Originally Posted by
massman
I think you're missing a vital point, Mike. What you're describing is why maybe 1% of the entire overclocking community is into overclocking and benchmarking, the other 99% is just there to have fun with hardware. You see, you can see that, for instance at HWBOT, most of the users submitting don't care about efficiency or highest possible clocks: they care about overclocking only, they care about producing a benchmark score that gives them points for the team.
Why is it that a group that small has to effect the way a group this large has to deal with verification, rules and regulations? Since everything comes straight from the community (rules are not forced upon us by some untouchable instance), how come it's being made impossible to make this world different from all other sports.
I wonder if people have already considered the idea that what meets the eye is not the whole package. Take the hardware sharing rules that are so hugely under debate: I can see many people be angry about the fact that some benchmarks are CPU limited and sharing the CPU gives an advantage. However, the true reason of the existince of the rule is:
1) Prevent the abuse of direct influence on points system (eg: CPU sharing allowed for CPU benchmarks -> points affected directly)
2) Make overclocking a more social experience than it was before
Especially the latter is of great importance. Overclocking used to be sitting alone in the house and just talking over the internet or MSN, but now it's becoming more and more something that you do with your teammates. By allowing a good CPU to be shared for 3D benchmarks, we basically allow a team to work together to maximize the result. The reason why some people are pushing towards ethical and responsible behavior is of the same type:
Make people stand up for what they do and learn that 'playing within the rules' is not an easy way to cover up what you did. To me, pointing to the rules as argument that what you did is okay, is as lame as it can get: you're blaiming an external source for YOU making a mistake.
Also, extreme overclockers sometimes forget this, but they are the billboards of overclocking. If you see new people joining in the overclocking community, they look up to guys like K|ngp|n because these guys have been on top of the rankings (HWB or FM) since the beginning. These people, who are the faces of overclocking, must deal with the fact that they have an example role within this community and must learn to act like this. The reason why I picked K|ngp|n is because as far as I recall, he's always been fair and honest in overclocking. And he wins all the time. See, it can go hand in hand.
People will debate rules and regulations forever, but ethics and morals are kind of a constant in the human life. And that's because they have an unwritten nature: because there's no clear definition, you can bend, twist and strech ethics to suit every situation. The odd thing is that most people agree when talking about ethics and breaking ethics in competitions; in fact, I think I have only met a couple of people who believe it's okay to do whatever you want in the competition without looking at the ethics. There have been countless examples in many competitions where people tried to win without losing sight of what's really important: honesty, respect and integrity. Again, I wonder why a small subset of people must ruin the game for the large, vast majority.
There's of course the aspect of MFCs who want to USE the overclocking community as marketing tool. Let's not forget, however, that overclocking still is a very young sport and that every party involved (overclockers, hwb/fm, mfcs) has to learn how to work together the best. To give an example: overclockers like brands more when they do things for the community, whereas marketing people within brands think they have to break world records to be more loved. It's changing slowly, but we all have to accept that we can't just jump into an ideal state of overclocking community (if that would exist). In the end, however, the overclocking community has enough ties to the publishing industry, meaning that big mistakes by manufacturers get negative publicity that streches far beyond our little community. That gives US, overclockers, the power to make the MFCs listen to us. It's Power to the People!
... wtf ....
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