Why don't we use reddit.com/r/frc

[headlight]

Originally Posted by Libby K

...
I know it was joked about earlier, but there truly is a hivemind on reddit, and that's not really welcoming to someone new
...

The implication being that there isn't a CD hivemind?

By the way, congratulations on being made a moderator there, it seems odd to get involved in a format that you think isn't a great community platform.

I think r/FRC could fulfill a necessary and interesting role that CD doesn't. There is a RoboRIO Beta Test Team doing an AMA right now, and it has been very informative to read, they've answered questions that probably would have been ignored or answered with links.

The reddit community can be more abrasive, but I choose to believe it is more lighthearted as well. To me CD often feels like dinner with my parents, everyone is uptight and smiling until it devolves into accusations and reputation comparisons.

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by headlight

The implication being that there isn't a CD hivemind?

By the way, congratulations on being made a moderator there, it seems odd to get involved in a format that you think isn't a great community platform.

I think r/FRC could fulfill a necessary and interesting role that CD doesn't. There is a RoboRIO Beta Test Team doing an AMA right now, and it has been very informative to read, they've answered questions that probably would have been ignored or answered with links.

The reddit community can be more abrasive, but I choose to believe it is more lighthearted as well. To me CD often feels like dinner with my parents, everyone is uptight and smiling until it devolves into accusations and reputation comparisons.

As you mentioned, /r/FRC has the potential to reach a niche of users who don't necessarily feel comfortable posting on ChiefDelphi. That's why I offered to become a mod - to help /r/FRC grow as a forum and to help ensure that it upholds the standards and values that FIRST, and our community, are proud to stand for.

Anonymous, passive-aggressive swipes at individuals are not one of the things we should be proud to stand for.

[Jon K.]

I know this post is long, and tends to ramble, but if you read nothing else, read the last paragraph.

I have only ever been on reddit a few times, and found it rather confusing, I can see both sides to this story. Having had some of my own first posts on CD be negative, and having been called out by one of my own team members, I know what it can be like.

Also, it was mentioned that these forums seem like they are all mentors posting at times, I would like to point to Andy Grady's amazing Ri3D blog post today. http://www.robotin3days.com/our-legacy/ Most of us mentors were you at one point. This is a point I make sure to mention at every drivers meeting I hold, and most students who I interact with know this as well.

We have met each other over the years, and I consider FIRST my second family. I talk to FIRSTers on a daily basis, and no, it's not just because I work for AndyMark now. I choose to maintain the friendships I have grown with people from various regions across the country and world!

When Libby originally started posting on CD, I had no idea who she was, and I honestly thought she was a spammer account. Then I got to know her as a person, and she truly is one of the nicest people in FIRST. I hate seeing friends bashed here, and in other places, when no one bothers to get to know who they are bashing. That's why I like CD. It is personalized in that way. I encourage anyone who wants to, follow me on Twitter, come say hi at a competition. This is how you meet the people you are afraid of on the forums.

While it had been a long time since I have been truly active here, and they may still exist, the web hugs were a fantastic place to meet everyone you only knew by profile picture and their posts. That said, I encourage every student to get to champs at least once in your student career, even if not with your team. You will get to see and meet some AMAZING people who will be more than willing to talk to you if they aren't super busy with a robot at the time.

If you can't do that, start volunteering! I had some students on my team last year make friends with other students because they were volunteers together and wouldn't have met otherwise. Volunteering has changed my life. I have volunteered for FRC, FVC(throwback I know), FTC, and FLL in some capacity since 2003(where applicable). That is where I met people like Libby, Billfred, Dave Lavery, Dr. Woodie Flowers, Dean Kamen, Will.I.Am, and more. While I may not stay in constant contact with Dean, I have stayed close friends with a lot of my fellow volunteers. Competition season is near and dear to my heart because it is my family reunion time every year.

Basically, the point is, CD is only what you make of it. I encourage everyone to make the most, and if you think you will get bashed for a dumb question, then find someone you respect, tell them flat out that you are worried about it, and ask them in a private message. If they give you a good response, maybe ask the community at large, but still, ask someone. That is how you learn, and that is how you can gain your confidence even amongst the biggest names on ChiefDelphi.

