FIRST Server Issues

[Lil' Lavery]

And here we go! immediate website crash

[sanddrag]

I'm getting a run-time error on firstinspires.org. Anyone else having issues?

[AdamHeard]

Site crashing for everyone else I assume?

[Jimmy Nichols]

and it begins...Anybody get in or we all getting Server Error?

[Eric Scheuing]

Did we crash the dashboard? I'm getting a server runtime error.

EDIT: We've all heard of the reddit hug of death. Here's to the FIRST hug of... inspiration.

[mathking]

And now runtime errors. Great.

[Christopher149]

And here we go! immediate website crash

To bring the website to it's knees!

[David Brinza]

There was an unexpected error

[Tyler Olds]

Hasn't crashed for years for me. Instant crash this year.

[Ken Streeter]

I'm getting a run-time error on firstinspires.org. Anyone else having issues?

firstinspires.org became non-responsive for me right at noon EST. Still not back yet...

[Breakaway3937]

And it is done for the count!!!

[MrForbes]

here we go....sigh

[jgerstein]

It's down for me, too.

[Brian Maher]

There was a completely expected error

FTFY

[bdaroz]

And registration is open... and melting down.

[Arefin Bari]

TIMS is down! :(

[Tim Sharp]

I'm getting a 503 error

[topgun]

503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

[Bruceb]

503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

anybody else getting this??
trying to register

[bdaroz]

I think the servers ran out of STEAM. :)

(Sorry, couldn't help it...)

[Eric Scheuing]

Did we just kill CD as well?

[waialua359]

some of us have to leave for work right now.:mad:

[Christopher149]

Funny that I never remember TIMS crashing, and it was always quite fast. Interested to see how 2nd district event signup goes if the website struggles like this.

[Abrakadabra]

Hasn't crashed for years for me. Instant crash this year.

FIRST - Ever heard the saying "If it ain't broke..."

[hionwind]

Yep. We are unable to register

[Trying to Help]

"This is a custom view."

[tr6scott]

*Poof* no cheese either.

[Ken Streeter]

Well, so now we see how the "New and Improved" registration system is working out. TIMS registration had gone pretty well for the last few years.

Wonder if this is a harbinger of things to come with the "New and Improved" FRC dual Championships? :rolleyes:


PS: The most frustrating part of this issue is that I now need to spend the next who-knows-how-long of my life sitting here trying to reload this page every few minutes in order to register our team. My life is now temporarily "on hold" until FIRST either announces that registration is postponed until another day, or the site starts working again. Sigh.

[sanddrag]

It came back up for a second, then went down again.

I called FIRST, and someone actually answered. They said they are working on the issue and hope to have it resolved soon. I asked if I needed to stay glued to a computer, or if they would re-launch at a future date and time. The representative I spoke with said she didn't have any information about that.

They really just need to call it off and do a re-launch, with it working.

[ddg258]

Yup, it's broken

[bcampbell]

Was anyone able to register?

[Bluman56]

It came back up for a second, then went down again.

I called FIRST, and someone actually answered. They said they are working on the issue and hope to have it resolved soon. I asked if I needed to stay glued to a computer, or if they would re-launch at a future date and time. The representative I spoke with said she didn't have any information about that.

They really just need to call it off and do a re-launch, with it working.

Agreed. As much as I'd love to sit at the computer for an hour or more, I have work to do as I'm sure is the case for many others.

This is my third year registering a team for a regional, and the first two times were far more smoother than this...

[Jim Wilks]

FIRST and IT -- A losing combination again.

[kdavidson]

I feel like I'm trying to win something on a radio call-in contest. Dial, busy, dial, busy...

[jgerstein]

These crashes on timed submissions need to be addressed. I'm sure I'm not the only mentor who's arranged the day to be able to handle registration. Both of 1257's mentors with access to register teach classes that start at noon today, and while I was able to plan a lesson that would leave the first few minutes of class free to register, I've got to get back to teaching and risk missing an event if I don't catch the return of the registration system.

Perhaps a system more like the updated First Choice system could be an option.

[topgun]

They really just need to call it off and do a re-launch, with it working.

Agree.

[cpapplefamily]

I'm a first year mentor registering. Glad to see its everyone

[ghesla]

This was so expected, this new fancy dashboard...

I need to work, HQ! ::ouch::

[Trying to Help]

I called FIRST, and someone actually answered. They said they are working on the issue and hope to have it resolved soon. I asked if I needed to stay glued to a computer, or if they would re-launch at a future date and time. The representative I spoke with said she didn't have any information about that.

They really just need to call it off and do a re-launch, with it working.

I'm glad someone answered and you posted this! This is not a problem that should happened. It's either a capacity problem (server, bandwidth), a failure to load test the a database or a failure to test the event registration process sufficiently. These are not problems without solutions. FIRST set the date. They knew this was going to happen unlike the reddit "hug of death".

I'm sure that there are plenty of mentors, donors, etc. that would be only too happy to lend their expertise to prevent this.

Why are we stuck with this?

[Larry Lewis]

I just got off the phone with FIRST. Their server are down and they are working on it. She mentioned that they may possibly postpone registration and that there would probably be an announcement going out soon.

[cpapplefamily]

Why not present registration

[marshall]

Why is this a free for all instead of a lottery system?

Either way, my hat is off to the FIRST IT staff handling the fire right now. I hope Frank and Dean sponsor a party for you after this is resolved.

[Tsom467]

Ah yes, FIRST's web sites, doing what they do best... not work! I recall many years at this time trying to register and just seeing error pages. Refresh after refresh. As someone above mentioned, this is a solvable problem, I can't understand why they have an issue with this.

[mathking]

Why is this a free for all instead of a lottery system?

Either way, my hat is off to the FIRST IT staff handling the fire right now. I hope Frank and Dean sponsor a party for you after this is resolved.

Agreed. A lottery would make much more sense, be less stressful and be more fair to teams who may not have a mentor free at noon EST.

[devitrify]

I completely agree.

The rush to register is unbecoming to FIRST's ideal of Gracious Professionalism.

Andy Mark worked hard to fix a similar grab-fest for FIRST Choice parts. A similar system would be a big improvement for the FIRST event registration system.

[Dr. Robot]

I just got off the phone with FIRST. Their server are down and they are working on it. She mentioned that they may possibly postpone registration and that there would probably be an announcement going out soon.

http://www.troll.me/images/office-space-boss/yeahhhhhh-that-would-be-great-thumb.jpg

[g_sawchuk]

Too bad, inconvenient but expected time for this to happen.

Not sure why FIRST doesn't section off registration for certain events at certain times - it would limit their total traffic, as opposed to everyone registering at a single time.

With districts becoming more and more popular, it's even easier to set boundaries for which events are open for registration when. Plan it based off of time zones so everyone ends up registering around their time noon.

