betiko wrote:
duke: you fastposted me but answer this simple question.
1 game = gross abuse?
100 games = gross abuse?
there is a line somewhere right? My standard being 10 (again, winning 7/10 games against a worthy opponent is not the normal standard and i had an over the average luck in those games)
I don't know. There's different answers to that.
A strict moralist would say "no". Stealing a pencil is morally no different than stealing a million dollars. Cheating is cheating, whether you're in for a penny or in for a pound, and so on and so forth.
Myself, I'm not a strict moralist. I know we're all fallible human beings, and I know that sometimes temptation strikes and good people do bad things. I think I'm a good person, but God knows I've done a long list of bad things at one time or another.
I think you did cheat, strictly speaking. I do NOT think that makes you a monster or a criminal or anything like that. The temptation was too close, too available. You saw the sweet fruit of reaching the top of the heap and you reached out and grabbed it, probably without giving any attention to the consequences. If you were intending to cheat, you would have made an effort to hide it, but you didn't. It was just an impulse on the spur of the moment, and I think a great many people who were close to the top would have done the same thing. Cheating? Yes. Horrible sociopathic evil? No.
So I don't think anyone should blow this out of proportion. If you are let off the hook, I won't lose any sleep over it. If they give you a warning and disqualify the medal, as they should, then I hope you don't lose any sleep over it, and I hope you don't carry through on your threat to leave the site. Anybody who's played any sport has at some point given in to the temptation to trip an opponent, even though in almost every sport that's against the rules. You know it's wrong, but it seems like the right thing to do at the time. You get tossed out of the game, you drink a few beers, the next day you come back, and most people don't even remember.