[playbass06]

1. The "true" message of FIRST is great, but it does not need to be repeated 200,000 times.
Agreed, but to a point it is necessary to make sure teams get it. There are those who still don't get it's not about the robot alone, and this repetition of the FIRST message will eventually get through to them. I think that's their though process behind it.

2. Go back to more competition, you're beginning to lack in the competitive part of coopertition.
Agreed, there is far too much coopertition. I'm here to have some fun in the game, and that fun is killed when you have matches that are complete shutouts. I don't like how ranking points are based on the opposing alliance score, especially since you can't score for them this year. Breakaway made it okay because you could always turn around and score for the other team, but this year you simply have to pray they get a minibot up.
I say this - complete cooperation off the field, complete competition on the field. This would probably make it more spectator-friendly as well.

3. Enough of the shameless advertising. FIRST is not about the robots, great, but it's not about the politics either, nor is it about FIRST, it's about the future and inspiring our generation, and the next one.
I somewhat agree, and there are things that are being put in place to make a point of this, like the Dean's List award (congratulations to all you finalists!). I really don't think this is happening as you see it, though. I think that FIRST is advertising exactly what you want them to - inspiring our and the next generation. I do have to agree with a previous poster that some celebrity guests are a bit too much, though.

4. Robotics is nerdy. The sooner that is accepted, and embraced, the sooner FIRST can confidently attract others to the program. Nothing says "nerds, beware" like a sign saying "hehehe, it's not nerdy"
Like many before me have said, being a nerd is not a bad thing. We take pride in it. I think the best thing would be to simply stop trying to say anything about nerdiness, be it for or against it. Let people see it as they like, and you'll get students from both sides joining up.

5. You were on a good track with the "spectator friendly" game breakaway, continue on that track.
Breakaway was easy to keep track of due to its simple scoring, but someone (I can't remember who now) mentioned the fact that its goals were on opposite sides, which made it harder for spectators to grasp the concept or follow the game quite as well. I definitely see your point here, and I'd never really thought about that aspect. But there are a lot of sports that have two goals (football, soccer, basketball, etc...) such as this, so I don't think it plays into it very much at all. Maybe I misunderstood and you meant one goal was confusing. I've only been on the team since Lunacy, which was just ridiculous (moving goals aren't a good idea), and I'm split between Breakaway and Logomotion in terms of which was the best. Logomotion is definitely harder to score but I'd say it is more exciting - there's a lot of suspense involved in the gameplay, and some unique defensive robots (3528 and 2240 are the two I've seen with the expandable design, which was pretty cool) make for some very interesting matches.
I don't think the problem is complex scoring, though. I think it's the time it takes to get the final score and how it sometimes differs greatly from what was expected. If FIRST ever gets a completely automatic scoring system, spectators will have no problem following it.