Collaboration..

[Amanda Morrison]

Originally Posted by Kris Verdeyen

Why is it that whenever a thread starts to get interesting, it is shut down? I understand the balance between the right to free speech and an editor or moderator's responsibility to maintain an appropriate atmosphere, but it seems like there have to be better ways to handle it than to lock down a thread.

First, that isn't always true. There are arguments here on CD that do have a tendency to get out of hand, off-topic, or altogether just go bad. Also, if you look back, there are quite a few threads that have pushed many limits without actually being shut down. The necessity of discussion about certain topics is evident, however these forums are kind of like this year's game: Expecting everyone to understand and not test the limits of gracious professionalism. There is a lot of activity on these forums (and throughout FIRST) that ISN'T always positive, doesn't always follow any kind of graciousness towards others, and does not maintain a professional aura. Especially on the 'gracious' and 'professional' end - do you think Ben is going to ask his boss to "lighten up and chill out a little"? Or try telling your co-workers that you hate them and the way that they make the work atmosphere. That will take any kind of reputation 'points' you have in reality and certainly flush them down the toilet.

Originally Posted by Kris Verdeyen

I see nothing wrong with moderating a specific thread, not to weed out ideas, but to establish an appropriate tone and curb offensive behavior. Another option would be to forbid people from posting in a thread or posting without review if their behavior is unacceptable. This is not censorship in any meaningful sense, especially if the moderators are of the caliber we've seen around here. It's a time out, which won't be so bad if the thread stays open. It gives those who get too excited a chance to cool off, and find a way to express themselves in a manner in tune with the community that they're a part of.

This would be a great option, but unfortunately not very feasible. For example, when moderators were trying to edit the 'Robot Collaboration' thread, most of the posts had been coming at them rapid-fire and it's hard to keep up with them. This kind of system could delay posts at a day or more, depending on the topic; you can't just pick out certain people because not every post by a certain person may offend, just one or two. It's much easier to edit the post, PM the person, and say 'I edited/Can you please edit your post to make it sound more gracious and less offensive. If you have any problems with this, please contact me and we can talk about it.' Along the lines of that thread also, many people were posting specifically TO one person or a group, posting offensive material, posting replies to their friends... posting without thinking about things and simmering down. A lot of apologies and responses were recieved by moderators after the thread was closed, thanking them for not letting things get too out of hand (from both sides of the argument).

But that's just one thread, one argument, and these are expansive forums. Like Brandon's post said, by posting on these forums, you agree to certain rules. I'm going to post the following, and hope this brings a refresher to all users (in violation or not).

Originally Posted by ChiefDelphi Rules

ChiefDelphi.com reserves the right to remove a post which does not relate to the topic being discussed in the forum. In addition, ChiefDelphi reserves the right to reorganize discussion forums in order to best serve the majority of our members. (ie: topics may, at a moderators discretion, be relocated to a more appropriate discussion forum, or deleted entirely)

ChiefDelphi also reserves the right to prohibit or delete discussions that are thought to violate applicable law or that may be harmful to other members. Please remember, you are representing not only yourself, but your team and its sponsors, as well as what FIRST stands for. Please try to practice gracious professionalism at all times.

The owners of the ChiefDelphi Forums have the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason.

If you have a problem with any of those rules, need clarification, or would like to make a suggestion, please PM one of the moderators of the forums (their names are located at the end of the page of each forum).

[Madison]

If someone is going to behave in a manner that is either unprofessional or disgracious, I do not believe that they deserve to have moderators cleaning up after them. Their behavior should speak for itself and, whether we'd like to admit it or not, is representative of that person. We all have moments when we make poor decisions, but it seems disingenuous and fake to try to erase those moments or otherwise pretend that they do not exist.

I don't think that having a moderator edit someone's post is going to teach them very much about their behavior. It will show them that they did something inappropriate, yes, but it will do absolutely nothing to make them understand why it is inappropriate or whom considers it inappropriate. Those lessons can only be learned by experiencing the repercussions of their actions, uncensored and unshielded.

[trev2023]

I don't know if anyone's seen this, but...this may perhaps bring an end to the arguments:

FIRST's Official Words

Q: If high school students on my team make parts for another team, does the team receiving the parts need to bill out our high school students at a typical labor rate as part of the $3,500 limit?

