F4 - Connect (The new way to get help)

[smitikshah]

Originally Posted by Alyssa

To Sam, and the rest of the members of F4 -

Firstly, I’d like to start off by saying that the only reason I felt the need to post this was on account of the fact that you all seem to be scared of mentors and believe that they are some type of overbearing force that you need to revolt against. Thus, maybe as a student (at least, my last 2 days as a student), I’ll have a different impact on you all.

To start off, those who know me both online and in real life, know that I’m someone who can get quite defensive about the decisions I make, and get even more heated about certain topics I’m very passionate about. FIRST robotics, women’s rights, my friends and my family are all topics that I’ll get super intense about and feel the need to comment on.

One more thing I can add to the list of things I’m really passionate about is my love and respect for my mentors. My mentors are people that have put countless hours into me as an engineer as well as a person. They’re people that I constantly go to about anything in life, and whose opinions and insights are priceless to me. The idea of cutting them out of the way that I learn and grow is confounding to me, and it’s heartbreaking to think that other students would want to do that, and I think that is what F4 Connect will. This “new way to get help” as you call it will only cause a divide between students and mentors.

Another issue I see with F4 Connect is that while anonymity can be a good thing, it can also lead to a host of issues. Anonymity can lead to people saying whatever they want with no repercussions, and while you may think that red dots on Chief are “normal,” they’re a good way to keep people thinking twice about what they say and post.

The last biggest issue I see with F4 Connect is a point that Corsetto already brought up. While I’m all for students learning from other teams, I want to know which teams they’re learning from. I want them to be reaching out to the best of teams, and asking them for advice and for help with technical issues. If a freshman were to come to me with an idea the day after kickoff and tell me they saw it on one of 1114’s old robots, or 1678’s, I would happily look it up and be excited to see something awesome, and something I can learn from. But if they were to tell me they got it off of F4 Connect, knowing that the people on the site are made up of a very small sample size of students that have less than 4 years of experience, I would be quite a bit more skeptical.

Look back to when FIRST announced #2Champs. The entire community responded to the announcement, and rather than taking our input, they simply defended their decision and stubbornly have insisted that they are right ever since. Please try to take that into consideration before you defend yourself rather than listening to some of the valuable input that experienced veterans are offering you.

-Alyssa

First of all thank you for your input and time to share your thoughts on F4 Connect with us. I'm going to start off by emphasizing that F4 was absolutely not founded on the principle of being scared of mentors. F4 is commonly misunderstood. It is not a revolt against mentors - simply a group for students to get their ideas and opinions emphasized (which often aren't).

We are absolutely not discrediting mentors. We all respect our mentors who shape us to be who we are, and the endless dedication they put into each of us and our teams to make us better. In fact, I even told my mentor about F4 and it's idea, as I tell him almost everything going on. He supported the idea and thought it was a good solution.

Your post seems to be railing on the idea that we don't go to our mentor in times of need. While it is heartbreaking, many people look for outside advice, as every mentor has a certain amount of knowledge in different subjects. CD is a great place for people to post these questions, however as some previously mentioned, it can seem a bit overwhelming at times. The point of F4 Connect is not to create a divide between students and mentors, rather help students that wouldn't normally post on CD, and even possibly (as previously mentioned by Asid61 connect them with other professionals we think could answer the question better). We aren't looking to replace mentors with ourselves - simply offer some help/advice students would otherwise be intimidated to post directly.

As for the anonymity point - I agree. But we will ignore any troll type questions, and if it's serious enough, report it. However it is important to ensure some trust in the community. If you assume everyone is going to use it in a bad way, how will you address those people that use it for genuine purpose.

On the point about experienced teams. I agree to an extent. There are teams with certain success, and you want help from them. Let's not forget we have many qualified people on F4 Connect as well and just because they haven't had a certain level of success, I don't think it's a fair assessment to not consider their opinion. In addition, while technical questions is an option - we oriented it more towards rookies that need simple technical help. All other needs we think would be better answered we will direct elsewhere - or be frank with the person who submits the question and say they should probably ask someone more experienced.

I don't completely understand your last point about 2Champs. They are defending their decision because based on the knowledge/facts they have they realize it may be a better option. As emotionally straining as it might be, it still may be the better option, objectively (but this is opening a whole new can of worms).

We simply saw a problem that many of us faced and produced our solution to it. Whether it is the best solution or worst, without trying it out we don't know. If you don't think it will work then I think it's best to just not use it. I don't think trying to stop the service, with all the hard work put into it, before it even starts, helps anyone.

I would say over the course of this thread, we have gained some insight and made a couple changes as to how this will be run. We appreciate all the posts that help us improve. It is great to know that you were passionate enough to post on this topic, and I hope I was able to clarify some points about F4 Connect.