Beta are the same as AfricanClimate@Home WU's (hard to find to say the least) so it should have the same Badge requirements.
I have little more than 4 days of crunching in almost 2 years, witch is more than others have but way short of the required 14 days.
At this rate I guess I will have my Bronze Badge in about 6 years and Silver Badge in 20 years and finally Gold Badge in about 40 years if WCG still runs at that time.
Is it TOO MUCH to ask to lower the requirements ?????

Hope not. Lets see if WCG can be understanding in this.

Guys, my guess is that there is no secret.

Maybe a lot of patience and some availability to track Beta forum posts and just after a new Beta test be annouced, force updates frequently (I do it each 10 minutes during 1 hour for example in the last test and got just one WU). Is just one of many ways to get it, probably you can imagine more ones much more creatives.

Other tip is keep the WU queue as clean as possible, I normally keep 1 or 2 days, Beta tests need be returned asap, and clean queues do it better than busy ones, so you will have more chance to receive Betas if are crunch with clean queues (it is my personal opinion based on my experience).

Just after get your Beta WU to crunch don't forget to continue forcing updates trying getting more WU's.

Will be great if before it you could jump to your local preferences and set for example more days of additional work buffer, so if the Beta test will remain for one or two days, you can increase your chance to download Beta WU's without high priority return, and so on...

Other tip is put attention on the kind of Beta test available each moment, once there are specifics for Windows, Mac and Linux, and specifics for projects or other WCG needs for example...and so on...

Good lucky in the next ones !

I don't know if WCG will change anything to these rules or not, but if they do that will be for rewarding members more easily and not for enlarging the beta testers community. There are already much more beta testers than beta WUs in a new test. Which adds to the difficulty of getting one when the test starts.

Cheers. Jean.

That is exactly my point: "rewarding members more easily" on Beta is not such an bad idea.
Badges were a super-idea because it created reward and competition at the same time. "Rewarding" is important for activ WCG members. It makes them invest more in hardware and contribute more with thoughs and "human" energy.

I think WCG will benefit more if it will implement 2 things in the badge system:

First - Create more Levels for Badges, so people who got they're Gold can compete more between themselfs.
Second - Reward members more easily on "hard to get" or "little" projects like AfricanClimate@Home, Beta and future little projects

Why not improve Badge system if it's posible ?

David_L6. You didn't say why you don't agree making Beta Badges easier to get....

My arguments are here:

Badges were a super-idea because it created reward and competition at the same time. "Rewarding" is important for activ WCG members. It makes them invest more in hardware and contribute more with thoughs and "human" energy.

I think WCG will benefit more if it will implement 2 things in the badge system:

First - Create more Levels for Badges, so people who've got they're Gold can compete more between themselfs, thus contributing more to those projects they have Gold on.
Second - Reward members more easily on "hard to get" or "little" projects like AfricanClimate@Home, Beta and future little projects, because on those projects it becomes more of a luck game than a lazy atitude on the part of WCG members. We should limit "luck" playing a part in any competition.


I would like to here arguments against those two sugestions above, from anybody. Constructive arguments.