[FRC Blog] Kickoff!

[jlindquist74]

Every team which has to do ANYTHING more (like use an override login) than what they ordinarily do to get an off-campus connection (sign onto content filters) should document that process and have their head coach e-mail it to frcteams@firstinspires.org on Saturday.

This was an ignorant, irresponsible decision on FIRST's part, and it's one they should have recognized as such at the time they made it. Their own announcement acknowledges Twitch's history as a gaming site. There was no survey sent out asking "Hey, which of these streaming services are blocked by your district's content filter?" So FIRST should get an assessment of just how poor that decision is.

The last time one of my organizations had to request a filter exception[1], it took three weeks of e-mail discussion between various people in district IT, a couple of whom clearly sought reasons to deny it. ("Why don't you do this off campus?") That was three weeks in September, when no one was out on vacation.

[1] Outbound FTP traffic for the football team's game film service[2]

[2] DSV, before they were bought out by Hudl[3], so yes, this was a few years ago.

[3] Haaaaaaaaaaate