Whew, so I just read through 38 pages of angry FIRSTers. Something I would never agree to before today. I'll keep my input regarding the implications of this decision to myself seeing as I've hardly known the news for 12 hours now. I ask only a few questions (I apologize in advance for the length of this rambling post - it's 12:30 am and I'm avoiding much needed sleep rn
):
- Why would FIRST announce this plan at this time? The morning of the first day of 3 DCMPs? It seems like possibly the worst time to do so. 2015 CMP is looming on the horizon - FIRST is probably busy organizing that, working out issues with teams who need help, etc. It seems like the logical time would either be a) at CMP 2015, where all the organizing and planning has been done, and the season is just days from ending or b) in the offseason, when FIRST is relatively dormant and can handle such a large community reaction (which I'm sure they saw coming with such a relatively vague announcement)
- Speaking of vagueness, why would FIRST announce this plan with a seemingly small amount of information fleshed out? They've determined the broad scope of the event, but a lot of the finer details haven't been revealed/worked out. Now granted they might be looking for some community input before determining things like 2 Champion alliances, 2 WCAs, etc, but I feel like FIRST is pretty good at gauging what's good for the community without it's input (Aerial Assist, district model). I feel like they've revealed only the least appealing information - although that may be intentional, ripping off the metaphorical bandaid)
- I only suggest CD members (and people not associated with the decision making process in general) to consider what you post in this thread - As a student it is by no means my job, duty, or responsibility to police what others say and post, but it appears some people are allowing their emotions to get ahead of themselves. We've known about this news for less time than some of us will spend building during one day of build season; let's cool it a little. I've seen posts in this thread talking about leaving FIRST altogether, starting revolts or petitions, etc. While I don't necessarily think those ideas are super far-fetched and out of the question (okay, maybe a little
), I think we should wait until the changes are a) in the much nearer future and b) described in much more detail before jumping ship. FIRST has existed successfully for close to 30 years now - I hardly think they would make a decision so horrible that they start to lose all their members!
TL;DR: chill yo
(standard disclaimer about how this post expresses my personal views and my views only, not those of my team, school, city, etc etc)