Petition to end the shouting of ROBOT

[techhelpbb]

Next time I am stuck in the pits trying to help a team.
I think I will yell "HUMAN COMING THROUGH" and see if anyone moves .

Usually I just tap someone on the shoulder. They turn. Look up and I say 'excuse me' and they move.

[EricH]

On the other hand... as pits were emptying from IE, someone pushing a bagged robot rolled up to a group of people, with room to go around them, and yelled "ROBOT" two or three times before they all moved out of the way.


Myself and another ref who both saw this looked at each other and went "You know, if this had happened during the event, that might have been a G15. He had room to go around."

[Boltman]

Zombie thread ALERT!

[Jon Stratis]

Shouting robot to get people's attention is fine. Asking them to move in crowded pits is fine. Simply shouting robot and assuming that gives you the right of way is not. I honestly can't count the number of times I've been run down or seen others run down by teams pushing robots who just didn't have the sense to slow down and wait for things to clear in front of them once they've alerted people to their presence. It's rude, dangerous, and disrespectful of everyone else around you.

[Caleb Sykes]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

Rudely yelling ROBOT should be discouraged, but yelling something to grab the attention of all those darn people in the way as robots are trying to queue up, is necessary!

In every other situation in life, pedestrians have the right of way. This is no different. If a janitor with a cart full of cleaning supplies needed to get past me in a crowded area, and decided to yell "CLEANING SUPPLIES" while rushing at me, I would stop his cart with my hand and tell him that he needed to slow down and calm down. If he told me that he had a cleaning competition that he was supposed to be at 1 minute ago, and that's why he was rushing, I would tell him that this gives him absolutely no right to be disrespectful to others.

Additionally, shouting ROBOT is not at all something I want when I am showing off the pits at my event to spectators. I brought my young cousins into the pit once, and they were huddled next to their mom as they usually do when travelling. However, in the pits they were all visibly frightened because 3-4 teams rudely rushed past yelling "ROBOT." They huddled even closer to their mom after that, and one of them stayed frightened for much of the rest of the day.

Is that really what we want? If I were those kids, I would leave the event thinking that robots are scary, and that all students in FIRST are big mean jerkheads who don't care at all for the well being of others. If little kids think this, what do you think corporate sponsors think when touring the pits?

Will there be people in your way as you travel with your robot? Yes.
Will they often be not paying attention to their surroundings? Yes.
Is it ever appropriate to shout "ROBOT" to get people out of your way? No.

If you think the answer to my last question should be different, then I encourage you to tell a janitor sometime to yell while moving their supplies past people. If they give you a funny look in response, it's probably a bad idea.

[IronicDeadBird]

We should start a petition to end this thread unless someone has something new to bring to the table. Its like a time capsule from 2013

[ShawnTheProgram]

But then what can I tell all the new pit people to do while they flail and assist in touching the robot while its being pushed?

[Koko Ed]

While I do agree people yelling "Robot!" is a bit rude I find people just milling around the field entrance and blocking robots even more rude (which was a constant problem in Dallas). As my trainie Zoe pointed out "People have no sense of awareness of what's going on around them. They are either mesmerized by what's going on the field, chatting away with their friends or staring at their phone. What they're not doing is paying attention to what's going on around them. These are people who if they become engineers will be working in industrial area when heavy equipment is prevalent and they will not be yelling ROBOT when you are in your own world in their way. They're just gonna go right through you.
This thread needs more accountability towards the general public: start paying attention or stay out of the pits and in the stands if you can't be bothered to do so.

[Wayne Doenges]

Not to divert this thread but why do people need to stand in the middle of the lanes (or entrance)to talk to another person? Move over to the side and talk.
We now return you to your regulary scheduled thread.

[Rangel]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

While I do agree people yelling "Robot!" is a bit rude I find people just milling around the field entrance and blocking robots even more rude (which was a constant problem in Dallas). As my trainie Zoe pointed out "People have no sense of awareness of what's going on around them. They are either mesmerized by what's going on the field, chatting away with their friends or staring at their phone. What they're not doing is paying attention to what's going on around them. These are people who if they become engineers will be working in industrial area when heavy equipment is prevalent and they will not be yelling ROBOT when you are in your own world in their way. They're just gonna go right through you.
This thread needs more accountability towards the general public: start paying attention or stay out of the pits and in the stands if you can't be bothered to do so.

After a year or two of robot shouting being discouraged I tend to agree. Perhaps instead of just discouraging robot shouting, signs be put up and hourly announcements are made informing spectators and teams to try not to stand in the center of aisles. I know our drive team the last few years and myself when I was still a student on the team would do the tap on shoulder method but especially for large crowds, it's very slow and sometimes they flat out ignore you forcing you to shout(by this I mean raise voice a lot so they can actually hear). With more notice to spectators and teams, robot shouting and the tap shoulder and excuse me method is no longer needed as often.

[Tungrus]

Super energetic and over enthusiastic Safety judges at FIM Howell competition reminded me the word reprimand! One of the team bringing robot back from field had called excuse me twice and tried to draw a gentleman's attention by tapping on the shoulder. A safety judge who saw schooled the team and asked to yell robot. One of the team member said it was against the rule, which lead to a short lecture on common sense.

In Michigan, volunteers do a good job, especially where robots going in and out cross path, they stop robots returning to pit and let robots go to field.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Rangel(kf7fdb)

After a year or two of robot shouting being discouraged I tend to agree. Perhaps instead of just discouraging robot shouting, signs be put up and hourly announcements are made informing spectators and teams to try not to stand in the center of aisles. I know our drive team the last few years and myself when I was still a student on the team would do the tap on shoulder method but especially for large crowds, it's very slow and sometimes they flat out ignore you forcing you to shout(by this I mean raise voice a lot so they can actually hear). With more notice to spectators and teams, robot shouting and the tap shoulder and excuse me method is no longer needed as often.

Signs don't work.
Far too many FIRST-aholics suffer from Selective Illiteracy: They can't read signs that have subject matter they don't care about.

[BigJ]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

Signs don't work.
Far too many FIRST-aholics suffer from Selective Illiteracy: They can't read signs that have subject matter they don't care about.

I think I developed it from the 10,000th "wear your safety glasses" sign taped to a restroom wall.

[Anupam Goli]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

Signs don't work.
Far too many FIRST-aholics suffer from Selective Illiteracy: They can't read signs that have subject matter they don't care about.

Originally Posted by BigJ

I think I developed it from the 10,000th "wear your safety glasses" sign taped to a restroom wall.

I say blame the safety award for this illness (disease?).

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Anupam Goli

I say blame the safety award for this illness (disease?).

You gotta have something to aim for if your robot is overweight due to the welded on decorations.