[FRC Blog] Today's the Day! And New Waitlist Color Coding!

[Hallry]

Posted on the FRC Blog, 9/24/15: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...t-color-coding

Today's the Day! And New Waitlist Color Coding!

Blog Date: Thursday, September 24, 2015 - 10:35

Hello Teams! Today’s the day for initial event registration. I hope everyone’s as excited as I am!

I also wanted to tell you about a new waitlist feature we’re trying out. In prior years, if an event had no open capacity, while teams would be given the opportunity to sign up for the waitlist, they were not given any indication as to how full the waitlist already was. This could lead to teams signing up for events for which there was little chance they would eventually be able to attend.

We’d like to give the teams more information to help them make better informed decisions. Before you sign up for the waitlist for a given event, you will see the waitlist color coded yellow, orange, or red. As with many things we do in FRC, there’s a formula! Once an event reaches an open capacity of 0 (meaning no open spots are available), the following color coding will appear in TIMS:

W = # of teams already on waitlist for this event (min 1 for calculation sanity)
R = # of spaces in reserve (min 1 for calculation sanity)
C (chance factor) = W/R

For C <= 1: Yellow
For C between 1 and 1.5: Orange
For C above 1.5: Red

PLEASE NOTE! Spaces are reserved to help cover contingencies such as Rookie teams getting started later in the season, etc. If the waitlist you are signing up for is coded yellow, that doesn’t mean you will be getting into the event, just that your chances are better than if it is coded red. Conversely, if a waitlist is coded red, that doesn’t mean you won’t be getting into an event, just that your chances are relatively smaller. Rookies should especially continue to sign up for the event that is most convenient for them, and we’ll do our best to accommodate.

We’re just giving this a try this year. If teams find it helpful, we’ll keep it. If they don’t, or if it’s just too confusing, we’ll get rid of it.

Be sure to send your feedback either way to frcteams@usfirst.org!