Re: How To Use ChiefDelphi Constructively In Order To Reap And Sow Value
 

I highly recommend CD-Spy as RSISK mentioned. Scanning the threads can be extremely enlightening as I have often learned things I did not know that I did not know (Hope I did not sound like Don Rumsfeld). If it has been a while since I checked I will go to New Posts (in the orange below CD-Spy) to see farther back.

Here is a good place to go (if you did not start there) if you want to browse by subject. http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/index.php

I have also enjoyed reading the spotlit quotes as Jane mentioned by clicking on "More" to the right of the quote as they are usually quite insightful or funny.

Re: How To Use ChiefDelphi Constructively In Order To Reap And Sow Value
 

Ask specific questions.
Bookmark threads of value.
Read a whole bunch of stuff. Go back into the archives and read threads.

Combine chief delphi with Evernote and you'll practically have an encyclopedia of gold nuggets after some time. Evernote is nice because it has browser plugins that say "save selected text to evernote", which it does with the original formatting, pictures, and links.

I pay attention to certain people when they post. Sure, I'll scan through most posts without fully reading them, especially ones that are long and don't seem to have a point in the first few sentences. Keep in mind, many many engineers are very dry communicators. Yet there are some people who have many words of wisdom that are rarely far from actuality for any team, regardless of circumstance. Learn who those people are, and pay attention to them. Don't hinge on every work they say (use common sense) though.

Of course, there's always the "catalyze and argument" approach, which works on occasion. I haven't made many friends with it, but it will get people out of their "I don't want to tell you how I'm feeling so I'm going to say something that implies it yet I won't confirm or deny what I'm implying is how I feel" modes and into a more direct lines of thought. Apply patience, understanding an voila! People sometimes let go of the griping, b/s, and lower their guards just enough so we can truly understand their point of view.

Whitepapers
Properly Tagged Photos
Specific posts that help explain some of the more frustrating tough problems -- such as the Window Motor + Jaguar issues in recent years.

Re: How To Use ChiefDelphi Constructively In Order To Reap And Sow Value
 

Speaking of Unofficial Caption Contests, I strongly suggest participating in them as well as spending a little time in the Chit-Chat subforum. It's a great place to help with putting usernames to personalities and start learning who's who. HOWEVER, there is a difference in posting style between Chit-Chat and the rest of ChiefDelphi. I certainly don't endorse lazy typing and lack of punctuation, but Chit-Chat is less likely to berate someone for it and is a good "transition forum" that teaches new users what kind of behavior is expected here.

Also, make friends! We only bite if someone hasn't read the rulebook. Private Messages (PMs -accessible via the blue link in the gray box on the top right corner of the page, under the "Welcome, [username]" and the date and time of your last visit) are great ways to continue a two-person discussion with a little more wiggle room, or talk about anything from robots to shoes. Making friends is fun and useful in the long run, and I'm not just talking about alliance selection.

Generally speaking, if you are friendly, the community will be friendly back. Likewise, if you are not friendly, we will try our best to help you adjust your attitude, but there needs to be some degree of cooperation on both ends of the stick.




(side note: I was surprised to find myself on the second page of the memberlist when sorted by rep. I didn't think I was that cool yet.)

Re: How To Use ChiefDelphi Constructively In Order To Reap And Sow Value
 

"Biting" someone who hasn't read the rulebook often takes the form of "Here's the rule (reference). Go read it." If that rule has an active discussion elsewhere, it'll also have a "search and you'll find this thread [link]" attached.

We also bite trolls and spammers much harder--something on the order of "hey, mods, we've got a spammer/troll here" via the report posts button. Once a spam report has been sent, common forum practice is to put a post in the thread that says "Reported" so that the mods don't get 47 spam reports on the same thing.

The spotlight quotes can also be interesting--some of them lead into threads that are very thought-provoking, partially due to the type of material they're discussing. I've followed those into discussions about eliminating the ship date and shipping, student vs. mentor, caption contests that I'd forgotten even happened, and other things of that nature.

Something that can tell a lot about the people that we value is to go into the gray bar on top, to the far right pair of boxes. The ones marked "Unsung FIRST Heroes" and "WFA", to be exact. There are some interesting stories in there.

Some things to avoid, as they tend to cause a lot of problems:
--Airing of team dirty laundry publicly. There is a place to do that sort of thing anonymously: FIRST-A-Holics Anonymous (FAHA). You can also get advice on sensitive topics where you don't want your team identified.
--Accusations of doing something against the rules or the spirit of FIRST without any evidence. It's happened before (student/mentor debates ensued, though that isn't the only thing to spark the "fun"). At best, there's a long, reasonably civil discussion. What more often happens, though, is a flame war, usually something like 20-30 backing up the team going against 1-3 backing up the accusation. Make it civil enough to start out with, though, and there can be a quite civil discussion on the relative merits and demerits of the complaint. There have been a couple of those lately.

Oh, right, one thing that can really be constructive: Be civil. Even if you're posting something that can really be a flammable topic, it often works best if you say it politely. It's a lot easier to have a nice debate on student vs. mentor coaches when someone states their opinion and the reasoning behind it, and what sparked their publicly posting said opinion and reasoning, instead of "Team X has a mentor-built robot, they shouldn't be in this competition because Y". (The latter, if posted publicly, is the #2 fastest way to red reputation dots. The #1 fastest? Accusations of bribery with zero evidence--which "evidence" was promptly refuted with other, actually existing evidence.)

Re: How To Use ChiefDelphi Constructively In Order To Reap And Sow Value
 

Thank you for these tips. I LOVE having a list of great contributors. You just saved me a lot of time. In my past life as a graduate student, I spent a lot of time mining the pre-print archives (like CD for physicists). It took me months and many false starts to develop a good sense of whose paper drafts I HAD to read to stay current with my work.

Also thanks to all the contributors of this thread. I may assign all my students to study this thread because almost all of us are new to CD. I am definitely going to become a subscribed user once I set up a Paypal account. Thanks for that tip Rsisk. Worth every penny!