Of course, a simpler solution might just be to fix their website. :p

[FrankJ]

This is why I am really controlling on robot code updates between matches. There are no minor updates. You really have to test your changes. :yikes:

[pandamonium]

Why couldn't they stagger registration. Week 1 event 9am Week 2 event 10am... Wouldn't this have put less stress on the system?

[Tsom467]

I'm glad someone answered and you posted this! This is not a problem that should happened. It's either a capacity problem (server, bandwidth), a failure to load test the a database or a failure to test the event registration process sufficiently. These are not problems without solutions. FIRST set the date. They knew this was going to happen unlike the reddit "hug of death".

I'm sure that there are plenty of mentors, donors, etc. that would be only too happy to lend their expertise to prevent this.

Why are we stuck with this?

This +100!

[pyrtle]

First year mentor here, for a rookie team nonetheless, and glad to hear it's not just me. Any idea where/when we would hear from FIRST, if they choose to postpone? (Aka how long should I sit here refreshing the page...)

And thanks for those posting their updates with the calls!

[PayneTrain]

If a reliable scaling solution is too infeasible, perhaps you register 2-3 district systems per day, then open up regionals?

[AdamHeard]

Why couldn't they stagger registration. Week 1 event 9am Week 2 event 10am... Wouldn't this have put less stress on the system?

It would, but it seems like scaling up the system is the better solution.

Staggering the events would let teams come up with cascading registration places that would unfairly benefit some.

[bdaroz]

Meanwhile.. in the FIRST Datacenter... (http://blog.titanpower.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Data-Center-Fire-Dangers.jpg)

[bcampbell]

While I understand that the server is down it would be nice if someone at HQ could send an update via twitter or something.....

[ATannahill]

First year mentor here, for a rookie team nonetheless, and glad to hear it's not just me. Any idea where/when we would hear from FIRST, if they choose to postpone? (Aka how long should I sit here refreshing the page...)

And thanks for those posting their updates with the calls!
Probably on the blog or email blast. They might also put a notice on the TIMS log in page.

[notmattlythgoe]

http://i.imgur.com/HAtHtrF.jpg

[sanddrag]

I completely agree.

The rush to register is unbecoming to FIRST's ideal of Gracious Professionalism.

Andy Mark worked hard to fix a similar grab-fest for FIRST Choice parts. A similar system would be a big improvement for the FIRST event registration system.You know, I had this very conversation in person face-to-face with Frank, back in May of 2015. It's disappointing to see the issue has not been addressed.

The "battle of the faster mouse click" has now become the endurance race of whoever can sideline the rest of their lives the longest.

We are now 25 minutes in. No working site, no twitter announcement, no e-mail, no facebook post. Not acceptable FIRST. Call it off, NOW. This is beginning to cost me money, and is already ruining my day.

[crazyrobochick]

I think the funniest thing about all of this and its not super funny but...When I couldn't get on the FIRST website I immediately came here to figure out what was going on and if anyone else had got on. Which just produced more errors as everyone was doing the same thing as I was. Just goes to show how engineers need information and hate being in the dark.

[David Brinza]

Ah yes, FIRST's web sites, doing what they do best... not work! I recall many years at this time trying to register and just seeing error pages. Refresh after refresh. As someone above mentioned, this is a solvable problem, I can't understand why they have an issue with this.
I'm not surprised by this issue. A month ago, it took three attempts over a few days for our W-9 form to be accepted. I don't think they have their arms around their system.

[Jon Stratis]

If a reliable scaling solution is too infeasible, perhaps you register 2-3 district systems per day, then open up regionals?

The problem is the big crush of people - they need increased availability for about an hour. Set 1st district and 1st regional registration on different days (even 1 day apart) and you'll cut the number in half on each day. And it's not like those two groups really need to be registering on the same day either - district teams can't get into regionals for another two-ish months, and regional teams can't do districts at all!

[mastachyra]

Ok, here's the plan: Everyone stop trying to register so I can test out the system. As soon as I get my team registered, I'll let you know and you can all try again.

Ok, GO!

[Jimmy Nichols]

Agreed. A lottery would make much more sense, be less stressful and be more fair to teams who may not have a mentor free at noon EST.

The potential problem with a lottery system might be that teams who can't afford to travel would get shut out of the only regional they can attend. Granted there are hold back spots, but those aren't always a guarantee. Though teams who still need an event would get in, it could still play havoc with school PO systems and invoicing, etc.

[Chief Hedgehog]

Well this thread caught fire pretty quickly...

[bdaroz]

Well this thread caught fire pretty quickly...

Not as quick as the TIMS servers did. :)

[tylerc102]

Well, considering that I can't really move onto my next task until FIRST does something, this thread seems like a good way to spend some time.

[hionwind]

While I understand that the server is down it would be nice if someone at HQ could send an update via twitter or something.....

If FIRST was paying attention they could respond on this thread.

[Andrew Schreiber]

The problem is the big crush of people - they need increased availability for about an hour. Set 1st district and 1st regional registration on different days (even 1 day apart) and you'll cut the number in half on each day. And it's not like those two groups really need to be registering on the same day either - district teams can't get into regionals for another two-ish months, and regional teams can't do districts at all!

3k is NOT a "big crush of people"

[billbo911]

Ahhh, how misery loves company!!

Man, I'm getting steamed over this.

[MissDaisyGirl]

*reload 1st tab*
*reload 2nd tab*
*reload 3rd tab*
*reload FRC Teams Twitter*
*reload CD*
*stomach growls*

Repeat...

[Larry Lewis]

Why couldn't they stagger registration. Week 1 event 9am Week 2 event 10am... Wouldn't this have put less stress on the system?

Neat idea. Only issue would be if you didn't get into that week 5 event you wanted and your fallback was a week 2 event. It is probably filled at this point.
But going off of that maybe you could stagger it by team timezone. So just do each time zone at noon. That way it gives preference to the local teams to get into their events but avoids as much of a rush.

[pandamonium]

I finally got to the website, but I can not get to my dashboard... Has anyone registered yet?

[snoman]

Is this what they meant by Hype Overload?

[Bruceb]

you would think they would have load numbers from past registration days to size the system from.
Time to send in the"A" team.

Get us a bigger computer fool!

[Sperkowsky]

Sorry about your thread Mark. This isn't how its supposed to work.

[Andy A.]

Is anyone even surprised? This happens every year.

Maybe instead of spending more money on more pointless background checks, FIRST could invest in some IT resources to cope with the traffic spike they can predict down to the minute.

[Sean Schuff]

Found the problem (http://www.ncs-support.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Server-Room.jpg)!

[Tsom467]

3k is NOT a "big crush of people"

Agreed! We're not talking Amazon or Facebook amounts of traffic here. This could have and should have been tested and ready to go.

The sad part is, I've seen this happen in the past. They should not have been surprised by this.

