While i understand the desire for certain people to collect all the possible badges, personally i find it distasteful and off-putting to prioritize badges over actual research. Seems some people are here to play a game, and when their virtual highscore has been sitting on the top for a while, they get bored and start complaining. Even going as far as making demands. Sure, we're spending electricity for crunching, but if you expect to get paid for voluntary work (be it in money, fame, badges, whatever) - it's no longer purely voluntary.

No doubt i'll get my backside handed to me for posting my thoughts on this, but sometimes reading these boards makes me feel like i stumbled into a nest of zealous badge mercenaries who don't give a damn about actual volunteer work for the common good. That's what this project is for; the future us.

That said, of course i appreciate idea of badges, it's not bad at all to have a little entertainment and virtual incentive to chase after. I just wish it wasn't the number one reason to be here for so many people. I do hope i'm wrong about that, it's just the amount of badge recognition threads and globes and whatnot around here that makes me feel otherwise.

Sorry for the rant, i'll retreat back to my dark cave filled with loud fans and a couple modest but hot CPU cores donating their time for whoever can make some use of it.

Frozenstein... My way of thinking: badges and points are just for adding some fun to the activity (and keep track where you are). They're good to set objectives and goals. Now with that said, yes, there are those who take it WAY too seriously to the degree you describe ("Since things aren't going my way, I'll pick up my marbles and go play someplace else"). Not much we can do about them... human nature I guess.

CJSL

Crunching for a better world...

Or....
Switch it up and make it about POINTS,
sure leave the years for those who've earned them.
maybe starting with new projects put them from 100,000
up to one BILLION points (cue mike myers).
So that Hypernova and IBM (and a dozen others)
can get that one.

100K
250K
500K
1M
2M
5M
10M
25M
100M
250M
500M
1B
That puts me at 5 and 6 for most projects, lots of room to grow.
Or even start at 50K, I think most people can get there pretty easily.

Anyway Points better reflect the amount of FLOPS, but years explain
it easier to non crunchers.

And to the point of this thread? Have a decaff
I personally like badges (or Snurkys Sigs)
And topping out at 2 years is a bummer,
but it's a FUN incentive. I've had to make my own goals
(like doubling each of the last 4 years, but that will end this year)
Somewhere in the middle of the grumpy poster and the grumpy reply,
is where most of us are.
I personally believe/guess they are taking their time about changing
the badge system because they want to get it 'right' (try to make
most of the people satisfied).
WCG has def changed my life, I'm more inspired to help (because of
the science) Even the decision to plunk down $22,500 for solar is
partly because of WCG. I dont want to use coal to run my computers.
(Half of Alberta's energy is coal driven, they've started windfarms and such
but i hate coal, burns dirty, the waste is dirty, I don't give 2 hoots about CO2,
I just hate cancer causing crapola)
Sorry I'm long winded today
Edit: By the way, that isn't money i have lying around,
that's about one less year of retirement I'll have, 15 months to pay it off. It comes out of my pay, and my wife gets
the nearly free electric bill... Happy wife happy life (& me too).