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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Community
Forum: Chat Room
Thread: Who serves whom? |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 24
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cjslman
Master Cruncher Mexico Joined: Nov 23, 2004 Post Count: 2082 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I have noticed in the last few months various posts of crunchers (all pretty much with various years of crunching experience) who are quitting because they see no use to their effort or something changed that didn't rub them the right way. I won't go into "their" reasons, but what I do see is a common denominator: absolute blindness towards the main objective of the WCG effort: help science find treatments (and/or cures) for diseases that affect our world (including energy and water efforts). It is sort of like if the WCG was a toy or a game and when something changes that they don't like, they will take their marbles and go play someplace else. They don't seem to see the children that have cancer or the persons that suffer from dengue or malaria.
----------------------------------------Is there something that needs to done (by fellow crunchers) to bring these crunchers back to reality so that they (and all of us) understand that purpose of this enormous effort? Do the scientists need to publish more reports to remind us what we are doing and where we are headed? Any other ideas that would help potential future crunchers not to abandon this great activity? CJSL Crunching for a better future... ---------------------------------------- [Edit 1 times, last edit by cjslman at Mar 26, 2013 12:04:08 AM] |
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gb009761
Master Cruncher Scotland Joined: Apr 6, 2005 Post Count: 2990 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Personally, I think a little more openness from WCG/IBM as to what's happening in the background/what's coming up etc. After all, I'm led to believe that they have regular meetings with each of the various project scientists - yet, (apart from a few exceptions), we only hear from the scientists/project leads once in a blue moon. If there'd been more communication with say (and I'm only using this as a most recent example), the DDDT2 project leads, then the recent surprise wouldn't have been such a shock to some.
----------------------------------------Along with this more openness that I'm talking about, are plans that are happening in the background for new projects. Okay, I can well understand/appreciate that WCG/IBM don't wish to fully "let the cat out of the bag" about the exact nature of new projects (so that they can capitalise on Press Releases etc.), but I'm sure that they could (with plenty of caveats - after all plans can and do change), give us some indication as to how many proposals are being considered and as to what stage they're at. Hopefully, with the recent survey, things will improve.  |
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astrolabe.
Senior Cruncher Joined: May 9, 2011 Post Count: 496 Status: Offline |
Personally, I think a little more openness from WCG/IBM as to what's happening in the background/what's coming up etc If WCG were to post about something forthcoming, THE VERY NEXT POST that will appear in the forum is a question about 'when is it going to happen'. Where upon we see a post that says 'we are not going to say a date right now'. Then followed by a post asking 'why', and so on and so on.I believe a major reason for not 'being more open' is that people believe (incorrectly) that they are ENTITLED to know more. You are not. That's how this place works. Let it be. Sure I want to know more, but the general population will not ever accept a post that says 'coming in the near future' without DEMANDING the exact date and time the event will occur, as a part of their self-fulfilling sense of entitlement. For those of us able to make a living in the IT world, we know that by its very nature, WCG cannot commit to an exact date/time, even days in advance, never mind weeks or months. Premise: WCG cannot know the exact time/date of the start of a new project. Premise: Members will irritate and smack-talk WCG if we do not publish the exact time/date with an advance notice of an event. Conclusion: Do not publish in advance. |
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KWSN - A Shrubbery
Master Cruncher Joined: Jan 8, 2006 Post Count: 1585 Status: Offline |
It pains me to agree with astrolabe yet again
---------------------------------------- WCG is a volunteer project. Once upon a time volunteers contributed their time and energy because they believed they were making a difference and that they were, in whatever small measure, helping. There was never consideration given to how does this benefit me, the volunteer, personally. The benefit is the good feeling of knowing that you helped and that maybe you made a difference in the world. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I can't help feeling that people are becoming increasingly self-absorbed, hyper-critical, and overly demanding. It's time for these people to step back and ask themselves why it is they are contributing to a volunteer project. If it's for all the wrong reasons and your needs are no longer being met, then good luck on your journey. WCG will survive without you. We wish you no ill will and thank you heartily for what you did contribute. Please, can we all just help because it's the right thing to do and not because it inflates our virtual digital egos? Now, you kids get off my lawn!  Distributed computing volunteer since September 27, 2000 |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
KWSN I fully agree with you.
