On being rude ...

[Foster]

Being someone that writes direct posts, and since I had one in the last 24 hours, I'm going to go on a slight rant here. I'm willing to trade 6 years and a big handfull of dots in for this.

I see CD posters in cycles.

Hi, I'm Elizabeth Jane from 8081 and as a freshman roboteer (my grandfather always uses that word) I'm excited to be on Chief Delphi.

-- I seldom comment, I sometimes put a Hi, welcome to CD oh and this is how you search to find stuff you might find interesting.

I'm Colin and our team wants to know if when we mount the lasers on the sharks, do they need to point forward.
-- I assume that they have read the rules so will put out a "Colin, when you skipped over reading rule R.3.5.6.4.2, you'll see that it says, no sharks, only groupers and the lasers must point forward. (Clearly a water game year). My response is a little strong, and pushes the edge. But, if Colin had read the rules he wouldn't be posting this.

I'm Richard and want to know if we can solder connectors. (Simple tech question)
-- Yes you can, but there are about a dozen people that will say no. Use the search function to find out why.

As I look at all these, questions, I look at the year and their position. As "long time" CD members in "Teacher/Mentor" roles, I start assuming that they have been present for discussions. I also assume that Mentors are clueful and above average intelligence.

So I assume they know how FIRST works. How events are run, how finances work, where the money goes, etc. I assume that teams in the ~1000 range and less remember Dewalt Drill motors and Fisher Price Motors and Small Parts. And they explain now that we have Andy and Mark giving up lives to ship parts and how Paul uses cattle prods to get JVN and Aren to design parts in Texas and a guy with just initials for a name on the west coast is doing drives. And while I give time to this to spread to the #4000 teams and higher that this is the Golden Age", I expect the elders to know this and spread this.

So when I post:

Originally Posted by Foster

Just a reminder, these are free items that AM is storing, cataloging, entering into the FirstChoice System, picking, packing and shipping. So it makes sense that this happens well before kickoff. And it makes sense to do it after the week one rush is done so AM can get their real jobs done.

The takeaway from this post is 1) this is again free stuff, not your birthright, not paid for by your entry fee. 2)AM is adding extra work to their busiest time of the year to help support FRC 3) You should be sending thank you notes to AM even if you get one item for doing this.

It's to pass this history on, making sure that people remember you really don't get much for your $5K. You actually get zero, it all goes to FIRST.

This is an early message in the annual cycle. You can use the search function to see that I post this reminder on a regular basis.

But yet we see this from a 8 year mentor

Originally Posted by MentorNameRedacted

1) Since when was this free? I spend $5000 to get this stuff. The kickoff kits used to be much larger, with many of the things we've seen in FIRST Choice in them for everyone. As teams grew though they couldn't get the supplies for everyone and they set up this system. Yeah it allows for some cool new stuff, but at the loss of quite a few items that we used to get, so I would never say its free.
2) Did Andymark ever say that they do this for nothing? Maybe they had and if thats the case kudos to them (ignoring the probably huge tax writeoff they can get for this). If not though, it doesnt make much economic sense for a company of Andymark's size to deal with FIRST Choice for free. I'd be surprised if there wasn't some sort of monetary support so that they at least get close to breaking even.

Sigh, so much wrong here. So I responded

Originally Posted by Foster

Hi, you must be new here. it's a well known fact that your $5,000 donation goes directly to FIRST. All of the parts, all of the totes, all of the shipping to your kick off site is donated.

Oh, that regional you "paid for". Donations make that happen.

Time for you to search in the CD archives about FIRST financials.



Andy Mark does amazing things to help roboteers. VEX does amazing things to help roboteers. While they meet bottom lines, the employees and owners put passion in front of profits. Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast made $32.9 million last year. If all the First FRC teams bough ALL their parts from AM, the gross would be less than half of what Brian made.

People do amazing things for stuff the have a passion for.

I salute the robotics suppliers, I think they are awesome people with bad business sense. I buy as much stuff from them as I can, just to keep them (parts, same day shipping, talk to an engineer on a call, phone answered on the weekend) around for another year.

You, on the other hand, should do some research before you post and look like an idiot.

People have send me notes about this along with red dots and green dots.

Red dot's have said I should be nicer. I was, the original note was much harsher, send me a pnote to see the exact text. I'm not trying to scare new roboteers off. But this isn't RobotBook were you can post anything. It's Chief Delphi where smart roboteers post questions that other smart roboteers and mentors take time to answer.

I got green dot's and emails saying thanks. One said they'd like to see a spotlight of "do some research before you post and look like an idiot." /sigh

TL;DR (Too long, didn't read.) That. Is. A. Problem. We write posts, with details, thoughts and backgrounds. Necessary Nuances for Later. While the big transit bus running over you is an issue, the nuances are what makes your life run better.

Back to Gary's post. Sorry that I was rude, but I'm not going to stop. I'll still will be nice to people that are new, but people that know better will collect pointed remarks. (Actually people that know better never post stupid stuff to start).

Bottom line, if you are new, I'll help you. If you ask something you should know, I'll teach you. Sometimes the lesson is "Wax on / Wax off". Other times it "Ouch, that ruler really stings".