[tylerc102]

Got off the phone with FIRST. They are working on sending out messaging, and from the information I got from the representative, you can probably go back to your regular lives and they will reschedule the opening.

At this point, I don't think FIRST would think its fair to give teams that have had people refreshing for 40 minutes priority event registration.

[ATannahill]

Is anyone even surprised? This happens every year.

Maybe instead of spending more money on more pointless background checks, FIRST could invest in some IT resources to cope with the traffic spike they can predict down to the minute.
I do not feel that background checks to help protect the very people that FIRST is trying to inspire are pointless. If you are upset about FIRST paying for it, the process allows you to pay for your background check yourself.

[mjenk72]

Ahhh, how misery loves company!!

Man, I'm getting steamed over this.

Well played sir, well played...

[bigbeezy]

Is anyone even surprised? This happens every year.

Maybe instead of spending more money on more pointless background checks, FIRST could invest in some IT resources to cope with the traffic spike they can predict down to the minute.

Does it happen every year? Past 2 years I've done it haven't had any issue at all. I do recall in the past there being similar issues, but I didn't think recently there had been.

[Larry Lewis]

I finally got to the website, but I can not get to my dashboard... Has anyone registered yet?
I got just as far.

[Larry Lewis]

Does it happen every year? Past 2 years I've done it haven't had any issue at all. I do recall in the past there being similar issues, but I didn't think recently there had been.

You are right the past two years are fine. I am sure it is a problem that can be solved since they got it right the previous two years. I think it is just because this is a new system. I am sure they will improve it after this.

[ATannahill]

Sorry about your thread Mark. This isn't how its supposed to work.
I can propose a simple solution.

Merge this thread with this one (https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=151462). Then pull the first ten or twelve posts into a new thread.

[Andy A.]

I do not feel that background checks to help protect the very people that FIRST is trying to inspire are pointless. If you are upset about FIRST paying for it, the process allows you to pay for your background check yourself.

I've already paid for background checks for two school districts, including fingerprinting. I'm fine, thanks.

Not that it's really germane to the thread, but the YPP has nothing to do with protecting anyone besides FIRST.

[ghesla]

FRC Teams ‏@FRCTeams 39s39 seconds ago
We have postponed First Event Reg to next week. More details to follow. We apologize for this inconvenience. #omgrobots

[kmckay]

Neat idea. Only issue would be if you didn't get into that week 5 event you wanted and your fallback was a week 2 event. It is probably filled at this point.
But going off of that maybe you could stagger it by team timezone. So just do each time zone at noon. That way it gives preference to the local teams to get into their events but avoids as much of a rush.

Stagger it by time zone of your regional event. Then at least you'd spread them out over a couple hours.

[Greg Needel]

I think it might be fair to use the same system as FIRST choice for team registration. Give teams a week to enter their first, second and third choice events and then randomize the team list and add people to events.

Do the same thing for each repeated event registration. No more server issues and it would probably fix some of the issues with teams not being available the moment things open for registration.

[tylerc102]

Ok folks. Go home.

We have postponed First Event Reg to next week. More details to follow. We apologize for this inconvenience.

https://twitter.com/FRCTeams/status/778998684394647552?lang=en

[aciarniello]

Its official. Next week.

https://twitter.com/FRCTeams/status/778998684394647552

[mjenk72]

Just posted on fb, postponed until next week.

[Mr. Ackroyd]

Just saw FRC TEAMS tweet, they have postponed until next week for registration. more details to follow,

this is what the tweet said

[Dr. Robot]

I guess we can all stop doing this until next week.

https://media.giphy.com/media/tei52cyY5mroA/giphy.gif

[notmattlythgoe]

Steam powered web servers. You took the theme a bit too far this year FIRST...

[Larry Lewis]

Thanks for posing the twitter link. I don't usually check the twitter so I would have continued to check.

[bcampbell]

Anyone else annoyed by the hastag on FRCTeams twitter.... #OMGROBOTS.... They should have said something like #SORRY or #MYBAD or #WHOOPS

[billbo911]

Well played sir, well played...

Thank you!!
I'll be here all week.

Now that I think about it, I've been postponed until next week. More details to follow.

[cpapplefamily]

That's 50 min plus an entire morning I happened to have off lost forever

[JesseK]

Anyone else annoyed by the hastag on FRCTeams twitter.... #OMGROBOTS.... They should have said something like #SORRY or #MYBAD or #WHOOPS

The only purpose us old people see for a hashtag is to filter out the aimless noise that is actually Twitter. Personally, I don't filter on any of those other hashtags.

[notmattlythgoe]

The only purpose us old people see for a hashtag is to filter out the aimless noise that is actually Twitter. Personally, I don't filter on any of those other hashtags.

#sorrywearepostpoingregistrationuntilnextweek

[tjwolter]

Not seeing it on Facebook and no email as of 11:54 Central...

[Gary Dillard]

I finally got all the way in to the event registration, but it still says event registration not open yet, so it won't let me register.

[synth3tk]

Anyone else annoyed by the hastag on FRCTeams twitter.... #OMGROBOTS.... They should have said something like #SORRY or #MYBAD or #WHOOPS

It's for visibility. Some people are probably watching that hashtag for spicy memes or updates on the situation.

[gsesny]

For the sake of being fair I hope they do a reset. I as have all of you have scheduled my day around this. I can't hit refresh over and over and over again all day. Although my students wouldn't mind :)

[iyportne]

I know this is unfortunate, but as a continuous improvement professional I know none of us have gotten to where we are without backward steps, and I trust FIRST will fix and make good on this process as well.

My bigger concern now is tempering the attitude of my students who may be reading this thread. Some may come away with the idea we should never try new things and take risks to move forward and just keep doing what we are to avoid ridicule should things go wrong.

Remember, everyone can predict something that just happened, and everyone can solve an isolated issue without the entire context.

Perhaps we can use this thread as a case study for Gracious Professionalism vs. Ungracious Pro-victimism...heaven known we have the evening news for the latter.

[mastachyra]

I just read it on Chief Delphi guys... Postponed until next week!

[mjenk72]

They transfer registration duties to me this year and what happens....https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi43cDouKPPAhUBfiYKHfCHBM8QjRwIBw&url=%2Furl%3Fsa%3Di%26rct%3Dj%26q%3D%26esrc%3Ds%26 source%3Dimages%26cd%3D%26cad%3Drja%26uact%3D8%26v ed%3D0ahUKEwi43cDouKPPAhUBfiYKHfCHBM8QjRwIBw%26url %3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fgiphy.com%252Fgifs%252Ffire-explosion-O3GqAYR9jFxLi%26psig%3DAFQjCNFC5GlYJS-YI_Kh8k2xPh-ejFrWQQ%26ust%3D1474649774519171&psig=AFQjCNFC5GlYJS-YI_Kh8k2xPh-ejFrWQQ&ust=1474649774519171

[jgerstein]

Why is this a free for all instead of a lottery system?

