deemed guilty of ignorance..
well, officially I've been suspended from TopCoder since Friday :(
here's the (tragic?) story..

I created my first account in TopCoder abt an year back.. I never took it seriously n dint compete in anythin.. but I registered for a component development competition n then dint submit the solution since the submission required a lot of documentation n UMLs.. n I HATE WRITING DOCUMENTATION :X k.. later on I discovered that not submitting a solution for a registered competition affects ur reliability rating.. hmm..

recently, for no reason at all (or for one I dont remember/kno, as it usually happens :D) I found TopCoder interesting.. somehow I was pretty confident of winning somethin over there.. now, since there was this reliability rating crap, I decide to start off afresh with a new handle..
TCO 2006 has started n there're a lotta component n algorithm competitions goin on.. I'm more interested in component competitions n this week, I choose 3 components for development, n had a fairly concrete idea for their implementation..

Thursday there was an algorithm competition.. I dont like them because ur score depends on how fast u solve the problem n that for me means writin quick but dirty code.. I dont like writin dirty code, so I usually dont participate.. (moreover there's a lot of competition in them :D ) but this time I decided to participate for the first time n I did.. got a pretty decent rating.. somewhere around 1600 - a green.. not bad for a first attempt, I thought..

next morning, I wakeup happily n go online.. GTalk notifies me of a mail from some Ryan FairFax.. I ignore it coz I dunno him.. I go to TopCoder n try logging in.. damn! it says my account is locked! same for my other handle :( now I check my mail n there's one shoutin - Rules Violation - from Ryan Fairfax - Algorithm competitions manager, TopCoder.. The mail says that acording to the TopCoder Terms of Use, I've been banned forever from TopCoder for cheating in the previous day's competition!

now I see their Terms of Use page tryin to find somethin that makes me a cheater.. n there's somethin! basically, having two handles in TopCoder is illegal! wtf?! that's nonsense isn't it? never heard of another place with such a restriction.. usually if a site has such restriction, they enforce this during registration rather than allowing u to regster n crib later (as it happed here).. moreover how am I supposed to even kno that unless I R_eadT_heirF_uc*inM_anual? how the hell can they expect all their users to read thru that stupid lookin, long list?

neways, the mistake is mine n so I requested that guy to reactivate my account telling him that I dint kno abt the rules.. but he finally agrees to reducing my banishent to suspension but not to forgive my first mistake :(
as of now, I'm suspended from TopCoder for 3 months n I'm not allowed to participate in any major tournaments for an year! that's mindless! (or rather mind-blowing - literally ;) )..
but this wasn't the right time nor the right reason to suspend me! if I intend to cheat, I'll cheat, no matter what.. this time I dint even have the slightest idea of cheating.. that's why both my handles were pointing to the same mail id n had same details too! n that's how I was caught :( I'm not (yet) that stupid to try n cheat using two handles with cloned details.. after all, how tough is it to create a fake identity on the net n become a new person altogether? hardly an hour's job..
worst thing is, I had a pretty good design ready for 3 components.. maybe I'd not hav won any, but it'd hav been a great start.. moreover, this week, I'd hav got a day extra than usual to complete the solution! ah! absolutely the wrong time to get banished :(

neways, considering that they giv u real money if u win, maybe the rule's sensible.. but relying on the users to read thru the manual to kno all the rules - that's definitely stupid..

finally that makes me an outlaw for not R_eadingT_heirF_uc*inM_anual :D