A: Gracious professionalism, "coopetition" and collaboration are some of the hallmarks of FIRST. We have all been amazed at the level that FIRST teams aid each other - not just at competitions, but throughout the year. By working together, we have increased our effectiveness inspiring youth and recognizing the value of science and technology. For the case when one team assists another team, this is viewed as "coopetition" - teams helping each other inspire youth. Of course, teams that work together must adhere to the FIRST Rules. In this case, several rules are directly / indirectly related to your question: <R09> Teams must fabricate and/or assemble all custom parts and assembled mechanisms on the robot by the 2004 team after the Kickoff; <R68> Additional Parts must be generally available from suppliers such that any other FIRST team, if desires, may also obtain them at the same price (a specific device fabricated by a team from non-2004 Kit materials does not have to be available to others, however, the materials it is made from must be available to other teams). <R73> The cost of all non-2004 Kit parts and materials used in the construction of a robot must be recorded (in US$) by the team, and a list of all such items and their costs made available during robot inspection. <R74> All costs are to be determined as explained in the cost determination section. 5.3.2.2 Cost Determination. To account for the value of cases when one team donates material to another team, if the donating team members or sponsors do the work without any associated labor costs, that labor is not considered as a cost to the team receiving the donated material. The cost of the raw materials must however be accounted for by the team receiving the material. If the donating team does pay for outside labor, the cost of outside labor must be accounted for by the team receiving the material (along with the cost of the raw materials). We are trying to create a community where working together helps us collectively achieve our goal of inspiring and recognizing science and technology.

and...

Q: Is collaboration between 2 teams acceptable and encouraged by FIRST?

A: Absolutely. Teams are encouraged to share their knowledge, experience, and innovations with each other on and off the play field, as well as before, during and after the competition season. Without inter-team collaborations, many of the central elements of the FIRST philosophy - such as distribution of technical innovations, team workshops, shared designs, software code-sharing, teams mentoring teams, team-run off-season events, etc. - would all be impossible. The whole concept of "coopetition" is based on the idea of teams helping each other to compete.

This was taken from the Q&A section 5.3.2.2 in case anyone wants to know

[Tuba4]

Originally Posted by Ben.V.293

what the hell are you talking about when you say that the only opionion that matters is that of FIRST. are you stupid or something? EVERYONES opinion matters. I truly hate this site and all of the people that post on it. when dean and woody started this organization im sure they did not expect to create a whole community of nice ninkempoops that constantly blabber about gracious profesionalism and immediatly shoot down anyone who has an opinion other than that of their own. i said it before and i'll say it again EVERYONE has the right to their own opinion and 95% of the people on this site have to chill out and lighten up a little

You clearly missed my point. We all have the right to our opinions, even you! But FIRST has the final say in this discussion. FIRST's "opinion" is what we all have to live with. So ultimately it IS the only one that matters. Now that FIRST has spoken on this issue, we all must abide by there "opinion", whether we agree or not.

[Katie Reynolds]

Originally Posted by Ben.V.293

Why would there be a need for a moderator anyway? and another thing, i have seen posts delibretly altered by you (yes i mean you brandon martus) to change the opinion the post displays from that of the writer to your own opinions....

The reason we need moderators is because of people like you. Brandon, along with all of the other moderators, do a GREAT job on these forii. If any post is edited for content, it is not to change the poster's point of view or opinion, it is for appropriateness and content. If you posted a something with a link to a website that could contain "adult content", it is not unthinkable for a moderator to put a note on the end of the post saying "this site contains adult content, view at your own risk, etc, etc." I can't imagine someone posting something and Brandon editing it to say "Wait, just kidding - I really meant to say this which is exactly what Brandon Martus thinks and completely opposite of my previous view."

Originally Posted by Ben.V.293

I truly hate this site and all of the people that post on it.

So why are you even here, if you hate the site so much? If you have such strong negative feelings towards all of us, why don't you just leave?

Originally Posted by Ben.V.293

when dean and woody started this organization im sure they did not expect to create a whole community of nice ninkempoops that constantly blabber about gracious profesionalism and immediatly shoot down anyone who has an opinion other than that of their own.

I'll agree with you on one point - Dean and Woody did not intend on creating a group of people who shoot down other people's opinions. Thank God that didn't happen! Gracious professionalism is a big thing in FIRST - it's one of the things that sets it apart from every other competition! I'm glad we have the "nincompoops" that blabber about gracious professionalism. At least they're getting the idea out there.

Originally Posted by Ben.V.293

i said it before and i'll say it again EVERYONE has the right to their own opinion

And thank you for sharing yours.

[Jeff Waegelin]

Originally Posted by Kris Verdeyen

Why is it that whenever a thread starts to get interesting, it is shut down? I understand the balance between the right to free speech and an editor or moderator's responsibility to maintain an appropriate atmosphere, but it seems like there have to be better ways to handle it than to lock down a thread.

