n.e.r.d. vision feedback

[Adam Richards]

I'll end this here and now, and get us back on topic to N.E.R.D. Vision...

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Way back in the summer of 1787, several dozen delegates from the thirteen original colonies met in complete secrecy to rewrite the laws on which this country was founded from the ground up. As a result of these secret meetings, the United States Constitution was born. One might argue that why should the formation of a democratic nation be solely the work or an "elitist" group of rich and wealthy delegates?

FIRST isn't a despotic nation, ruled by a group of aristocrats; England was (for the record, I'm English).

Originally Posted by artdutra04

The N.E.R.D. organization wanted to start small at first with a small group of people to help set organization in the right direction. And once everything is moving in the right direction we said we would begin to get more and more people involved in the program - which is what we are doing at the moment. Over the last few months, we have added literally dozens of new N.E.R.D.s; the only difference is that we have stopped posting pictures of every N.E.R.D. here on Chief Delphi.

The argument that it seems many people have against the organization is that many respected, known people in the New England area weren't added into N.E.R.D., solely because they weren't "in the circle of friends of Andy Grady" (I won't cite who said this, they want to remain anonymous).

Originally Posted by artdutra04

We are extremely sorry that you may feel offended by us, as we have never meant for any of that reaction to occur. This is not any different than IndianaFIRST promoting FIRST in Indiana. Would I call InFIRST elitist because they primarily focused on supporting FIRST only in Indiana? No. Would I call N.E.R.D. elitist because our primary goal is supporting FIRST in New England? No.

IndianaFIRST doesn't have an exclusive membership list like N.E.R.D. does. People don't have a problem because its just New England being affected, but rather that there isn't an open membership.

Originally Posted by artdutra04

The only difference I can see between the two organizations is that N.E.R.D. hit a sweet spot among the FIRST community - where many consider themselves nerds or geeks. One may argue that our organization is a victim of its own popularity, in that everyone in FIRST wants to be a "nerd", while the primary goal of our organization is growing and maturing FIRST in the New England region. We're sorry our name is so popular.

You might want to ask around. That really isn't the issue.

_________

And now returning to N.E.R.D. Vision:

You guys have a good thing going with the video. There occasionally are some points in the episodes where things go a bit off topic, and people lose track of what's happening. I've had to pause the video while watching it some times just so I can take a break from the constant talking, with little differenciation between topics. Perhaps you could add an overlay on the video showing the section of the episode you're on.

Speaking of overlays, would it be possible to also post the host names at the bottom of the screen under each person at the start of the show? It'd make it much easier for those who don't know the faces of the hosts too well to learn them.

[Andy Grady]

Originally Posted by Adam Richards

The argument that it seems many people have against the organization is that many respected, known people in the New England area weren't added into N.E.R.D., solely because they weren't "in the circle of friends of Andy Grady" (I won't cite who said this, they want to remain anonymous).

Listen, Adam, I appreciate your comments, and with all due respect I have answered every single one of your statements in previous posts and it aggrivates the heck outa me that people keep going back to them. The quoted statement in particular really gets to me because everyone assumes that these people that were given shirts were personal friends. Fact of the matter is, most of those who are currently NERDS are people who just simply came up to me and asked to be a part of NERD at the right time. Many were also people that I JUST MET and impressed me with their dedication to the program and I felt they could help the cause. IT WAS NOT A POPULARITY CONTEST AND IT WAS NOT MY CIRCLE OF FRIENDS. As I have said before, we may have went about things the wrong way by making it seem like we were elitist...but I did it the way I did it so that we could get the attention of the FIRST community...and it sure as heck worked. Because of all the attention...I managed to get many people (well over 50 now) involved with NERD. And we are continuing to grow (with many NERDS not even having shirts) and will continue to do so.

I wonder if instead of handing out shirts, and calling the group NERD, we just called ourselves New England FIRST and invited certain people to make a group, whether or not we would have got the same attention. I think thats what Art's main point was in his post.

I appologize if I sound harsh or defensive in this post, but this has been a sore subject that we have been working hard to try to eliminate with our efforts. If you could see how much the members of NERD want to show people within FIRST that we do not intend to be "elitist", no one would give us any grief. That is genuine, that is the truth, and that is the end of it.

Outside of NERD Vision, our efforts in NERD will now be silent to all of those in these boards. We will work on improving our region and ideas in a quiet and non-intrusive manner so that no one will be offended anymore. I appologize for causing so much trouble to all of you.



As for the comments about NERD Vision...

We are definately understanding the idea that you want to see more inlays and such. We are going to work on finding a balanced way of doing so, plus adding alot of the segments that Adam and Joe mentioned. We are still in our baby phase and hopefully as we get more accustomed to doing this show, we can throw in all kinds of little neat tricks and such. We are about you the viewer and we hope to make this a show that can be very cool for everyone to enjoy!

[Daisy]

AND BACK TO NERD VISION

Personally, I love it! It's taught me so much.

And take their advice.

Please don't turn this thread into a closed one. Because feedback is good.

[MattK]

Originally Posted by Daisy

AND BACK TO NERD VISION

Personally, I love it! It's taught me so much.

And take their advice.

Please don't turn this thread into a closed one. Because feedback is good. Continue this conversation through PMs please. Thank you.

THANK YOU!

[Morgan Gillespie]

Originally Posted by Andy Grady

and impressed me with their dedication to the program and I felt they could help the cause.... I have said before, we may have went about things the wrong way by making it seem like we were elitist

By stating this you seem to say, Only those who impressed me became a N.E.R.D., now wouldn't saying they impressed you put them above those who do not? This also means someone who does not impress you can not enter into the group. Saying only those who impress me are aloud to enter pretty much means you consider them the elite. This also means all those who wish to enter must come through you, preventing its growth, controlling it to only allow an elite group.

Now this could have been a wrong choice of words or it could have meant exactly what you meant.

About NERD vision, I found it too long, funny at times but too long to be watching people sitting on a back deck. Perhaps insert video, edit out the bad parts/mistakes. Like said before there is currently no/few reason(s) for this to be a video, rather than audio.

[Andy Grady]

Originally Posted by Mercury Rising

About NERDcast, I found it too long, funny at times but too long to be watching people sitting on a back deck. Perhaps insert video, edit out the bad parts/mistakes. Like said before there is currently no/few reason(s) for this to be a video, rather than audio.

I've made my points about NERD and I have PMed you, I am done talking about it. I ask that everyone else drop it as well so we don't get this thread closed as Daisy had said.

I am kinda curious to see what you would consider as a mistake that we should pull? I think one of the charms of the shows we have done so far are when things get a little out of control and we make mistakes. Usually when mistakes happen, thats when the funny stuff takes part. Do you have an example maybe we can view to understand what you mean?

I definately understand the long part...40 minutes is a long time for someone to sit there and look at a bunch of people talking with no screen cuts. We are going to try to develop a way to make it more pleasing to the eye...as right now, you are right, it is very similar to a radio show with a camera tossed in front of it. Though I will say, with the camera, you can see things you can never see during an audio podcast (i.e. facial expressions, random happenings, etc...). I think some of the funnier moments have been when something random pops up on screen and we react to it. Thats what the major difference in the visual has been as compared to audio.

Thank you all so much for your input on NERD Vision. We are definately listening and hope that we can help make this something better with your help.