FIRST Website

[Rob2713g]

Hey,

The new FIRST website is up!

I like it. What does everyone else think?

[Joel J]

Will take some getting used to..

I'm trying to find the regional info, the documentation for the old game, etc.. and I can't, yet.

Is this a hint!?

[Pat McCarthy]

I think it's pretty darn awesome!
The videos on the main page are pretty cool little segments as well.
Also, the 2007 manual page is up and ready for the sections to be linked to encrypted PDFs.

[Joel J]

I think it's pretty darn awesome!
The videos on the main page are pretty cool little segments as well.
Also, the 2007 manual page is up and ready for the sections to be linked to encrypted PDFs.
Yep.. I found my way to it eventually..

already involved -> FRC -> Events
already involved -> FRC -> Documents and Updates

[et1337]

Bea-utiful.

But slow.

[Katie Reynolds]

Generally, I like it.

I'm having a bit of trouble navigating though ... I'm looking for the Form W9 and where to send it, but I can't seem to find it (and site search returns 0 results). Anyone else have better luck? :)

EDIT: If you go to What's Going On In My Area? (the new team map) and look at FRC teams from X area, clicking on their team name now brings you to their personal website ... it doesn't give you the competitions they've attended, awards they've won, etc. :( I really liked being able to see that! I hope it comes back soon.

[Billfred]

I like the look. I bemoan the use of pop-out menus, but I'm sure I'll get used to it someday.

[Kyle A]

From what I have been able to do here at school its nice. And as others said it will take some gtiing used to, and it is also very slow.

[Mark McLeod]

One of the official notices:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=50275

Generally, I like it.

I'm having a bit of trouble navigating though ... I'm looking for the Form W9 and where to send it, but I can't seem to find it (and site search returns 0 results). Anyone else have better luck? :)

The link to the W9 page through TIMS is broken, but it's here:
http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=462

You get there via:
Top-bar: Already Involved -> FRC
Side-bar: TIMS & Registration -> Registration Process

Here's the short answer in case you're feeling rushed: :)
Please fax W-9 to 603-647-5772 (Attention: FIRST Finance).

[Greg Marra]

I am finding it slow to load and harder to navigate than the old page. At first, I wasn't able to get to any sub-sections of the website because the Javascript hadn't loaded properly. Also, I am a bit worried about the main page's mousing over images changing the video link, since that seems entirely unintuitive with nothing labeled.

It seems that now that everything is actually loading properly for me that the page is pretty nice looking and not too hard to use, but I wish the contrast on some of the text was higher and that the site wasn't so completely reliant on Javascript. I don't see a site map at the bottom and I am worried how my Wii will handle browsing it.

Eww, and the Javascript navbars prevent me from ctrl-clicking links to open them in a new tab. It just uses Javascript to change the current page. I really dislike when sites do that. It makes them a lot harder for me to pull down massive amounts of information from at once, and really is completely not necessary.

[Jessica Boucher]

Ah, the FIRST Community, aka The Land of Little Patience :)

The official launch time isn't until 1pm. I would tack on a couple hours afterwards for getting everything settled.

[JohnBoucher]

Slow but cool
No DOCTYPE declared, I wonder if that is causing some of the speed problems.

I want the Video. Will there be a copy in the KOP????

[JaneYoung]

The official launch time isn't until 1pm. I would tack on a couple hours afterwards for getting everything settled.

Cool, that gives me time to go shopping for presents and a good cup of eggnog coffee. YaY.

[Joel J]

The speed problems seem to stem from both the server-side-scripting(/database?), and the actual rate at which the page is being sent. I'm getting a 2KB/sec download rate, and a 5-7 second delay before the server even starts sending the pages. Should be fine later?

[JohnBoucher]

The links to the team information pages are missing.

I hope this gets fixed.

[Wetzel]

The speed the site is loading made me wonder if somehow I missed a few weeks and it was kickoff Saturday.

I do like the blue shade on the side though. Anyone else missing a backing for the drop down menus? All I get is black text dropping down.

Wetzel

[Wetzel]

Just found the FIRST Alumni Community (http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=712). I would guess that this will be around longer than the college networks that have come before...

Wetzel

[Michael Hill]

Holy cow...I'm on a backbone connection at Purdue. This thing still hasn't loaded; it's been trying to load for 3 minutes.

[RoboMom]

Here is the RoboMom advice.
Give IT a day or so to work out the major glitches.
Let's assemble a concise list of what isn't working-stuff you can't find, etc. Can we put this in a numbered document? Then the entire list can be forwarded up to the people that need to see it. Or if you don't want to work as a group, can use the "website feedback" form under "quick links."

For example:
1. "If you go to What's Going On In My Area? (the new team map) and look at FRC teams from X area, clicking on their team name now brings you to their personal website ... it doesn't give you the competitions they've attended, awards they've won, etc. I really liked being able to see that! I hope it comes back soon."

[Joe Matt]

Slllllllllllooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwww wwwww

But yeah, it's nice, I'll have to get used to it. Seems like they shifted the focus more away from team resources on the main page to a more "here's what we are, support us" main page. Let me go around and use it during the season, then I'll develop more of a mindset about the new site.

[Beth Sweet]

Dang this is slow. I hope it doesn't stay that way!

I find this new site really hard to navigate. Maybe it's just something I have to get used to but especially the drop-downs. On my computer at least, they are hard to read, perhaps a different font would help...

Once it gets all up to speed, I'll check it out and see if we can get aquainted.

