[CQ-Contest] We all gotta lighten up a bit

[Kelly Taylor]

Hi all,

There's one thing that keeps occurring to me whenever I hear moaning about
dupes or griping about some lid's lousy fist or whining about "logging what
was sent"... (Particularly since we seem to wring our hands over the same
issues every year.)

That is this: Not everybody is going to be as PERFECT as we are.

For many people you are going to work in a contest, it is still JUST A
HOBBY. So you'll have guys that aren't keeping logs, since they don't plan
to send one in anyway, but like to get into the action a bit. They're
probably going to call you a couple of times, maybe more. They're not lazy,
they're not disrespectful, they're just trying to be helpful, and from their
standpoint the concept of duping probably doesn't even enter their mind.

You'll have casual ops who just want what every person wants when they plunk
down multiple large on a toy: they wanna have some fun. WHO CAN BLAME THEM?
Is it that much of a strain to simply be polite, work the guy, say 73 and
move on rather than trying to educate the unwashed masses to the evils of
dupes?

You'll have guys that make mistakes, sometimes big ones, sometimes ones that
seem the result of negligence. What, YOU'VE never made a mistake?

You'll have guys whose computers go south mid-contest but who still want to
stay in the game. Do we really need to be morons and tell them to go and
self-reproduce? (I think this guy was being a real knob.)

So what if someone sends cut numbers? It's not against the rules. (Read that
last sentence carefully.) Yes, the rules say numbers. But they don't
restrict abbreviating exchange information any more than they restrict
abbreviating New York City Long Island to NLI. In fact, the rules don't even
mandate use of International Morse Code any more than they mandate the use
of English during phone contests. You could work a station in Swahili and it
wouldn't count any less. Just because YOU don't like something doesn't mean
it's against the rules.

We NEED to not alienate those who give us Qs by being anal.

Relax. Chill out. I'll bet your scores will be the better for it. I know the
fine art of contesting will be.

73,
kelly,
ve4xt


--
CQ-Contest on WWW: http://lists.contesting.com/_cq-contest/
Administrative requests: cq-contest-REQUEST at contesting.com