[CQ-Contest] New Universal Contest Rule XXII

[Randy Thompson K5ZD]

During my ethics presentation at CTU in Dayton, I specifically made the
opposite point.  

Contest sponsors have deliberately chosen to keep rules relatively simple.
Perhaps to follow historical precedent or keep the text to something that
will fit in a magazine.  To fully cover every situation, our rules would
look like Formula 1 car racing or top level sail boat racing and be hundreds
of pages long.

We would then need judges, a commissioner, and an organization to manage the
rules (not to mention more lawyers).  We don't have a big TV contract or big
$$ sponsors, so contesting remains largely an honor sport.

This means participants have to consider two elements when making a decision
about whether an action is permitted or not.  1) Is it in the rules?  These
are the "easy" ones.  2) Is there an accepted norm that deals with the
issue?  This is what keeps the cq-contest reflector humming.

The challenge for contesting is that the accepted norms vary from one
culture to another, from one local group to another, and they change over
time!  Many times they are passed through word of mouth.  Remember the game
of telephone where you give a sentence to one person and then see the final
result after it has been through many retellings?  

At CTU, I suggested norms in contesting have 3 main objectives:
* Just because its not specified in the written rules doesn't mean you can
do it!
* Keep the contest on the radio and within the contest period
* Don't give or take unfair advantage

I am sure Hans was speaking tongue in cheek, but I really would prefer to
continue enjoying a competition where people are following the rules and not
always trying to find the outside of the envelope.

Randy, K5ZD

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com 
> [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of K0HB
> Sent: Saturday, June 06, 2009 2:39 PM
> To: CQ-Contest
> Subject: [CQ-Contest] New Universal Contest Rule XXII
> 
> In order to lower the noise level about "recommendation" 
> versus "rule" in our discussions here, all contest sponsors 
> should agree with the following Universal Rule to be 
> implicitly appended to their rule announcements.
> 
> "Rule XXII:  Everything not specifically prohibited is mandatory."
> 
> 73, de Hans, K0HB
> http://k0hb.spaces.live.com/
> Search my log at http://dx.qsl.net/cgi-bin/logform.cgi?k0hb
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