[Mark McLeod]

Here are a few useful shortcuts:
All Registered Teams: https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso?page=teamlist (https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso?page=teamlist)
Any and all Events: https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso
All FRC Events: https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso?event_type=FRC (https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso?event_type=FRC)
All FVC Events: https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso?event_type=FVC (https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso?event_type=FVC)
All FLL Events: https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso?event_type=FLL (https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso?event_type=FLL)


Here is the RoboMom advice.
Give IT a day or so to work out the major glitches.
Let's assemble a concise list of what isn't working-stuff you can't find, etc. Can we put this in a numbered document? Then the entire list can be forwarded up to the people that need to see it. Or if you don't want to work as a group, can use the "website feedback" form under "quick links."
I agree. I'm ignoring the broken links for now.
I'm sure they have enough on their plate getting the new site up as it is.

I'd expand that to include the things we really like about the new site too.

[RoboMom]

Here is the RoboMom advice.
Give IT a day or so to work out the major glitches.
Let's assemble a concise list of what isn't working-stuff you can't find, etc. Can we put this in a numbered document? Then the entire list can be forwarded up to the people that need to see it. Or if you don't want to work as a group, can use the "website feedback" form under "quick links."

For example:
1. "If you go to What's Going On In My Area? (the new team map) and look at FRC teams from X area, clicking on their team name now brings you to their personal website ... it doesn't give you the competitions they've attended, awards they've won, etc. I really liked being able to see that! I hope it comes back soon."
2. "I'm looking for the Form W9 and where to send it, but I can't seem to find it (and site search returns 0 results). "
3. "I wish the contrast on some of the text was higher and that the site wasn't so completely reliant on Javascript. I don't see a site map at the bottom and I am worried how my Wii will handle browsing it."
4. "the Javascript navbars prevent me from ctrl-clicking links to open them in a new tab. It just uses Javascript to change the current page. I really dislike when sites do that. It makes them a lot harder for me to pull down massive amounts of information from at once, and really is completely not necessary."

[Elgin Clock]

I like the value of the height of the main picture on the main page.

:D

This makes me happy. :)

[savage301]

I like the new design. It slow, but I'm sure it will get faster. The only thing that I don't like is that they took all the specs down. I'm really happy I printed out the motor specs yesterday, for off season testing. Also you can't go to old game manual pages as easy as before. But again I like it. :D

[Pat Fairbank]

Has anyone found yet a listing of events with their capacities and number of teams registered (like the one that used to be at www.usfirst.org/frc/public/)?

[Donut]

Has anyone found yet a listing of events with their capacities and number of teams registered (like the one that used to be at www.usfirst.org/frc/public/)?

what's going on in my area -> All areas

Gives a list of all events, including capacity, teams registered, teams pending, and websites.

Unfortunately I don't think you can yet view who's pending for an event.

Overall I like the website. It will take adjusting to and some time to settle down, but doesn't anything new?

I just noticed, the Toronto regional has a -1 team capacity :D

[EHaskins]

its OK, but could be better. ;)

[Jeff Rodriguez]

How is the "what's going on in my area -> All areas -> FRC events" page organized? It's not chronological, it's not by capacity, pending, or open slots, it's not alphabetical. Am I missing something?

[Libby K]

i really like the new site! it's slow, and it'll take some getting used to, but i think it'll all be back in order once's everything's been worked out.

i really like the video. =]

[Alex Burman]

The new layout seems nice. It will just take some getting used to. I didn't have any trouble with it being slow. I got all excited seeing the page for the 07 rule book hoping to predownload it and check out things that might have changed but there were no links to actually down load :(

[sanddrag]

I'm having some contrast issues. The white background is pretty bright, and the light grey is pretty light. I don't know, I think the old website was pretty spiffy, but it too had some organizational issues.

I wish they'd keep an old content archive. I want to be ableto easily find any official FRC document from any previous year.

[lukevanoort]

Its definitely a looker, but a little slow, and pretty hard to navigate (although I have seen much worse). A healthy diet of Web Pages That Suck (http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/) design tips could do it well. I do like the all-in-one nature of the whats going on map with FVC, FRC, and FLL all accessible from one spot.

[Alexa Stott]

Am I the only one that can't see any video? The audio plays fine, but no video.

[R.J.]

Ok after playing with the site, I came to this conclusion. That is I don't like it. Besides being flashy with its blue background and looking cool its not user friendly. I have been in FIRST for about 6 years now and never thought that their unique easy looking web site would change into a corporate like site. I guess times have changed. Uniqueness and individuality is out and look alikes are in. Don't get me wrong FIRST has been apart of my life for a while now, but to see this shocks me. Oh well what's done is done and we have to adapt to these changes.

[Billfred]

2. "I'm looking for the Form W9 and where to send it, but I can't seem to find it (and site search returns 0 results). "
3. "I wish the contrast on some of the text was higher and that the site wasn't so completely reliant on Javascript. I don't see a site map at the bottom and I am worried how my Wii will handle browsing it."
4. "the Javascript navbars prevent me from ctrl-clicking links to open them in a new tab. It just uses Javascript to change the current page. I really dislike when sites do that. It makes them a lot harder for me to pull down massive amounts of information from at once, and really is completely not necessary."
5) Nit-picky, but the contact pages' title (like top-of-the-browser-window title) is "Contact First", not "Contact FIRST"

[kjhobin]

6) cant find PDF of venue locations to aid hotel search

[gondorf]

grr website is now annoying... cant find anything, keep getting shunted to pages i dont want, and cant find the 2005 docs. i was using those!

edit: by 2005 i mean the tetras. yes its old but i was building a vex robot to do that event.