[headlight]

Originally Posted by Libby K

As you mentioned, /r/FRC has the potential to reach a niche of users who don't necessarily feel comfortable posting on ChiefDelphi. That's why I offered to become a mod - to help /r/FRC grow as a forum and to help ensure that it upholds the standards and values that FIRST, and our community, are proud to stand for.

Anonymous, passive-aggressive swipes at individuals are not one of the things we should be proud to stand for.

I completely agree with your last statement, I'm sorry you read sarcasm or otherwise took offense to my previous statement, your position simply didn't make sense to me. I'm not the best at phrasing.

Why is anonymity the first thing you took offense to?
I've seen that response on here before, does this community put that much stock in doxing yourself?

[droswell]

As a Network Administrator at a school, I can tell you we block Reddit but not CD. Most work environments have a similar policy. From a strictly access point of view, CD is much less likely to be filtered by most organizations.

Not that we CD at work anyways, right mentors?

[Jon K.]

Originally Posted by headlight

I completely agree with your last statement, I'm sorry you read sarcasm or otherwise took offense to my previous statement, your position simply didn't make sense to me. I'm not the best at phrasing.

Why is anonymity the first thing you took offense to?
I've seen that response on here before, does this community put that much stock in doxing yourself?

This community does promote self identification, because it does help both students and mentors learn from their mistakes. While public shaming may not be the best tool, by self identifying, you typically are less likely to spout off nonsense or inflametory comments because you do risk running your name through dirt, or worse yet, destroying a reputation your team has worked very hard to build for years before you came to them.

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by headlight

I completely agree with your last statement, I'm sorry you read sarcasm or otherwise took offense to my previous statement, your position simply didn't make sense to me. I'm not the best at phrasing.

Why is anonymity the first thing you took offense to?
I've seen that response on here before, does this community put that much stock in doxing yourself?

It wasn't the first thing, but I appreciate your question. (For the record, it was your sarcasm. Now I know it wasn't intended. )Generally here on CD we appreciate accountability for your actions. For example, I'd love to continue some of the discussions I've had on here at events, so knowing what team or region a poster is from really helps. It's also a general good-faith gesture to represent yourself accurately. It's just what we do, and a part of why the CD community works. For example, I could have joined reddit as "omgrobots", or something along those lines- but I thought it would be better in the long run to be up-front about who I am. Unfortunately it appears to have caused more trouble than it's worth.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by headlight

Why is anonymity the first thing you took offense to?
I've seen that response on here before, does this community put that much stock in doxing yourself?

Yes, in a way. There are some reasons, too.

Let's start with the easy one, it's really nice to be able to walk up to someone at an event and go "I'm [username] from CD, glad to meet you". Now, I happen to have met quite a few folks at various places and times (anybody at Inland Empire or Los Angeles, feel free to come find me--let's go with "if you're able to" because I'm likely to be busy doing stuff related to the event) and it really is nice to be able to associate a name and a face.

But the other thing is this: Who are you more likely to take seriously, some person you know and trust or somebody you don't know from Adam? That second person could be the world expert in their field (which we'll assume is the one you're currently interested in)... and yet you're more likely to take the first person's advice if you don't know that little fact. Why? You recognize them.

Now, there are some semi-anonymous accounts out there. But I know (or think) that somebody in CD probably knows who they are, and sometimes I know that they're highly productive, thought-inducing members of the community.

And the final couple of reasons, which are flip sides of the same coin... Often, anonymity is used as a shield for negative comments. But if you attach identifying information, someone you know could hold you accountable--if needed!--or otherwise contain "bad behavior". I've seen a least case where someone made the "mistake" of posting with "their" team number, and a member of that team then proceeded to call them on the carpet, something on the order of "if I find out you are in fact a member of my team, you and I are having a little talk". Conversely, if you've got a team number attached, and you're thinking right, you just might think twice about the reputation you're carrying with you--not just your own, but your team's.

