FIRST Choice Sunday redux

[sanddrag]

Are we going to have a "FIRST Choice Report" following the investigation to determine the root cause?

[marccenter]

No points provided for FRC Team 3548...

[marccenter]

I like the lottery system idea (groups of 100 teams).

Let the rookies all get first crack at it. One hour per group of 100 teams.
Server should not crash and burn this way.

So, it takes a couple of days to get all 5000 teams...

Thoughts?

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by marccenter

I like the lottery system idea (groups of 100 teams).

Let the rookies all get first crack at it. One hour per group of 100 teams.
Server should not crash and burn this way.

So, it takes a couple of days to get all 5000 teams...

Thoughts?

No, any lottery needs to be open to all, and some kind of algorithm determines what you get

[Cory]

Originally Posted by marccenter

I like the lottery system idea (groups of 100 teams).

Let the rookies all get first crack at it. One hour per group of 100 teams.
Server should not crash and burn this way.

So, it takes a couple of days to get all 5000 teams...

Thoughts?

Or just put the website on a server that can handle 3000 people all trying to place orders at once.

How many people do you think are purchasing something right now from any major company's website? Over 3000, for sure. They don't have any issues.

This really shouldn't be very hard, but FIRST's history is littered with cases of not being able to handle the volume of web traffic that can be predicted fairly easily.

[cgmv123]

Originally Posted by Cory

Or just put the website on a server that can handle 3000 people all trying to place orders at once.

How many people do you think are purchasing something right now from any major company's website? Over 3000, for sure. They don't have any issues.

This really shouldn't be very hard, but FIRST's history is littered with cases of not being able to handle the volume of web traffic that can be predicted fairly easily.

It's not worth it for FIRST/AndyMark to invest in a web server that can handle 2000+ connections for 30 minutes when it only needs to handle at most* 10 connections for the rest of the season.

A 2 week lottery window would spread out the connections.

*Except maybe kickoff.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by cgmv123

It's not worth it for FIRST/AndyMark to invest in a web server that can handle 2000+ connections for 30 minutes when it only needs to handle at most* 10 connections for the rest of the year.

A 2 week lottery window would spread out the connections.

*Except maybe kickoff.

I'm no expert in webhosting, but I'm pretty sure you can pay someone who does this for a living to host your website for a short duration.

[magnets]

Originally Posted by Cory

I'm no expert in webhosting, but I'm pretty sure you can pay someone who does this for a living to host your website for a short duration.

That's what chief delphi does (or at least used to do). When build season starts, the number of users gets close to 1,000 on at a time, so the server is improved/more servers are added to keep the site running well.

I have a hard time believing that FIRST and AndyMark aren't able to predict the number of people who will be using the website, and that the site crashes because of the sheer number of people on it. I think it's some type of software issue where the web server has a memory leak or becomes unresponsive if a certain series of actions are performed.

That being said, the site has been in development for a while now, and I think the goal of making it work before kickoff may be a little bit unrealistic, so I'm curious to see how FIRST will respond with a new solution to get the parts out.

[Ed Sparks]

I'm of an age and FIRST experience level (18 years now) that I can remember what it was like before AndyMark helped us with convenient offerings of needed parts. I'm gratefull for all they do for us and I'll cut these guys some slack ......

If you think this is frustrating, just wait until you get the game rules

[mman1506]

I know vex's product release stream had 3000+ viewers and just as many or more probably went to vex's site. Vex had no problem handling the traffic without any slowdowns even while continually updating the site.

While it can't be easy to handle that traffic I can't imagine it would be that difficult to handle a known number of visitors.

[coalhot]

Originally Posted by mman1506

I know vex's product release stream had 3000+ viewers and just as many or more probably went to vex's site. Vex had no problem handling the traffic without any slowdowns even while continually updating the site.

VEX did use youtube for their stream, they didn't use any sort of private hosting/custom site.

I am wondering why Andymark didn't purchase 3 months of hosting from a place like Amazon. They charge by usage, and there wouldn't be that much of an issue (I'm sure at any given moment, there are more than 3,000 users on Amazon).

Kudos to Andy and crew for trying to get it right though. It's better for them to cancel and reschedule then for a select few people getting in. I'm looking forward to using the system when rescheduled.

[mman1506]

Originally Posted by coalhot

VEX did use youtube for their stream, they didn't use any sort of private hosting/custom site.

.

Oh, I know that. I was just using the youtube stream viewer count to estimate the traffic on their site.

[Andy Baker]

Folks,

We are putting together a report for FIRST tonight, and we have a meeting with them tomorrow. As soon as a decision for a re-release is made, I am sure that FIRST and our staff here at AndyMark will work hard to communicate this new info through our respective channels.

I personally appreciate your support and patience, but I also know that your time and passion about FIRST are very important. You are right in saying that this delay and waste of time is unacceptable. For that, I am sorry. Also, I do appreciate the time our staff has made to get this process working and I do promise that we will have a sound FIRST Choice service soon.

Sincerely,
Andy Baker

[rees2001]

Originally Posted by Ed Sparks

I'm of an age and FIRST experience level (18 years now) that I can remember what it was like before AndyMark helped us with convenient offerings of needed parts. I'm gratefull for all they do for us and I'll cut these guys some slack ......

If you think this is frustrating, just wait until you get the game rules

No doubt Ed. I remember when your team number had a few less digits. This really is a minor inconvenience. I would rather forget the days that the only real way to get your KOP was to go to NH, a "Kit Frame" consisted of a couple of 2x4 tube extrusions, a bevel gear set, and a couple of drill motors with plastic mounts, and tape measures were legal/illegal/legal/illegal. Can't wait for those rules

Andy you take as long as you need. We still love.

[JohnFogarty]

Originally Posted by cgmv123

It's not worth it for FIRST/AndyMark to invest in a web server that can handle 2000+ connections for 30 minutes when it only needs to handle at most* 10 connections for the rest of the season.

A 2 week lottery window would spread out the connections.

*Except maybe kickoff.

Considering that hosting like this can be purchased for a month by month basis, I don't see why not.