Either way, my hat is off to the FIRST IT staff handling the fire right now. I hope Frank and Dean sponsor a party for you after this is resolved.

Agreed. Some of my fellow mentors and I were talking about this yesterday. The high-pressure free for all isn't ideal, even without crashes, because it forces people to rearrange their schedule for the day around it. For some people that ranges from difficult to impossible.

Adding in crashes like this makes it so much worse, because instead of planning my day around something that will take a few minutes, I have to plan around something that will take a completely unknown amount of time.

[mjenk72]

aaaand that worked almost as well as registration did...

[Andrew Schreiber]

I know this is unfortunate, but as a continuous improvement professional I know none of us have gotten to where we are without backward steps, and I trust FIRST will fix and make good on this process as well.

My bigger concern now is tempering the attitude of my students who may be reading this thread. Some may come away with the idea we should never try new things and take risks to move forward and just keep doing what we are to avoid ridicule should things go wrong.

Remember, everyone can predict something that just happened, and everyone can solve an isolated issue without the entire context.

Perhaps we can use this thread as a case study for Gracious Professionalism vs. Ungracious Pro-victimism...heaven known we have the evening news for the latter.


Ok, here's one directed just for your students.


Absolutely, try new things. But when you launch what is effectively a product or service be sure to test it under expected load.

[Abrakadabra]

...
My bigger concern now is tempering the attitude of my students who may be reading this thread. Some may come away with the idea we should never try new things and take risks to move forward and just keep doing what we are to avoid ridicule should things go wrong.
...

Or... perhaps they will learn that when you have a "mission critical" system (which I would argue is true in this case, with the large number of professional man-hours being wasted due to its non-functionality), and that system had been working just fine for the past two years, if you decide to change it for whatever reason, it might be a good idea to test the heck out of it before bringing it live.

[kmckay]

Anyone else annoyed by the hastag on FRCTeams twitter.... #OMGROBOTS.... They should have said something like #SORRY or #MYBAD or #WHOOPS

#WeFiredTheGuysWhoUpdatedTheWebsite

[FrankJ]

My bigger concern now is tempering the attitude of my students who may be reading this thread. Some may come away with the idea we should never try new things and take risks to move forward and just keep doing what we are to avoid ridicule should things go wrong.

I agree name calling is pointless. But. First has data on resource loading registration takes. It happens every year. First choice crashed First Choice the first time up. I expect it has similar loading. You try new things, but you mitigate the risks and test for known issues.

[AllenGregoryIV]

Absolutely, try new things. But when you launch what is effectively a product or service be sure to test it under expected load.

And this isn't a new problem, HQ has been dealing with this for years. Registration used to have problems years ago and they worked through them. FIRST Choice used to have problems and they worked throw those as well. Even now they have testing sessions and things to make sure their servers were ready for that. They have done much better in the past and this is clearly a step backwards, we aren't expecting them to be perfect but they could also provide far better service to their customers and not wait 45 mins before making any public update.

[Andrew Schreiber]

#WeFiredTheGuysWhoUpdatedTheWebsite

I hope not. Screw ups are a part of life.

[BrendanB]

I know this is unfortunate, but as a continuous improvement professional I know none of us have gotten to where we are without backward steps, and I trust FIRST will fix and make good on this process as well.

My bigger concern now is tempering the attitude of my students who may be reading this thread. Some may come away with the idea we should never try new things and take risks to move forward and just keep doing what we are to avoid ridicule should things go wrong.

Remember, everyone can predict something that just happened, and everyone can solve an isolated issue without the entire context.

Perhaps we can use this thread as a case study for Gracious Professionalism vs. Ungracious Pro-victimism...heaven known we have the evening news for the latter.

This is true however FIRST has had a long history of having teams use systems that just crash. FIRST Choice & Registration threads of old have had many issues with crashing & struggling to handle the load. The TIMs system was working just fine over the past few years and the decision was made to change it so yes teams are going to be upset that FIRST took a step backwards after finding something that was working fine.

Its a little disappointing but when it requires people to set aside time out of their work day to sit around and get nothing accomplished.

[SGK]

My source with contacts at FRC HQ has told me "Officially postponed until next week. Date and Times TBA"

[Banderoonies]

11 years doing this....registration has NEVER worked as it should. Even with this new and improved website... *sigh*. #highhopescrushed

[RoboTigers1796]

Well I can't say I'm actually surprised. I was actually kind of expecting it.
It was disappointing because after all the years of dealing with the madness of crashing webpages, the past 2 years we finally had seamless registration with a perfectly functioning TIMS but then the new site came and I knew we were in for an adventure.

A community stress test on a new site or software has been successfully run by much smaller communities than FIRST. They could easily run a mock opening with plenty willing to offer their help in logging in for a few minutes a day or two before the real show. Maybe something to consider in the coming week.

Good to hear they finally called it off and called a mulligan.

Welp, guess we will be reconvening next week!

[nixiebunny]

This is why I have a cushy part time job... to be able to waste an hour griping about a failed registration system on social media.

But seriously, I assume you can pay a testing company to slam your site with 5000 pretend registration attempts in two seconds. If I ran a website like this, that's the first thing I'd arrange for.

[SGK]

Their new server consists of all the returned Samsung Galaxy Note 7's!! --- Just Kidding!!!

[Andrew Schreiber]

This is why I have a cushy part time job... to be able to waste an hour griping about a failed registration system on social media.

But seriously, I assume you can pay a testing company to slam your site with 5000 pretend registration attempts in two seconds. If I ran a website like this, that's the first thing I'd arrange for.

You can do it yourself with a bit of work. There's a handful of tools out there for it. Tsung is the one I've seen folks use in the past, but I've never had much of a need for it myself.

[marshall]

This is why I have a cushy part time job... to be able to waste an hour griping about a failed registration system on social media.

But seriously, I assume you can pay a testing company to slam your site with 5000 pretend registration attempts in two seconds. If I ran a website like this, that's the first thing I'd arrange for.

Pay someone for it? That's what testing suites and tools are for. Simulating load these days isn't difficult.

[Lil' Lavery]

Not sure what all these "shoulda, coulda, woulda" posts are really accomplishing.

[ScoutMom700]

FIRST Facebook page reporting registration is postponed to next week.

[synth3tk]

we aren't expecting them to be perfect but they could also provide far better service to their customers and not wait 45 mins before making any public update.
👀

This.

[marshall]

Not sure what all these "shoulda, coulda, woulda" posts are really accomplishing.

They are users being frustrated. It's what people do when things don't work out the way they expect. It's ok and it's a good thing. If someone hits on an idea that helps make it better in the future then it is worth it. The important thing is that everyone have some empathy with the IT gals and guys working this problem at FIRST HQ. Sometimes things break and we need to be patient and understanding about it... that doesn't mean we can't lament/complain/grieve/hypothesize publicly.