[AcesPease]

Am I the only one that can't see any video? The audio plays fine, but no video.


From separate sites and different operating systems I have been completely unable to access the site since 1:00 PM (are cable modems now too slow???)

[Dan Petrovic]

I like the old one better.

I liked the team pages that every team has. It made it very easy to find out what competitions what teams were going to.

[Corey Balint]

They have any picture pages like, at least I think, they used to?

[Alexa Stott]

From separate sites and different operating systems I have been completely unable to access the site since 1:00 PM (are cable modems now too slow???)

I'm running Ubuntu on this comp so I'm using Firefox. I figured that might have been part of the problem.

Perhaps FIRST should thing about making their website compatible with more than it is now.

[Cory]

What does everyone else think?

I dislike it very much at this point. My personal preference would have been that they spend the time fixing/updating the old site instead of putting up a cumbersome, hard to navigate new site.

Plus, where is the History page? Information from past events was invaluable, and so far as I can see, it doesn't exist.

[sanddrag]

I have a question. I don't want to get blasted for this, but: What exactly does this new site offer over the old one?

[Corey Balint]

I have a question. I don't want to get blasted for this, but: What exactly does this new site offer over the old one?
It seems like theres less than before. The only thing that there seems to be more of is Promo stuff.

And as Cory stated, I loved all the history they had, even though they had very little as is. I would have loved to seen more, but I'm sure much of the records of previous events are just gone now.

[SamC]

I think with this new layout and site content, FIRST will get more recognition. With the old layout, a team could post a link to the site, but the non-FIRSTer would have to search really hard to even figure out what this whole thing is about, other than robots.

[JaneYoung]

Plus, where is the History page? Information from past events was invaluable, and so far as I can see, it doesn't exist.
Is this what you are looking for?
http://www.usfirst.org/who/content.aspx?id=880#frc_history
It's under 'who we are'

[Cory]

Is this what you are looking for?
http://www.usfirst.org/who/content.aspx?id=880#frc_history
It's under 'who we are'

Nope. But now that I see that page, it's pretty useless. Who cares what the program cover for each game looked like? unless you provide a brief explanation of what it was, it's useless.

Im talking about the page that linked you to the results of every event from 2002-2005.

As far as I can tell, there's less usable content, and it's harder to find.

[Jeremytice]

Looks pretty sweet.....takes a while to load though.

[Corey Balint]

Nope. But now that I see that page, it's pretty useless. Who cares what the program cover for each game looked like? unless you provide a brief explanation of what it was, it's useless.

Im talking about the page that linked you to the results of every event from 2002-2005.

As far as I can tell, there's less usable content, and it's harder to find.
I completely agree

[Greg Marra]

Nope. But now that I see that page, it's pretty useless. Who cares what the program cover for each game looked like? unless you provide a brief explanation of what it was, it's useless.

Im talking about the page that linked you to the results of every event from 2002-2005.

As far as I can tell, there's less usable content, and it's harder to find.

While it's probably better for promoting FIRST, since it looks nicer and is more outsider-friendly, the stuff for FIRST teams seems to be less organized.

[JaneYoung]

I think I'm hearing you guys say you would like an organized archive that can be used for research and reference.
If that is what you want, add that to Jenny's list of suggestions.

[FreakyAntelope]

The new site is beautiful, dynamic, and does a much better job of explaining what FIRST is to an "outsider".

However, I must say the old site was FAR more functional for anyone currently involved in the program. I am, at the moment, trying to put together a presentation for new rookie teams, and I was trying to use last years rule book to do so. However, none of the links to anything work (as the old directories are completely gone), and I cannot find links to any kind of archives anywhere. I've managed to find *some* useful stuff (like past kickoff presentations), but even those were buried in counterintuitive places.

I can understand why they felt the need to replace the site - this does a much better job of explaining and spreading the first message. However, there was a lot of useful content in place for older teams on the old site, and now it doesn't seem to me that it was necessary to vanish it all with the appearance of this new site.

I'll get used to it, I suppose..

- Toby

EDIT:

7) An intuitively organized archive of previous games that can be used for research and reference.

[Karthik]

8) The results of past regionals and championship events. The format used on this page: http://web.archive.org/web/20060219214753/http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/abr_art1.htm was fantastic.

[RoboJedi75]

I definitely think this new website layout is more professional looking and will give a better first impression to visitors about FIRST.

The website navigation has more functionality to it and I feel will make it generally easier for teams to use. And, they either added a lot of resources, or they're a lot easier to find (which isn't a bad thing).

The one thing they need is more the competitions. That's the only thing you really need to go searching for on this site, I feel.

[KelliV]

I like it and dislike it at the same time.
I like how there is footage from a variety of games, FIRST is more than this years game and it is nice to see that.
I like the colors, it is very professional
I dislike the grey on the side, it is hard to read
I dislike how slow it is (this will probably be fixed but 20 minutes... seriously)

I will make an official decision after the season... right now I am lost in a sea of FIRST info... maybe my school will start a team now.

[Cory]

Im not seeing the whole slowness thing. It seems like it's loading just as fast for me as it ever has (pretty darn quick).

[JaneYoung]

It was very slow for me today. Tonight it's flying. Actually I've been having a lot of fun zipping around the website.

[LightWaves1636]

I really like the new look, it feels more professional and organized; it's just going to take some getting used to navigating the website.

