[g_sawchuk]

F4 "Connect". The name is ironic. Sure, you're "connecting" with individuals on a small scale. However, the concept , unintentionally, removes the greater connection, the connection that formulates the FIRST community.

The community of FIRST is undoubtedly important. It's been referenced many times by FRC staff on the blog, FIRST participants tend to hold it as a value, it is a core construct of what FIRST is.

However, F4 Connect could unintentionally take away from the formation of this greater community. If someone posts a problem on ChiefDelphi, they're instantly exposed to hundreds of individuals. Many people will come out to help them with their problem, lending their varying degrees of expertise to solve a problem. How do they do it? By working as a group, a community. Not only that, but a person who is instantly reached out to by members of the CD community (note, plural, not just a singular individual) definitely feels supported by fellow FIRSTers. This helps tie them into the FIRST community. Community growth is essential to FIRST's success. This community is what compiles mentors, participants, sponsors, spectators, and volunteers alike.

Emulating what others have already said, it can undoubtedly be said that a group of individuals, with the varying expertise that CD can lend, can contribute more valuable and accurate/consistent input than a single individual, or a group of six students. While students can be very knowledgeable, you're completely sectioning major parts of FIRST out from putting in input. You narrow down input to one perspective, possibly leading to inaccurate information.

Lastly, F4 Connect limits the potential of a fantastic resource being formed. By keeping everything private, someone with the same problem is unable to search through a past resource, and find help.

While F4 Connect is made with good intentions, this may end up hurting, as opposed to helping, the FIRST community.