Being Proactive About Paper Airplanes on Einstein

[WynS]

I'm not sure I've seen this mentioned but as someone who has been hit in the head repeatably by paper airplanes that were inexpertly made and thrown, I'm not a big fan.

[PayneTrain]

We're only flying paper airplanes because Libby likes them so much.

[Andy A.]

It bears looking for the root cause here; people are bored, paper airplanes are fun and the dome offers a pretty awesome place to fly them.

I'd propose a formal (either FIRST or team organized) paper airplane contest. Each team gets the same paper/whatever, launches from the same place and graded on whatever criteria seems appropriate. Let people get it out of their system in a positive and easier to control manner.

[Taylor]

How about create a schedule that doesn't have 30 minutes between matches?

[MechEng83]

Originally Posted by Taylor

How about create a schedule that doesn't have 30 minutes between matches?

This. So much.

[Michael Corsetto]

Originally Posted by Taylor

How about create a schedule that doesn't have 30 minutes between matches?

Please! Yes.

[Jardanium]

I was never too big of a fan of the paper airplane tradition, as it created a gigantic mess, was quite annoying and even painful at times; I remember being hit in the head forcefully by several as we sat down on the lower level in 2014. I personally always felt bad when speakers telling their inspiring and emotional stories were interrupted by the cheers of the crowd as an airplane made it to the stage.

Last year in particular however, I felt the tradition got way too out of hand, as groups were dumping reams of paper off the upper level, throwing crumpled and ripped up programs from outside and at some points toilet paper from the bathrooms ended up being run down to the lower level from up there as well.

It felt more like a rave than a robotics competition, and just seemed very out of place and inappropriate on such an international stage of competition.

tl;dr: No more paper airplanes, they cause a big mess, distract from the show, and don't look professional.

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

We're only flying paper airplanes because Libby likes them so much.

Dangit, Wil, I'd been avoiding this thread.

I'm honestly tired of being the broken record on this one.
It's disrespectful. Just don't do it.
Why this isn't common sense is absolutely mind-boggling to me.

Who cares what a random speaker says, Good Guy Frank himself has said in a blog to stop throwing paper airplanes. FIRST should absolutely put out wording (team update, maybe?) that states clearly states a position against it, and continue to make announcements throughout the event.

If the only possible way the kids on your team can have fun at World Championships is by throwing airplanes, you might want to reconsider bringing those students on the trip at all. It's similar to the idea of students who paid all the money for a trip, just to play games on their phones in the stands ... what's your end goal here? On 1923 we ban a lot of things that are disrespectful to the event on our team, with wording similar to Mike Corsetto's above. Paper airplanes are one of them, along with things like headphone use & gaming in the stands.

Yes, there are WAY-too-long breaks between matches. FIRST should work on their end to make them smaller, and fill those breaks with valuable content (team history & match review by knowledgeable commentators, maybe? I know I'm shooting for the stars here...) - but just because FIRST ends up creating a break doesn't mean we get to fill it with awful behavior.

What other ways can we, as a community, think of that a team in the stands could do on their own to fill the time between Einstein matches?

I'll start: Our team, when we're watching elims matches with long breaks, tends to 'bet on' & discuss the upcoming match. Oh yeah, I'll bet it's Red, did you see Team XYZ's high shot now? Or what about something like an "Einstein Bingo" card that your team can play against each other in the stands? A trivia game about your team? I Spy: FIRST event edition?

Doesn't have to be something huge or intense. Just anything that's not littering...

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

Do it all at once, as an organized event. When the speaker asks, do it then, and not again. Have fun with it during that set downtime, and get it out of the system.

Or we could just not do it at all and act like adults without throwing paper around.

Just my take.

[BenHildy]

While I will admit that I participated in the throwing of paper airplanes last year at world's, I frankly was an overexcited freshman who was eager to be a part of something big. Little did I know that my actions cause problems in the grand scheme of things. While I do agree that it has its fun, we should certainly refrain from the whole throwing of planes, at least during guest speakers, matches, etc because it is extremely and utterly disrespectful. I'm not going to wail on those who do this responsibly, but honestly we as a generation of intellectuals all congregated in one place could easily think of a less disruptive time-waster. Overall, I can understand how this "tradition" developed, but it certainly takes away from the mature and sophisticated image that FRC strives to build for us.

tl;dr: Throwing paper planes, while fun, has grown a bit out of control and should be either done responsibly or not at all.