[BBnum3]

I agree with everyone who is saying that it seems more for the FIRST newcomer than for the current FIRSTer. About the team info pages and such, I would be surprised if they were never brought back. I bet the people working on the website haven't been able to get all the old info into the new system. Think about when the Team Awards/Events came around in the first place, not too long ago. I wouldn't worry about it not coming back. Plus, if you need to see the old regional results, there's always the archive.

[AcesPease]

As far as I can tell there is NO WEBSITE at all.

[Donut]

How is the "what's going on in my area -> All areas -> FRC events" page organized? It's not chronological, it's not by capacity, pending, or open slots, it's not alphabetical. Am I missing something?

They're organized alphabetically by the state they're in.

I'm not having much of the slowness issues that have been expressed, however I have had some of the links fail to actually load a page (it would just stay on the current one).

I'm sure FIRST will get up their history and team information soon enough, I don't see them just tossing it all out the window.

[artdutra04]

After a lot of guess-and-checking URLs to see if there is any actual content there, I finally found the Sitemap for their website.

http://www.usfirst.org/sitemap.aspx

And if that was not enough, I was playing around with the URL variable parameters in the my.usfirst.org section of their website, when I just tried eliminating them all together to see what I get. If you go to the following link, it's like a sitemap of all FIRST events.

https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso

Here's the complete team list for this season:

https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso?page=teamlist


I do enjoy the new look of the website; the layout and color choices are good ones. But, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. :)


Here's my healthy dose of constructive criticism:

1. If you disable Javascript, none of the page navigation links work - or even appear. This is bad, especially if users attempt to disable JS during Kickoff to make the site load faster.

2. There needs to be much better page titles. The one for the homepage is simply "Home" or "USFIRST.org". A much better one would include "FIRST" or something to that nature in every page title, as well as relevant page title, such as "USFIRST.org - Home" or "USFIRST.org - Documents and Updates", etc. This will help search engines as well as tabbed browsing. (Having a half dozen tabs all open with the same "USFIRST.org" title is quite confusing.)

3. All of the old content needs to find it's way back onto the new FIRST website, such as match results and other similar material from previous seasons.

4. Although it would probably mean a ton of work, there should be server-side redirects to redirect everyone from the old pages to the new content. (Such as if I visit http://www.usfirst.org/about/ it should redirect me to where ever the new page resides. There are so many links to FIRST pages over the years that the dead links will just be a nightmare for thousands of visitors.)

5. A better Error 404 page. Simply telling us "page cannot be found" is not enough. How about a page with the standard FIRST header and footer, with a blurb in the content section about how there was an Error 404 and the page you were looking for could not be found. Then have links there to the home, sitemap, and search pages.

6. All page navigation needs tabbed browsing support. Every browser nowadays except Internet Explorer 6 supports tabbed browsing. Not being able to open content from the navigation in new tabs is quite annoying. (This is the same as Greg's Ctrl-Click criticism.) In fact, I almost believe that all the page navigation elements are not actual <a href="..."> types of links. If I right click on one, I don't get the usual Open, Open in new Tab, Open in New Window, options. This is telling me that they are using Javascript to do the links in the page nav menus instead of semantic HTML code, which seems just plain weird.

7. All the individual team content pages from the old usfirst.org/frc/map/ needs to make it's way into the current team system on their website. Although I enjoy clicking on a team and being taken directly to their website, I think a much better option would still have three columns, but with a slight bit of additional content for each team in the center column.

ABC Engineering & XYZ Corporation & Someville High School <-- [Link this to the team information page]
Team Website http://www.buysellcyprus.com/v3/images/new_window_icon.gif <-- [Link this line directly to the team's website]

8. It would be nice if the https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso pages all had links back to the main FIRST website somewhere near the top. A simple small FIRST logo in the top left corner would suffice.

9. We need photo and video galleries; and not just Flash ones. It would be nice to have ones like this (http://www.usfirst.org/community/resourcecenter.aspx?id=648) where one can browse and click on/download JPEG pictures. Although the Flash galleries are nice, I'd much rather have at least the option of viewing the gallery in Flash or in an HTML page with JPEG pictures. Taking screenshots of Flash to extract the pictures out of them is not fun. :-/

I guess that turned out a little longer that I thought it would, but hopefully these little things can be resolved before the onslaught of Kickoff traffic to the FIRST website. ;)

[Elgin Clock]

For everyone looking for info on the old pages, click here:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.usfirst.org

Site searches are a great thing.

To see the older stuff though that may be remove from the server as of now, click on Cached under the actual link.

Example for seeking 2003 documentation:

http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:Ladg8GR2ZaoJ:www.usfirst.org/robotics/2003/docs.htm+site:http://www.usfirst.org+Documents+and+Updates&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=5

A lot of stuff is still there, just not easily accessed anymore.

[JohnBoucher]

The links to the team information pages are missing.

I submitted this question via website feedback and got a nice, quick reply that it is a pending fix.

[AcesPease]

As far as I can tell there is NO WEBSITE at all.

Finally working. Not sure why it would not load yesterday. Seems like a pretty logical layout.

