2006 Silicon Valley Regional

[Nuttyman54]

Am I the only one who noticed that the Poofs kept one trick up their sleeve? In all the previous matches, their autonomous mode was in low gear. For the FINAL match, they put it in high gear, and prevented 1280 from scoring in auto. VERY GOOD ADAPTATION! Congratulations to all teams, especially the award winners. We're really proud of our mentee, 1970, who were dead last and still kept the spirit up to win the Judges Award for day 2!

[TyffaneeSue]

Looks as though we're not allowed to post unless we can spout happy talk? Might be worthwhile to step back and ask yourself why you need to resort to censorship to prevent discussion of issues that need to be addressed.

I thought it was a major insult to give the top award to a team that certainly did not embody the spirit of FIRST--unless FIRST strives to be the robotic counterpart to Enron. (Perhaps that IS the message here?)

I would have been fine with Gunn getting the Comeback Team of the Year award. But the Chair award, as with many of the other awards, seemed to be based on politics.

[Jason Morrella]

Originally Posted by TyffaneeSue

I thought it was a major insult to give the top award to a team that certainly did not embody the spirit of FIRST--unless FIRST strives to be the robotic counterpart to Enron. (Perhaps that IS the message here?)

I would have been fine with Gunn getting the Comeback Team of the Year award. But the Chair award, as with many of the other awards, seemed to be based on politics.

# 1 - "was based on politics"? You clearly didn't listen to the judges description of the award they gave. They detailed the reasons why they felt GRT 192 was a worthy Chairman's Award Team - community outreach, helping other teams over the years, always having great team spirit, supporting FLL, the obvious impact of their program on their students as demonstrated by the universities and companies many of their graduates/alumni have moved on to, and yes, some obstacles they overcame in the past year. GRT received the Chairman's Award in the past (BEFORE the issues of last year), and now this year. They received the award for many reasons - however "politics" was certainly not one of them - please give our judges a little more credit than that. To GRT - be very proud of your award, you are a great team.

# 2 - I wish CD had a rule that all registered users had to identify themselves to post - it would certainly eliminate most (not all) of the petty and slanderous posts made on this forum. But as Bill and others have pointed out - it is a private forum, they can run it however they want, they do (and should) make rules for their forum, and if you/I/we don't like it, then don't come on the forum. If they want to moderate/delete posts they don't feel are constructive or gracious, all the power to them.

# 3 - As a general rule, I know that most people I speak to in FIRST who frequent Chief Delphi do not put much stock in statements/comments/slander made by people anonymously. When I see someone make an anonymous post which flames/insults/slanders another team or person - I (and I think many) associate one, some or all of the following with the post and the person making it:

pettiness, frustration, anger, resentment, jealousy, poor sportsmanship, ignorance, cowardice, doesn't handle losing well, in most cases doesn't really know anything of substance about the person or team they are talking about, and their post is just assumptions and speculations they "think" are true but actually aren't (or flat out attacks and/or lies they know aren't true but are making because they can do so anonymously).

This is obviously not only about this post regarding GRT, it's about many posts over the years on CD where people let their personal issues (see above list) cloud their objectivity, and the result is that they put down an entire team which NEVER deserves it. If you have a problem with a person or a few people on a team, fine. Don't discredit all the students and mentors on that team who put so much time, effort and passion into their program.

My opinion - if you feel you have something of value to say, something important, something factual, and something informative to share with the community - then do so with some conviction and be honest about who you are and what your bias/agenda/opinion might be. Everyone on this forum has opinions and everyone at some point disagrees greatly with what others think/say - that's great in a constructive and respectful atmosphere - we can certainly agree to disagree and still share our views. But stand up for your views and make them YOURS if you are going to post them, not some anonymous view you don't have to take credit for.

sorry for the soap box - just hate to see posts try to discredit the accomplishments and hard work of any teams, and especially the students on those teams.

[Nuttyman54]

I would like to say that Gunn deserved that award. They are an amazing team. They won because they had enough motivation, spirit and dedication to work through the toughest situation that any team can encouter, and came back stronger than before. And I don't think it takes a FIRST Judge to notice and recognize that.

On another note: here's my interpretation of why most of the discussion on GRT was removed.

1) It involved many people who have different opinions and would cause a large number of arguments on CD

2) Very few people know the full story of what happened. I know I don't.

3) It doesn't help anyone to continue the discussion. As Dave Lavery said in another thread, this was an isolated incident. It's HIGHLY unlikely that this will ever happen on another team. There is no reason to analyze what went wrong. They're back and that's what matters.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Nuttyman54

On another note: here's my interpretation of why most of the discussion on GRT was removed.

I'm fairly sure it's because the good folks who operate the Chiefdelphi website wanted no part of an issue that was an ongoing legal process, and as such shut down all speculation on the topic that could lead to problems down the line.

At any rate, that's all in the past, so there's really no point in wasting space here rehashing what's done.

[meaubry]

We, Team47 Chief Delphi, invest alot of money and time into this website. We rely heavily upon Brandon (webmaster) and our moderators in assuring the website is being managed carefully.
The rules governing the use are posted and although they may not include every little aspect of when to close, delete or ask some to modify a post - the moderators have been given authority to assist us in trying to keep this site a helpful, sharing, place for the community of FIRST to gather and communicate their ideas.
Sometimes, over the past 10 years, we have reacted to certain situations (threads and posts) that are not helpful or border on hurtful - particularly when they do not add any value to improving the entire FIRST community.
We welcome opinions, ideas, suggestion, in a wide variety of forums.
We work hard to try and find the right balance, as in the heat of the moment, "words" can be written that can cause enormous damage to both the person (not the team) posting and the team/person that is the focus of the post.
Saying that -
We (and the moderators we have entrusted) have and do retain the right to delete any and all posts that we see fit - for whatever reason that we deem appropriate.
We do not take this lightly and often have much discussion among ourselves as to the appropriate actions that are taken.
We thank any and all users that comply and revise posts, when suggested via pm or email.
We are proud of the website and hope everyone can respect our decisions in managing it.

Thanks for listening,
Mike Aubry

It made my heart soar like a eagle to see GRT back at SVR. When the
Chairman's award was announced, they got the loudest standing ovation I ever heard for any FIRST team, and they deserved it.

The 2006 SVR was the best FIRST event I've ever been to, and that includes
the 2000 National Championship. I admit I was a bit conflicted, having mentored 668 this year and 254 last year. I hope everyone's realized that 668 competed in the finals with a busted ball gun (stripped gears), and 1280 had only three wheels for the final match. In one of the greatest gestures of GP I ever saw, the 254 alliance granted an extra time out so that 1280 could tack on a caster, so they could run on three wheels.

A long time ago, after 254 won an event, I told Mark Leon, "You must be so proud of your team." (254 is the NASA Ames house team). I'll never forget what he said to me. "All of them are my teams!"

I am so proud of all of the teams that competed at SVR(and anywhere else). You guys give me hope for the future of our world.

[Daniela B]

Hi,
I don't post on these forums very much however I felt now would be the appropriate time to start. I'm the student leader from 192 and I would like to say thank you to everybody who was so amazingly supportive and helpful to our team this year. It was wonderful to have so many people come up to the team and myself and say that they were happy to see us back. This was without doubt the best regional I've attended, and we're all thrilled to have won the chairman's award. Thanks again to everybody for all your support and help and I look forward to seeing you all at nationals.
Regards,
Daniela