Upcoming Site Changes

[Karthik]

When I read the post on the front page, my initial thought was "Finally, they're getting rid of the spotlights. I'm sick of seeing ridiculous inside jokes up there."

I'd be up for seeing some intelligent people cleaning it up, but if keeping the spotlight feature means there's even one iota of extra work to make the upgrade to the newest version of vBulletin, I say just scrap it entirely. I'm really looking forward to seeing the potential Twitter and Facebook integration, seems like a great way to further network the robotics community.

[Joe G.]

Another vote to clean up but keep the spotlights. I've found some great stuff, and links to great older threads, browsing through them. At the very least, maintain an archive of them somewhere.

[Foster]

I like the spotlight posts, I hate to loose notable quotes from some of CD's top brains. I also think it's interesting on how they come up to match a relevant time.

I'll sign up to help trim them down to pull some of the inside CD quotes out of the rotation.

[MechEng83]

I'll add my vote to the pantheon of users who appreciate the Spotlight posts at the top. It sometimes provides insights into the community and the way things are/were. As a relatively new member of the CD community, the value of the spotlights cannot be overstated. It's like a window into the CD community's psyche.
I rarely see items I consider "inside jokes" and even then, if it doesn't make sense to me, I'll click on the link and investigate the context, discovering what was awesome/cool/neat/groundbreaking in past years. It's like an item out of a time capsule.
I'll also add my name to the volunteer list to clean up.

All that being said, I understand the need for progress and update. I have no idea how much custom coding is involved in putting the quotes at the top of every page. Certainly, the effort that Brandon and others who work behind the scenes on CD is much appreciated, and I wouldn't want to waste their time on little-used features. I disagree with Karthik's assertion that zero effort be put forward in keeping this feature. As stated in the original post, the intent is to bring focus back to the discussion. Without the highlighted posts, past discussions will wane into irrelevance, and gems of wisdom will be lost to all but the few who read old forums for the fun of it.

[MichelB]

Just throwing my opinion in but I think Twitter/Facebook integration would be awesome, and though I have never used it and wasn't aware of it untill now, CD-Swap sounds like an amazing idea. Threads on that topic are too easily 'lost in the weeds' with all the other threads.

[coalhot]

In case anyone misses CD-swap and wants to buy/sell stuff: https://www.facebook.com/groups/frcgaragesale/

There's a decent bunch of us that actually use it, picked up some good stuff recently.

[Ian Curtis]

Originally Posted by Karthik

I'd be up for seeing some intelligent people cleaning it up, but if keeping the spotlight feature means there's even one iota of extra work to make the upgrade to the newest version of vBulletin, I say just scrap it entirely. I'm really looking forward to seeing the potential Twitter and Facebook integration, seems like a great way to further network the robotics community.

It would be interesting to see how many of the 5,000+ quotes survive the culling.

If they are going to go away, I assume it wouldn't be that hard to back them up in some other format? It would be cool if someone else could set up a separate spotlight page if CD doesn't want to be in the spotlight business anymore. Especially if the new spotlight was well curated.

EDIT: Well played cgmv123 for spotlighting a comment about pointless spotlights.

[cmrnpizzo14]

I would like to keep spotlights but since some (quite a few/most/all, whichever you would like to use for the hyperbola) are in fact inside jokes I would be in favor of restarting the spotlights. Archive these spotlights somewhere. Old-timers and procrastinators can spend their time perusing them to their content. Allow the spotlights to start from scratch though and start accumulating new quotes (and inside jokes that will be cleaned out again in 5 years). I think at the very least it is worth a shot.

[bardd]

I like the spotlights for the same reasons that were repeatedly mentioned here, but I see why you would want to scrap them.

Suggestion:
Many people stated they found some very interesting threads, as a result of looking through the spotlights, that they wouldn't have found otherwise. If spotlights do get scrapped, you could have a "suggested threads" section, which'll be a collection of links to threads that were noted by X users (I think 5 is a good number) as worth reading. You could also link a random one on top of the page where the quotes are now displayed. That way the spotlight functionality of introducing people to interesting threads won't disappear.

[KrazyCarl92]

A lot of times, searching on CD can help you find what you're looking for. However, occasionally clicking on an interesting spotlight can help you find things you didn't even know to look for, which can be even more valuable. It can bring you back year's in FIRST history to educate you about things that you wouldn't have ever heard of otherwise, inspire ideas from previous discussions that wouldn't have been thought of otherwise, and bring appropriate emphasis to a brilliant post that should be shared with the community.

I know I've stumbled across my share of threads containing valuable information that I wasn't actively seeking out because of spotlights. Just this morning I clicked on a spotlight about holding bots together and found a 3 year old thread about rivet implementation - something that our team has never done and will hopefully strive to do effectively in the future. I now know of a specific place I can turn for useful information on the topic when the time is right.

That being said, I do see the general problem with spotlights. The majority of them are utterly useless. Case-and-point, the one at the top of my page at the moment reads:
"What does code sound like going though a complier?"

[rsisk]

I love the spotlights! Please keep them.

And before culling them, can you at least preserve the current list in a thread somewhere?

[BigJ]

I'm with Karthik on this one. If it is blocking or hindering a vBulletin upgrade, we can live without the spotlights.

[Lil' Lavery]

Since this is becoming an impromptu poll of sorts, I'll chip in my agreement with Karthik and BigJ. It would be nice to keep the (good) spotlights, but it's a lower priority than upgrading the boards as a whole to the latest vBulletin.

On the topic of spotlight, it really depends if we can get the staff to upkeep it. If there are enough volunteers that fit moderation requirements to pick out the good spotlights, then the feature should definitely stay. I've learned a lot from helpful spotlight posts. Coincidentally this one which I think is very good advice is above me right now: .

However, I'd argue 90% of them are "this was funny once in that one thread" and wouldn't be of any valuable knowledge to those who see them (see below).

[JohnFogarty]

Are we upgrading to VB 4 or VB 5 connect?