[RoboMom]

Sent up to website team. Keeping comments short and instructive will be very helpful.
12/06/06-From posts on http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50271&page=5&pp=15

1. "If you go to What's Going On In My Area? (the new team map) and look at FRC teams from X area, clicking on their team name now brings you to their personal website ... it doesn't give you the competitions they've attended, awards they've won, etc. I really liked being able to see that! I hope it comes back soon."
2. "I'm looking for the Form W9 and where to send it, but I can't seem to find it (and site search returns 0 results). "
3. "I wish the contrast on some of the text was higher and that the site wasn't so completely reliant on Javascript. I don't see a site map at the bottom and I am worried how my Wii will handle browsing it."
4. "the Javascript navbars prevent me from ctrl-clicking links to open them in a new tab. It just uses Javascript to change the current page. I really dislike when sites do that. It makes them a lot harder for me to pull down massive amounts of information from at once, and really is completely not necessary."
5) Nit-picky, but the contact pages' title (like top-of-the-browser-window title) is "Contact First", not "Contact FIRST"
6) cant find PDF of venue locations to aid hotel search
7)where is the History page? Information from past events was invaluable, and so far as I can see, it doesn't exist. I’m talking about the page that linked you to the results of every event from 2002-2005.
8) The results of past regionals and championship events. The format used on this page: http://web.archive.org/web/20060219...cs/abr_art1.htm was fantastic.
9. An intuitively organized archive of previous games that can be used for research and reference ( is needed).
10. If you disable Javascript, none of the page navigation links work - or even appear. This is bad, especially if users attempt to disable JS during Kickoff to make the site load faster.
11. There needs to be much better page titles. The one for the homepage is simply "Home" or "USFIRST.org". A much better one would include "FIRST" or something to that nature in every page title, as well as relevant page title, such as "USFIRST.org - Home" or "USFIRST.org - Documents and Updates", etc. This will help search engines as well as tabbed browsing. (Having a half dozen tabs all open with the same "USFIRST.org" title is quite confusing.)
12. All of the old content needs to find it's way back onto the new FIRST website, such as match results and other similar material from previous seasons.
13. Although it would probably mean a ton of work, there should be server-side redirects to redirect everyone from the old pages to the new content. (Such as if I visit http://www.usfirst.org/about/ it should redirect me to where ever the new page resides. There are so many links to FIRST pages over the years that the dead links will just be a nightmare for thousands of visitors.)
14. A better Error 404 page. Simply telling us "page cannot be found" is not enough. How about a page with the standard FIRST header and footer, with a blurb in the content section about how there was an Error 404 and the page you were looking for could not be found. Then have links there to the home, sitemap, and search pages.

15. All page navigation needs tabbed browsing support. Every browser nowadays except Internet Explorer 6 supports tabbed browsing. Not being able to open content from the navigation in new tabs is quite annoying. (This is the same as Greg's Ctrl-Click criticism.) In fact, I almost believe that all the page navigation elements are not actual <a href="..."> types of links. If I right click on one, I don't get the usual Open, Open in new Tab, Open in New Window, options. This is telling me that they are using Javascript to do the links in the page nav menus instead of semantic HTML code, which seems just plain weird.
16. All the individual team content pages from the old usfirst.org/frc/map/ needs to make it's way into the current team system on their website. Although I enjoy clicking on a team and being taken directly to their website, I think a much better option would still have three columns, but with a slight bit of additional content for each team in the center column.
ABC Engineering & XYZ Corporation & Someville High School <-- [Link this to the team information page]
Team Website <-- [Link this line directly to the team's website]

17. It would be nice if the https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso pages all had links back to the main FIRST website somewhere near the top. A simple small FIRST logo in the top left corner would suffice.

18. We need photo and video galleries; and not just Flash ones. It would be nice to have ones like this where one can browse and click on/download JPEG pictures. Although the Flash galleries are nice, I'd much rather have at least the option of viewing the gallery in Flash or in an HTML page with JPEG pictures. Taking screenshots of Flash to extract the pictures out of them is not fun.

[AcesPease]

Finally working. Not sure why it would not load yesterday. Seems like a pretty logical layout.


Still not working at home. Are there huge blocks of computer users they are writing off with this new site? My equipment is very up to date.

[Justin]

FIRST Community. Tollerance of change. See the following thread.


Ah, the FIRST Community, aka The Land of Little Patience :)

The official launch time isn't until 1pm. I would tack on a couple hours afterwards for getting everything settled.

[Williane]

6) cant find PDF of venue locations to aid hotel search

"For the 2007 season, FIRST will not be offering hotel reservation services for the FIRST Robotics Regional event season. We are working hard on having the service reinstated next year." http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=3024

or click on the regional website at: http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/regionalevents.aspx?id=430. Many of the local sites give you a list of hotels and tips for places to go.

[kjhobin]

"For the 2007 season, FIRST will not be offering hotel reservation services for the FIRST Robotics Regional event season. We are working hard on having the service reinstated next year." http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=3024

or click on the regional website at: http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/regionalevents.aspx?id=430. Many of the local sites give you a list of hotels and tips for places to go.

yes these are both good resources, but FIRST also made a PDF file with all of the venue's address, which i am unable to find.

[RoboMom]

Hi Jenny,
Answers are threaded below.
At 02:12 PM 12/6/2006, you wrote:

> 12/06/06-From posts on http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50271&page=5&pp=15
>
>
> 1. "If you go to What's Going On In My Area? (the new team map) and look at FRC teams from X area, clicking on their team name now brings you to their personal website ... it doesn't give you the competitions they've attended, awards they've won, etc. I really liked being able to see that! I hope it comes back soon."

>>This is up for consideration. No decisions have been made at this time, however.


> 2. "I'm looking for the Form W9 and where to send it, but I can't seem to find it (and site search returns 0 results). "

>>If the search is done on "W-9", the user will find the 2 pages when the form can be accessed.

