Re: Why it is sometimes hard to be a student on CD.
 

How do have a good experience on CD as a student:

1. Don't be afraid to be wrong....
2. ...but keep an open mind and welcome new perspectives.
3. Rep is just dots.

Re: Why it is sometimes hard to be a student on CD.
 

I really do like when kids are advocate for themselves. Sperkowsky - nice job.

And don't worry, mentors post stupid stuff too (just look at my history) - I have had to get a crow bar to remove the foot from my mouth sometimes.

Re: Why it is sometimes hard to be a student on CD.
 

These type of posts on CD are tough ones to comment on. TBH I never noticed the dots/rep system. I do know that people on here tend to get "judgy" when one of the royalty is questioned. This happens with pretty good reason overall, but it does make it one of the least welcoming online forums I have ever been part of. Which struck me as very odd because these same people giving kids a hard time about asking a dumb question are the same ones that will hand that same kid $1,000 worth of shop equipment just to help them compete.

The FIRST community is just plain incredible, it doesn't always translate well into how CD treats newcomers. Personally I never really had much of an issue one way or the other, but I have seen people get truly and completely roasted (usually it seems tempers tend to flare more when we have a boring game, this year I haven't seen as much of that).

Just my 2 cents.

Re: Why it is sometimes hard to be a student on CD.
 

Keep up the work on the F4 show. It shows lots of promise, as a mentor it is a bit hard for me to watch as the show get lost in individual off topic chats, but that is the nature of passionate young adults. :D

My experience as a mentor on joining CD.

I was a lurker on CD for well over a year, more like two, before creating an account.

As a rookie FRC mentor I was very hesitant to start posting, I felt that I wasn't in the position to post due to my lack of FRC knowledge. There are, as you know, so many talented and knowledgeable people on here that I didn't want to embarrass myself, or worse, my team.

Searching through CD was more cumbersome due to the image verification, but I pressed through because all the vast knowledge hidden here is well worth it.

I have been doing competitive robotics for several years before we created our FRC team. Mostly FLL, MATE-ROV and Vex.
Even with the experience of competing at the Internationals in ROV with easily the youngest team ever to compete (middle school) for four straight years, I was still very hesitant to join and post.

I was convinced by the students to start showcasing our designs. Crude and mostly functional they were, but I wanted to support their achievements. Since there were only 3 teams on this side of the island (big island) all started at the same time,(Thanks Waialua!), and never posting, it was time to step up.

The reputation system I just ignore for the most part. Partly as I didn't really understand it very well and I didn't feel qualified to give rep.

Yes it would be nice to have lots of green dots, but is that the reason to be posting? No way..

In the beginning of my road to posting on CD I just wrote and submitted. Bad idea, thankfully you can edit some mistakes, but if you hurt someone's feeling no editing will repair that.

Learning to write your post in a text editor and proof read, and if heated, taking the time to cool off and reread and edit is crucial.

Yes being the first to answer a question that you actually know the answer to can be a great feeling, like you are actually contributing.

Taking the time to verify your post is contributing, pro or con to the topic, in a respectful and meaningful way, is what earns your CD reputation, dots or not..

Aloha!

Re: Why it is sometimes hard to be a student on CD.
 

I just wanted to post and say CD has certainly been part of my growth, as a student, volunteer and mentor. Reflecting on my first post ever, which began:
People being patient with me to teach me was definitely a motive for me to mentor now.

Re: Why it is sometimes hard to be a student on CD.
 

It's nice to know I'm not the only one. :D
It's interesting to see how a conversation presumably about students on CD is more of a conversation about rep points.

Story time: I had never gotten rep before when Karthik gave me positive rep. For some reason, going from one green dot to four green dots was very satisfying, so I started posting regularly.

Even if "they're just dots," they're a status symbol. Unlike "upvotes" or "likes" or whatever else, the reputation you get is displayed on all of your posts. It's not like Facebook shows you how many "likes" your friends have gotten over the years. So, big green bars are tied to people that other people respect, and people with red bars are shunned. This is good in concept because it makes for an obvious indicator of who is experienced and who is not. The problem is that it also creates a rather toxic environment where every post is defined by the poster, instead of the content of the post itself. It also allows people who are mad at something they read on the internet to make other people sad because of some red and green dots on a screen.

