TIMS Down - 2/19/14

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Carolyn_Grace

All I want is time to make up for what was lost due to being locked out of my team's shop due to uncontrollable weather issues. 7 days of Build Season lost. I don't want 7 days time worth, just enough to test our chassis. Sure, we can withhold 45 lbs, but we didn't have time to test our drive-train before bagging it. And the west-coast teams got at least 3 extra hours during Build Season. With those three hours we may have been able to test the programming.

How about people who couldn't submit Dean's List get an extra three hours to submit their essays, and people who lost valuable time on their robot because of snow days get an extra three hours to work on their robots?

Maintaining server uptime is a solved problem. Controlling the weather is not. I'm not sure how the two are equivalent and this comparison is a bit ridiculous.

[Taylor]

Originally Posted by Madison

Maintaining server uptime is a solved problem. Controlling the weather is not. I'm not sure how the two are equivalent and this comparison is a bit ridiculous.

So is the assertion that expecting a professional to function before 10a is preposterous.

[Bob Steele]

Originally Posted by Carolyn_Grace

All I want is time to make up for what was lost due to being locked out of my team's shop due to uncontrollable weather issues. 7 days of Build Season lost. I don't want 7 days time worth, just enough to test our chassis. Sure, we can withhold 45 lbs, but we didn't have time to test our drive-train before bagging it. And the west-coast teams got at least 3 extra hours during Build Season. With those three hours we may have been able to test the programming.

How about people who couldn't submit Dean's List get an extra three hours to submit their essays, and people who lost valuable time on their robot because of snow days get an extra three hours to work on their robots?

How would you have felt if your weather conditions closed the school on Tuesday and you could not have put your robot in the bag and FIRST told you you could not compete? It is a deadline after all...

These teams were ready to submit... it was not a matter of needing extra time to finish the submissions.... this ball was dropped by FIRST....

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Carolyn_Grace

All I want is time to make up for what was lost due to being locked out of my team's shop due to uncontrollable weather issues. 7 days of Build Season lost. I don't want 7 days time worth, just enough to test our chassis. Sure, we can withhold 45 lbs, but we didn't have time to test our drive-train before bagging it. And the west-coast teams got at least 3 extra hours during Build Season. With those three hours we may have been able to test the programming.

How about people who couldn't submit Dean's List get an extra three hours to submit their essays, and people who lost valuable time on their robot because of snow days get an extra three hours to work on their robots?

Except FIRST ruled that teams who missed bagging due to weather were allowed to bag after the date...

[Carolyn_Grace]

Originally Posted by mathking

I would love for FIRST to pursue some simple technical solutions. Perhaps you can save and if the system is down the saved essay would be submitted. This would make me feel a lot better about starting ahead of time, as it would be possible to update with good things without running the risk of timing out in submission.

I think this is a great suggestion for future improvements!

[Carolyn_Grace]

Originally Posted by Bob Steele

How would you have felt if your weather conditions closed the school on Tuesday and you could not have put your robot in the bag and FIRST told you you could not compete? It is a deadline after all...

These teams were ready to submit... it was not a matter of needing extra time to finish the submissions.... this ball was dropped by FIRST....

There was plenty of time to submit. The site came back up with at least 3 hours to spare. It wasn't convenient. It probably was a pain in the butt for people who did set alarms for 5:00 AM, BUT it was possible.

IF the system had STAYED crashed through Noon Eastern time and never came back up before the deadline passed, THEN I would call foul by FIRST.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Taylor

So is the assertion that expecting a professional to function before 10a is preposterous.

I'm not complaining that the deadline was at 9am. I'm upset because I set aside time from my schedule to do EXACTLY as people here are suggesting -- submit it early -- and the system was unavailable to me.

I asked another of our mentors to set aside more of her time to check on the system and submit it the following morning after I spent more than an hour trying to do the same the evening before.

It's not unreasonable to ask that the system work reliably, especially near the end of submission window and the fact remains that FIRST (yet again) doesn't seem to value the time I spend trying to work around and accommodate their failures.

[Ryan Dognaux]

Originally Posted by Carolyn_Grace

IF the system had STAYED crashed through Noon Eastern time and never came back up before the deadline passed, THEN I would call foul by FIRST.

I believe this was the case for our team. We attempted to submit with 20 minutes remaining and the website wasn't accepting it. We e-mailed FIRST the entry and hope to hear a reply soon. Technically we were done prior to the deadline and the website didn't accept our entry.

[Carolyn_Grace]

Originally Posted by Ryan Dognaux

I believe this was the case for our team. We attempted to submit with 20 minutes remaining and the website wasn't accepting it. We e-mailed FIRST the entry and hope to hear a reply soon. Technically we were done prior to the deadline and the website didn't accept our entry.

That could be a possible issue. What day/time did your team attempt to submit?
According to this thread, the site was back up as of 8:36 AM Eastern time.

[Nirvash]

Originally Posted by Carolyn_Grace

There was plenty of time to submit. The site came back up with at least 3 hours to spare. It wasn't convenient. It probably was a pain in the butt for people who did set alarms for 5:00 AM, BUT it was possible.

IF the system had STAYED crashed through Noon Eastern time and never came back up before the deadline passed, THEN I would call foul by FIRST.

So, your school is closed due to weather the day of bag day, no one can get in to bag the robot and if you don't bag by 11:59pm you can not compete. But then in the last few hours of the day, the school updates their website and says, sure you can come in.
Is that reasonable?

[Ryan Dognaux]

Originally Posted by Carolyn_Grace

That could be a possible issue. What day/time did your team attempt to submit?
According to this thread, the site was back up as of 8:36 AM Eastern time.

We tried around 10:40 AM CST. I just found out that FIRST also did not accept our appeal. It would be one thing if we were past the deadline to submit the entry, but technically it was before noon EST and the failure was on their end. I guess next year we'll make sure not to include some of the build season successes of our students and submit much earlier. Thanks FIRST!

[Carolyn_Grace]

Originally Posted by Nirvash

So, your school is closed due to weather the day of bag day, no one can get in to bag the robot and if you don't bag by 11:59pm you can not compete. But then in the last few hours of the day, the school updates their website and says, sure you can come in.
Is that reasonable?

I don't understand your scenario. Can you explain it in a different way?

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by mathking

I would love for FIRST to pursue some simple technical solutions. Perhaps you can save and if the system is down the saved essay would be submitted. This would make me feel a lot better about starting ahead of time, as it would be possible to update with good things without running the risk of timing out in submission.

This is already how the system is setup.
The problem is that FIRST should have explained that, OR if they did, I didnt see it. Perhaps teams would have planned to have submitted early for the just in case scenarios.
When we submitted early, we thought it was final. Instead, the system actually allowed us to make changes even after clicking the submit button.

[TKM.368]

Originally Posted by Carolyn_Grace

The system definitely needs work. That's undeniable. I agree.

We'd just like FIRST to do as your Custom User Title suggests: Build bridges not walls.

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by Ryan Dognaux

We tried around 10:40 AM CST. I just found out that FIRST also did not accept our appeal. It would be one thing if we were past the deadline to submit the entry, but technically it was before noon EST and the failure was on their end. I guess next year we'll make sure not to include some of the build season successes of our students and submit much earlier. Thanks FIRST!

Wow, so you tried to submit right before the deadline, you contacted FIRST about the situation, and could do nothing about it.

I cant believe its not being rectified.