Well, as of today I manged to invite 26 people in WCG:
1 of my friends
1 who came from donations
1 pending
23 of them inactive

Some have come through some invitation...but most of them came from my personal donations, such as these:
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgiveaways/search?q...rt=new&restrict_sr=on
Even though I don't have much, as a middle class guy from a developing nation in Europe...I'm always the one that makes "put your money, where your mouth is"!
So those donations came from my own pocket...donated 15 games so far, this is the 16th: https://gleam.io/ob2xf/star-wars-empire-at-war-gold-pack-giveaway-on-steam

Why?
Decided that the best thing would be to target the younger population of Gamers for WCG! They certainly have the equipment...it's only the willingness they need!

Problems that I saw?
Many people come here, register...but don't install BOINC or don't use BOINC...why?
Maybe those questions are for all of us & WCG crew...'cause we all need to improve, to be better with people...so that people can be inspired to give back more!
;)

As I've said, I'm a total newbie, who just learned of WCG/BOINC within the last month. The WCG software download experience really needs work, but @Coleslaw, I'm not sure I agree with you as to how.

Currently, the download page says, "The World Community Grid software will be downloaded for:"

The user should not find themself downloading "World Community Grid" and then, suddenly find themself opening something called "BOINC Manager", with a big BOINC logo.

This obfuscates what is really going on. The user is in fact downloading a generic piece of software that the user uses to do volunteer work for WCG. This should be communicated.

Do not re-brand BOINC anymore than it currently is (It has an ICON, and "World Community Grid - BOINC Manager" in the window title); instead, tell the user in plain English what they are doing. They are "downloading BOINC Manager, which has been prepared specifically for World Community Grid with our custom settings", or something like that. Plain English. People will understand it, if it is explained simply, and well.

As for then attaching to a project, I again have to respectfully disagree, @Coleslaw. I was prompted to choose a project, then easily found World Community Grid in the list, clicked on it, and was prompted for my WCG username and password. The project I had chosen upon account setup with WCG then auto-magically downloaded and started. Same ease happened with the Android app when I downloaded from the Play store. I'm not sure how much easier it could be made, than that.

But I would suggest considering making a newbie-focused video stepping through the entire process, and a real focus on usability for the non-technically minded in general. Website designer(s), please visit the site as a new user who has never heard of any of this, and do it over and over, from the very beginning of the process, including downloading and installing everything, from scratch.

To WCG's credit, they do have MD5 checksums, unlike the BOINC download at the Berkeley site. I used this MD5 to find a problem with the download, which has since been corrected (see my discussion on another thread).

Also, I understand that WCG's defaults are "conservative" on the user's machine, unlike what you're probably using with the Berkeley BOINC. This is good, and should possibly be communicated to the user when they download. I say this with a focus on the non-technical people out there, that this thread is addressing.

@we4qcphi8
I think you're up on sthg, but just checked here:
https://secure.worldcommunitygrid.org/help/viewHelp.do
& saw that on WCG there's a (old) video with a registration & install of program for use on computer! so to all admins & techs, it's going to be a nice time to make another, better & newer video for registration!

Also it needs to be played as soon as someone registers to WCG...so that they understand what WCG is, what is BOINC & how to use it!
;)

Thanks for pointing out the video, KLiK. An argument can be made that WCG should use the non-branded, latest version of BOINC. People may be able to get their minds around that easier. After all, when one goes to the play store, one can search for "World Community Grid", but then one downloads BOINC. (My point being, it's confusing, and not explained to the newbie on WCG download page.

What's interesting about the video that KLiK found is the default selections of the projects. Having defaults selected, is a good thing - but it makes me realize something. Once those default projects are done (say, in a year or whatever), the user must go back to worldcommunitygrid.org and opt-IN to a project again. How many contributors have fallen "away" from WCG because of this? Many, I would guess. I would strongly suggest that there be a clearly communicated, opt-OUT default setting that will simply feed the "next" project into the WCG contributor's BOINC client. Let the user say, "yes, I will contribute until I come here and turn it off", rather than the current thing of, "I will contribute until this project is over, and then maybe, possibly (probably not) remember to come back here and select a new project".

Another thing that should be explored: Getting cell phone carriers to create an opt-out BOINC/WCG contribution. Then we would be talking many, many more processors out there doing work while battery charging. Sure, this is a big dream. But it's an idea.

Here's an interesting article on the power of default settings:
http://digg.com/2016/default-settings

I think it would probably go further if someone contacted newspapers to do an editorial on it. Give them a nicely done write-up and you never know... they may print it. I've thought about it a few times, but just haven't taken the time yet.