspectors, Hi Al. They are also clear that they are speaking their opinions and not officially representing First. The First people do monitor CD, but they avoid making official announcements on CD.
A pointlessly inflammatory thread related to a temp-locked thread by a brand new poster? No, there’s no sock puppetry here. As it seems in a similar style to a previously perma-locked thread I’m hoping someone’s going to look into who’s so dedicated to trolling CD on this issue instead of having a substantive discussion.
As much trolling as has happened, I still have faith that substantive discussion can and will take place, preferably after system tests take place and there’s evidence to back up claims being made. To help get that off the ground see this http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=145690
As for me being a new poster, I’ve been almost strictly read-only for my last 5 years in FRC, but I think the previously mentioned issue is important enough that I shouldn’t stay silent about it.
This is the part I have a problem with. Refs don’t inherently want to make things difficult. Nor are they “lazy and can’t be bothered”. Volunteering to be a ref stands to directly oppose that notion. Many refs that I know won’t touch CD with a ten foot pole because of the inflammatory threads and posts about how “they’re wrong and don’t care about giving a good game to the kids”
Like FrankJ said, we can out ourselves as volunteers, but we are speaking our opinions as individuals, not necessarily how things will be called in the moment.
I’m a ref. Last year I was a ref. I was also a robot inspector. I held those positions at the same event, twice! My involvement with my home regional since 2002 means that I know many of the key volunteers VERY well and have seen a lot of things about each of those positions that many people have no idea about.
Though it will come pretty late, I will do a full write-up on my experience with this game as a ref after my first event. As well as how I think the ref system could be improved.
Honestly, this sounds like a horrible idea. You basically want the forum to tell me to shut up and that my opinion isn’t wanted?
Discussions about how events are being called, how specific rules are being called, and the difficulties the refs have in enforcing things are good things to talk about. They help teams understand how things go, and to loosen up a little when calls don’t go their way.
This may be a throwaway account, but I take some pride in the nuances of my mockery. The point was some people think Refs CAN BE PERFECT, but are just not doing so because, out of many reasons, one as easily remedied as being lazy.
Refs are human. Students are human. Mentors, other volunteers, teachers, parents, everyone is human. Mistakes are made.
Some of the mistakes that are made are stories that refs pass around to giggle about. “I called a foul on team #### and they came to the question box to refute the rule, but realized that they rule backed up the foul as they read it aloud to me.” Those moments happen too. But as refs we try to help the student understand the rule and be confident that they know it correctly, instead of telling them they aren’t doing their job well enough and need to have a ton of outside systems implemented to fix it.
I had something like this inspecting recently… told a team that their reversible bumpers needed to be fixed as they were showing the wrong colors on the ends. They replied with “the rules say the bumpers have to be mostly the correct colors”. I told them “I’ll let it be if you can show me the word mostly in the rules”. They pulled out the rule book, read through the applicable rule out loud, then said “ok, we’ll get it fixed”.
Have you ever volunteered at all?
If not then I think people who know nothing about the logistics of getting enough volunteers shouldn’t have a say in logistics.
CD rules say “Creating multiple accounts for a single person is not allowed.” It seems to me you’re admitting this is an alt account created to harrass and avoid repercussions. So congrats on getting reported.
To be fair, I’m reasonably certain that the point of the alt account was not for lasting posting privileges anyway, so reporting it is not much of a punishment.
I’m also reasonably certain that the OP is not actually calling for a ref-only forum. What this topic needs is “sarcastices”.
You are in a bus. You do not know how to drive a bus. You paid money and the plan was to go to x, however the bus driver is incorrectly going to y. The passengers clearly are unable to comment in a public setting that the bus driver is not doing what he/she is supposed to be doing. They don’t know how to drive a bus, therefore clearly they can’t comment on it.
