FIRST Choice Sunday redux

[magnets]

Originally Posted by Andy Baker

All,

The web site is not right yet. We are postponing again. Sorry for this news and our lack of readiness. We would rather make it correct and hold the release than open it up poorly.

We are not sure at this minute when it will open, but there will be a 24 hour notification before that opening happens.

Sincerely,
Andy

While this isn't great, I'm really glad you guys made the right call. Before we all get super frustrated, remember that the other option would be what happened last year, and nobody wants that. I'm in favor of delaying and giving all teams a 24 hour notice so that its fair.

[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?

[Wayne C.]

Originally Posted by cgmv123

To reiterate: postponed indefinitely. >=24-hours notice before it gets reopened.

They need to switch the initial opening to a lottery based system. Give your top ~10 choices within a 2 week window and let an algorithm sort out who gets what.

agreed This is ridiculous. why do we keep repeating the same mistakes in FIRST?

[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

[Brian C]

Originally Posted by Kevin Ray

At 3:01 it keeps saying that I don't have enough points (for my first selection)!

arrggggghhhhh

Kevin

Save the frustration for build season.

[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.

[JohnFogarty]

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?

There are plenty of websites in the world than handle a volume of 5000 simultaneous users. They will solve the problem and then things will move on. There is no need for that kind of inefficient system unless the website problem cannot be resolved.

[Nirvash]

Originally Posted by magnets

While this isn't great, I'm really glad you guys made the right call. Before we all get super frustrated, remember that the other option would be what happened last year, and nobody wants that. I'm in favor of delaying and giving all teams a 24 hour notice so that its fair.

Agreed, delaying isn't fun, but it is the better choice in the end.

Originally Posted by sanddrag

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

I would actually find that really interesting to read. (Though I don't expect one to really be made)

[seg9585]

Originally Posted by MysterE

If you like your 3d printer, you can keep your 3d printer. . .

Ok, never-mind. Have a good Sunday everyone. Keep on truckin away Andy. I can't imagine how frustrating this is for you and your team.

Haha good one. Although so far, the Obamacare website has had way more success than FIRST Choice's site.

[mr_yes]

I'm all for AM delaying FC until it is good enough. I'm just worried that, even with 24 hours notice, I'll miss the opening. What are the most reliable communication channels for updates?

[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.

[cgmv123]

Originally Posted by mr_yes

I'm all for AM delaying FC until it is good enough. I'm just worried that, even with 24 hours notice, I'll miss the opening. What are the most reliable communication channels for updates?

@FRCTeams on Twitter

[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.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by MrBasse

So much for not having to do this during the work day. Looks like I'll have to find out when this is so I can plan a day long project for students so we can get what we need this year. Saturday seemed like such a great idea...

Who knows, they might be able to open it on the 21st. Plus, a full week would be ample time to find the issues and solve them.

[thefro526]

Originally Posted by adlasa

In my opinion this is unacceptable, Andymark is just wasting everyone's time. I postponed my Sunday plans on the understanding that the site would be fixed!

They should have allowed more time to fix the problem and not subject everyone to this time waster :| . I understand that it is hard to troubleshoot a large site but they could have at least given themselves more time to fix the problem, rather than give false promises.

Andymark isn't 'Just wasting everyone's time'.

Yesterday, it took about 2-2.5hrs for someone to conclusively delay FIRST Choice's Opening after people had wasted that time trying to log in and check out.

Today, it took less than 10 minutes (from 3pm) for AM to come out, admit fault and delay the opening. They're being extremely sensitive of other people's time here.

Yes, the situation sucks, but we'll get through it.

If anything, this is more of a reason for someone at HQ to look into a system that can handle 3000+ users at once. The FIRST site usually goes down after kick-off, and as we've seen, FC is susceptible to the same problem.