yup, impossble, unless you have multiple user accounts, set some up under one user joined to one team, and vice versa

make sure when you do join a team - that its the one in my sig

I'm the opposite. I'm not interested in joing teams at all, and I'd guess the majorty of people aren't that interested either. When I first joined (and now) I wanted to click and forget, just feeling slightly better for doing my bit.

I just keep checking back every now'n'again to see what I'm contributing to... and six months later (different user names cos I can't remember my passwords), I have to say, it seems like not a lot. Same project, almost the same welcome screen on the website, no concrete results. Hmm, this idea seems to be stagnating. Most particularly no net growth to speak of in contributors, and no new projects.

When I read through the site and see teams on the forums returning results in a completely different league to my pc, it makes me feel that my single CPU can't make that much difference in comparison, so why should I bother?

Surely the WCG itself is the only team, and only as a single team of equals where everyones contribution counts, can we really make the difference?

Surely we should be encouraging the little guys, the average man in the street with a single PC? Isn't that what's supposed to set WCG apart from the grids run privately by the big pharma's, and other big companies?

I very nearly didn't get passed the 'register' screen on the installation.

Why is that there ? I'm donating my CPU for free . I don't want to give WCG any details . I don't want yet another password to remember (OK I realise hypocrisy as I'm writing this using the password I setup - but I did have to re-register cos I couldn't remeber the original).

But why do I have to become a member to donate? I give to Oxfam without becoming a member (and I NEVER wear any badges given to me when I make a donation).

Memberships usually entail membership fees . Subscriptions . Provision of personal information . Direct association with that with which you are a member . Email . Spam . Newsletters . ..... But all I want to do is donate some of my CPU time , for free , and anonymously... ! I don't want any hassle, or to be hassled . Seeing 'Become a member' on the home page nearly put me off .

Why can't I just one click download , one click install (maybe not even that!), then forget ? No requests for user names, passwords , registration details ,etc.

I'm not interested in how much work my individual CPU's done . If anything the time it takes to get any points nearly puts me off as well - 9 hours per unit on average !!! If the points are to stay, can the work units be made smaller? (The molecule picture on the client is nice though, so it does look like it's doing something - that's more encouraging than points )

But in my view the points are meaningless. They don't mean anything to me. All it shows is how little my PC is contributing compared to the teams. And compared to everyone else - just noticed Im currently 46299th . Hmm. Why'm I bothering ?

The only number I'm curious about is the total number of clients that make up the grid (which is nicely displayed on the home page - although could it be made more central to emphasize their importance?), and the concrete results obtained (which seems to be very little at the minute - is anyone using the results generated so far?)

For those that do want to know how much their individual PC has done, or join teams, couldn't the option to register be moved to the client screen, so the user has the option once the client is fully installed and running, so new users aren't scared off by it .

(As an aside, in the same way grids were used to combat small pox, seemingly at very short notice, couldn't WCG be used to find a vaccine to combat bird flu? )

- Anon.

Hi Auto

Interesting book.

Firstly, the only person saying your single rig contribution doesn't matter is YOU.

Of course it matters.

xxx thousand single rig users all adds up to a lot of firepower.

With regards teams.....that is for fun.......and it adds an element of competition, which in turn encourages more people to have more machines contributing.....which adds up in the big picture.

Of course we are all one big team in the end.

When the project is complete the scientists can collate the data and then they will or won't have progress reports for the contributors.

Re, being a member, username etc.

I would think that is necessary so there is the audit trail, or whatever fancy term they use.

The devices need to be arranged etc so one needs the account so one can have the device listing etc and a means of self maintaining their settings.

Membership doesn't ask for any highly sensitive information.

As to the progress...I don't know how you can say things are stagnating.
In my few months here many many new members have joined the project, and continue to do so.

As for running a project for "bird flu" or anything else.....WCG provide the means to add proposals.
Wether that means is taken up or not is not down to WCG.

So......in a nutshell......

Of course your contribution matters however many systems you run.
Participation in the forums etc is entirely optional so that is no issue.

........The project is cruising along nicely and hopefully, with the continued support of the no doubt thousands of one system members, continue to grow.

Happy crunching/folding........whatever one chooses to call it

This team is new and fairly small. The big crunchers have left it for even bigger teams. Many are inactive. We get by on what we've got. SIX members returned results yesterday. Whoopee. I have been in WCG for less than a month myself.

There's no penalty for joining a team, and you could be helping yourself, a team, and WCG all at once. It takes longer to find one than to join one.

Surely you must have some interest that provides you with an keyword.
How about "auto"?
Autonomic Computing 7 12/17/2004
Biogasauto 2 12/19/2004
Branel Automatik A/S 2 11/19/2004
TRW Automotive 1 11/18/2004
Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez 1 11/19/2004

What about "anonymous"?
Flippers Anonymous 2 11/28/2004
mathematicians anonymous 7 11/16/2004
Narcotics Anonymous 3 11/20/2004

"The Condor Team" only returned one result yesterday. You could have doubled their output.

"A good team to join" has zero members. Their only member retired.

There are team recruiting threads, as well as a find-a-team search on any team homepage, like this one below in the join link.

It's hard to decide to press the button, "Join this team" on the team page, but that's a lot less hassle than trying to explain why not. You only have to press it once.....EVER. You can also unjoin a team and join a different one. No problem. How much hassle is that?

The ranking numbers get smaller fast, especially now at the beginning. Just returning one result leapfrogs those who still are hesitating or have trouble returning results at all. My results rank is less than 19000 after less than one month. The rankings start slowing down when you approach others computing at the same rate that you (would be).