FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

So...., lets see how today goes.

The Practice round was meh minus +.

I'm bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for 3:00.

Let's hope that the product is improved.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

We are loading up the site, as a test at 11am Eastern today. This starts in 8 minutes.

If you have a minute or two, go here and click around.

Thanks,
Andy

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

At the moment, noticeably slower than it was earlier this morning, but still perfectly usable.

So far so good.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Aye.

Latency seems to be between 3-10 seconds for loading items/home page.

Noticeable, but manageable.

- Sunny G.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Ok, I was at least able to log into site today...but still took about 8 seconds as opposed to 1-2 seconds usual log-in speed for my set up. Couldn't add to check out cart (no psudo points?). I wonder how fast log in will be when 1-2,000 try to log in for real later instead of the few doing so currently?

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

I was logged in prior to 11pm, and then all of a sudden at 11, it logged me out and told me my credentials were incorrect for about 2 minutes. Got logged in again, and seems to be working ok.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Agreed. Slowish but useable. Thanks!!!

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Hm, it's 11:08 on my PC, and it appears that the site has hit the floor again. Can't navigate to the home page.

- Sunny G.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

...aaaaand now it's broken....

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Me too. I was getting delays of 2-3 seconds up until a couple of minutes ago, but now things aren't loading for me.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Yep, not responding for me. No login, no pages.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Took about 24-25 seconds for initial page load. Once in the site I was able to click through pretty easily - not blazing fast, but not slow enough to do anything else during the wait period.

[Edit] It has also stopped working for me. [/Edit]

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

And, for me at least, it is completely frozen again. I've been staring at an 3/8" OLDHAM COUPLING HUB (FC14-085) for four minutes watching the little status bar spin in circles...

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Not that you need any more confirmation, but it seemed fine just before 11AM Eastern, and now is just like yesterday. Not loading.

EDIT: Kind of hit or miss. Seems to be loading after a couple minutes delay.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Bummer......I feel really bad for Andy and his staff. I am certain that they have spent the whole weekend working on this.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

I wouldn't mind waiting another week if that's what it takes to let people figure out what the issues are.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

But by next week you are getting into travel times for the holidays. I don't want to think of how much complaining that could start...

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Is anyone else having problems loading pages already? my average page load is 2-3 mins.

- Adam

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Update: The page is loading now, but the latency is ridiculous, on the order of minutes.

- Sunny G.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

It just now got a lot better. Just opened 10 product tabs and they loaded as fast as I could open them.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Seems normal again.

Mr. Rip

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

I am now able to get on the website, again. Still taking over 20secs to load homepage. Loading individual product pages is taking anywhere from 2-4secs.

I wouldn't mind postponing another week, but we are no tthe ones making that call.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

My load times are more like they were before yesterday now. But who knows how many people are in there at the moment. People should go in and click away to get the load back up.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

It appears to be working now. I was getting the 5+ minute waits to load a page as well, and around 8:25 (Pacific) the load times went down to around 5 seconds.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Update: I went from the page not loading at all to it appearing to function normally with minimal latency in the span of about 3 minutes.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Either it's fixed now, or the majority of users have dropped out, so it's able to function again.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

The site was reasonably responsive at 11:00 am (a few seconds lag), then became sluggish (almost a dead stop) by 11:15 am. Now the site responds quickly. I wonder how many tried this exercise and how it compared to the load on the site from yesterday.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Thank you all for helping with this test.

Sincerely,
Andy

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Here's hoping that the reopening will be successful this afternoon. My was slow at first but seem reasonable during the test period.

Thanks to all the AndyMark staff for providing this to teams.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

As of 2:19 Eastern, FIRST Choice appears to be down again.

EDIT: Finally got the page to load. Hopefully the load times will be at least a little bit longer than the shopping cart timer this time.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

I just did a refresh, and it seems to be fine. There's noticeable latency, which doesn't bode well for 3 PM, but it's up.

- Sunny G.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

So who is ready for round 2? Us vs Bandwith

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Did the SSL certificate just change for anyone else? Chrome just popped up and gave me the "invalid certificate" warning page, and it appears it's now authenticating with a self-signed certificate.

Is this something on my end or are other people seeing it as well?

