Congratulations to 1241, 1477, and 610- 2013 World Champions!

[Grim Tuesday]

Originally Posted by Racer26

What a horribly written article. So many errors, plus its riddled with sentiments unbecoming of FIRST.

I hate how so many newspapers (and the general public) think that FIRST is akin to battlebots. We have spent quite a few years telling our local newspaper what FIRST really is. You have to just hammer it into them every time they write an article what FIRST is really about.

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by Racer26

What a horribly written article. So many errors, plus its riddled with sentiments unbecoming of FIRST.

Originally Posted by Grim Tuesday

I hate how so many newspapers (and the general public) think that FIRST is akin to battlebots. We have spent quite a few years telling our local newspaper what FIRST really is. You have to just hammer it into them every time they write an article what FIRST is really about.

It would be worth writing them a letter. The Star has a reasonably simple process for submitting letters to the editor. I expect that the journalist covering the story would also be notified of related correspondence.

Keep the letter relatively short—two paragraphs is good. The format doesn't require proof of every assertion, merely a reasoned opinion or two.

[Abhishek R]

Originally Posted by Grim Tuesday

I hate how so many newspapers (and the general public) think that FIRST is akin to battlebots. We have spent quite a few years telling our local newspaper what FIRST really is. You have to just hammer it into them every time they write an article what FIRST is really about.

That is the most ridiculous thing I find from the community outside of FIRST, they all think robotics is either Battlebots or something that is easy and boring.

[Mr. Lim]

... or we could write letters to the newspaper asking them to give us more coverage on robotics, regardless of whether it's 100% accurate or not.

Convince them it's the next "up and coming" sport and that they need to be scooping it over the other media outlets.

Pat this guy on the back, and get him to come back for more.

Truthfully, I don't think robotics out of the "any media coverage is good media coverage" phase yet.

Our focus needs to be to "Make it Loud" first, then worry about the accuracy of whether G18 / G30 interaction rules were properly conveyed in the article.

These writers are covering a brand new sport they've never seen before. We sat down with them for 20 minutes to try and deliver as many salient and media worthy points to cover. It was a lot harder than you all think.

I told him that robotics is a "full contact sport," and his eyes perked up. I mentioned that robots do smash into each other at up to 20fps, and can cause some serious damage. This was not a lie. I didn't go into the specifics of protected zones, entanglement, frame perimeters and bumper rules. I didn't want him to write about them, because quite frankly a) the mainstream wouldn't much care, and b) I barely understand them myself!

Although not the focus of the competition, hard robot hits are a very salient, and exciting (i.e. marketable/LOUD) aspect of what we do. They make a good hook that leads into the discussion about "being so much more than BattleBots."

We need more "Cool article, tell us more about these robots, who built them, what are they supposed to do, how does the competition work, what's the story behind the students? I want to know more" comments to the author.

Not more "That article sucked, therefore you suck" type comments. I doubt that will get us far in terms of increasing media exposure.

In fact, the latter thinking just might be the reason why robotics isn't nearly as "loud" in the mainstream media as it needs to be. By nature, we FIRST folks are terribly picky, and detail oriented in nature. Everything needs to be PERFECT, including this article.

However, I ask that we all tread carefully, and please remember what is in the best interests of "Making Robotics Loud!"

Treat this as a great, but imperfect first step... much like our students do every day in our robotics labs. Do not shut him down, but instead demand more...