Program-Independent > General
How to Write an Open Alliance Post
Contributors:
Nate Gorton
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Introduction
Introduction
In this article you will learn how to write a post for an Open Alliance build thread to be posted on Chief Delphi (CD). Whether it be for the FTC Open Alliance (FTCOA) or the FRC Open Alliance (OA). The Rules are the same, though the content of your post will vary.
The examples shown in this article will be taken from a FTCOA post but the ideas can be translated for either program.
Section 1 | Where to Write Your Post
Section 1 | Where to Write Your Post
Where you right your post will depend for what program you are writing for.
Where to Write for FTCOA
Where to Write for FTCOA
If you are writing for the FTCOA follow the following steps.
First, go to the Electric Mayhem shared drive and open the FTC Folder.
Open the folder for the team you are writing for.
Next, open the folder of the current game year.
Open the FTCOA Post folder.
Finally, start a new Google Doc, this is where you will write the entirety of your post.
In summary: Electric Mayhem>FTC>Team Folder>Game Folder>FTCOA Posts
Where to Write for OA
Where to Write for OA
If you are writing for the OA (FRC) follow the following steps.
First, go to the Electric Mayhem shared drive and open the FRC 4930 Folder.
Next, open the Open Alliance Posts folder
Open the folder of the current game year.
Finally, start a new Google Doc, this is where you will write the entirety of your post.
In summary: Electric Mayhem>FRC 4930>Open Alliance Posts>Game Folder
We write all of our posts in google docs, this is because if you are writing with a partner it makes collaboration easier. It also is far superior to Chief Delphi when it comes to spell and grammar checking.
Section 2 | Formatting Your Post
Section 2 | Formatting Your Post
First and foremost you want to name your google doc so it is easily searchable in the shared drive by future members of the team. Below is a example of this naming convention.
The name should be formatted as thus: Year Build Thread Post X: Week X (Date of writing).
If you are writing for FTC make sure you have both years of the season included formatted as seen above (X-X+1). If you are writing for FRC only right the game year you are posting about.How to Divide your Post
How to Divide your Post
Once you have renamed your document, you're ready to start writing. To Start your post you want to start off with some sort of hook, to get the reader interested. This could be as simple as a greeting to the reader or a joke that is relevant, a summary of how much progress you made or a mention of major event that occured in the week. Something like the following examples.
If your post is a weekly update it is best to put the week in bold first.
Once you have your audience hooked you can get into content. It is best to divide your post by robot subsystem, weather your writing about code or mechanical this is the most logical way to divide your build thread post. You start each new section with a bold heading, your heading should be the name of the subsystem. The order you talk about your subsystems is up to you, but they should be order in the most logical order.
For example, in the first section of this particular post focus on the drivetrain. The section ends with a discussion of mounting an intake, so the next logical subsystem to discuss would be the intake.
If the game piece follows a path through a robot, this can also be a logical order to talk about subsystems.
What to discuss
What to discuss
What do discuss is up to you. But you want to make sure you include not only the good but the bad. The most useful things you will discuss is prototypes and systems your team has designed. So focus on that! Also discuss road blocks and issues you've had so that other teams can learn from your mistakes, which is the whole idea behind the build thread.
That being said you don't want to go into a boring amount of detail, that will make people not want to read your posts. Keep it interesting! Don't use jargon and if define terms that may be unclear to those outside your team or subteam.
USE IMAGES!
USE IMAGES!
The most effective way to keep your build thread easy to understand and make it useful is to use images whenever possible. THIS IS NON-OPTIONAL!
Insert you images into your google doc and format them to your liking there, CD does not play nice with images so its best to format them there. Under each image make sure to add a simple italicized caption and make sure to mention where you got it if it wasn't from your own team. Add images of CAD you are working on, prototypes and systems you've built and code. You can also link YouTube videos of things in action for even greater effect.
*Important Note: When starting new paragraphs in a post it is customary to leave a line break and to not indent (to be honest I'm not sure why).
Section 3 | Posting to Chief Delphi
Section 3 | Posting to Chief Delphi
Once you've finished your post, you're ready to post it to Chief Delphi! If this is the first post of your build thread, find the "New Topic" button. If this isn't your fist post please skip to Copying Your Post.
Name your your build thread with your team number followed by team name, the year and build thread. As seen to the side. This is so your build thread is easily searchable by others. Make sure your thread is in the proper FTCOA or OA category, and that is is tagged FTC or FRC and Open alliance.
If this is your very first post in the thread it shouldn't have any robot content and should focus on team structure and off season progress. It should also be posted before kickoff.
Copying Your Post
Copying Your Post
After you have your initial thread created all further post in the thread should not be new topics but rather reply to the original topic.
Make sure not to reply to a specific post in the thread but rather to the thread it's self, to do this find the blue reply button at the bottom of the thread.
After hitting the blue reply button copy and paste your hole google doc into the CD text box. Now CD uses markdown and thus doesn't recognize bolded and italicized text from Google Docs. You will have to go through and use the tools at the top to reformat your post. The left text box is the box you can edit while the right box shows what the post will look like once it's posted.
Once you have completed reformatting you are ready to post.
Notice how the newly bolded "Drivetrain" section heading is surrounded by two asterisk ("*") on both sides. This is markdown and using the tools at the top of the text box CD will use markdown to format your text. Here is a guide to what they mean.**text** = Bold*text* = italics# text = large text
Advanced CD Formatting
Advanced CD Formatting
CD has some formatting tools that aren't available in Google Docs. Some of them are on the top bar while others can be found in the drop down menu of the gear button.
These tools include hidden details which allows you to add extra details in a drop down menu which you may want to admit for readability or for the sake of pacing. Tables, quoting other post and creating polls. Not all of these tools are useful all the time, but I encourage you to use them where you see fit. Play around with them! See what you like.
Once you have formatted reformatted your post, hit "reply/post" and you my friend have just posted a build thread! Congratulations! You're Done!
Section 4 | Maintaining a Build Thread
Section 4 | Maintaining a Build Thread
I lied, your not done. A build thread requires maintenance, one of which is keeping it alive. Both FTCOA and OA recommend posting an update in your build thread at least once a week. But you can also expect people to ask question and give feedback in your thread, you must respond to these post, answer questions and keep the conversation going. I also encouraging you to go to other build threads to ask question and give constructive feedback (Keep it GP). By doing this you not only keep your build thread alive but also the build thread of others and thus keep the entire FTCOA and OA communities alive. Good for you!
Conclusion
Conclusion
In this article you have learned what to write in your build thread and how to format it. You have also learned the importance of build thread maintenance. With this knowledge you are more likely to have a cleaner and more successful build thread. If you are interested in learning some more from a team who has been writing build thread for much longer than me, check out Team 3874 Spectrum's tutorial "How to write a build blog".
Useful Links
Useful Links
Chief Delphi: https://www.chiefdelphi.com/
FTC Open Alliance: https://ftcopenalliance.org/
The Open Alliance: https://www.theopenalliance.com/
Spectrum 3874 | How to write a build blog: How to write a build blog
Example Build Thread Used: 12736: Electric Mayhem Green, 2024-25 Build Thread
Exemplary Build Threads: -FTC 23513 I.N.T Robotics 2024 Build Thread
-13598 MOBots & 15357 MOre Bots 2024 Season Build Thread
-FRC 4481 Team Rembrants | 2025 Build Thread | Open Alliance
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