| Index | Recent Threads | Unanswered Threads | Who's Active | Guidelines | Search |
 |
World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: Suggestions / Feedback
Thread: How to Get More People Involved |
| No member browsing this thread |
|
Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 75
|
|
| Author |
|
|
Coleslaw
Veteran Cruncher USA Joined: Mar 29, 2007 Post Count: 1343 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
we4qcphi8, I feel your pain. I have done a lot of legwork as well. What I find is that people are lazy. Yes lazy. The willing just aren't willing to take the steps to learn all of the necessary technologies that one must quite frankly learn to run even the simplest installs of BOINC. BOINC is way too complex for the average user. And a single project marketing BOINC as it's software certainly adds to the confusion. What WCG really needs is its own client the quickly and easily sets the user up with a default set of system usage settings that have minimal impact. But wait! The current install has those settings you say? Kinda. Though it may have those settings somewhat by default, the account creation, project attaching, sub project selection, etc.. etc.. is still daunting to the user. Why does it have to have so many steps for something so basic? If I install the folding at home Android client provided by SONY, it is marketed as a game for which I can gain achievements for. For some that is nice. The software is easy to install and setup. For most this is awesome. The software does not seem to be intrusive. Again, awesome for most. Downside... your contributions don't get tallied with the PC version of the folding at home software.
----------------------------------------Want another example? How about DreamLab? It is an easy to set up Android application as well. Create the account easily from the application and choose your sciences. The settings for configuring are simple and pretty straight forward. The downside? They are new and don't have any scoring mechanism for comparing with others nor do they have teams. It would be much easier to get people to use those apps on their mobile device due to the simplicity. Now you may be saying yes but what about PC's? Same concept. We need simpler and more basic software for the average user to just pick up and let run. They don't have to maximize every device. They don't have to dedicate 24/7. We just need to contribute even a little. And some real marketing from WCG would go a long way.     |
||
|
|
enels
Senior Cruncher Joined: Apr 25, 2008 Post Count: 286 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
Well said Coleslaw. People may be lazy but they will spend hours getting a game to work. The few minutes getting the WCG started should be easy for most. KLiK recruits gamers for their computer expertise.
The recruiter's job is to get the recruit signed up. The WCG has the job of retaining them. It is counterintuitive to demote a recruiter's badge. |
||
|
|
KLiK
Master Cruncher Croatia Joined: Nov 13, 2006 Post Count: 3108 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
to WCG team: Just got this message from you  I've asked you some times to give us a tool to contact our recruits - NOTHING has been done! So let me be frank with you: 1. I don't know who is who, among those people? In other words, I don't know under which username is a true identity of someone recruited! 2. Most my recruits came from "promoting WCG in giveaway of games", so I don't know their contact (email, mobile, identity). & now you message me (like above) to contact them? OK, I would take some time & contact them. BUT HOW? You still owe us a tool to contact people we invited here! To remind you, I've asked you to put "e-mail icon" between username & their participation, with their mail to contact them. So far, you have done - NOT A THING! So, please spamming BOINC, unless you want to give us a tool to promote science!  Are these people you recruited a part of a team that you are captain of? If so, you do have the ability to email them (provided they have not opted out of team emails). My Contribution / Team / My Team / Team Control Panel / Email Team But I agree that the ability to communicate with teams is woefully clunky, and, frankly, way out of date (circa 2004). Teams should have a wiki / forum of their own. Using something like Atlassian Source software would not be a bad idea. A place for the team to go to and participate - as a team. Nope, I opted out of my team & left for Gridcoin...so that's too bad! ;) Well said Coleslaw. People may be lazy but they will spend hours getting a game to work. The few minutes getting the WCG started should be easy for most. KLiK recruits gamers for their computer expertise. The recruiter's job is to get the recruit signed up. The WCG has the job of retaining them. It is counterintuitive to demote a recruiter's badge. +1 Even though I don't care about the being Silver recruiter now...it will come again! But yes, it is for some people who spend more time & energy (for walks) to recruit people in...I do agree with that, also! Still, you have to know what you "target score for BOINC" is?! You're not here for "average Joe" (Joe's, don't get mad, just an example). You're here for a some computer geek, some kind of expert, gamer, developer - but also a philanthropist...not many out there! ;) ---------------------------------------- [Edit 1 times, last edit by KLiK at Mar 13, 2017 9:13:55 PM] |
||
|
|
we4qcphi8
Cruncher Joined: Jul 28, 2016 Post Count: 26 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
One of the concerns I have seen expressed by WCG (I don't have time to find the link) is that many people today are now living their lives almost entirely on their smartphones. I know people like this - they go home at night, and they don't even turn on their desktop/laptop computer, if they have one. The one thing that can be said for the onboarding / fake overlay page that I was complaining about is that it is "responsive" (it renders well on a smartphone). I suspect that this was part of the impetus for doing it. Whatever the case, it is still cookied away after first viewing, so the site looks different the second time.