[notmattlythgoe]

Not sure what all these "shoulda, coulda, woulda" posts are really accomplishing.

Not sure what all these "Not sure what all these shoulda, coulda, woulda posts are really accomplishing" post are really accomplishing.

[nixiebunny]

Not sure what all these "shoulda, coulda, woulda" posts are really accomplishing.

They accomplish the venting of STEAM.

[FrankJ]

Site seems to work now.

(No, registration is not open) :]

[marshall]

Site seems to work now.

(No, registration is not open) :]

Nice editing... smooth. ;)

[David Brinza]

Not sure what all these "shoulda, coulda, woulda" posts are really accomplishing.
Agreed, but FIRST not anticipating this possibility (given prior history AND the new website) by having "Plan-B" ready to go isn't acceptable.
The email blast announcing a postponement should have been sent an hour earlier. I'm pretty sure the writing was on the wall 10 minutes after opening.

[Lil' Lavery]

Not sure what all these "Not sure what all these shoulda, coulda, woulda posts are really accomplishing" post are really accomplishing.

My hope was to transition the thread towards a more positive tone (and as Marshall said, more empathy towards the IT folks who are surely very stressed at the moment). I see now that my attempt was only mildly successful, at best.

[Trying to Help]

I know this is unfortunate, but as a continuous improvement professional I know none of us have gotten to where we are without backward steps, and I trust FIRST will fix and make good on this process as well.

My bigger concern now is tempering the attitude of my students who may be reading this thread. Some may come away with the idea we should never try new things and take risks to move forward and just keep doing what we are to avoid ridicule should things go wrong.

Remember, everyone can predict something that just happened, and everyone can solve an isolated issue without the entire context.

Perhaps we can use this thread as a case study for Gracious Professionalism vs. Ungracious Pro-victimism...heaven known we have the evening news for the latter.


I am not ridiculing FIRST. And I know that we all make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes have lasting, serious consequences. This is thankfully not one of those instances.

This is a professionally created tool that is an essential part of the FRC process. As such, the robotics community has reasonable expectations that FIRST upholds their portion of the implicit agreement. We postpone work, schedule lunch early, have someone cover for us, etc. We will now have to do it again for next week. And for those of us in district competitions, not too long again after that.

It's reasonable that if you try something and fail, people call you on it. I did say that there are plenty of resources out there to help troubleshoot and remediate the problem.

[SparkyMark]

They accomplish the venting of STEAM.

Steam venting... lol. Water games confirmed, eh?? Has anybody else checked out the event site(s) specifically? Apparently all events this year take place in the middle of the week. All those I looked at begin on Tuesday and end on Friday.

My boss isn't gonna like this :eek:

[Aren Siekmeier]

Everything looks to be back up. No teams registered. Still waiting on the date and time for next week to be announced (I'd assume 9/29 at noon EDT).

[iyportne]

...case study continued....

Here's an interesting observation. Nearly everybody here was undoubtedly logged in and looking at your dashboard at T - 500ms. From the conversation here, we also all figured we would have our registration choice clicked and secured at T + 10,000 ms. Generously allowing for those with slow reflexes and internet speeds below 1 Mbps, let's say that the expected lifecycle of the registration product to be...Oh let's say 60,000 ms. We know it and FIRST knows it.

IT FAILED...AND we all knew that at T+ 0ms as did FIRST

Given the life cycle and failure mode which is :confused: somehow well researched, documented and proven on this thread :confused: within 5 product life cycles, one could conclude that waiting more than 10 life cycles (that would be 10 minute for anyone lost in the math) for the product to suddenly start working again, or needing FIRST to state the already obvious is, well, curious.

[Conor Ryan]

Too bad we can't give green dots to the IT team.

Anybody have ideas for a crowdsourced solution? I'm sure districts will want to move their own process in the future.

[TJP123]

I'm getting a 503 error

You'll have to be more specific. I can recall many, many 503 errors.

[guniv]

I had to get somewhere earlier when this whole debacle was happening, so I watched as long as I could. Then I got to my car, put my laptop in the passenger seat, turned on my mobile hotspot, and f5'd the page nearly the whole commute.

Anyways, a shame it's postponed for a week. I hope it's early next week. Our team has enough going on.

[AllenGregoryIV]

Given the life cycle and failure mode which is :confused: somehow well researched, documented and proven on this thread :confused: within 5 product life cycles, one could conclude that waiting more than 10 life cycles (that would be 10 minute for anyone lost in the math) for the product to suddenly start working again, or needing FIRST to state the already obvious is, well, curious.

The problem is this isn't unheard of FIRST. It's often been a problem with demand and the system has come back up at some unannounced later time during the day. Without official announcement of a postponement there is no way to know if we should continue with our lives or stay glued to the screen waiting for something to change. Assuming the former for some teams means losing out on their preferred event or more money spent on travel or not being able to do two+ events at all.

[EmileH]

Too bad we can't give green dots to the IT team.

Anybody have ideas for a crowdsourced solution? I'm sure districts will want to move their own process in the future.

Let districts host their own registration system(s) and manage the required IT? Like events?

[Koko Ed]

My hope was to transition the thread towards a more positive tone (and as Marshall said, more empathy towards the IT folks who are surely very stressed at the moment). I see now that my attempt was only mildly successful, at best.

CD being CD.

[David Brinza]

I don't want to take shots at the IT team at FIRST, I'm sure they work hard and are understaffed for the job at hand.

The IT team's consistent struggle with rolling out website upgrades, server capacity, etc. is a byproduct of the way FIRST is operated. I've seen these struggles many times in the 14 years I've been in FIRST. The decision to not invest in the kind of workforce needed to develop and adequately test their IT environment before rolling it out comes from the very top of the organization.

Unfortunately, we teams (i.e. their customers) pay the price of wasting valuable time and having unnecessary stress injected into what should be a relatively straight-forward process.

I hope Frank and Don recognize the importance of having a reliable IT interface between teams and the program. I hope they are able to convince the top guy to make the decision to fix this problem permanently. I'm just hoping things do change...soon.

[Jardanium]

I was wondering why my phone blew up with notifications about a half-hour after registration opened. Oh well, here's to hoping that next week goes a lot smoother!

[Banderoonies]

We postpone work, schedule lunch early, have someone cover for us, etc. We will now have to do it again for next week. And for those of us in district competitions, not too long again after that.

.

Took the words out of my mouth. Now i have to get coverage and reschedule work around this again.

[nuclearnerd]

Has this been suggested already?

Why the heck can't we submit a ranked list, and have the machine choose who gets where based on their chosen priority and a random draw? You could even do it in multiple draws if you want to give teams the chance to adjust their second decision based on the results of their first result. We already do this for FIRST choice, and it works perfectly well.

