Decommissioning of USFIRST.org archived site

[bobbysq]

Originally Posted by mwmac

More disappointing news for those who find using the archived site more effective for monitoring events and registered teams.

The archive site is also useful for old files. One time, I had issues with reimaging a Classmate, and it turned out there was some from 2011 that I had to run in order to get Windows to activate.

[runneals]

Originally Posted by bdaroz

I'm sorry... but the amount of effort "maintaining" an older site, i.e. just keeping it running, is utterly dwarfed by the amount of work they need to put into their current problems on the "new" site. It's not like the archive site is getting new content.

Besides, last I checked all the old blogs on the new site that were migrated over still have broken links. The amount of time it would take to fix that alone is larger than the time required to maintain the old site.

Their manuals (volunteers) still reference some stuff that's not up on the new site yet. Like seriously, how hard is it to replicate everything over to a new site?!?!

[Michael Hill]

Originally Posted by bdaroz

My initial reaction (and reply to their tweet about it):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl0jg8rFFlw

https://youtube.com/watch?v=31g0YE61PLQ

[cbf]

This is bad.

FIRST seems to not understand that some of us use the old stuff. For example, this Fall we built a demo bot out of some old FTC parts we had lying around. But I had a terrible time trying to find documentation about setting up the software. There were plenty of non-FIRST sites that had overviews about this, but for the real details they all linked to documentation on the FIRST web site -- that appears to have been completely removed from the World Wide Web. A mere broken link we could have dealt with -- but this stuff was completely gone.

It cost nearly nothing to keep a site of static content on the web nowadays.

You really need to think about creating stable URLs to old content -- especially documentation. Yes, FTC may not use NXT bricks anymore, but some of us still have them around.

At least stuff like cRIOs and Jaguars are in better shape -- mostly because the real documentation was at the vendor sites, not FIRST's.

[headlight]

This doesn't directly address the problem, but I have found that FIRST HQ's phone support is very good. Not many questions asked, get to a polite human relatively quickly, and they seem to be able to easily accomplish most tasks that people are having trouble with. It is almost to the point where I start with a call, rather than going to the website. I'm sure they will be glad to help find information that is not readily available on the new website.

I call (800) 871-8326, then press 2. After that, pick from the following menu:

1. Team support/general information - The general place to start.
2. Finance, accounts payable/receivable
3. Marketing and Communications
4. FIRST place?
5. Development/Financial support of FIRST
6. Volunteer Information
7. Human Resources
8. Office of the President
9. Procurement or Shipping

Even on busy days I don't hold for more than 15 minutes, and the person who answers the phone has always been able to do what was needed very quickly (no supervisor approval).

[ahartnet]

Anyone know if there's an easy to download or access copy of the database accessible through https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso? Once they archive this site - I can't imagine how I'll find this type of data anymore.

[maths222]

Originally Posted by ahartnet

Anyone know if there's an easy to download or access copy of the database accessible through https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index.lasso? Once they archive this site - I can't imagine how I'll find this type of data anymore.

I don't think this will be going away as quickly. It is actually not part of the new site, but rather part of the "my.[usfirst/firstinspires].org" site, and is also accessible at https://my.firstinspires.org/myarea/...age=searchform

[ahartnet]

Good to know that it's under the new domain, thanks! The new site focuses so much on big and pretty that I thought they'd get rid of this compact and useful way to view information.

[RoboMom]

>>The usfirst.org website will be decommissioned on January 31st, 2017: Users can currently access the usfirst.org site at: http://archive.usfirst.org. For those who still use the old website, we are asking that you provide us with the specific data and features that are available on the old website but you think are missing from the new website and would like to have available or implemented. Please send suggestions to frcteamadvocate@firstinspires.org.<<

Any interest in putting together a community list of specific data/features we want to have access to? Is this a project better done by the community rather than individual responses to that email address?