Nate Laverdure
22-09-2016, 16:46
This is a thread, one of a series over the years (https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=131180), dedicated to general stats about the Chief Delphi thread about the speed, strength and direction of team & event registration for FRC. As we've seen already, it's going to be an exciting year in Mark McLeod's Registration 2017 (https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151460) thread here on Chief Delphi!
Is the initial registration experience "typically" bad?
As we've seen today, the retooled Dashboard/TIMS system could just not hold up to the load of initial event registration. Is this a "typical" experience? Should we be accustomed to this?
Let's take a brief look at what has occurred in previous years. Below are some quotes that tell parts of the tale. In two of the past years we looked at, the "Registration YYYY" thread here on Chief Delphi indicated a problem with the initial registration process. From these posts, we can surmise that in 2012, TIMS was very slow during initial event registration. Two years before, in 2010, TIMS was brought completely down by the load of hundreds of teams attempting to register simultaneously for the first time that season. In the 10-year period (inclusive of 2008-2017) of "Registration YYYY" threads under study, we see that there were 3 years when TIMS was reported as laggy, unusable, or down for a majority of people attempting to do initial registration.
2016 (https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138273)
Holy smokes that went fast. The button appeared right at the hour down to the second. I registered in about 30 seconds flat, without reading anything whatsoever about what I was clicking on. Within 60 seconds, there were already 30 teams registered for Long Beach.
2015 (https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130647)
This was the easiest and fastest this has ever gone. Registered for Long Beach at 12:00:15 EDT, and that was taking 5 seconds to skim what I was clicking.
But OMG! By 12:00:50 EDT, there were 25 teams registered! 25 teams in 50 seconds! This is getting ridiculously competitive. By 12:03:00, 30 teams.
All I can say is in future years, you better have a fast computer, on a fast network, and a really precise mouse. And forget trying to read anything on the screen.
Oh, and you better cancel everything and take off work that morning, and if you're a teacher, cancel class.
2014 (https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=119675)
Thank you FIRST for enabling teams to register so quickly and cleanly this year. This was the best first FIRST event registration from ease and speed that I recall for a long time.
Kudos!
2013 (https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=108565)
2:54pm hit 1000 registered teams.
That took a day and a half last season.
We're 50% over last year at this same time.
2012 (https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97582)
In the first 45 minutes, 330 teams have negotiated the clogged TIMS to register for events.
429 by 1:00
The response of FIRST's servers appear to be under performing last year, or that many more teams are interfering with one another.
BAE was full by the end of the first hour.
2011 (https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=87007)
Half the teams registered today did it within the first half hour.
2010 (https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78490)
It's like TIMS suddenly hit a brick wall at noon...
2009 (https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69539)
This morning team registration broke the 1000 barrier.
That's 10% ahead of last year at this same time.
Is the initial registration experience "typically" bad?
As we've seen today, the retooled Dashboard/TIMS system could just not hold up to the load of initial event registration. Is this a "typical" experience? Should we be accustomed to this?
Let's take a brief look at what has occurred in previous years. Below are some quotes that tell parts of the tale. In two of the past years we looked at, the "Registration YYYY" thread here on Chief Delphi indicated a problem with the initial registration process. From these posts, we can surmise that in 2012, TIMS was very slow during initial event registration. Two years before, in 2010, TIMS was brought completely down by the load of hundreds of teams attempting to register simultaneously for the first time that season. In the 10-year period (inclusive of 2008-2017) of "Registration YYYY" threads under study, we see that there were 3 years when TIMS was reported as laggy, unusable, or down for a majority of people attempting to do initial registration.
2016 (https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138273)
Holy smokes that went fast. The button appeared right at the hour down to the second. I registered in about 30 seconds flat, without reading anything whatsoever about what I was clicking on. Within 60 seconds, there were already 30 teams registered for Long Beach.
2015 (https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130647)
This was the easiest and fastest this has ever gone. Registered for Long Beach at 12:00:15 EDT, and that was taking 5 seconds to skim what I was clicking.
But OMG! By 12:00:50 EDT, there were 25 teams registered! 25 teams in 50 seconds! This is getting ridiculously competitive. By 12:03:00, 30 teams.
All I can say is in future years, you better have a fast computer, on a fast network, and a really precise mouse. And forget trying to read anything on the screen.
Oh, and you better cancel everything and take off work that morning, and if you're a teacher, cancel class.
2014 (https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=119675)
Thank you FIRST for enabling teams to register so quickly and cleanly this year. This was the best first FIRST event registration from ease and speed that I recall for a long time.
Kudos!
2013 (https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=108565)
2:54pm hit 1000 registered teams.
That took a day and a half last season.
We're 50% over last year at this same time.
2012 (https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97582)
In the first 45 minutes, 330 teams have negotiated the clogged TIMS to register for events.
429 by 1:00
The response of FIRST's servers appear to be under performing last year, or that many more teams are interfering with one another.
BAE was full by the end of the first hour.
2011 (https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=87007)
Half the teams registered today did it within the first half hour.
2010 (https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78490)
It's like TIMS suddenly hit a brick wall at noon...
2009 (https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69539)
This morning team registration broke the 1000 barrier.
That's 10% ahead of last year at this same time.