p.s. It's good to see some new teams taking up the challenge and starting posting their recruiting threads

That's cool

(Sorry if I've just bounced you from the top again)

Hi Robsab

That's the attitude we're looking for. Get out there folks and spread the word.

The WCG is the most useful thing you can do with your PC

If you are not running it why not !!

No RobSab it is a good question the first time we gathered together a Millenium of crunching (a month to the day after launch) I sent a letter to IBM's press office saying What about a press release after 2000 years the same after 3000 years a letter saying are we worth a press release yet. At 5000 years I even wrote a great strapline 5000 years in 100 days still nothing after 10000 years I didn't even check I thought a press release was a done deal sadly I was wrong.

Far from being an IBM marketing campaign I'd say that IBM have not blown their trumpet over the WCG in any shape or form. The IBM press release section of their website still only has the 16th November launch in there nothing else.

So we need to take the publicity campaign into our own hands. Graham had a breakthrough when he managed to get an item on the BBC news website and around 3000 members signed up. I would say any opportunity you get to promote the WCG take it. The big news will come when we have a scientific breakthrough on account of our work however we shouldn't wait until this occurs we should get out there telling our friends and families. It would only take each of us to recruit just one new cruncher and before long the whole world would know.

I know I'm an idealist (and that can be irritating) but there is no reason why this cannot be realised. Get out there and recruit just one more person to this great cause and then challenge them to bring one more.

It is my hope that one day that this effort will save lives but even if it saves just one persons life it will be worth it.

Come on that's what this is all about.

Keep 'em crunching - don't go switching off
My best regards to all crunchers on this project big and small.
Dave

David,

I appreciate all the hard work MOT has done, and the community it has managed to build up for itself. It`s very nice, and you can be proud of it. But at the same time, I acknowledge what Beren said here earlier about the community, and Julied synthesized it nicely.

I don`t know why the WCG takes it on itself to defend the 'protect the kids' morality when it comes to a simple web forum about numbercrunching. I mean, I can understand the idea of schools and classrooms watching, but surely, they will mostly watch the frontpage, look at the technical and physical explanations mostly, and maybe glance at the forums with quick 3rd eye whenever they have time extra. If kids want to see dirt, believe me, they can, and they will. They won`t flock to the WCG for that. That doesn`t mean these forums should be filled with filth of course, but a little bit of freedom of speech/expression would be nice.

You appologized to me on several occasions for talking about /. an it`s members, but I didn`t feel offended in any way, so I have a bit trouble understanding exactly what it is you appologize for. Team /. is a bunch of ghosts. There are maybe 2 or 3 other /. posters (Lionel being the most ative one) out of the 3000+ members we have/had. It says something about the role that these forums (or even the stats) play to the /. crowd. My guess is that most of the /. cycles have been clocked on idling (for the most part) webserver/firewall boxes, which are rarely looked at. And to know that webserver boxes in the /. crowd are usually running linux rather than windows.. well, you get the idea. My main point is that running the client does not imply visiting the forums if the client is not on a desktop system, and for the /. community, I bet most of them don`t run this client on their main desktop`s. So they simply don`t give a f-word about the WCG forums, because they never cared about scoring points..

So. What else is there to do but to just keep crunching.

If any /. out there is reading this, drop us a note so we know you`re alive :)

Cheers.

So what exactly are people expecting? I can't believe that multi-thread or a linux client is going to change things that much. Those who are dedicated and can use these upgrades will but this will not become a big "draw".

I heard about the WCG through a radio segment on Minnesota Public Radio. It sounded interesting so I checked out the site, got started and joined MOT basically because they had a web site, seemed friendly and weren't in first place (yet! ) . That said, what I found interesting was the points/team idea since I like to "win". I stumbled into the forums a week or two after I had started and to me the interesting part is hearing from folks all over the world. That said, after being "here" for awhile it seems that most of the threads aren't that interesting and there is not much discussion on any issue (this thread seems to be an exception).

Now I had done SETI for about a month a couple of years ago and I think the team/points and forums are a big step up to keep people involved over just running something that gives limited feedback - what exactly is a protein that is folded to most folks anyways? The pay off is pretty abstract but you still a large number of people running the software and 99% of them are not involved with the forums - so how critical are these forums to keeping people invloved? I know visiting the MOT web site is something I do most days (if just to check the ranking on the team) and it seems like the team web sites offer the most possibility for a community that could share common interests.

One thing I don't see much (other than IBM) is company teams. I work at an engineering firm that has over a thousand top end machines that could significantly impact results. I think coming up with a way to interest companies in making a donation of their resources (even over limited time periods) as a part of their corporate goodwill towards the community is an area where significant gains in membership could be made. You know that a percentage of people in those companies would install on their home machines and join this to their corporate teams or continue after their company stopped "donating". I think the WCG at this point still has very lmited visibility to the world at large and getting a wider audience will result in more people innovating in the forums and in team web sites.

Thank you for taking the time to post your observations in detail, a0a and Beren. Thanks also to marysduby, DEBROUX Lionel, and DAJ for providing MUCH needed input on this topic.

It has been clear to some of us for quite a while that changes in the Forums is badly needed. Unfortunately, our positive intentioned input has been met in large part with arrogant condescention (refer to above posts), "politic apologism" or simple indifference.

To all member, especially "newbies," please consider taking some time to share your observations and thoughts on the matters under discussion. As long as we respect the Forum rules and our intentions are to promote positive change for the advancement of the WCG mission, no one should feel compelled to be positive in their tone.

Honesty is far more useful and compelling, in the long run, than is diluting the refreshing water of truth with the sewer sludge of political correctness.

Without strong and truthful membership input, how can we hope to institute appropriate and constructive change?