FRC Blogged-FIRST Chocie-Liquidation

[AllenGregoryIV]

Are we really doing this again? Isn't this the same system that got people so upset last year. I know it's not the real FIRST Choice but it's still just who has the quickest mouse. Especially with no quantity limits per item at all and currently no way for anyone to know how many of any of the items they have in stock. At least not yet, they could post item quantities on the 19th.

If I'm ordering and I think 3 IR sensors is reasonable but then find out they only had 10 to give away maybe that is too many for one team.

Also how are these items going to be considered for next year's robot? Are they kit items (doesn't seem like it), are they previous years' kit items, or are they some other category? Seeing as some of these parts are discontinued and would then be no longer available to all teams, they wouldn't fit the 2013 definition of a COTS part.

I like this idea, just a little unsure on some of the details. I think as long as the people ordering actually use the items they get for their team and they just don't sit on a shelf, it's a great idea.

[Dad1279]

Too bad the stuff couldn't be auctioned off to teams, and the proceeds donated to charity.....

[DonRotolo]

Fastest mouse it is....

[MechEng83]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

Fastest mouse it is....

This is what I heard when I read that.

[nicholsjj]

This looks worse than First Choice(did I really just type that? ). There are no credits, no order limits, and no team #id login or password. I don't think someone has to be Yoda to figure out what's going to happen on the 19 if nothing changes unfortunately.

[sanddrag]

Oh not again.....

Am I really going to have to stop teaching in the middle of my class (or get someone to cover) on Monday morning to make an AndyMark order? How do they choose these opening times? Mentors ARE AT WORK trying to earn a living in what little time we spend away from FRC.

It's like Black Friday at Best Buy. People are going to get virtually trampled on this one, again...

I know I don't have to make an order but when there's goods this good that are just being handed out, I have to make an order. You just can't pass on an opportunity like that. When it's free, who says "no thanks"? At least charge something for them maybe.

Also, so what happens when you try to press your luck, order gets sent to FIRST for review, and you end up with nothing? How much is too much? Can we pre-request quantities, or at least know the quantities?

Why don't they just eBay the darn stuff and roll it into their operating budget? Heck, I'd be content with them sweeping it into an office cake fund, just for us to not go through this again.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Why don't they just eBay the darn stuff and roll it into their operating budget? Heck, I'd be content with them sweeping it into an office cake fund, just for us to not go through this again.

Or a scholarship, or a donation to charity.

[protoserge]

I'm pretty sure that when items are donated for FIRST Choice, there are contractual and legal statutes that are expressed or implied. It would probably not be legal for FIRST to sell or raffle the items for any monetary gain, even if it was "for charity". Any income associated with this would then have to be accounted and it would just be a mess.

It's simple and straight cut. These are overstock items with a first come-first serve fulfillment. It is what it is. There undoubtedly will be more items available for FIRST Choice come competition season, so be vigilant and assign a team member or mentor to acquire the parts as soon as the flood gates open.

[efoote868]

AndyMark has decided to stress test their servers. This could amount to a self-inflicted DDoS attack.

[MechEng83]

Originally Posted by efoote868

AndyMark has decided to stress test their servers. This could amount to a self-inflicted DDoS attack.

To be fair, their servers didn't go down this year due to traffic when FIRST Choice went live. It went down manually because of the coding issues.

As an aside, FIRST vastly improved their servers between 2012 registration and 2013 registration to mitigate the problems most people had in registering.

[Pault]

Yes, this system may not be the greatest. And yes, it will be a race of who has the fastest mouse. And maybe there will be that one guy who just sees free stuff and takes a lot to collect dust on a shelf (but not enough for FIRST to have to question his order). And it would have been really helpful if FIRST could have at least disclosed the quantities that they are starting out with (live updates on quantity would be even better). But FIRST isn't trying to make a big deal out of this. They have some stuff that they don't need anymore. Rather than throw it away, they decided to give it out to teams for free. Appreciate that! They didn't want to go through the huge effort to put some system in place to make sure that everything was fair. They just want to do something nice for the community. And they are even going to be watching to make sure there aren't any extreme abusers (I'm sure they aren't going to stop many orders, only the ones where people are purchasing IR Transmitters and lazy susans by the dozen). So just remember that FIRST didn't have to give out any free stuff at all.

P.S. Most teams drop off of the face of the earth until September, so there shouldn't be as much competition as we think there will be.

P.S.S. This is probably the kind of thing where the lead mentor doesn't have there to do it. A mentor, a student, or even someone that's not on the team could order stuff, have it shipped to the normal place, and if necessary get reimbursed for shipping.

[protoserge]

I lost the game.