A plead to FIRST, anyone else agree?

[Akash Rastogi]

What the heck is up with so many kids and adults if FIRST being obsessed with the word nerd. Nerdlove is not something to be proud of, the fact that you're so proud of acting like FIRST is a little cult of nerds is so frustrating and annoying.

The best mentors I know in FRC are intelligent people, what the heck constitutes them as nerds? The majority of the students on Team 11 are varisty and junior varsity athletes. Our captains are also athletes. I can name a lot of teams who are the same way. The kids on 3553 are mostly from the football team as well.

What do you really even know about other teams and other people?

So really, this pisses me off (as you call tell by this post).

Have fun with treating FRC like a little cult of nerds.

[RoboTigers1796]

I say, we all come together and boycott until they promise a new never before seen exciting game that makes the playing field even for all teams veterans and rookies..

[davidthefat]

I am proud to be a nerd. Just saying. I would define a nerd as an addict... Addicted to knowledge. Some things I do in life is just for the pure knowledge gained from it. Sure, writing in Assembly probably will not give an advantage to my team, but I am doing it for the knowledge gained from the experience.

I will be frank with you, I do not like how FRC is run, but I really can't do much about it. I do not like the standardization of every aspect of the game.

[JaneYoung]

If we give this thread a chance, it could be a very thought-provoking thread and provide a lot of insight into what people are thinking as we move towards the end of a long season. I'd like to see a thoughtful discussion with some thoughtful posts contributed rather than watch the discussion devolve into blanket generalizations and accusations. Those are never interesting or fun.

Jane

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

What the heck is up with so many kids and adults if FIRST being obsessed with the word nerd. Nerdlove is not something to be proud of, the fact that you're so proud of acting like FIRST is a little cult of nerds is so frustrating and annoying.

The best mentors I know in FRC are intelligent people, what the heck constitutes them as nerds? The majority of the students on Team 11 are varisty and junior varsity athletes. Our captains are also athletes. I can name a lot of teams who are the same way. The kids on 3553 are mostly from the football team as well.

What do you really even know about other teams and other people?

So really, this pisses me off (as you call tell by this post).

Have fun with treating FRC like a little cult of nerds.

And you're saying the term "Nerd" is to be taken offensively? To me and my team, "Nerd" happens to be a compliment! It is used to mean respect! One day, "Nerds" will be ruling this world! Why are you acting like it's a bad thing? It's like a a jock saying their not a jock! And for the record, we had a member on our team who was varsity captain of the football team, and he had the word "Nerd" specifically printed on his uniform. I don't see how you can think being a "Nerd" is bad. I can't speak for everybody, but I'm proud to be a "Nerd"!!!

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by RoboTigers1796

I say, we all come together and boycott until they promise a new never before seen exciting game that makes the playing field even for all teams veterans and rookies..

If you think that is a good solution then perhaps you should do that...

Just to get this straight, this thread is about the way FIRST makes its games each year, and what we'd like to change. If you'd like to debate if being called a "Nerd" is a bad thing, please start another thread.

Thank you.

[EricDrost]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

And you're saying the term "Nerd" is to be taken offensively? To me and my team, "Nerd" happens to be a compliment! It is used to mean respect! One day, "Nerds" will be ruling this world! Why are you acting like it's a bad thing? It's like a a jock saying their not a jock! And for the record, we had a member on our team who was varsity captain of the football team, and he had the word "Nerd" specifically printed on his uniform. I don't see how you can think being a "Nerd" is bad. I can't speak for everybody, but I'm proud to be a "Nerd"!!!

The word "nerd" denotes: "an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a nonsocial hobby or pursuit".

Being single-minded and obsessed is not exactly healthy. Variety is the spice of life.

Acting like FIRST is, to use Akash's words, a cult of nerds is counterproductive to FIRST becoming accepted in mainstream culture.

Originally Posted by Purple

The word "nerd" denotes: "an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a nonsocial hobby or pursuit".

Being single-minded and obsessed is not exactly healthy. Variety is the spice of life.