> 3. "I wish the contrast on some of the text was higher and that the site wasn't so completely reliant on Javascript. I don't see a site map at the bottom and I am worried how my Wii will handle browsing it."
> 4. "the Javascript navbars prevent me from ctrl-clicking links to open them in a new tab. It just uses Javascript to change the current page. I really dislike when sites do that. It makes them a lot harder for me to pull down massive amounts of information from at once, and really is completely not necessary."

>>I will forward items 3 and 4 and 5 to IT for consideration.


> 5) Nit-picky, but the contact pages' title (like top-of-the-browser-window title) is "Contact First", not "Contact FIRST"
>
> 6) cant find PDF of venue locations to aid hotel search

Will not be a pdf. Info should be available soon through http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/regionalevents.aspx?id=430
)Although not all site info has been provided to FIRST from our regional directors. )

> 7)where is the History page? Information from past events was invaluable, and so far as I can see, it doesn't exist. I'm talking about the page that linked you to the results of every event from 2002-2005.

>Some game history will be available soon (game docs from previous manuals).


> 8) The results of past regionals and championship events. The format used on this page: http://web.archive.org/web/20060219...cs/abr_art1.htm was fantastic.

>>Item 7 & 8 similiar. Will add to list for consideration, although this does not imply implementation.


> 9. An intuitively organized archive of previous games that can be used for research and reference ( is needed).

>See item 7 above.


> 10. If you disable Javascript, none of the page navigation links work - or even appear. This is bad, especially if users attempt to disable JS during Kickoff to make the site load faster.
> 11. There needs to be much better page titles. The one for the homepage is simply "Home" or "USFIRST.org". A much better one would include "FIRST" or something to that nature in every page title, as well as relevant page title, such as "USFIRST.org - Home" or "USFIRST.org - Documents and Updates", etc. This will help search engines as well as tabbed browsing. (Having a half dozen tabs all open with the same "USFIRST.org" title is quite confusing.)


>Javascript feedback has been provided to IT.

> 12. All of the old content needs to find it's way back onto the new FIRST website, such as match results and other similar material from previous seasons.
> 13. Although it would probably mean a ton of work, there should be server-side redirects to redirect everyone from the old pages to the new content. (Such as if I visit http://www.usfirst.org/about/ it should redirect me to where ever the new page resides. There are so many links to FIRST pages over the years that the dead links will just be a nightmare for thousands of visitors.)


>We have created redirects for all high traffic pages that existed on the old site.

> 14. A better Error 404 page. Simply telling us "page cannot be found" is not enough. How about a page with the standard FIRST header and footer, with a blurb in the content section about how there was an Error 404 and the page you were looking for could not be found. Then have links there to the home, sitemap, and search pages.


>>Yes, is on the list for additions

> 15. All page navigation needs tabbed browsing support. Every browser nowadays except Internet Explorer 6 supports tabbed browsing. Not being able to open content from the navigation in new tabs is quite annoying. (This is the same as Greg's Ctrl-Click criticism.) In fact, I almost believe that all the page navigation elements are not actual <a href="..."> types of links. If I right click on one, I don't get the usual Open, Open in new Tab, Open in New Window, options. This is telling me that they are using Javascript to do the links in the page nav menus instead of semantic HTML code, which seems just plain weird.
> 16. All the individual team content pages from the old usfirst.org/frc/map/ needs to make it's way into the current team system on their website. Although I enjoy clicking on a team and being taken directly to their website, I think a much better option would still have three columns, but with a slight bit of additional content for each team in the center column.
> ABC Engineering & XYZ Corporation & Someville High School <-- [Link this to the team information page]
> Team Website []<-- [Link this line directly to the team's website]
>
> >>Also on list for consideration.
>
> 17. It would be nice if the https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso pages all had links back to the main FIRST website somewhere near the top. A simple small FIRST logo in the top left corner would suffice.
>
> 18. We need photo and video galleries; and not just Flash ones. It would be nice to have ones like this where one can browse and click on/download JPEG pictures. Although the Flash galleries are nice, I'd much rather have at least the option of viewing the gallery in Flash or in an HTML page with JPEG pictures. Taking screenshots of Flash to extract the pictures out of them is not fun.

[Josh Murphy]

The FIRST website is always slow, whether I am at home or school. I can go to any other website within a matter of seconds, but the FIRST website always seems to run a little slow.

[FreakyAntelope]

To see the older stuff though that may be remove from the server as of now, click on Cached under the actual link.

A lot of stuff is still there, just not easily accessed anymore.

Actually, this is no longer true. Google has updated their cache since FIRST updated their website, and many of the pages are no longer there at all. For example, the link you posted returns a "page not found" error.

I'm having a devil of a time finding documentation from as recently as last year.

[Ian Curtis]

Does anyone know of a way to view the pending listing? I want to know if there are some rookies pending for BAE. Since we have none. :( And we have six slots. You know you want to come. :D

[ChuckDickerson]

I really hate to sound so negative and be critical of FIRST but after trying the website out for a couple of weeks now I really have to say I don't like it. It seems like we have taken many more than two steps back rather than a step forward. As far as I can tell, there is much less content and I simply can't find anything. There seems to be no way to look up information about teams, the results of previous years competitions, or any information about the rules, etc. from previous years. It would seem to me that a good starting point for rookie scouting would be to look at how the teams that they will be competing against did in previous years. What awards they won, how they placed, etc. As far as I can tell all of that valuable historical data is now gone. I can't even find a page that lists my own team or what our motto is or even our robot name. The links just immediately redirect you to the individual team websites (if they have one). I have given myself time to get used to the new website but I just don't find it even 1% as useful as the old one. I really think the saying "just because its new, doesn't mean its better" really applies here. What really bothers me is the total lack of response from FIRST when specific problems and requests were brought to their attention. As far as I can tell they either glossed over the issue or at best said they would "consider it". With only a few weeks to go until kickoff I really hope the website drastically improves in content. I could care less about the colors and the fonts and the pretty pictures and menus.