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

"Ths webpage is not available" after submitting my password...:mad:

Edit: Now nothing is working. sigh.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

I too got an SSL error, and now, no website. They could be taking it down 30 minutes before to prepare.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

I have the same issue. I was just browsing a few moments ago finalizing my list and I got this:

"You have asked Firefox to connect securely to www.firstchoicebyandymark.com, but we can't confirm that your connection is secure.

Normally, when you try to connect securely, sites will present trusted identification to prove that you are going to the right place. However, this site's identity can't be verified."

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Folks,

After this morning's test, we are verifying some upgrades. This included an SSL switch. These tweaks are being finalized now. The site will be up intermittently as these changes are still taking place.

Sincerely,
Andy

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

THANK YOU, clearly we can have patience when we know it's being tweaked. Andy, you are the best!

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

With all due respect to everything you and AndyMark do for FIRST, switching to a self-signed SSL certificate and then asking thousands of people to enter their credit card numbers is not acceptable.

Thanks for keeping us up to date.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

OK, things seem to be working well at t -15:00

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

You aren't entering credit card numbers, you're using the FIRST Choice credits, although I guess it is the same idea.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

I'm getting a little lag, but that may be the connection that I have to be on today.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

You need a credit card to pay for the shipping...

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Everything seems a OK for us here in Baton Rouge.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

If you have not yet logged in to First Choice, do so now and enter at least the contact info and shipping address in "My Account", This will save you a lot of grief later...

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

I don't see that it's self-signed. However, the certificate does not match the name of the site.
EDIT: yup, it's self-signed. Chrome didn't catch that. Weird.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Same in Alexandria

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

The site is getting really laggy again...

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Are you expecting that someone will spoof or MITM first choice in the next 3 hours? Otherwise, I'm not sure what the objection is to a self signed certificate. The data is still encrypted.

I'm not seeing a self-signed certificate anyway. Back to the AlphaSSL certificate it was using yesterday.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

I wonder if all the teams that are trying to get 3D printers should log onto a separate website.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

uh oh, here we go again.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

5 minutes to go and looks like the website is back on its knees.

- Sunny G.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

They can do this tomorrow, there is no advantage to being "first" for the lottery

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Aaaaaand, it looks like we're back to yesterday's grand opening performance.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

In chrome, I see the alpha SSL like you. However, firefox/internet explorer gives me a scary error saying the certificate is both self signed, and not for this site.

Can somebody else confirm that it's bad in firefox?

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

sooo laggy

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

It is laggy but functioning from here.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Pages are loading fairly promptly for me.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Works here.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

I'm stuck trying to log in… Nothing seems to load for me

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

OK, count to 30 and...GO!STOP!

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

From @FRCTeams 1 minute agoand then

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

I'm not seeing any pictures

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Just saw the following text come up on the "FIRST Choice" link graphic on the AndyMark site:

"The FIRST Choice site is still under construction and will not be ready
for traffic today. We will post the new opening time with 24 hours notice."

It's definitely a new announcement, as I was just on the same page three minutes ago, and a different message was present in the same place. Looks like a second postponement is the decision of the day...

-----

I just want to express my thanks to all those at AndyMark and FIRST who are working on this issue. I'm a real big fan of having FIRST Choice instead of the old way the kit only included items for which there was enough for all teams, just to have most teams end up with a lot of items that weren't specifically useful to them. The FIRST Choice approach is highly preferred, from my perspective, to the old approach.

We'll be patient while AndyMark and FIRST resolve the issue causing the problems with the web site. We know they'll succeed, as like the teams they inspire, they don't give up!

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Things are getting slow.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Is it just me, or is there nowhere on the individual pages where I can see how many credits I have remaining? I don't see it. (as of right now, 2:59, I was expecting to see a 'you have 0 credits' somewhere on the ordering pages)

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

new tweet
We will post the new #FIRSTChoice opening time & date with at least 24 hours notice. We sincerely apologize for this massive inconvenience.

:(

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

The FIRST Choice site is still under construction and will not be ready
for traffic today. We will post the new opening time with 24 hours notice.


Is this a change to the opening credits on the Andy Mark site?
R

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

And were off!

