So a couple of things I should clarify guys.
First, we've been getting some feedback about our stats mode on the site recently. Specifically people have been accusing us of copying FRC Data Miner. There is also evidence that I saw the page and liked it a lot.
Ben never actually saw the site, I just suggested incorporating a layout and design like Data Miner's into this page we were already planning on building. Having said that, we're constantly pushing forward and incorporating new ideas into the site so when we see something good and that fits into our vision of
TheFIRSTAlliance.org we try to incorporate it into the site. We also make plans to improve what is already out there and tailor it to our needs. There's nothing wrong with that guys, competition makes all solutions better.
Now to address why we're not releasing
TFA as open source or trying to work with other existing services.
1. We're still starting out. We have a vision and a strong following already, but we're not ready to let many other people have control over our idea that we recognize is still young and fragile.
2. We're committed to building
the best stats portal on the Internet. Doing so requires a determined, fast moving team (Ben and I right now) to make changes on the fly, respond quickly to feedback, and build a truly awesome service. The reason we don't find the existing services adequate is because of what we see as design or usability flaws, technical flaws, or both.
3. This just summarizes points 1 & 2. We envision a unified system. A single go-to place for FRC stats. When we started this, our vision was building a killer API. It still is. Everything you see on
TFA is utilizing our publicly accessible API. Anyone can build what we've built! Just use our own API. As we move forward, we're going to be expanding our API's and site's abilities and features. You can get a general idea of where we're headed by checking out our
roadmap.
I hope that addresses some of the concerns or maybe even anger we've been hearing out there. We're always looking for new ideas to bring into TFA, so if you have something to tell or show us
drop us a line! We're super excited to be working and interacting with so many passionate FIRSTers to make the best stats portal out there. Thanks again, hope this clears things up.