A Rookie Forum?

CD Forum Support
1

Dare I suggest something that may benefit both the rookie and veteran teams on this forum?

I saw the discussion in this thread: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=41635 earlier today, and I thought, while it is important to tell rookie members to read the manual and search the forum, it is also important to understand just how overwhelming it is for a rookie team during their first year. There is a new game to think about, a new team to work with, and a new forum to browse.

To me, there are three kinds of answers you can give to someone asking questions around here.

One, ask them nicely to search the forum and read the manual if the question is simple and direct.
Two, give them the answer quoting the place there the answer can be located at, and ask them to refer to that location from now on.
Three, a more in depth explaination might be needed for someone who have absolutely no experience in the game, in the manual, and in the forum.

It seems to be that rookie teams and rookie members may very well need the third kind of answer for a while before they become familiar with all new things.

However, the problem with rookie members flooding the forum with simple questions is precisely that, the flooding of the forum with questions that could be easily answered with a little experience at everything.

So, here is what I purpose. Set up a sub-forum specifically for rookies.

They can go in there, ask their silly questions, and get a quick answer before they collapse from this whole experience. And for those of us who are willing to give these rookie members the patience they need, and have time to explain things a little more in depth, we can go in there and help the rookies at a pace they need.

Mean while the rest of the forum become less cluttered with silly questions.

Here comes the best part about it. For the rookies who finally have a chance to catch a breath and figure out just exactly what they are doing, they can “graduate” from the rookie forum and move into where the general discussions are. Before then, we will continue to move these silly questions into the rookie forums, and the rookies can continue to post inside the rookie forum and ask as much silly questions they want and say as much silly thing as they can.

It is just a thought ;). Feel free to comment on it if you want.

2

ohh the sheer brilliance. I was a little frustrated too when I saw that thread. This new rookie forum would be a wonderful idea.

3

We love rookie teams…

There are NO stupid questions about any topic.

At the 2005 championship, our team ran an “all-rookie” meet & greet event, which was a lot of fun and a big success. We plan to do this again, so tell your mentors that we will have all sorts of info for rookie teams if you make it to the championships. We’ll also do all-rookie meet & greets at the Finger lakes regional as well as Boston regionals where we’ll be. Sorry we can’t be at more regional events :frowning:

Our own furum has a section for rookie questions at:
http://penfieldrobotics.com/forum/index.php?board=2.0

but it’s probably just as valuable to set-up a rookie-only sub-forum on this chiefdelphi site. If Brandon does set-up a sub-forum, then our team (Team 1511 - RollingThunder) will pay special attentionto answering rookie questions.

4

I think it would be a great idea. It would be a comfort zone for the rookie members, without having to deal with some of the terse/harsh responses they seem to be getting in the general forums. There are plenty of people willing to monitor the rookie forum and I think it would benefit all sides.

5

I agree with Ken Wholeheartedly!

I have been a Head Ref/ Ref for the past four years and it’s amazing the number of questions asked me on Thursday/Friday/Saturday by both old seasoned teams and rookie teams. I don’t typically answer them with the phrase “It’s in the manual” or “look at the Q&A” section on the website but instead, I try to answer the question.

Sometimes you don’t know what you’re supposed to know so please be a gracious professional and help them out with the question and not tell them to look elsewhere.

I vote for a rookie formum.

ps:
By the way - at a minimum, having the drive team re-read the rules and Team up-dates before each and every competition makes the referees job a whole lot easier (this goes for team mentors as well)

Ron

6

pss: Making your whole team take a game test is another good way to engrain those rules into their head. The drive-team needs to ace it.

7

Ok, thanks guys for your feedbacks. The general opinion seems to be positive so far, but I will keep this thread through out today before i bring it up to the attention of other mods, and possibly ask the leadership of team 47 about this in the near future.

Thanks again!

8

I say, let’s do it. If we know where to expect the “obvious” questions like “can we use CO2” (I’ve seen that one a couple of times), we can go in there with more GP and give an answer without getting mad because it’s in the wrong forum.