*gets in early before tidal barrage of scorn and vitriol*

Firstly I have to commend you for being brave enough to post this, it shows that there is some willingness within the community to try and change the dynamics (?) of the sport around to make things more interesting. Also some democratic discourse on the future of the sport is always a good idea, although it can be a bit depressing to read as well

Personally I've come around to the idea that a robot with a weapon is far more interesting to build and to drive than a robot without a weapon, be that because of the engineering challenge, ambition, or a desire to do something with the other two channels on a 6 channel controller. I can however very much understand the view of those who have built robots which would be affected by this (largely due to Andy and his box) and to be completely honest if the active weapon requirement were introduced across all competition fights at all events I can see the number of featherweights dropping quite a bit and maybe one or two people being discouraged from building - I know builders who have spent three or four years slowly getting a robot together only to find that their almost finished pride and joy might not be able to compete because it's been designed as a passive machine.

Ultimately I think this should be left to the event organisers' discretion - it is their hard work that supports the sport after all and if Jonno or the Youngs or James and Grant feel that having more active weapons would encourage more spectators to attend and increase revenue, then they should be allowed to make it so. Outright instructing all organisers to ban active weapons in competition fights may alienate a few people and would probably not help the FRA's image much, so maybe if such a rule is to be implemented it should be as a strong recommendation rather than a compulsory rule?

Although please don't let this lead to everyone doing yet more rear hinged flippers, we've got enough on the go as it is. </joke>

There's my two pence anyway, let's see where this discussion goes...it'll at least be more beneficial to the sport than banning 40mhz would at least :P