Hat off to alternety for challenging the status quo.

I've been participating in grid computing since the SETI@Home search for extraterrestrial intelligence, but switched to World Community Grid, initially with the United Devices client, in 2007 as soon as I became aware of it because, unlike SETI, it could potentially benefit humanity directly. I had a long hiatus because my previous computer's CPU fan screamed like a ninja when running flat out and indeed it became unstable and crashed when the cooling was challenged further by warm weather.

So, having built my new computer with silent operation a key criterion (it's less noisy than my ceiling fan) I fired up WCG and the BOINC client and was frankly amazed that it had barely changed in almost 7 years. That's an eternity in computing. It is arcane.

I was very happy to crunch for cancer because it claimed my sister at a very young age, but when the Ebola project was announced, it grabbed my attention because medical professionals are putting their lives on the line right now to try to contain the disease. To me, it has an urgency greater than any other WCG project that preceded it, so provides a very compelling call to action. I'm sure thousands of people are responding to this call.

However, getting Ebola work units is not for the faint hearted and will "outsmart" most. I expected it to be click and forget but that produced nothing. Well, I've been troubleshooting computers for 35 years so I rose to the challenge, dived into the forum for the first time (it is arcane too), got help, offered help (got insulted too) and now I'm on the project, having studied the project's behaviour in the client's event log and adapted my client configuration accordingly. Instead of click and forget, it became a strategy game to enable participation by competing successfully for the dearth of work units.

I think the obstacles I overcame to be able to participate will deter most people, so it makes the project a PR faux pas. In 2014 you don't get a second chance - your new volunteers are gone and you won't see them again. Which is alternety's point.

What would I expect to see in 2014? A landing page, with a welcome video, enabling me to download a client for my platform, (from the various app stores where applicable), then everything else, including registration, performed in the client in a very simple and straightforward manner that is as consistent as possible across platforms so that volunteers can help each other out.

BOINC is anything but that, it is no longer fit for purpose. No disrespect to Tullus, who is technically correct, but I came to replace my computer idle time with valuable work, not to sign up for an open source software development project. It seems to me that the much-needed new generation BOINC could be Berkeley undergraduates' dissertation project. In fact, get a few teams to do it and see whose is best! They can graduate and have the additional satisfaction of making a significant difference to this project.

From what I read, I assume that alternety has as complete answer to his/her initial questions and remarks.

I mean to see a call to create a public discussion of sorts. Or database, or seperate forum or whatever. This I leave to others. WCG is what it is, with it's pro's and con's. It's good enough for me, although improvement is certainly possible.

I came here to help clarify, not to engave an "in depth" discussion.

Fun to all with expanding this topic, and merry Christmas for those here to who happen to be Christian.

Hush you, histrionics are good exercise.

I was not going to butt in again, but theodolite, thank you. You have just provided the quintessential example of precisely what I have been talking about.

Oh, and I just got an email chiding me for not producing work. Fortunately they had an "unsubscribe".

Alternaty, thanks for your support on this subject