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Sunday Nov 23, 2008 #
Event: QOC: Avalon
Event: DVOA Brandywine
Note
[Reader discretion advised. Circumlocution is over. Innocent eyes will not be spared. There will be blood. The gloves are coming off. This is negative in tone.]
This will be a long post. It will probably metastasize and evolve over the next day or so. I may regret saying certain things, so I may auto-"censor" them and consign them to the electronic waste basket. I will say some things that may be offensive. I may criticize, but I invite criticism as well. If I am giving it, I'll take it. Bring it.
It is not intended to be public. But, I am posting it here. I can't control where it goes.
Of course this rant is motivated by DVOA. (And the flare up by what is likely to flare up on the eboard today. I had kind of gotten over things to an extent.) I had the outside opportunity to attend 4 orienteering events yesterday (SVO, QOC, DVOA, and the Traverse.) I can honestly say, a priori, the DVOA event was the one I wanted to attend least, but logistics didn't allow for any of the others.
Why? Well, 1) Brandywine, never a great map, has aged. (I've had my own personal greatest course setting failures there at the US Night O champs back in the 1990s.) 2) Yesterday's course setter is known to be recalcitrant and to read from the book of anti-orienteering (as I see it.) 3)Finally, (this is an irrational reason), the last Brandywine event I attended was quite frustrating due to at least two misplaced controls and the fact that I attempted to offer private (and I will say completely constructive and positive feedback to the novice course setter) which was rebuffed. This was one incident, of several, that have made me highly sensitive to, and dismissive of the notion that course consultants will achieve anything in DVOA. [need to offer some other examples.]
[Discursion] On the subject of criticism (sorry, here comes a name) I am bemused to see Randy lobbing some up there on the eboard. You go! If it is good for the goose, it is good for the gander! (Randy has prickled at some criticism directed at his course setting efforts. More recently, he went to some length to stomp out the fires of criticism on the eboard, enunciating the prevailing, implicit DVOA mantra ("hear no evil, see no evil.") Well, I guess if the evil (almost) literally bites you on your ass, you will feel it and see it. That is a start.
Anyway, leaving him alone now... it is easy to criticize. Dasha notes I am good at it. But, despite my aspersions, and antipathy towards DVOA, I really like it and want the best for it. I am not sure (yet) that the best solution is euthanasia. (As I was running my course, for the first time, I kept thinking DVOA sucks. That was disturbing, and a first.)
I decided I was going to send an unsolicited (nice) letter to the DVOA officers from the perspective of a consumer of product. But, my quill is still too sharp, and I will try the shriller version of things here. Perhaps the vitriol can be diluted by a factor of 100 and then the solution will be suitable for their consumption.
I am going to put down my draconian ideas here, so that the intellectual solvency of my ideas can be judged as harshly as necessary.
[note]
I was going to pounce on the eboard. I resisted. It will go here.
Ed Scott writes: "I don't think the problem will be fixed with a rule." OK--I agree with that. The problem will be fixed with judment and common sense. Since those are in short supply, a rule is a good start.
Rules are important. We impose rules on our children before they are granted lattitude. It is easier, yes, but justified until children develop judment, discernment, and common sense. There is very little judgment evidenced by DVOA. Eric epitomized judgment. DVOA is doing a 180.
This will be a long post. It will probably metastasize and evolve over the next day or so. I may regret saying certain things, so I may auto-"censor" them and consign them to the electronic waste basket. I will say some things that may be offensive. I may criticize, but I invite criticism as well. If I am giving it, I'll take it. Bring it.
It is not intended to be public. But, I am posting it here. I can't control where it goes.
Of course this rant is motivated by DVOA. (And the flare up by what is likely to flare up on the eboard today. I had kind of gotten over things to an extent.) I had the outside opportunity to attend 4 orienteering events yesterday (SVO, QOC, DVOA, and the Traverse.) I can honestly say, a priori, the DVOA event was the one I wanted to attend least, but logistics didn't allow for any of the others.
Why? Well, 1) Brandywine, never a great map, has aged. (I've had my own personal greatest course setting failures there at the US Night O champs back in the 1990s.) 2) Yesterday's course setter is known to be recalcitrant and to read from the book of anti-orienteering (as I see it.) 3)Finally, (this is an irrational reason), the last Brandywine event I attended was quite frustrating due to at least two misplaced controls and the fact that I attempted to offer private (and I will say completely constructive and positive feedback to the novice course setter) which was rebuffed. This was one incident, of several, that have made me highly sensitive to, and dismissive of the notion that course consultants will achieve anything in DVOA. [need to offer some other examples.]
[Discursion] On the subject of criticism (sorry, here comes a name) I am bemused to see Randy lobbing some up there on the eboard. You go! If it is good for the goose, it is good for the gander! (Randy has prickled at some criticism directed at his course setting efforts. More recently, he went to some length to stomp out the fires of criticism on the eboard, enunciating the prevailing, implicit DVOA mantra ("hear no evil, see no evil.") Well, I guess if the evil (almost) literally bites you on your ass, you will feel it and see it. That is a start.
Anyway, leaving him alone now... it is easy to criticize. Dasha notes I am good at it. But, despite my aspersions, and antipathy towards DVOA, I really like it and want the best for it. I am not sure (yet) that the best solution is euthanasia. (As I was running my course, for the first time, I kept thinking DVOA sucks. That was disturbing, and a first.)
I decided I was going to send an unsolicited (nice) letter to the DVOA officers from the perspective of a consumer of product. But, my quill is still too sharp, and I will try the shriller version of things here. Perhaps the vitriol can be diluted by a factor of 100 and then the solution will be suitable for their consumption.
I am going to put down my draconian ideas here, so that the intellectual solvency of my ideas can be judged as harshly as necessary.
[note]
I was going to pounce on the eboard. I resisted. It will go here.
Ed Scott writes: "I don't think the problem will be fixed with a rule." OK--I agree with that. The problem will be fixed with judment and common sense. Since those are in short supply, a rule is a good start.
Rules are important. We impose rules on our children before they are granted lattitude. It is easier, yes, but justified until children develop judment, discernment, and common sense. There is very little judgment evidenced by DVOA. Eric epitomized judgment. DVOA is doing a 180.
Run warm up/down 5:00 [1]
shoes: Olways
Really short warmup.
Orienteering race 58:30 ***
shoes: Olways
Brandywine Red. [No need to comment here on the deficiencies of this event. From a personal perspective, my diminished expectations were exceeded. I enjoyed it. From a DVOA perspective, they were yet again dashed.]
I knew one control was mishung and one control was missing. I found the mishung one OK and did not attempt to invite myself in for tea to punch the missing one.
I found everything else mostly OK. Did a lot of 90 degree bails to trails. I was on trails for most of the course, and maybe should have used a trail to 1.
Ran pretty well, but got tired of pushing towards the end, and with my thoughts consumed by noski, I kind of jogged in the last two controls. Still, a solid hour of exercise and with a map.
I knew one control was mishung and one control was missing. I found the mishung one OK and did not attempt to invite myself in for tea to punch the missing one.
I found everything else mostly OK. Did a lot of 90 degree bails to trails. I was on trails for most of the course, and maybe should have used a trail to 1.
Ran pretty well, but got tired of pushing towards the end, and with my thoughts consumed by noski, I kind of jogged in the last two controls. Still, a solid hour of exercise and with a map.