Sorry for the rant. I'll get off my soap box now.

[Mark McLeod]

The team info is there. It is an unadvertised link though.
https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso?page=teaminfo&team=456

Go to any variation of the team lists, e.g.,
https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso?page=teamlist
and click on the team # rather than the team name.

P.S. I haven't searched the new FIRST site for team rules, etc. from past years, but if you have an immediate need and it helps we archive that stuff on our website under history.

...FIRST also made a PDF file with all of the venue's address, which i am unable to find.

[ChuckDickerson]

The team info is there. It is an unadvertised link though.
https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso?page=teaminfo&team=456

Go to any variation of the team lists, e.g.,
https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso?page=teamlist
and click on the team # rather than the team name.

Thank you! That is at least a start on getting back to where we used to be!

[BiTurboS4]

I really hate to sound so negative and be critical of FIRST but after trying the website out for a couple of weeks now I really have to say I don't like it. It seems like we have taken many more than two steps back rather than a step forward. As far as I can tell, there is much less content and I simply can't find anything. There seems to be no way to look up information about teams, the results of previous years competitions, or any information about the rules, etc. from previous years. It would seem to me that a good starting point for rookie scouting would be to look at how the teams that they will be competing against did in previous years. What awards they won, how they placed, etc. As far as I can tell all of that valuable historical data is now gone. I can't even find a page that lists my own team or what our motto is or even our robot name. The links just immediately redirect you to the individual team websites (if they have one). I have given myself time to get used to the new website but I just don't find it even 1% as useful as the old one. I really think the saying "just because its new, doesn't mean its better" really applies here. What really bothers me is the total lack of response from FIRST when specific problems and requests were brought to their attention. As far as I can tell they either glossed over the issue or at best said they would "consider it". With only a few weeks to go until kickoff I really hope the website drastically improves in content. I could care less about the colors and the fonts and the pretty pictures and menus.

Sorry for the rant. I'll get off my soap box now.

I think you might have missed the boat on this one. Think about how the site has been redesigned for and who its now geared towards. With the fundamental interest in growing the organization by attracting new sponsors and teams, the site looks like it was designed for them, not existing teams. However, i'm sure content will slowly improve over time.

[ChuckDickerson]

I think you might have missed the boat on this one.

Probably! I tend to miss a lot of boats. This tends to be a problem because I am usually the boat operator! ;) Anyway, it still just seems to me that FIRST is alienating their existing customers trying to attract new customers. I don’t see why at the very least they couldn’t leave their old site up for the added content and put a link to it on the new site somewhere until they get the new site completed. My worry is that this IS the completed new site and they are not actively updating it with new “old” content which is of great value to both new and veteran teams. I have been waiting but haven’t seen any significant changes since the new site went live. FIRST’s “we will consider it” response just isn’t leaving me with a warm and fuzzy feeling. Hopefully I’m worried for no reason.

[BiTurboS4]

FIRST’s “we will consider it” response just isn’t leaving me with a warm and fuzzy feeling.

FIRST I hope will get away from that mentality of giving everyone the warm and fuzzies. I do in fact loathe that phrase as its used way too often in regards to FRC.

Also, leaving a link for the old site would kind of defeat the purpose of revamping the site towards the new wouldn't it? I'm sure they will in time bring back SOME of the old content, but thinking you'll see all that was before is a pipe dream at best it looks like.

[Billfred]

Also, leaving a link for the old site would kind of defeat the purpose of revamping the site towards the new wouldn't it? I'm sure they will in time bring back SOME of the old content, but thinking you'll see all that was before is a pipe dream at best it looks like.
I don't think so. It's like when WUSC-FM went from the Cartworks system to AudioVault. For about a semester or so, we had both systems functioning and on the board in the control room, so that we could continue to work under the system we knew while transitioning to the new one. Eventually Cartworks was removed from the board, after everyone had a chance to get used to the new system and get their data onto it. (Cartworks was also handy for those rare occasions early on when AudioVault was down or being fiddled with.)

[RoboMom]

There is a web feedback page. I think that if FIRST starts hearing from people about what they really miss, it might help get this information back on the site. Keep your request short and polite. Include an example of what you would like to see. Let's help FIRST to realize this is a priority.

[Viper37]

I like it, to me it is intuitive, and things are relatively easy to find.

Kudos to FIRST!

[AcesPease]

There is a web feedback page. I think that if FIRST starts hearing from people about what they really miss, it might help get this information back on the site. Keep your request short and polite. Include an example of what you would like to see. Let's help FIRST to realize this is a priority.

I can not give feed back because I can not access the site. Is anyone else having trouble getting the website to work? I have two different computers at home so I do not think it is the computers.

[chris31]

I can not give feed back because I can not access the site. Is anyone else having trouble getting the website to work? I have two different computers at home so I do not think it is the computers.

As of right now I can get to usfirst.org

[Kyle]

I also cant access the FIRST web site since late last night I just get a message that there is an error loading the page, maybe they are updating info , or even taking the ideas from this thread to change things.

[Cory]

Works just fine for me.

[chris31]

If you cant get the home page to load maybe they had to update the DNS and its still getting circulated.

