[A. Snodgrass]

I have a couple of questions for the people posting in this thread.
1) Why does Dave Lavery have to post to this thread? Is there an actual rational reason?
2) Honestly, do you not believe that FIRST is aware of the problem, and working to fix it?

In my experience with working with FIRST, they have always tried their best to fix bugs in the software. And seriously, in seven years I cannot remember a year where there wasn't a bug in the software somewhere. I'm sure that they appreciate all of the offers to help, however keep in mind, software is not always a simple plug and play system. Correcting software is not always as simple as changing a broken physical part in a robot, or a piece that has malfunctioned. Anybody who has experience programming anything major will have also had issues where they had to track down bugs in the software, or where their software doesn't work the way that they expected it to. And tracing why the software isn't working the way that they want it to can sometimes be a tricky proposition.

I do have one request for everybody though, and those who were at PNW will possibly know why I'm saying this. As upset as you might be with FIRST, or with the way that the match scheduling comes out, please don't take out this anger on the volunteers in the pit. On a personal level, and as somebody who has competed before, I KNOW that I understood completely how upset the teams were, and I understood why they were upset, I was upset myself. It was very hard to stand and say, no I don't know of anything that I can do to solve this problem, and I sat there and wished I had a better answer to give then that, one that said that the problem was fixed, or that it was a simple fluke that wouldn't be permanent. And from experience, I cannot see FIRST letting it stand by this.
I'd also like to point out something. Quite often, we focus on what is so negative about something. But as has been pointed out before, FIRST also had something that worked right this time, and that is the field/scoring system. And for that...even with the current problems...I congratulate them.