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by headlight

Why is anonymity the first thing you took offense to?
I've seen that response on here before, does this community put that much stock in doxing yourself?

Yes, actually.

In addition to the accountability already mentioned, lots of people here on Chief Delphi actually meet in person at competitions, kickoff events, workshops, practice sessions, etc. Using your real name and team numbers on Chief Delphi helps a lot if you try to introduce yourself to someone else from Chief Delphi in real life, most people can't remember other people by usernames, only real names.

[Brandon_L]

I can see someone asking a legitimate question that might seem obvious to others and getting down voted into oblivion.

The current system works/is fair.

However, an FRC reddit for laughs/pictures/gifs/memes/ect wouldn't necessarily be a terrible thing.

[Jared]

Chief delphi has a very powerful search and organization feature. People log in to the same account they've used since 2002, and all their old posts are still here. If we all went to reddit we'd lose all of our old posts, many of which are still extremely useful.

Also, the reputation system and the awesome moderators we have here keep the discussion really clean and kind.

I'm not super familiar with reddit, but I don't think they have as good of an organization and reputation and private messaging system like we have.

Personally, I love the look of chief delphi. It loads really fast because its an older design, which is great because I have slow internet.

[TimTheGreat]

Originally Posted by Andrew Lawrence

inb4 hivemind

And comments like this would not be shown

[EricH]

Originally Posted by TimTheGreat

Why? If people upvote good comments and downvote bad (usually non-relevant comments that are far too common), wouldn't that help the madness of a thread such as the game hint one with >400 replies. People want to see game speculations that make sense. The best guess at this years game may be lost on page 15 somewhere...

If it was up to me, the game hint thread would be LOCKED and the key thrown away after the first 5 pages. Anything beyond that is redundant. Why? Keep reading.

The bigger problem, and here's where you're really going to get the pushback, is that most times there's redundancy/non-relevant comments, it's just someone who doesn't know the pulse of CD yet, just wants to make their voice heard, or has a simple question that's been answered before and doesn't know how to search (or doesn't want to bother reading a massive thread--which is where that massive game hint thread comes from, people want to get their speculation out and don't want to check and see if someone else had it. I corrected 2 different people with the same very wrong theory about 5-10 pages apart, and then someone else took the second of those another 5-10 pages later to correct a third person.). Put something like what you're proposing in place, and watch all those people just disappear. Why? Because they will get shoved down to the bottom. They won't get any answers.

I'd rather have to point out a rule 5 times to 5 different new people--and possibly be better able to help them out on other topics!--than to have those 5 people all see a "high-rated" thread and not get the rest of the help they might need easily.

Originally Posted by TimTheGreat

And comments like this would not be shown

What's wrong with that sort of comment?


CD is not just technical. Trust me. There've been discussions for YEARS about doing away with Chit-Chat and making the site more technical... and nothing's happened (and nothing's going to happen, I don't think) because it gives a more welcoming feel.

[TimTheGreat]

Originally Posted by EricH

Put something like what you're proposing in place, and watch all those people just disappear. Why? Because they will get shoved down to the bottom. They won't get any answers.

I'd rather have to point out a rule 5 times to 5 different new people--and possibly be better able to help them out on other topics!--than to have those 5 people all see a "high-rated" thread and not get the rest of the help they might need easily.

But that's the glory of reddit. It gives new questions a chance to be answered. You can still sort by popularity but their questions wouldn't be shoved at the bottom of the stack. Also, you'd only downvote the worst of the worst. This would help keep the threads small by having good answers and new questions at the top, and not so good answers and irrelevant comments at the bottom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...2aUWQQ#t=10 8

[EricH]

Originally Posted by TimTheGreat

Also, you'd only downvote the worst of the worst.

Hah.

Ever watch someone's reputation bar turn red in under an hour? I have. Some folks have no trouble just dishing out negative reputation--and I'd be more than willing to bet that most of those folks would have no trouble just downvoting any thread that they felt was "in the way". No matter if the question was answered or not!