Whatever Happened to the Old Chief Delphi?

[EricH]

I don’t like saying this, and I’m not quite sure how, but I think someone has to say it now, before the build season gets here.

Over the past 6 months or so, Chief Delphi has become increasingly negative in tone. This is disturbing on a number of levels. First, I haven’t seen a real reason to go this route. Second, this is the off-season, when normal levels are slow, cheerful, mainly in Chit-Chat, and sometimes thoughtful as members reflect. This last year, CD has been busy. VERY busy, compared to normal, with a series of discussions on the new control system, new structures, pilots and their results, and similar items.

There isn’t really a good reason to go the negative route. I mean, there is the news coming out of FRC HQ, but that’s a mixed bag for teams—and can help some teams. Yet, almost every time somebody puts up the news of a new post from Bill’s Blog, it’s only a matter of hours before somebody else complains about X aspect of the post, which is prophesied to be doom for another party. (All right, so I exaggerate a bit.) I’m guilty of this too, though to an aspect of a post of Dave’s that I probably misinterpreted. Remember, we’ve had major competition changes before, and we survived. We even thrived. So what’s different about this one? It can’t just be the change; there must be a reason people are just plain not liking this one. I’m not sure what it is, other than maybe secrecy, and this one's kind of open compared to some.

As I said earlier, CD has been surprisingly busy for the time of year. Lots of people are on and posting, and that’s good. But the last several years, around this time, people were speculating on the next game, developing prototypes that would never work (until they posted them and got some constructive criticism), and having fun in the Chit-Chat forum. This year, people are making their opinions, nice or not, known about the changes that FRC HQ (in the person of Bill) is letting us know about. Some are keeping it positive or even humorous (there was a bit of satire in one of the threads on the new control system). But many are complaining, and some are making unfounded comments that are then being refuted, sometimes nastily.

What’s going on here? When did this change begin? What’s the cure for this?

I’m not going to say that CD should shut down or be a “FIRST is great” forum. Those are the worst two options of many. But what I am going to say is that we all need a break. Go outside and have fun. Get away from the internet for a day or three. Go watch a sports game in person--preferably one that you don't have to go to because of X relative being in it. Have a snowball fight, if you have snow already. Come back refreshed, ready for another year, and then make your break a little earlier next year.

(Oh, and Brandon… If you have anything that needs CD to be down for a couple hours to implement, might I request that that implementation happen soon?)