Websites are due at Firstawards.org by 11:59 p.m. EST on February 22. Anything not submitted by then will not be considered for any award. Good luck!
If I remember correctly you only need to submit the URL. Does that mean that any changes made after that date will still appear? I guess this really boils down to the question of when do they judge it?
To be judged, you must have the url submitted by the 22. They just log onto the site like a normal user. They should judge it within a week i would hope.
Once you submit your website, they judge it anytime between February 22 up until a few days before your regional event. The actual date on which your site is judged depends upon your particular regional planning/judging committee.
Sorry for the hijack, but I am wondering if there is a way to let judges see some of the behind-the-scenes parts of team sites. I’ve seen “judge logins” done before in the past, and while it may bring security risks, who knows if the legitimate judges even log into them.
I would love to create a behind-the-scenes tour for the judges, as a major part of our team site is for inner-team communication, and which some is restricted from viewing by the general public.
Well, this is my first year heading up the website for my team, and i am not familiar with the submission system. Is there a way to give them some notes? If there are, I am sure you could give them some type of login. It’s a great idea!
Unfortunately, our site is also geared a little bit in that direction. However, I probably wont create a judge login or anything because none of the behind-the-scenes stuff is very important in the judging criteria. Look over the criteria in the manual, and if there is something that the judges normally wouldnt be able to see that is important then it might be worth it.
A quick look at the front page of FIRST Awards says:
For the Website Award:
* Enter the correct URL. * Confirm the URL. * Submit!
Sounds to me like there are no notes, logins, or anything other than a URL you can give them. The only solution I can think of is to make a special url that you give for judging, with random characters to be secure. For example, http://team####.org/k3s89ma3b. You could redirect them as a logged-in (judge, or team member) user to the front page of the site.
Might be a bit creepy for them though… “Hi, I see you are a judge! Nice to see you, let me proceed the horse and pony show…”. Anyway, thats the only way I can think of doing it without just having a note on the front page (which is what I have seen done in the past) “Are you a judge? Login with username: judge and password: 1234!”
It would be great if any mentors or judges here could step in, as I am purley speculating on how this could/has been done.
Is this the only way to submit a web site for the award?
Yes, firstawards.org is the only way to submit your team website for the website award.
I am a website judge for the VCU regional this year and this is what shows up when I log into firstawards:
(edit: picture removed by the request of FIRST)
There is a place for the judges to post notes to each other, but the only thing that shows up for the teams is the team number and URL.
Wow. Thanks good to know.
What I’d do is create a set of documentation about how the website works and judges will hopefully see that. 