Reputation is so superficial, but so permanent. It still irks me that when you hover over my rep it says "brilliant future" instead of "reputation beyond repute," and if that isn't superficial, I don't know what is. Ideally, people would give reputation based on the quality of a post, but it's natural for people to give negative rep to posts they disagree with. I've been a victim of this, and, although I try not to do it, I'm sure I've given biased rep before, too. I think there's some people on CD who show more restraint than others in what they post and what they give rep to, but the vast majority of people conduct themselves as well as people can.

Re: Why it is sometimes hard to be a student on CD.
 

Glad I am not the only one.

I finally broke through to beyond repute and had 2250 pts and then someone redded me. Oh well maybe tomorrow. ;)

Re: Why it is sometimes hard to be a student on CD.
 

One way to know the Rep system should be taken with a huge grain of salt, is noticing that it claims my reputation is Beyond Repute.

That ain't right. I need to post controversial stuff more often. ;)

Blake
PS: To any shy rookies: A post that begins with this sort of opening is almost always received well by readers: "I am trying to learn ____. I searched in ___, and ___, using keywords ___, ___, and ___, but I came up empty / confused / still wanting to know more. Who can point me to a good source for learning what I need to know?"

Re: Why it is sometimes hard to be a student on CD.
 

Dude, even MINE is beyond repute. I don't think anyone that knows me would say that. And it's not like I shy away from posting controversial stuff.

Re: Why it is sometimes hard to be a student on CD.
 

I've got to say, I'm slightly surprised. I feel like I see you in exclusively controversial threads.

Re: Why it is sometimes hard to be a student on CD.
 

To be entirely fair, the original post you're claiming matches the FAQ quote you cite as reasons for red reputation.

It's a bit awkward to claim this isn't necessary and look for ways to "fix" something that isn't broken. If reputation is the least "safe" thing about the environment for students, it's a pretty safe place.

I'm not sure about others. I don't read the information under your name. I read your post. I won't know if you're a student or a mentor with decades of experience. I'll see the content. I'm not sure if others take the time to read through all of that before considering your point. That sounds like a lot of work.

It's likely your perception is biased towards "they don't agree with me. It must be because I'm a student" because that's easier to accept than "they don't like what I have to say." As what you say includes more substance, it'll get more positive attention, even when people disagree.

Re: Why it is sometimes hard to be a student on CD.
 

I was stuck at 6-7 dots for the longest time, then someone you all know gave me a green with the comment "Ahahahaha" and now I'm "beyond repute" (hahaha yeah right). So, the moral of the story is, it really doesn't matter, even though I still care about it way too much.

Re: Why it is sometimes hard to be a student on CD.
 

Hey, I would just re-read everything a little more carefully. I admitted that I used to post stuff completely out of line and used that as an example where the rep system works.

Re: Why it is sometimes hard to be a student on CD.
 

Why would you describe rookies as hot-shots? In the real world, some of the greatest innovations have been from rookies who saw a problem with the way things were being done and fixed it. Check out these quotes from experts in their fields. Rookies change the world.

Re: Why it is sometimes hard to be a student on CD.
 

I'm certainly not saying all rookies are what I was trying to describe with "hot shots." In fact VERY few are what I was trying to describe. I don't have anything against successful rookies or highly innovative rookies (or the rookies that are barely fielding a robot).

What I was trying to describe, were the young teams who seem to think that since they had a great match or won an event they should be at the top of everyone's perspective as the challenger to 1114, 254, 2056, or 148. Then they start commenting on LF posts, FRC top 25 threads, etc. that they should be in the spotlight... and honestly, I'm excited for those young successful teams, but my excitement for them often gets lost in my frustration with their obsession with their own success or their overestimation of their performance. Maybe the fault is really just with me being bothered by it.

That said, I can relate well to the teams that feel like they're performing well above the reputation they have in FRC at the regional or global level. When 1519 was a young team we had some success in our early years, more success around 2008 through 2010, then growing success afterward... and it takes a long time to become perceived as a successful team, particularly when you get to CMP and are trying to be picked by strong alliances. Partly, one just needs to learn that the ability to perform consistently at a high level is what separates the top tier from the tier that can sometimes perform nearly as well... and partly one needs to learn that building a reputation takes time.