[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

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Jaci

I, for one, welcome our new PogChamp and PJSalt overlords.

I love the Kappa Everywhere add-on so much.

[Hitchhiker 42]

Originally Posted by ABreyen

Competition Video that they are playing

Nice to know 11 people are watching it with me

[GeeTwo]

St Tammany School Board blocks twitch. We know there's not enough time to get an exception. We did check this evening that one of our mentors can set up a hotspot on his tablet from which we can tap into twitch, so yay, but only because of personal resources. If that hadn't worked, we'd probably have wound up at PJ's or Starbuck's or some other internet cafe on Saturday morning.

[Ben Wolsieffer]

It is easy for someone to mirror a Twitch stream on YouTube, but there would probably be legal issues unless FIRST gives permission (or ideally, does it themselves).

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

Those teams now only have a few days to get Twitch unblocked by their school IT.

Two weeks: https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/s...66&postcount=9

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Joe Ross

Two weeks: https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/s...66&postcount=9

Those school IT departments are renowned for their work ethic on December 23rd-January 1st.

[ATannahill]

Originally Posted by Joe Ross

Two weeks: https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/s...66&postcount=9

That was not an official announcement. I would not be surprised if coaches/mentors that follow CD didn't dive into that thread and didn't have the realization that the stream would be on twitch before this blog post.

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by Joe Ross

Two weeks: https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/s...66&postcount=9

I feel like that post was even later than I had heard it was going to be on Twitch. My team contacted the school's IT department at our last team meeting before break on Dec. 12.

[deeek]

Is anyone else getting constant buffering with the test stream? There are only 19 people on it. We have a fairly decent pipe coming into our school and usually don't have any trouble on Kickoff days. I hope that it's not like this on Saturday!

[bobbysq]

Originally Posted by deeek

Is anyone else getting constant buffering with the test stream? There are only 19 people on it. We have a fairly decent pipe coming into our school and usually don't have any trouble on Kickoff days. I hope that it's not like this on Saturday!

It's probably buffering only because there are so few people on it. Twitch only allows you to change the video quality once a certain number of people are watching, so with everyone watching on kickoff day, you should be able to adjust the quality.

[Michael Corsetto]

Originally Posted by ATannahill

That was not an official announcement. I would not be surprised if coaches/mentors that follow CD didn't dive into that thread and didn't have the realization that the stream would be on twitch before this blog post.

Yup, had no clue until the January announcement, and I'm on CD too often...

Luckily, our school doesn't block twitch, but I wouldn't be surprised if we are in the minority.

-Mike