For anyone thinking of providing a free service to the FRC community (like we do with FRC Spyder), it may be worthwhile to keep in mind that, like us, you'll mostly just receive a steady stream of whining, complaining, and other un-GP verbal abuse. Very few people will ever say "thank you" (but for those who do, we appreciate it!). Mostly, you'll just have people telling you how things are broken (even though they're out of your control), people leaving you 1-star reviews with comments implying you inhale audibly, and so on (note that this is not at all limited to students; we've seen poor behavior from plenty of adults too).
Take, for example, this email we just received (note that it's likely the name and email are fake, so don't trust those):
Quote:
Subject [General questions or comments] Your app doesn't work
From yesitisjoeykraut@gmail.com
To support@dwabtech.com
Date Today 6:47 pm
Richie Burgner sent a message using the contact form at http://www.dwabtech.com/main/contact.
Your app doesn't work at least for the San Jose regional and you are making the entire place unhappy, in fact we have started a boycott against your app in hopes that you will fix it. I don't care how hard it is I want to be able to check my rank so get it together or face legal charges
|
If by any chance someone knows the real author of this amusing email, perhaps a discussion of what FIRST's values are supposed to be would be in order.
Being involved with FRC Spyder has certainly proven to me that while "GP" is generally the rule of thumb on CD, it is definitely NOT a philosophy held by the general FIRST participant/spectator population.