What use is forcing people to all click refresh at the same time when we already have an alternative system that is easier on mentors' time and server load?

[ScoutMom700]

Did anyone see that regionals are listed as Tuesday through Friday instead of Wednesday through Saturday in tims? Part of the glitch?

Edit - I just looked at the calendar and the Tuesday - Friday dates are for the 2016 calendar, some one didn't put in the 2017 dates for regionals.

[Jimmy Nichols]

Has this been suggested already?

Why the heck can't we submit a ranked list, and have the machine choose who gets where based on their chosen priority and a random draw? You could even do it in multiple draws if you want to give teams the chance to adjust their second decision based on the results of their first result. We already do this for FIRST choice, and it works perfectly well.

What use is forcing people to all click refresh at the same time when we already have an alternative system that is easier on mentors' time and server load?

This would alienate a lot of teams that only attend 1 event and its the closest/least expensive/local event. I know several teams that a system like this would effect.

[AllenGregoryIV]

Did anyone see that regionals are listed as Tuesday through Friday instead of Wednesday through Saturday in tims? Part of the glitch?

Edit - I just looked at the calendar and the Tuesday - Friday dates are for the 2016 calendar, some one didn't put in the 2017 dates for regionals.

I don't think it's a 2016 to 2017 problem. My hypothesis is it's a time issue. Namely they only put in dates and didn't put in a time. The system probably defaulted to 12AM Eastern Time, so it shows up as 11PM Tue-Fri for me since I'm in Central Time instead of 12AM Wed-Sat. Someone in another timezone want to confirm that the times aren't set to 11PM?

[cpapplefamily]

fixed 1 event teams get first choice.

[nuclearnerd]

This would alienate a lot of teams that only attend 1 event and its the closest/least expensive/local event. I know several teams that a system like this would effect.

Why? How is it more fair to give an event to teams that click on it quickest instead of randomly splitting the spots amongst the teams that prioritize it most?

[waialua359]

Has this been suggested already?

Why the heck can't we submit a ranked list, and have the machine choose who gets where based on their chosen priority and a random draw? You could even do it in multiple draws if you want to give teams the chance to adjust their second decision based on the results of their first result. We already do this for FIRST choice, and it works perfectly well.

What use is forcing people to all click refresh at the same time when we already have an alternative system that is easier on mentors' time and server load?
I have been vocal in the past about not having to click the fastest to get the event we want.
However, I am not sure submitting a ranked list is what I would want either.
Getting an event you want involves so much preparation and planning weeks in advance and afterwards. It can also be quite costly not getting the event you want, especially for a team like us having to fly to events. If we sign up for an East Coast event Week 1, our next event choice priority would be to find something else as close as possible.
Someone from our team asked why not do San Francisco Week 3 next? Biggest hurdle is an extra 3-4k shipping cost to get it there.
FIRST donates 2 airbills per year to us. We use it to get our robot to the US mainland, and then back to Hawaii for our event later during competition season.

[Hallry]

Anybody have ideas for a crowdsourced solution?

Yes, the Payne Protocol:

If a reliable scaling solution is too infeasible, perhaps you register 2-3 district systems per day, then open up regionals?

Let District systems A, B, and C register on Monday Districts systems D, E, and F register on Tuesday. Districts systems G, H, and I register on Wednesday. Let all regional teams register on Thursday. There's no reason district and regional teams need to sign up for their initial events on the same days.

After initial registration, the next registration opening (October 6th) is just for 2nd In-District Events and Championship for Pre-Qualified Teams. The servers should be able to handle that. I would split up the following registration opening (October 20th) into two dates, one for 2nd Regional events and another for the Championship Waitlist. The November 3rd registration is for Unrestricted Regional events and 3rd In-District events, and November 10th is for Inter-District events, both of which the server should again be able to take care of.

[MeGuttieri]

Faith in FIRST restored (not)

[nuclearnerd]

I am not sure submitting a ranked list is what I would want either.... If we sign up for an East Coast event Week 1, our next event choice priority would be to find something else as close as possible.

Forgive me, but I don't understand the objection. Wouldn't ranking "East Coast Event" first, "close events" second through whatever capture your intent? You could adjust your priority list for the second draw after learning the results of the first.

[Lil' Lavery]

This would alienate a lot of teams that only attend 1 event and its the closest/least expensive/local event. I know several teams that a system like this would effect.

Perhaps a "silent auction" type of system. Each team is given a budget of X points to allocate among events they want to attend. Single event teams can dump all of their points into their local event that way.


Granted, any system is still going to need some leeway for the regional directors and reserve capacity slots. Hopefully reserve slots accommodate those single event teams, regardless of what system is used for registration.

[waialua359]

Forgive me, but I don't understand the objection. Wouldn't ranking "East Coast Event" first, "close events" second through whatever capture your intent? You could adjust your priority list for the second draw after learning the results of the first.
It would work, if you didnt factor in not wanting the 1st event anymore because you couldnt get your 1st choice.
Based on the current system in the past, it has allowed me to pick and choose what I want, cancel when I want, and then repick somewhere else. The suggested system puts everyone on the same time block for preferences vs. on the fly in trying to secure a spot at an event.
Having the ability to choose, based on the number of remaining slots available is a strategy to try and ensure you get all of the package of events you want to participate in.

[mathking]

I would like to see a system where each team submitted a first and a second choice or just a first choice. Try to give as many teams as possible their first choices, using a lottery or auction model, whatever seems appropriate. This would allow regional directors to use some of the slots that are held back to place teams earlier. (Ex: If there are 10 slots held for late registering rookies and nearby teams, and four nearby teams were unlucky and didn't get one of the open slots, they could get one of the reserved slots.) Give teams their second choice if possible and they selected a second choice. This would allow teams to submit a ballot by the given date, and the system could spit out the results. A little work by the people at HQ and the regional directors and they publish a list of who got their slots where.

Then a few days later let all of the teams that have not yet registered for a competition resubmit a request for one of the still available slots.

[Lil' Lavery]

And 1712 is registered for the Seneca event. Quick and painless.

[MrForbes]

yay! it works

[MooreteP]

Like butter.

[sanddrag]

Completed registration for Los Angeles by 9:00:11 PDT. By 9:00:23, 15 teams were registered. By 9:01:00, the site is non-responsive. Now showing server runtime error at 9:02:25.

[guniv]

We just got our registration in, confirmation page, refreshed to see what other teams had signed up and it's down again.

[Tyler Olds]

Wave got in immediately. Showing 25 slots left for Central Illinois.

[Chief Hedgehog]

And it's down...

[Arefin Bari]

Crashed!

[Ryan Dognaux]

Getting runtime errors :(

[Doug G]

Registered for Los Angeles by 9:00:11 PDT. By 9:00:23, 15 teams were registered. By 9:01:00, the site is non-responsive. Now showing server runtime error at 9:02:25.

