[Shrub]

A friend of mine (who does not have a CD account) and I have been discussing this thread since it has been posted. On her previous team, she had a hand in many of the design aspects, both graphically and on the robot. I also was able to marginally aid in many of the graphic design/web design aspects of my old team. I know there were many, many things I could do to make it better. As someone who was taking four IB and an AP course, I knew I did not have the time. Even so, I value more what I learned in the process than the actual outcome of the website. I do not take comfort in knowing the website I helped design may have been better than someone else's.

I think it's important to realize that many of the teams who are producing videos for the FIRST parody contest have had little-to-no video processing experience. FIRST is composed primarily of high school students - it would be unfair to hold them all to an equally high standard, given the diverse areas where FIRST programs are held. Some teams are able to push themselves and have members solely devoted to producing media content. Some teams have members that are just learning and are doing the FIRST parody contest to test their video skills.

One may consider the videos bad, or cringe-inducing, but one should not somehow use those videos to judge the whole production value of a team. For many teams, this is the first opportunity some members have to be introduced to media production because they have an opportunity and a reason to they may not otherwise have (and would then have to focus their efforts on something else relative to team size and capabilities). I honestly think it's disrespectful to discredit team efforts that they have put into their team videos and not give them recognition because you're feeling cringe-y.

My friend and I do agree on other teams with higher levels of video production experience (or experience of any kind, really) sharing their knowledge and efforts with others. I'm honestly excited any amazed by some team's efforts. It's awesome. I'm glad that "more than robots" activities within a FIRST team are getting recognition, and that people are learning skills that include video production and design.