[Joe Johnson]

On a number of occassions, we have taken down messages that speak ill of teams other than our own. We have sometimes done this on our own, we have sometimes done this at the request of the slandered team, we have sometimes done this at the request of team leaders from the team that the message writer was from.

I have not seen the message before it was removed and I have not spoken to Mike Martus yet about this so I don't know why he edited it.

From what I have read, FIRSTFan's major failing was his unwillingness to put his name behind his words. My friend, teammate and co-work, Mike Aubry, took the words more to heart than I would have. I would not have responded so harshly, but at least Mike had the courage to identify his words.


Here is the bottom line for me: Assuming the facts were as FIRST fan presented, your beef should not be with us (or the other teams that added a regional) but with FIRST. We asked FIRST, not as a special favor to us, but if it were possible in general. It was our understanding from FIRST that this was a general policy change (though we did not learn of it until just before shipping our robot from the Cleveland venue).

I am sorry that they were given a different answer than we (and several other teams) were given when they asked if they could go to an additional regional. This should not have been the case.

I hope that FIRST will improve communications in the future.

Joe J.