[SamC]

I was just thinking... A lot of people are complaining about how they don't like the new layout of the FIRST website, so here is my question, based on last year's scoring criteria for the web award. How would you grade USFIRST.org (http://www.usfirst.org)?

The grading criteria is here (http://www2.usfirst.org/2006comp/Manual/9-Awards_RevD.pdf) page 30-32.

[Joel J]

I don't like the new website. I thought I would get used to it: no dice.

I say it gets a 70-75, based on that scale.

[boy_scout72688]

using the criteria from last years manual, I could see the site getting an 85/100.
I looked at that information and that is what I felt. Anyone want to agree?

[Cory]

I'd give it a 50.

[Pavan Dave]

At first I thought it was great but it is very laggy and has been very slow recently atleast for me and I have a Cable Modem.

Pavan.

[Joe Matt]

Probably! I tend to miss a lot of boats. This tends to be a problem because I am usually the boat operator! ;) Anyway, it still just seems to me that FIRST is alienating their existing customers trying to attract new customers. I don’t see why at the very least they couldn’t leave their old site up for the added content and put a link to it on the new site somewhere until they get the new site completed. My worry is that this IS the completed new site and they are not actively updating it with new “old” content which is of great value to both new and veteran teams. I have been waiting but haven’t seen any significant changes since the new site went live. FIRST’s “we will consider it” response just isn’t leaving me with a warm and fuzzy feeling. Hopefully I’m worried for no reason.

I agree. This site is for those with check books, free time to mentor or help with regionals, or the press.

I want a unified site for FRC, FVC, and FLL that cuts through all the PR BS and stuff (seriously, a video for us on Gracious Professionalism?) that's not aimed at us and a more direct, stripped down site for accessing information, stats, and other things.

[hallk]

The new site is meant for new people.
That being said I'm not a big fan of the new layout. It seems like there are too many menus to go through to get to what you want. I do like how it is easy to access the mass email archives. I also have a hard time finding some more technical things while it is easier to find documents that might be nice to if you are interested in forming a team.

[Yohan]

~
Just some quick links to past regional events, since people seem to regret the sudden demise of many of the history pages. Hopefully, this will help teams scouting other teams through their past records. Although you shouldn't click any of the links in the history pages, as most are broken.


The rankings of the Qualifying Matches for Silicon Valley Regional in the FRC in 2006.
http://www2.usfirst.org/2006comp/Events/SJ/rankings.html

If you want to view the ranking from previous years or other regionals then change the bolded:
http://www2.usfirst.org/2006comp/Events/SJ/rankings.html (http://www2.usfirst.org/2006comp/Events/SJ/rankings.html)
TO
http://www2.usfirst.org/2005comp/Events/SC/rankings.html (http://www2.usfirst.org/2005comp/Events/SC/rankings.html)

You just need to know the code for the different regionals. Some include for the 2006 Regionals:
AZ: Arizona Regional
SAC: Davis Sacramento Regional
CA: Southern California Regional
SC: Palmetto Regional
SJ: Silicon Valley Regional
CO: Colorado Regional
CT: UTC New England Regional
FL: Florida Regional
GA: Peachtree Regional
IL: Midwest Regional
...and so on.

To help find the area code for the regionals I used the very useful regional index,
https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso?page=eventsearch&menu=true&rcl=true&area=&event_type=ALL
and moused over the name of my regional revealing the area code.

For example when I clicked the Arizona Regional, it redirected me to,
https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso?event_type=FRC#AZ (https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso?event_type=FRC#AZ)
which reveals the area code. However some regionals did not carry over their previous year's code and will not work...


Another useful page is the Awards Page.
Below are the teams and/or people who won awards during the Silicon Valley Regional in the FRC in 2006.
http://www2.usfirst.org/2006comp/Events/SJ/awards.html

Just follow the steps stated above to find the different regionals and years by changing the bolded.
http://www2.usfirst.org/2006comp/Events/SJ/awards.html (http://www2.usfirst.org/2006comp/Events/SJ/awards.html)


And similarly, the Elimination Matches Page.
http://www2.usfirst.org/2006comp/Events/SJ/matches.html (http://www2.usfirst.org/2006comp/Events/SJ/matches.html)
Once again, use the steps above to find different regionals and years...


If any of this was stated previously, I apologize for not searching through this thread more thoroughly, if not, enjoy! :)
~

[artdutra04]

You can find almost all of the content (including game manuals, rankings, match results, etc.) from the old FIRST website here in the Internet Archive:

http://web.archive.org/web/*sr_1nr_1000/http://www2.usfirst.org/*

[JBotAlan]

I want a unified site for FRC, FVC, and FLL that cuts through all the PR BS and stuff (seriously, a video for us on Gracious Professionalism?) that's not aimed at us and a more direct, stripped down site for accessing information, stats, and other things.

I believe that the manual PDFs are copyrighted, so we can't host them on our own servers, but I am seriously considering re-indexing what they have. (also might ask permission to mirror the PDFs, not sure if they will grant it)

I mean, if we don't like what they are doing with the site (which I don't--the old design was hard to navigate, the new design is horrible) we can do something about it.

I do wish the menus weren't javascript. Blech.

JBot

[Nate Laverdure]

USFIRST.org (http://www.usfirst.org/) is down as of 3:47pm eastern time, 3/7/07.

Error:
Server Error in '/' Application.
Could not load file or assembly 'App_Web_erklobc_, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

[team_1373]

still down

5 pm eastern time

[Nate Laverdure]

Site is up as of 6:18pm eastern time.