FIRST Choice Sunday redux

[Kevin Ray]

cgmv123:NO WAY should we have a lotto for parts!!! Then it's back to luck for who gets equipped as they would like to be. This is the very reason FIRSTchoice was revamped to the way it is now. It provides a platform (or will) wherein everyone has equal footing. AndyMark is working like mad, I'm sure, to remedy the situation. I only think they should not rush it. So it takes until Wednesday to get sorted out. At least people will have plenty of time to plan their day.

[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.

[Steven Donow]

I'm all for a lottery system to determine getting into FIRST Choice(at this point), but I'm sure FIRST sees that as an almost last-resort in terms of fairness; I think we can agree that the way FIRST Choice is now (without server overload issues) is the most fair way, and FIRST is always a proponent of fairness.

Anyway, I'm confident that everything will be fine in the end and we'll all move on with the rest of the season. FIRST or Andymark are trying their hardest and not doing anything wrong, and in the grand scheme of FIRST, this is such a minor thing for the world of FIRST to remain hung up on.

[Jon Stratis]

I understand that people are frustrated, I am to. It's a frustrating situation for all of us, including those at FIRST and AndyMark, I'm sure. But honestly, I think they're doing the right thing, for the right reasons here. The site isn't working correctly yet. If they went ahead and opened it up, what would we have? Getting logged in and getting your stuff ordered would be a question of luck, like last year. People would feel like they got cheated out of what they wanted, like they did last year. In the end, everyone would be here complaining just like they did last year.

Instead, FIRST and AndyMark has made the decision that the process should be fair and as smooth as possible for everyone. In order to do that, they've had to postpone the opening twice. And what do they get for trying to do the right thing for all of us? People coming on here and complaining about what they're doing. Lets all take a deep breath, think things through, and publicly THANK those doing the work for trying to give us a great experience when it's finally open.

[Whippet]

Originally Posted by thefro526

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.

I concur. AndyMark is handling this very professionally, and I believe that they are giving the appropriate response given the circumstances.

[Carolyn_Grace]

Originally Posted by seg9585

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

I haven't had any success with Obamacare website! Trying that again in a few hours...

...Meanwhile, I want to express gratitude towards the AndyMark crew. I am absolutely certain that they are all more frustrated about this situation than any of us.

Their customer service has ALWAYS been impeccable. Their business ethics top-notch, and their employees are *all* hardworking and wonderful people. I have no doubt that they are working non-stop to figure this out.

Sure, some of us came home early to try and log-on, others had to rearrange plans unexpectedly, but I'm sure that some AndyMark employees have given up their entire weekend over this, and that they probably aren't going to get much sleep until it's fixed. They had plans too, they have families, holiday parties, Christmas shopping, football to watch...but all of that is on hold while they try and get this fixed.

They are working their butts off.
And I am grateful for it.

[seg9585]

I'm not an expert on web traffic or sysadmin/IT, but I feel like 3000 connections is not a very large number to tax a single server with. If all the images were hosted externally and the only page generation processes were text-based (or even pre-generated with the only page generation and database calls during the actual ordering), I don't see why an 8-core Xeon couldn't handle it.

Even small websites on Black Friday get taxed orders of magnitude larger, and have a lot more products to navigate (more database entries and parameters).

Maybe this is a case of needing to go simpler. As in, html-based until carts are generated and CCs are taken.

[Nirvash]

Originally Posted by JohnFogarty

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

While I can't say what type of server they run, looking at the tracert information, I would say they are doing exactly that.

[mrnoble]

I will play Pollyanna.

This unpleasant exercise, while frustrating, is one of many illustrations of the success (and therefore growth) of FRC and of STEM education in general. More people "get it" and want in. Another personal example: two years ago, registering for our regional was no rush, as we could get in a week or two after it began. Last year, we were graciously informed that we needed to hurry. This year, it filled up within an hour, and I was glad we jumped when we did.

I'd also say that we are lucky to be working with people like Andy who are honest and forthright, and who are sincerely trying to make FRC successful by adding new options and trying new ideas. FRC and the companies that provide us with new and innovative products every year have taken this event to a place where I'm very comfortable saying it's the best thing I've been involved in in 13 years as a teacher, and that I see an even better future for it.

Chin up, Andy. Most of us really are very grateful for your work, and feel for you as you deal with website problems.

[rees2001]

I think George W. Bush said it...Best?

"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." —


It is frustrating to have re-arranged both my Saturday and Sunday for this.

[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.

[computer411]

Andy,

Thank you and your team for all of your hard work on the FIRST Choice website.

I would like to also offer any assistance I can to help get the site into a finished state. The FIRST Community has a lot of talented people that I think would be willing to pick of the challenge of getting the site into its finalized state, if you need help.

Once again thank you for all for your hard work, and we eagerly await the announcement of the grand opening of FIRST Choice 2014!

[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.

[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.