FIRST Brand Refresh

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by David Brinza

.. FRC (I'm not going to stop using the acronym!)..

Agreed. Unless a credible terrorist organization takes on an acronym of FRC, I'm not going to change all the tags on my images from #FRC3946 to #FIRSTRoboticsCompetition3946. Even then, I'd probably do something like #FIRST-RC3946.

Originally Posted by AllenGregoryIV

..I don't like that they added a map on the team information page.

As someone who spent the better part of a professional decade programming geographic information systems (GIS), [particularly the 1990s programming GRASS] and who now uses COTS GIS on a daily basis, I have to disagree. While the current level of geographic detail leaves much to be desired, geospatially enabling the information allows it to be used for a variety of purposes.

The Vornoi polygons posted a while back for the nearest regional, and the erroneous "nearest CMP" map published recently are just the tip of the iceberg in working with geospatially enabled data. With geospatially enabled data, districts and regional-hosting organizations can better identify optimal locations for new event locations. Teams can better plan their competition season. HQ can (in future years) more efficiently allocate teams between the two CMPs.

Originally Posted by Greg Needel

The thing that is really bugging me about the new website right now is that they have quite literally broken every single link to any FIRST page everywhere online.

YES, YES, YES!

Bottom line: new logo, great - fills a rectangle much better. + 2 points. Introduction of poorly geospatially enabled information, +1 point. Sudden disruption of every link into usfirst.org with zero time interval to fix, -150 points. Net, -147 points. I'd really enjoy seeing how you thought this would work out. This is probably one of those cases where no one had the guts to say what needed to be said. I can somewhat proudly say that this afternoon I literally told a roomful of people (and at least as many people on a worldwide voice virtual meeting) that there was an elephant in the room - based on someone else's evaluation. I fear that the sudden rebranding without providing at least interim links may be on a par with Coca Cola's New Coke decision.