Quote:
Originally posted by dddriveman
Some stuff needs to be changed. It's just not fair to other teams. Us one of them, we don't have any big fancy engineers helping us or building our robot. DO you know how many engineers we have? How about this number. ZERO. All those teams out there were your engineers do the work and not you, should feel real bad about yourselves,and any awards you have won.
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(I was going to go easy on this issue, but the above author has been reading this website since the first part of this year, so...)
Sometimes I think a while before posting, sometimes I go with my gut and shoot from the hip. This time, I'm going with my gut. Enjoy. It doesn't happen very often.
dddriveman is right... some stuff needs to be changed. However, I disagree with the assesment above. Attitudes need to change. The attitude that promotes attacking other teams and people needs to go away right now. This attitude is being shown by dddriveman above and by others on these valuable forums. This sort of attitude is driving good people (students and adults) away from these forums and I am simply not going to stand back and let it happen.
dddriveman, it is unfortuneate that FIRST means something different to you than it does to almost everyone else out here in FIRST world. I suggest that you look into another robot competition if all you care about is promoting yourself and knocking down others. I cannot let this sort of crap go on.
As for engineer/student involvement and this thread involving the TechnoKat gearbox... you have no clue. You cannot sit there and tell me that 12 years of doing FIRST, working with hundreds of kids is something I "should feel real bad about". Ask Jadon Smith, a former TechnoKat student who had no where to fit into Kokomo High School 8 years ago, but recently graduated from MIT and works for a place that he cannot tell me about. Ask Phil Lundberg if I should feel bad about helping him become a leader on team 45, inventing CVTs and designing transmissions for Saturn VUEs at the age or 19. Ask me about Chris O'Neill... who quit team 45 as a Junior because things got kinda tough, but now he is an engineering student at Purdue. (this is only the beginning, I can go on and on and on with examples of student success stories)
Go ahead and set up a poll on this website, asking other students who are drivers and student team leaders and ask them if I should be ashamed of myself. I dare you. My guess is that your attitude will back down.
As you can tell, I feel strongly about this issue. FIRST is about Inspiration, simply put. It is great to see students do things without engineering assistance, but FIRST is not about seeing what students can do on their own. Go enter a science fair if you want to show what you can do... but if you think that you can drive us engineers away from FIRST by berating us and telling us that we should be ashamed of our actions, you must be joking.
So, yes... things need to change. Attitudes need to change. I know that I am being harsh with this note, but it is about time that someone stepped up.
Andy B.
/edit - M. & Rob... I appreciate both of your comments... they mean alot to me. Heck, Rob and I have even debated this issue before, but he was tactful and respectful while having a different opinion. Having a different opinion is OK with me... attacking me ticks me off. And you wouldn't like me when I'm angry.
