New York 2020

[BennyTheJett]

Yeah... We are going to have to abort mission. I have been informed that our operation is indeed illegal, so I will obviously not be partaking in it. Sorry to get everyone's hopes up.

[builderguy135]

I think that people are signed up for events they understand. At the end of the day we should be just fine without a true "most qualified". The tests are merely for our entertainment, so I'm not all that concerned with who's most qualified, rather what the product is. Everyone can contribute, some just more than others. I like the idea of the discord.

The quality of an SO test significantly affects the placement of teams, bad tests mean teams are either bunched up near 100%/0% or placement has nothing to do with actual skill. I think a lot of teams would appreciate an idea of how well they'd do at states, and besides, good, hard tests are WAY more fun than tests clearly written by someone with little experience with SO.

(For example, a "bad" test would have questions not applicable to the event, or incorrect answer key, or be so easy that nearly everyone has a perfect score. A "good" test would have a nearly even score distribution and cover a wide area of topics.)

Keep in mind that qualifications don't correlate with test quality, an EE might know his stuff really well but still make a bad circuit lab test, and a div C student might write an incredibly comprehensive circuit lab test but have few qualifications. That's why I think grading the tests before hand is a better idea.

I agree with the qualifications part, but I don't think people would appreciate writing a test and getting it rejected tbh. I think having the test written and checked by others is enough.

[waterlubber]

Alright, here's the new volunteer form: https://forms.gle/VhgWEmo2TL1HZ4Yu9

You can view results here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

It allows unlimited entries. I plan to merge the results with BennyTheJett's Userpage's spreadsheet and link it in the Discord.

This is still legal, by the way, assuming we obey SOInc's copyright. We can't use their trademarks or rules, but they don't hold the copyright on tests about Astronomy or bottle rockets or similar. Thus, if we write our own rules and tests, we are legally in the clear. It just can't be branded or marked with *anything* related to Scioly or SOInc.

Some of the more unique building events (like Gravity) might have to be dropped. And obviously if we get a nastygram from any actual SOInc people we'll have to drop building events (except for *very* generic ones) entirely; but tests are permitted so long as they aren't based on Scioly material. (Sorry WIDI)

[snowyowl]

Alright, here's the new volunteer form: https://forms.gle/VhgWEmo2TL1HZ4Yu9

You can view results here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

It allows unlimited entries. I plan to merge the results with BennyTheJett's Userpage's spreadsheet and link it in the Discord.

This is still legal, by the way, assuming we obey SOInc's copyright. We can't use their trademarks or rules, but they don't hold the copyright on tests about Astronomy or bottle rockets or similar. Thus, if we write our own rules and tests, we are legally in the clear. It just can't be branded or marked with *anything* related to Scioly or SOInc.

Why exactly can this not be approved by NSO? It doesn’t have to relate to nationals, but they may be willing to make an official (although one-time) exemption.

[waterlubber]

Alright, here's the new volunteer form: https://forms.gle/VhgWEmo2TL1HZ4Yu9

You can view results here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

It allows unlimited entries. I plan to merge the results with BennyTheJett's Userpage's spreadsheet and link it in the Discord.

This is still legal, by the way, assuming we obey SOInc's copyright. We can't use their trademarks or rules, but they don't hold the copyright on tests about Astronomy or bottle rockets or similar. Thus, if we write our own rules and tests, we are legally in the clear. It just can't be branded or marked with *anything* related to Scioly or SOInc.

Why exactly can this not be approved by NSO? It doesn’t have to relate to nationals, but they may be willing to make an official (although one-time) exemption.

Their liability insurance doesn't cover virtual tournaments, for whatever reason, so if somebody gets hurt at a "science olympiad" event it opens them up to the potential of being sued. Note that they don't actually have to *lose* to lose a ton of money, legal fees are expensive, so the decision makes sense.

Basically, as far as anyone is concerned, we're just a group of students with a passion for STEM who like to write tests and compete with each other.

[snowyowl]

Alright, here's the new volunteer form: https://forms.gle/VhgWEmo2TL1HZ4Yu9

You can view results here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

It allows unlimited entries. I plan to merge the results with BennyTheJett's Userpage's spreadsheet and link it in the Discord.

This is still legal, by the way, assuming we obey SOInc's copyright. We can't use their trademarks or rules, but they don't hold the copyright on tests about Astronomy or bottle rockets or similar. Thus, if we write our own rules and tests, we are legally in the clear. It just can't be branded or marked with *anything* related to Scioly or SOInc.

Why exactly can this not be approved by NSO? It doesn’t have to relate to nationals, but they may be willing to make an official (although one-time) exemption.

Their liability insurance doesn't cover virtual tournaments, for whatever reason, so if somebody gets hurt at a "science olympiad" event it opens them up to the potential of being sued. Note that they don't actually have to *lose* to lose a ton of money, legal fees are expensive, so the decision makes sense.

Basically, as far as anyone is concerned, we're just a group of students with a passion for STEM who like to write tests and compete with each other.

Ah, sadly makes sense. Thanks for the explanation (and I love the description of us).

[waterlubber]

Why exactly can this not be approved by NSO? It doesn’t have to relate to nationals, but they may be willing to make an official (although one-time) exemption.

Their liability insurance doesn't cover virtual tournaments, for whatever reason, so if somebody gets hurt at a "science olympiad" event it opens them up to the potential of being sued. Note that they don't actually have to *lose* to lose a ton of money, legal fees are expensive, so the decision makes sense.

Basically, as far as anyone is concerned, we're just a group of students with a passion for STEM who like to write tests and compete with each other.

Ah, sadly makes sense. Thanks for the explanation (and I love the description of us).

Yeah. This is an area we'll have to tread carefully, and I'd like to move the organization of it off of the SO forums since this is not an SO event. Just to be safe.
Edit: If you're at Soinc or on a board and have a problem with this, please PM me and I can change it before it becomes a problem (eg copyright, etc.)

[BennyTheJett]

For those of you requesting access: My old spreadsheet is deleted, and isn't coming back due to legal concerns. All of what is happening is in Waterlubber's hands now.

[windu34]

I would be happy to support this initiative with a Circuit Lab C exam if Nationals gets cancelled.

[Things2do]

Their liability insurance doesn't cover virtual tournaments, for whatever reason, so if somebody gets hurt at a "science olympiad" event it opens them up to the potential of being sued. Note that they don't actually have to *lose* to lose a ton of money, legal fees are expensive, so the decision makes sense.

Basically, as far as anyone is concerned, we're just a group of students with a passion for STEM who like to write tests and compete with each other.

Ah, sadly makes sense. Thanks for the explanation (and I love the description of us).

Yeah. This is an area we'll have to tread carefully, and I'd like to move the organization of it off of the SO forums since this is not an SO event. Just to be safe.

Just to throw in my two cents worth, I see no problem with using this forum. SciOly.org is no more official than the "Friendly Science Competition" you're trying to arrange.