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Just got this Twitter from FRC Teams:

The #FIRSTChoice site is still under construction and will not be ready for traffic today.
We will post the new #FIRSTChoice opening time & date with at least 24 hours notice. We sincerely apologize for this massive inconvenience.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Tried to log on 10 min ago still spinning wheel of death......

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

All,

The web site is not right yet. We are postponing again. Sorry for this news and our lack of readiness. We would rather make it correct and hold the release than open it up poorly.

We are not sure at this minute when it will open, but there will be a 24 hour notification before that opening happens.

Sincerely,
Andy

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

"We will post the new #FIRSTChoice opening time & date with at least 24 hours notice. We sincerely apologize for this massive inconvenience."

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Or not, said we didn't have credits.
Will login, AGAIN!!!

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Incredible. Another fail
I am speechless

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

So much for not having to do this during the work day. Looks like I'll have to find out when this is so I can plan a day long project for students so we can get what we need this year. Saturday seemed like such a great idea...

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

delayed again..... i rushed home just for this..:rolleyes: I hope they will take the data from right now, and purchase the server and/or isp that can handle it.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

And... we're done...

Move along folks ... nothing to see here.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

It's bad security practice, and calls into question how well the data is safeguarded. I'm okay with using self-signed for my personal projects where I'm just encrypting a stream; I expect better from a commercial site with real use and real consequences for a data breach.

Looks like it doesn't matter anyway. I applaud AndyMark for being willing to make this call instead of the website having issues while live.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

If you like your 3d printer, you can keep your 3d printer. . .

Ok, never-mind. Have a good Sunday everyone. Keep on truckin away Andy. I can't imagine how frustrating this is for you and your team.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

At 3:01 it keeps saying that I don't have enough points (for my first selection)!

arrggggghhhhh

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Ta ta everyone, as we all know the 3rd time's the charm.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Are we going to have a "FIRST Choice Report" following the investigation to determine the root cause?

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

This situation does call to mind a certain other website doesn't it? :rolleyes:

Well, hopefully 3rd time will be the charm.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Crash and burn...

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

In my opinion this is unacceptable, Andymark is just wasting everyone's time. I postponed my Sunday plans on the understanding that the site would be fixed!

They should have allowed more time to fix the problem and not subject everyone to this time waster :| . I understand that it is hard to troubleshoot a large site but they could have at least given themselves more time to fix the problem, rather than give false promises.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Thanks Andymark for making a prompt decision to delay. I know this is as frustrating to you as to us.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

To reiterate: postponed indefinitely. >=24-hours notice before it gets reopened.

They need to switch the initial opening to a lottery based system. Give your top ~10 choices within a 2 week window and let an algorithm sort out who gets what.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

No points provided for FRC Team 3548...

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

if I ever get in I think I'll order some health care

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

While this isn't great, I'm really glad you guys made the right call. Before we all get super frustrated, remember that the other option would be what happened last year, and nobody wants that. I'm in favor of delaying and giving all teams a 24 hour notice so that its fair.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

I like the lottery system idea (groups of 100 teams).

Let the rookies all get first crack at it. One hour per group of 100 teams.
Server should not crash and burn this way.

So, it takes a couple of days to get all 5000 teams...

Thoughts?

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

agreed This is ridiculous. why do we keep repeating the same mistakes in FIRST?

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

No, any lottery needs to be open to all, and some kind of algorithm determines what you get

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Kevin

Save the frustration for build season. :p

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Or just put the website on a server that can handle 3000 people all trying to place orders at once.

How many people do you think are purchasing something right now from any major company's website? Over 3000, for sure. They don't have any issues.

This really shouldn't be very hard, but FIRST's history is littered with cases of not being able to handle the volume of web traffic that can be predicted fairly easily.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

There are plenty of websites in the world than handle a volume of 5000 simultaneous users. They will solve the problem and then things will move on. There is no need for that kind of inefficient system unless the website problem cannot be resolved.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Agreed, delaying isn't fun, but it is the better choice in the end.

I would actually find that really interesting to read. (Though I don't expect one to really be made)

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

Haha good one. Although so far, the Obamacare website has had way more success than FIRST Choice's site.

Re: FIRST Choice Sunday redux
 

I'm all for AM delaying FC until it is good enough. I'm just worried that, even with 24 hours notice, I'll miss the opening. What are the most reliable communication channels for updates?