I think the forum should have a ‘‘thanked __ times’’ in the small bio section. There is a forum that I came across that is powered by vBadvanced also and has this feature, so I would think that this forum could have that capability as well.
I know there is some members on the forum that definately would have a lot of thanks, so this could just give them some recognition.
When your new to Vex and the Vex Forum, your doing mostly Learning, with a little Sharing, but as you work with Vex more, you find you discover things that others haven’t, and when you Share them, you enlighten others in their Learning…
I believe that Isaac Newton, among others were noted for the phrase, “Standing on the shoulders of giants”, a Metaphor for “Relying Heavily on those that came before you…”
Today, you are Standing on someones Shoulders… Tomorrow, others will be Standing on Your Shoulders…
I agree with this. Since joining the forum, our team has gained an element of knowledge that the other teams in our region lack. Insights on strategy, the existence of super stackers and wallbots, and advice and facts from world-class teams that we never knew. My team mates have grown to respect most statements of mine that begin with “They said on the forum…”
While it gives us an edge over the teams in our region, I wish more teams around here were on the forum. I see a lot of people from the same regions who know each other and talk about tournaments there, but I’m the only active forum member from Michigan that I know of.
O_o and Michingan is more than twice the size of New Zealand (I know that’s not really indicative of the number of Vex teams but I don’t think there’s an easy way to find out how many vex teams are in a given area). If they don’t use the forums how do they know what the rules are? And how do they know what to expect at worlds?
I agree, it would be great if more people from more different areas were active. As it stands it seems to be mostly California, the Northeastish bits (sorry for not being more technical), Hawaii and New Zealand. More involvement from the states would be good, but what would be amazing would be if we saw more of the online presence of the Asian and South American teams. They’re probably online if you know where to look, but I don’t.
"Notable Quotations from George Santayana
'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'
Life of Reason, Reason in Common Sense, Scribner's, 1905, page 284"
I equate “didn’t study” with “cannot remember”, the End result is the Same Outcome.
And that Respect is well deserved… But I would be Remiss if I did not note that with a Gathering Place like the Vexforum, GroupThink could become an Undesirable Outcome. Luckily the Vary nature of This Subject, Robotics, tends to lead to Individual and Independent verification of the Facts, or even to Improvements of the Presented Concepts …
Your Team Mates and Local Opponents, might not consider it worth their Time to read the Forum… But you have not only gained the benefit of the knowing what Issues are going on with the Teams, but the additional benefit of Meeting the Forum Members and learning about their Robots and their Personal Experiences…
When you go to Worlds, you are going to have the Benefit of Many Acquaintances, and Fore’knowledge of the Teams and their Robot’s capabilities…
I personal like knowing what is going to happen, before hand, rather than find out as it happens… That might be tied into the Quote, “He who fails to plan is planning to fail”, attributed to Winston Churchill who said it during World War II.
( BTW, if you have 20 Minutes to “waste”, look at some of the 9 Pages of Quotes of Winston Churchill… The Man was a Brilliant Speaker… I understand he Wrote his Own Speeches, and according to a British Gentleman I personally know, who was a WWII Solder too, Churchill had a very bad Stutter, therefore he Extensively Practiced his Speeches for Content and Delivery… )
I think many teams around here just print off the rulebook. Some of them do robot reveals like 33A, B, and C, but they don’t do much else. As for knowing what to expect at Worlds, I’m not quite sure. Most of them are pretty unprepared, but team 1581A was a division finalist last year at Worlds.
Also, I don’t think Michigan is 2x as big as New Zealand. We might have a lot of area, but about a third of that is lake. There are 70-80-ish teams here; I think 13 are going to Worlds (10 qualified at regional tournaments, the rest qualified at Nationals). Another few teams qualified for worlds, but they’re unable to go. I think the MI teams going are 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 217W, 244A, 1581A, 1636A (MS), 4540A (MS), 4540B (MS), 7581H (that’s us), and 9581M. Have you guys heard of any of them?
The dark gray thing on the eastern coast of the US is a silhouette of New Zealand. The mitten and the peninsula above it make up Michigan… I think NZ is bigger.
EDIT: Another interesting, off-topic fact, there isn’t a single wallbot in the state of Michigan. So, as far as I know, our team is the only one here that knows of their existence. As a result of isolation from the forum, most teams go for extremely unique designs here. There’s a robot that expands into a tower and has chains running up and down the tower to move a single-piece intake. There’s another one that has an arm with an elbow joint and a cylindrical lexan intake. Out of the 70-80-ish teams in MI, there are only 4 dual-tread-intake bots, 4 or 5 side-sucker ramp efficiency bots, and just 2 teams with scissor lifts (which are vastly different from each other).