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Bearcat
Master Cruncher USA Joined: Jan 6, 2007 Post Count: 2803 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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I would suggest WCG be the first project to get rid of the point system and have badges awarded on run time. No points, just badges. Some folks like to see there own personal accomplishments. Understandable. Helps see what a person has done. It would be different from other projects that would set WCG apart from the rest of the other projects.
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Crunching for humanity since 2007!
---------------------------------------- [Edit 1 times, last edit by Bearcat at Mar 26, 2013 4:31:59 AM] |
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GeraldRube
Master Cruncher United States Joined: Nov 20, 2004 Post Count: 2153 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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I would never in this lifetime agree with Astrolabe--but do you think it could be the cost-if i was not working part time at 70 i could not afford the 300 plus dollars a month electric bill-which i do for WCG!!
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Ingleside
Veteran Cruncher Norway Joined: Nov 19, 2005 Post Count: 974 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I would suggest WCG be the first project to get rid of the point system and have badges awarded on run time. No points, just badges. Some folks like to see there own personal accomplishments. Understandable. Helps see what a person has done. It would be different from other projects that would set WCG apart from the rest of the other projects. With a badge-only system, where wouldn't be any difference between 8 old Pentium-systems each using 1 week to finish a task, and a new 8-core Amd or Intel-system each using 1 hour per task per core. The new computer and the 8 old computers will both use 3 months to get a sapphire-badge, but the new computer would finish 168 times more tasks than the 8 old systems. If I was a scientist waiting on the results, I know which of these Sapphire-badges would be most important, but without a point-system where wouldn't be any difference to the crunchers. In case someone will mention "but you could count #tasks finished", the problem is WCG has multiple sized tasks, and if one type takes 1 hour to finish and another 10 hours, if only #tasks finished is important, guess how many would only do the 1-hour tasks and not the 10-hour-tasks...  "I make so many mistakes. But then just think of all the mistakes I don't make, although I might." |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Think the client v7 would stop working proper somehow if points were not fed back ... REC not being fed, at least for anyone who does not only WCG. Else, Ingleside is right on the mark... Credit is the quasi measurement of FPOPS processed and contributed so the client can balance between multiple projects it's connected to, however broken that credit system is... and it is, beyond a shadow of doubt on my part. Best qualified it's a rough approximation system.
----------------------------------------Who servers who...we volunteer to donate idle computing time for a good cause [my opinion], for which we get back nothing immediately tangible, but maybe a cure or a treatment in the future... something chronic instead of terminal, clean solar energy so we can work towards save breathable air, pure potable water without pathogens or chemical additives that make us sick, to name a few possibles. Strictly in a very long roundabout way, the scientists are serving the public, not anyone in particular, We are the facilitators to let the scientists do the work in kind of a fast forward manner and of that we can be collectively proud. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Mar 26, 2013 1:03:45 PM] |
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Coleslaw
Veteran Cruncher USA Joined: Mar 29, 2007 Post Count: 1343 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Point 1: Points don't have to be visible to the contributors. So, if v7 client requires points to be sent back for whatever reason, nothing needs changed except how it reports to the users.
----------------------------------------Point 2: Points here at WCG, still aren't a good measure because you don't get what you claimed but rather an average of yours and someone else. This is not a true representation of your contribution because one with slow machines can be over rewarded and those with faster machines can get under rewarded. Point 3: Some of the people upset with the early retirement of DDDT2 aren't just mad because of the early finish. But, rather that they were constantly told that there would be plenty of work for them in the future. Look back at all the posts of users upset with not getting any or only a few work units. They endured the long periods of not being able to get work while those with farms sucked them up at first sight. Even the CA's commented (or implied) on how their complaints were unnecessary due to the amount of work yet to come. So, it is really easy to see how many users could be jaded by this event.     |
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