Nicely done sir... same runtime error... "just keep swimming..."

[MrForbes]

I clicked the button, and nothing happened...then I could not connect doing a search...then I got a runtime error page...then I got an email saying we're registered.

Interesting.

[pmcoburn]

<runtime errors> Me too...

[Jimmy Nichols]

I got into Miami Valley (MVR) and when checking capacity it crashed.

[David Guzman]

I was able to get a page confirming we are registered. But as soon as I tried to go back to the dashboard crashed.

[RoboTigers1796]

I was able to register in the first 30 seconds... got an email confirmation. Went back to take a look at how many spots were left and the site died. Anyone else able tor register?

[bhsrobotics1671]

I was able to register for our initial regional event as well just before the crash

[waialua359]

We got our event, then system went down also as I tried to check. I noticed 5 other teams had got in also for Pittsburgh.

[mathking]

I was frozen out before it said that I had registered. I will be so infuriated if this keeps up for another hour. And if we don't get our first choice, which was open and we should have gotten, it will cost us a couple thousand extra dollars.

[billbo911]

I was able to register in the first 30 seconds... got an email confirmation. Went back to take a look at how many spots were left and the site died. Anyone else able tor register?

Exact same thing happened with me.
I was worried when the page would not update once I clicked "Register", but after 30 sec or so, I got an email confirmation we were registered for SAC.

Crash time, again!

[M. Mellott]

Error after I hit the 'Register' button...did this twice with the same error, but now all I get are runtime errors.

No email confirmation...BOOOOOO!!!

[ngreen]

Registered 1108 for GKC regional and took a photo for confirmation, but dashboard was down when I tried to go back. It showed 7 teams registered (43 remaining) for the regional.

[Bruceb]

I keep getting a runtime error just trying to get to my dashboard.
Is that where everybody else is getting the error? Those that have been successful, how did you get past the error?

[Doug G]

Oooh... a new error... 502 Proxy Error. To be a fly on the wall at FIRST HQ!

[cpapplefamily]

No go here. Well looks like we will have to reset so everyone has the same fair chance to register.

[topgun]

Just got a 503 error. Couldn't even get registered.

[ghesla]

We got the registration email, so we are all set, right? Can I go to lunch? :p


Hello Team 1156,

Congratulations on completing the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Event Registration process!
Your team is registered to attend the SBPLI Long Island Regional.

[David Brinza]

Logged in at 9:00:30 and got as far as clicking on Event Registration when a "Something went wrong!" message appeared.

Unable to login since..."There was an unexpected error."

Primal scream therapy not helping.

[tjwolter]

No Go. How's everyone else faring?

[fargus111111111]

Nothing but runtime errors.

[hionwind]

I was not able to register for SAC. Got a "runtime" error. Now I can't even log in to the FIRST website.

This is really frustrating.

[Breakaway3937]

Anyone else getting the a white screen that says...

"This is a custom view"

??????

[nixiebunny]

I see either "This is a custom view" or "This is a custom view" followed by "Error" when logging in.

I think they need to learn how to do load testing.

[Mr.Frishman]

We got registered for Brazos Valley. I got the email saying we are registered. Went back to check capacity of the event and the site has crashed.

[bigbeezy]

Wasn't able to get in before the crash...Was very slow loading. Clicked Midwest and nothing.

[bcampbell]

I was able to register for our first event and then when i tried to click on the dashboard to confirm it had crashed by then.... I did get a confirmation email that we are registered for the event. Good luck for those who are still trying, I hope it comes back up and you can get into your event.

[dwodrich]

runtime errors for me as well

[snoman]

i got one of our teams registered but we have 2 teams that need to be in the same event!!!:confused:

[bdaroz]

Our lead mentors weren't able to even attempt to register before the feces hit the ventilation.

[notmattlythgoe]

Anyone else find it fishy that right when registration crashes CD also becomes flaky? With the district teams registered there shouldn't be nearly as much of a rush to CD when the regional registration crashes.

[Bruceb]

ohhh now getting page not found when going to dashboard

[cpapplefamily]

I was able to register for our first event and then when i tried to click on the dashboard to confirm it had crashed by then.... I did get a confirmation email that we are registered for the event. Good luck for those who are still trying, I hope it comes back up and you can get into your event.

Nope not fair. reset and start over for all.

[topgun]

Can't even get to the Dashboard now. 404 error on everything now.

Maybe it's time to move this to a better application and a better service provider (one with autoscaling).

[jspatz1]

Blank screen with "This is a custom view."

[devodl]

From Twitter

FRC Teams ‏@FRCTeams 3m3 minutes ago

We are experiencing tech difficulties. Please stand by. We apologize for the inconvenience. #omgrobots

[Red2486]

Blank screen with "This is a custom view."

Same here.

[Breakaway3937]

They are probably resetting right now and bringing the system back online to go public.

[tjwolter]

I assume that with a little "practice" at this sort of thing, the FIRST brass will have some word in short order. You can't run registration if even some teams are locked out.

[ngreen]

I keep getting a runtime error just trying to get to my dashboard.
Is that where everybody else is getting the error? Those that have been successful, how did you get past the error?
I was logged in and at the page with just the KC regional, waited until 11 CST (NIST time), clicked the tab, hit F5, clicked register, click the event page and snapped a photo, and then got the runtime error trying to refresh the event page about 30 seconds later.

[djdaugherty]

I was trying to register for Pittsburgh. Got to the screen where the button says coming soon. The button never changed. I was able to go back and forth between the events page and event details page. I called FIRST Team Support they told me it crashed. I don't understand why the button changed to Register for some people but not for others. That makes me wonder if I am not at the proper screen. Any guidance???

[guniv]

I just got it loaded. Seems to be coming back.

[mathking]

They also sent out an email blast. But this is starting to go from comedy to farce. Another day of constantly checking and refreshing. And I don't see how they can even fairly restart now. If they get it working in say ten minutes, there will be teams that were online at the appropriate time and couldn't register. And those teams will be shut out. If they reset everything people who thought they were registered (and got an email) will be furious. This is really, really, freakin' annoying.

[billbo911]

Nope not fair. reset and start over for all.

"Fair", seriously?

I know I got an email confirmation BEFORE the servers puked. How is it "fair" to be confirmed, and then have it taken away?

Before we start jumping to conclusions, let's see how FIRST chooses to handle this.

[kmckay]

You can't make this up... You'll know it when you see it.

:facepalm:

[Bruceb]

Greetings Teams:
We are experiencing technical difficulties with event registration. Please stand by. Thank you for your patience and we apologize for the inconvenience once again.

Sincerely,
FIRST® Robotics Competition Team Support

[Travis Hoffman]

Anyone else find it fishy that right when registration crashes CD also becomes flaky? With the district teams registered there shouldn't be nearly as much of a rush to CD when the regional registration crashes.

