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Originally Posted by PAR_WIG1350
I have never found a study that confirms this, but I have heard it suggested that the widespread practice of using 75 as the 'center' of a 100 point grading scale in US schools has predisposed the people who attended those schools to center their rating on 75%, rather than on 50%. I feel that the most significant thing FIRST did correctly for this survey question was specifying a center, which I imagine would at least slightly help to fix that bias.
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Interesting idea, and definitely something that is very easily observed in day-to-day life. However, I think we are reading into these numbers a little too far. Any kind of mapping or analysis we make is based on a limited amount of information, just the numbers in the chart and the numbers pointed out in the blog post. Our own interpretations of the data will have our own biases, and each will have an inherent flaw of some kind. I wouldn't read into those numbers a whole lot; although they are obviously skewed, it proves one important point without any special interpretation: The number of people who strongly oppose the switch account for the number of "neutral" and "strongly favor" voters combined. That says something, regardless of how this poll may or may not have been intentionally weighted in favor of the poller's preference.
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Originally Posted by gblake
I suspect that the companies donating noticeable $ to FIRST will continue to let FIRST inspire students, without being the least bit interested in micromanaging how FIRST does it.
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Among the members of the FIRST board of directors and executive advisory board are executives from Boeing, JCPenny, Rockwell Collins, Qualcomm, BAE Systems, Rockwell Automation, and Lego, all major contributors to FIRST and FIRST teams. Even if the biggest contributors aren't "micromanaging," they definitely have a hand in the workings of FIRST.
Regardless of whether or not the poll was weighted, I believe FIRST will take into account at least some of the complaints we have made. These sort of heated protests happen every year, with every game release. Admittedly, the restructuring of champs has a much longer-term impact on the culture of FIRST, but change had to come at some point- it was inevitable. Sure, it would have been nice to know there were talks about major changes to the championship structure coming soon, but
it's not like they didn't tell us something was going to change back in 2012. Again, it would have been nice to get some more specific info before the announcement, but it's not like they never said anything. At the end of they day, no matter how much we analyze, map, or dissect this poll, FIRST is going to change, and it has to change in order to become a universally-recognized program.