Threads get shut down because what some people call "interesting" other people call "out of control." There have been many threads I would consider genuinely interesting. There have also been many that I would consider genuinely out of control. Unfortunately, in many situations, people feel the need to post opinions flaming someone or something, and when that happens, things tend to get out of hand. Such matters tend to snowball until they get out of control, at which point, a lock is about the only way to cool things down. It's not perfect, and we hate doing it, but sometimes, it's just the only solution.

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by Brandon Martus

The debate that was mentioned here last night, and for most of today, has been canceled. Keep an eye out for a place (moderated forum, possibly) to discuss this and other hot topics.

Now that there has been an official response from FIRST, I'd like to see a place to discuss this. Perhaps trev2023's post could be the beginning, either in the general forum or the FIRST-A-Holic's Anonymous Mailbox (since we already have a moderated forum).

[Brandon Martus]

I will set up a moderated forum tonight, and I suppose this can be the first topic.
Stay tuned..

[Spikey]

Originally Posted by dlavery

Remember that what you do here, and what you say here, reflects on you, your team, your school, and your organization. Does the message quoted above, with the phrasing you have used, generate the sort of impression that you want this community to have of you (and your team)? When we all see Team 293 in competition, should your message be the last impression we have in our heads regarding how your team behaves?

-dave

"The opinions expressed in these forums are not necessarily the opinion of Team 293, Hopewell Valley High School, or Bristol Myers Squibb"
First of all Team 293 is just like any other FIRST team. We work hard to make our money and build our robot. We are proud that 90% of our robot is built by students and not by a bunch of engineers. If you have ever met is in competition we are just as friendly as the next team. We will happily lend assistance to anyone anytime. Team 293 prides itself in the behavior of its students in the competition, thats evident whenever you pass our pit and see so many students working on the robot while our mentors watch.
Teams in no way should interoperate the actions of one person as a reflection on our team.

[Cory]

While people shouldnt judge an entire team based on one member's actions, unfortunately, they do. Other people's statements may not have a direct impact on you, but they very well could affect how people view your team for years to come.

Cory

Originally Posted by Spikey

"The opinions expressed in these forums are not necessarily the opinion of Team 293, Hopewell Valley High School, or Bristol Myers Squibb"

No, but you are a representitive of Team 293, Hopewell Valley High School, and Bristol Myers Squibb...and even though varying people might have different opinions, you are still responsible for your words and actions as a representitive of that team.

[Katie Reynolds]

Originally Posted by D.J. Fluck

... you are still responsible for your words and actions as a representitive of that team.

It's true ... take a look at Andy Baker's signiture:

"What I write here may be my own opinions, but whether I like it or not, I am a representative of my team, Delphi, and Kokomo, Indiana."

Mmmhmmm.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Katie Reynolds

It's true ... take a look at Andy Baker's signiture:

"What I write here may be my own opinions, but whether I like it or not, I am a representative of my team, Delphi, and Kokomo, Indiana."

Mmmhmmm.

While I don't think anyone's suggesting that's the way things should be, it's life. We shouldn't judge others based on behavior that wasn't their own, but we do. It's our greatest asset and our worst flaw.

[Koko Ed]

I go to alot of messageboards and I always call Chiefdelphi the "Clean Room" because almost all message boards are infested with trolls, posters who hang around to do nothing more than cause trouble, often with multiple accounts(I guess they feel the annomynous nature of the internet gives them a lisence to be a jerk. I have seen some pretty cruel things done through these kind of actions. And some of them go beyond harmless michief to taking advantage of emotinal scars for the sake of sick amusement).
While some complain about Brandon's controlling it keeps this element out. I have never seen a troll on this page, not even once. That's pretty impressive.

[Joe Matt]

I wanted to insert my opinion here on both topics:

-On freedome of speach, I think this whole topic is swayed by the opinions of those reading it. I thought the collaboration thread was going very well, I though both sides were fair. But others disagreed. I thought 60 and 254 were avoiding questions by posting thier past, while others just wanted the truth, no spin. Other people thought those who disagreed were mean, ruthless, and vicious against poor helpless 254 and 60. When it comes down to it, it's in the best interests of the teams not to continue the discussion as it was, but to moderate it to make sure it's not just flame after flame.

-On representation of teams, what you say will sometimes reflect your team, I think that only a fool would think that personal opinions expressed here are shared by the whole team. If I say I like cheese, it dosn't mean all of 384 likes cheese. If I don't like the colaboration of 60 and 254 (just an example), it dosn't mean my whole team is against it.

I think everyone is touchy when it comes to this, since they spend hours, weeks, and months designing, building, and loving their robot, only to post it here to much criticizing.