Atoning for my Sins as a Test Hoarder

[Random Human]

when i go to an invite and recieve my test packet, i dont see "don't share with people"
like

what?
what?
just what?

if you advocate for public tests but don't allow or support for the release of them, how is "public tests" gonna happen? instead of spending 2 hours writing a test, i can just post my test bank (50 sets) in like 2 seconds

[EastStroudsburg13]

when i go to an invite and recieve my test packet, i dont see "don't share with people"
like

what?
what?
just what?

if you advocate for public tests but don't allow or support for the release of them, how is "public tests" gonna happen? instead of spending 2 hours writing a test, i can just post my test bank (50 sets) in like 2 seconds

Read. The. Dang. Thread. Thanks.

[Random Human]

when i go to an invite and recieve my test packet, i dont see "don't share with people"
like

what?
what?
just what?

if you advocate for public tests but don't allow or support for the release of them, how is "public tests" gonna happen? instead of spending 2 hours writing a test, i can just post my test bank (50 sets) in like 2 seconds

Read. The. Dang. Thread. Thanks.

your welcome

[jonathanzhang53]

when i go to an invite and recieve my test packet, i dont see "don't share with people"
like

what?
what?
just what?

if you advocate for public tests but don't allow or support for the release of them, how is "public tests" gonna happen? instead of spending 2 hours writing a test, i can just post my test bank (50 sets) in like 2 seconds

Read. The. Dang. Thread. Thanks.

your welcome

you're*

sorry couldn't resist

[Random Human]

what happened to staying on topic

being educational

[EastStroudsburg13]

what happened to staying on topic

being educational

If you hadn't derailed the topic perhaps we would still be on it.

[WhatScience?]

Srsly guys. Don’t fight. It’s unessacary.

East you’re an admin. If you have a real problem with what Random is doing pm him.

What random has said to me in private is this: When the site (an earlier, imperfect version of #trading) was created, random proposed releasing sets at the end of the season. Many members on here said the few sets were not enough given how many we had. This is a valid point.

With that being said, basically everyone has changed their opinions in some way this season.

After all, it is very easy to say that we will do something but we never do.

WORDS ARE CHEAP!

We said we would discuss these releases. Maybe some discussion has occurred but no progress.

So I ask the many users reading this thread this, How should we proceed. Please consider all sides of the community in your answer.

[Tesel]

Again, releasing tests is a debatable topic because some competitions or writers strongly oppose their tests getting out. It's your decision to make, but don't make this site deal with the backlash. I will say, though, that the only way to have more public tests without any risk of damaging any part of the community is to actually write public tests.

[pikachu4919]

I’ve written tests for 9 competitions (Whiting 2016, Northridge 2017, Wright State 2017, Purdue WL Regionals 2017 and 2018, MIT 2018, Princeton 2018, UMich 2018, and upcoming in a little over a week, Indiana’s State Tournament 2018) in my two years thus far as a Div D volunteer. Although I also support public release of tests, I cannot exactly publicly release all of the ones I’ve written myself unless those respective competitions themselves have chosen to allow their tests to be publicly released during the season following their tournaments. If the tournament officials don’t want their tests leaking out before they officially release them, then I abide by their rules, and they release my test when they decide to release their set. Or, in the case of the Regional and State tests I’ve written, I cannot publicly release them at all (granted, without tournament director permission) since Indiana’s policy is no return back to teams and no public release of Regional and State tests.

Long story short, speaking as a test writer, although it’d be nice to publicly post my tests so that people can have that as a useful study tool, from an ethical standpoint, I still have to abide by the policies of the tournaments I write for, and if those tournaments don’t want the tests being released at the time, then I don’t defy that.

[Alex-RCHS]

So I ask the many users reading this thread this, How should we proceed. Please consider all sides of the community in your answer.

But if you still wish to increase the availability of tests, then perhaps you could email tournaments themselves before releasing tests like this? Many will say no, I'm guessing, but some might say yes. Doing so will keep the tournaments happy, keep the site out of trouble, and help competitors.

1. Publicizing tests is good.
2. Publicizing tests without asking the authors/owners of those tests (i.e., tournaments) is bad.
It seems like #2 is all that's up for dispute. I don't want to speak for him, but East seems to have said that publicizing tests without permission from tournaments on this site could be bad for the site. My suggestion above might work, though...