Somewhere a guy furiously taps on his Android phone screen....

[topgun]

Maybe we have to restrict registration to a certain day for each event (example: 10000 Lakes Monday, October 10th at 9:00 a.m CST)! This is getting crazy.

update: event form briefly popped up, I hit the Register button, spin..spin...spin, error saving. Now back to app throwing error page.

[Jon Stratis]

We got in for our regional, and got a confirmation email and everything... then went in for kickoff, and got error'd out. So maybe the site lasted a minute or two longer than last time?

[cpapplefamily]

Access Denied

[Anne_droid]

Team 451's experience:

In at 12:00, found our event, clicked register, then sat "Waiting for my.firstinspires.org" for a bit before displaying "An error occurred while processing your request."

After that, could not even load the dashboard. Fluctuated between 503 errors, 404 errors, and server errors. Tried logging in from other browsers, and just got to a page that says "This is a custom view."

At 12:19, finally got to dashboard, and the buttons loaded...slowly. Clicked on Events, and it turns out we were already registered for Miami Valley!

So if you clicked and got an error, take heart, you may have gotten in.

Anne
Mentor, Team 451 "The Cat Attack"

P.S. Closing my browser now to get out of everyone else's way.

[SamM]

I'm getting the Custom View error.

[Christopher149]

Maybe we have to restrict registration to a certain day for each event (example: 10000 Lakes Monday, October 10th at 9:00 a.m CST)! This is getting crazy.

update: event form briefly popped up, I hit the Register button, spin..spin...spin, error saving. Now back to app throwing error page.

My question is why did district registration go fine, but not regional registration? Speed and number of teams signing up? Limited number of teams trying to sign up for any one event?

[cpapplefamily]

Really coming down to your home event is your home event rolled over from last year. The teams that claim hardship if their home event is not event x has the same issue with the current system. If they don't get event x then event y will have to do .

[pmcoburn]

Team 4930'sexperience:

Sitting at computer at noon. search for Finger Lakes Regional. Find it. Status: Coming Soon.

Refresh.... Still "coming soon."


Refresh... Still "coming soon."



refresh... Crash.

No chance to register for anything, yet.

[mathking]

Team 451's experience:

In at 12:00, found our event, clicked register, then sat "Waiting for my.firstinspires.org" for a bit before displaying "An error occurred while processing your request."

After that, could not even load the dashboard. Fluctuated between 503 errors, 404 errors, and server errors. Tried logging in from other browsers, and just got to a page that says "This is a custom view."

At 12:19, finally got to dashboard, and the buttons loaded...slowly. Clicked on Events, and it turns out we were already registered for Miami Valley!

So if you clicked and got an error, take heart, you may have gotten in.

Anne
Mentor, Team 451 "The Cat Attack"

P.S. Closing my browser now to get out of everyone else's way.

I was waiting online and logged in at 12:00. Clicked to register at Miami Valley, crash. No confirmation email. Can't log back in.

[Sh1ine]

How is it that FIRST can't seem to get this right? Didn't they have a dry run yesterday with the District Teams? Why do teams pay these people $5,000-about $15,000 a year when we can't even register for an event. My team is in Upstate NY, they pushed us out of New England 4 years ago, we only have 5 regionals in the state, two of which are on the same weekend and the other 3 fill up very quickly as they are downstate regionals. This is so incredibly frustrating.

[Conor Ryan]

https://twitter.com/FRCTeams

We are experiencing tech difficulties. Please stand by. We apologize for the inconvenience. #omgrobots


I'm guessing someone, in an area without enough events, (California, New York) is trying to manipulate the system.

[lynca]

Please post your server problems in this thread, not in the FIRST Registration thread.

[DoxCoach599]

My reaction trying to login to the servers, this morning. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZdQ2RA4T9k)

[Breakaway3937]

How is it that FIRST can't seem to get this right? Didn't they have a dry run yesterday with the District Teams? Why do teams pay these people $5,000-about $15,000 a year when we can't even register for an event. My team is in Upstate NY, they pushed us out of New England 4 years ago, we only have 5 regionals in the state, two of which are on the same weekend and the other 3 fill up very quickly as they are downstate regionals. This is so incredibly frustrating.

I feel you, but don't be so quick to point the finger. This may not be a FIRST local problem. There might be other forces at play.

[Mark McLeod]

I am able to login and look at my events now.
P.S.
Even though it crashed after I hit Register, the system does has us listed for the SBPLI Regional (capacity presently listed as 6 for LI).

[EmileH]

My question is why did district registration go fine, but not regional registration? Speed and number of teams signing up? Limited number of teams trying to sign up for any one event?

To give incentive to states to move to districts. Specifically Minnesota, Texas, and California.

:deadhorse:

Hoping that FIRST figures the issues out quickly and gives a fair solution to all teams in the regional system.

[bdaroz]

As time goes on our fustration level here is rising as well... Both our lead mentors are on lunch break now, but only until 1:20p ET. After that they have classes to teach until 3pm+

[Mr. Ackroyd]

3044 experience is the same as 4930 except there was a registration button. but then the great second crash happened.

I did just get the page to reload and the event screen popped up showing we are registered.

go refresh and try again!!!

also, 4930 are you guys coming to our off season event on november 5th??

[aciarniello]

My dashboard is back up and running, I'm still showing as registered for GPR. Wonder if that registration will stand.

[cwade]

I was able to register right away and did receive a confirmation email from First. I am assuming some other people did get through before it crashed again???
-cwade
Coach #5026

[bigbeezy]

I just registered. It was painfully slow, but we got into Midwest.

[Tyler Olds]

Dashboard is loading but really slow. I would give it another shot if you haven't.

[dwodrich]

I finally got in and received the confirmation for St. Louis about 11:30.

[Arefin Bari]

Finally... now onto prepare for Hurricane Matthew.

[Jack Gillespie]

Never had a problem on the old web site!!

[pmcoburn]

I just got in, registered, and now the system seems down again... This is maddening.

[tjwolter]

I was also trying to reg for North Star and can assure you...the site did not go live at all. But it sort of looking like it wanted to breathe for about 30 seconds.

[cpapplefamily]

Finnaly got something. Could not search for the event had to hit view more over and over to get to April 5th.

[lynca]

Registered successfully at 12:41 EST

[ehochstein]

To give incentive to states to move to districts. Specifically Minnesota, Texas, and California.


One can dream! :)

[nixiebunny]

I finally got registered at 9:42 local time. Fortunately, our first event is not wildly popular, or I would have been mad.

[fargus111111111]

We have finally been able to register for Rocket City.

[Chief Hedgehog]

Finally got through at 12:46(EST) and successfully registered for 10k.

[Bruceb]

well it says I am registered
waiting for confirmation e-mail

[snoman]

seems like it is back up and running