[CalTran]

Originally Posted by Libby K

What other ways can we, as a community, think of that a team in the stands could do on their own to fill the time between Einstein matches?


Doesn't have to be something huge or intense. Just anything that's not littering...

Well, let's preface this by kinda throwing the "Doesn't have to be something huge or intense" part out the window - what about expanding on the FIRST Einstein show that was put on last year into a Preview/Season Recap show?
One of my favorite parts of the season is listening to team history recaps during Finals from MCs like Karthik (His recap during GTRE 2012 was phenominal) and Dave Verbrugge (The one that comes to mind was his recap during 2010 Einstein).

So, expanding on this, once the first or second division gets out of division eliminations, over on the official Einstein screen FIRST could start a preshow in somewhat of the same vein as your conventional sports preshow. It could cover everything from the history of the Einstein teams at Champs to significant moments during the season (First capture, first hang, first double hang, first Triple hang, etc.) and cover things like event with best breaching percentage, highest capture rate, etc. [1] to a panel of "experts" predicting general strategies that are expected to be seen on Einstein - things like expected offense/defense ratio, types of defense, over/unders on scores from different points in the match, etc.

It's information that I, and at least a decent amount of people on Chief, seem to love to hear about. It'd be something that would be mildly interesting, but not something that would be unfortunate to miss since your division is still playing. There's plenty of people with much better qualifications to host this show (FUN, RoboZone, GameSense, etc.) but would be a position I'd love to volunteer for / shoot for in the future.

[1] - May require some research on the fly. I suppose access to TBA would be helpful.

[Joe Johnson]

Originally Posted by Libby K

<SNIP>
Who cares what a random speaker says, Good Guy Frank himself has said in a blog to stop throwing paper airplanes. FIRST should absolutely put out wording (team update, maybe?) that states clearly states a position against it, and continue to make announcements throughout the event.
<SNIP>

I think, yes, put out an update but if FIRST really want to kill this, I think they need to bring out the big guns.

Have Dean and/or Woodie come out and say something like, "Listen. We are serious. We've put this in the Manual (via an update but still it's in the rules). We want this to stop. If you won't do this out of respect for the rules, then I am asking you to do it out of respect for me. Please. Don't do this. If you see others doing it, remind them of the norms of this community. Thanks."

I think the FIRST community will surprise you with how fast we'd get this under control, but it will take more than a blog post I think.

Dr. Joe J.

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by Joe Johnson

I think, yes, put out an update but if FIRST really want to kill this, I think they need to bring out the big guns.

Have Dean and/or Woodie come out and say something like, "Listen. We are serious. We've put this in the Manual (via an update but still it's in the rules). We want this to stop. If you won't do this out of respect for the rules, then I am asking you to do it out of respect for me. Please. Don't do this. If you see others doing it, remind them of the norms of this community. Thanks."

I think the FIRST community will surprise you with how fast we'd get this under control, but it will take more than a blog post I think.

Dr. Joe J.

Absolutely agree! I think the confusion source is that there's mixed messages coming from above, so some folks think it's OK.

[pilleya]

Originally Posted by Littlepchan

I know it is an opposing viewpoint, but I like the challenge of getting the airplane to the curtain. In fact my plan was to buy a small buzzer motor that goes in a phone, 3d print a small propeller, attach a small dime battery, throw it, and be done.

Please do not add anything non-paper to a paper aeroplane. No matter what you say, there is a significant risk of the paper planes hitting someone, I'd rather not be hit by a plane at all and definitely one with the added weight of a prop, motor and battery. Our team was almost constantly hit with planes coming from near the top of the stands last year.

Just think of it this way, if there are 600 teams at Champs and each team has 20 students at the event, if each student throws a single plane that is 12000 paper planes. It is a huge waste, and massive inconvenience to the event staff and to members of the FIRST community down on the arena floor.

[JG1902]

I can't understand why there isn't some sort of declaration to not throw paper airplanes during a match/while someone is speaking (or at all, for that matter).

From what I gather, not many people seem to be fond of the littering tradition, so why isn't there someone in, say, opening ceremonies telling people to stop?