Then let's change the definition of "Nerd"! "Nerds" used to be frowned upon, but then one day they created the cell phone, the computer, and every useful machine currently known to man! If it weren't for the "Nerd", then we might as well be living in caves! There might as well be no medicine, cars, or technology at all!

[rcmolloy]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

What the heck is up with so many kids and adults if FIRST being obsessed with the word nerd. Nerdlove is not something to be proud of, the fact that you're so proud of acting like FIRST is a little cult of nerds is so frustrating and annoying.

The best mentors I know in FRC are intelligent people, what the heck constitutes them as nerds? The majority of the students on Team 11 are varisty and junior varsity athletes. Our captains are also athletes. I can name a lot of teams who are the same way. The kids on 3553 are mostly from the football team as well.

What do you really even know about other teams and other people?

So really, this pisses me off (as you call tell by this post).

Have fun with treating FRC like a little cult of nerds.

Honestly, I always thought that the true meaning for nerd was an intellectual badass.

Originally Posted by rcmolloy

Honestly, I always thought that the true meaning for nerd was an intellectual badass.

rcmolloy, I love you now! New definition of "Nerd": Intellectual badass!!!!

[R.C.]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

And you're saying the term "Nerd" is to be taken offensively? To me and my team, "Nerd" happens to be a compliment! It is used to mean respect! One day, "Nerds" will be ruling this world! Why are you acting like it's a bad thing? It's like a a jock saying their not a jock! And for the record, we had a member on our team who was varsity captain of the football team, and he had the word "Nerd" specifically printed on his uniform. I don't see how you can think being a "Nerd" is bad. I can't speak for everybody, but I'm proud to be a "Nerd"!!!

Ok look,

I will have to totally agree with Akash. Nerd may be "Cool" for you and your group of kids. But Nerd gives off a negative connotation, your not gonna win over many people, especially not the people FIRST is currently aiming at. The General Public.

FIRST isn't nerdy, its one of the coolest things I've ever been apart of. If we (the FIRST community) are not ready to change our own perception, how will we change others?

Personally I like what Amir (frc1717) told people at various events, we have to sell this program as the "New Cool". Many of the kids on 1323 are athletes or cheerleaders, most will even ditch practice and come to robotics because its "Cool". My kids never like to be called nerds and will promote the program as cool.

I've met a wide range of people and not one of them coming to a FIRST event for the FIRST time described it as Nerdy. Instead they called it "The Best Kept Secret".

This isn't promoting "The New Cool", but I truly believe the book and FRC1717 are on the right path and we should hop on that bandwagon instead of complaining about FIRST.

-RC

Originally Posted by R.C.

its one of the coolest things I've ever been apart of.
-RC

I completely agree with this statement! FRC IS cool! Can we please just leave it at that?

[acrease77]

i agree with the third part, and also i was really mad this year that this year's game was almost EXACTLY like 2007 and like one of the games from the 1990s (i think '97) Hang a tube during auto, and make rows of tubes during teleop to get max points. I know how hard it is to make a robotics game, but still, there have been 3 hanging end games, 3 games hanging tubes on racks, a bunch with the octagon shaped goal things (like in 09 and 02), and i just feel like all teams had to do this yea (besides teams formed after 07) was to look at their robot from 07, see what they could do better, and see what robots were really good that year, so i really feel like the games are becoming more and more repetitive and repeats of previous years.

[Vermeulen]

First, I somewhat disagree with number 1. While I think that it can get a bit grating for FIRST veterans, It does a great deal of good for new members. It shows the newbies that this isn't battlebots, and that we have expectations that we act professionally. For me, it's more annoying to hear new people ask things like "why don't we put something on the robot to damage other ones" than hearing about gracious professionalism and coopertition. With that said, though, I think that a lot of people who haven't had much experience with FIRST don't know what those mean.

As to number 3, I agree that the FIRST splash page was needlessly awkward. It seemed to me as though they greatly overplayed the appearance he made at kickoff.

And at number four, I disagree. We don't recruit saying "Are you a nerd? Join all the nerds here!". We say "Hey, you can build these cool robots, no experience required, and here are XYZ reasons why it's good for you to do this." I don't think robotics is for nerds at all. I think that robotics is for people who want to learn, and be inspired.