When we post a link to worldcommunitygrid.org on Twitter or Facebook, the people clicking it are on their smartphones! So let's look at the download experience from the perspective of the new user who would be using their smartphone. These are the people WCG really needs to reach if they are going to grow in a major way. The new user - working on their smartphone - goes to worldcommunitygrid.org and is served up the responsive fake overlay page, checks it out, and says, "Interesting. I'm not gonna sign up this minute. I'll come back and check it out later". That new user - on smartphone - comes back later and the home page is different because of the cookie. The site is no longer responsive because it is a "desktop" site. This smartphone user, in probably 99.99999% of cases, leaves right then and there. Hopefully some of these smartphone new users are savvy enough to say, "Oh, ok, it's a desktop site - I'll go to my laptop/desktop and check it out". They do so. The new user clicks on Download in the upper right hand corner. They are told that "The World Community Grid software will be downloaded for:", and are asked to select a radio button. They select Android, and are now told "The World Community Grid software will be downloaded for:" - and then see two buttons: GET IT ON Google Play / Available on kindle fire. (I won't nitpick about how nothing will now be "downloaded for" Android *here*, but okay). So, that new user is tacitly instructed (they figure out that they are being asked to do this) to go to Google Play, and search for "World Community Grid software". But when they do so, it is not there! It is not there, because "World Community Grid software" does not exist on Google Play. Now, you and I both know that what they are wanting on Google Play is BOINC. (And yes, I also know that BOINC is the first thing that comes up when one searches for World Community Grid on Google Play.) But the new user DOES NOT know this. Does WCG really expect the new user to *know* that BOINC is what they want on Google Play? Because if they do, they do not understand the average new user. WCG, you might want to explain to the new user that they are needing to look for BOINC on Google Play. Hello? I wonder what went into the decision to brand BOINC "World Community Grid software". I wonder if there is a concern that if users understand that BOINC is generic, some users my start running other projects that may compete with WCG projects. Currently, the only people who are going to join and participate in WCG are nerds who are savvy enough to reverse engineer what the heck is going on and how to get up to speed. Average new users - especially on the smartphone - are lost in this UX. For the issue of the software confusion (BOINC vs. World Community Grid software, no World Community Grid software on Google Play), there are two solutions: 1.) Create real custom software called "World Community Grid software" and get it in the play store (not gonna happen, I know) 2.) Tell the user in plain English what is going on. "Please download BOINC in the Google Play store, and then please add the World Community Grid project to BOINC on your Android phone." Stop, entirely, branding BOINC as a WCG thing. Provide coherent instruction about how to a.) create an account b.) go to Google Play store and download BOINC c.) add WCG project to BOINC Help the new user get their mind around what is happening by explaining to them what is happening. For the website, there is one solution: 1.) Overhaul the entire site to make it responsive. This is critically important if WCG wants to grow it's user base. |
||
|
|
KLiK
Master Cruncher Croatia Joined: Nov 13, 2006 Post Count: 3108 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
One of the concerns I have seen expressed by WCG (I don't have time to find the link) is that many people today are now living their lives almost entirely on their smartphones. I know people like this - they go home at night, and they don't even turn on their desktop/laptop computer, if they have one. The one thing that can be said for the onboarding / fake overlay page that I was complaining about is that it is "responsive" (it renders well on a smartphone). I suspect that this was part of the impetus for doing it. Whatever the case, it is still cookied away after first viewing, so the site looks different the second time. When we post a link to worldcommunitygrid.org on Twitter or Facebook, the people clicking it are on their smartphones! So let's look at the download experience from the perspective of the new user who would be using their smartphone. These are the people WCG really needs to reach if they are going to grow in a major way. The new user - working on their smartphone - goes to worldcommunitygrid.org and is served up the responsive fake overlay page, checks it out, and says, "Interesting. I'm not gonna sign up this minute. I'll come back and check it out later". That new user - on smartphone - comes back later and the home page is different because of the cookie. The site is no longer responsive because it is a "desktop" site. This smartphone user, in probably 99.99999% of cases, leaves right then and there. Hopefully some of these smartphone new users are savvy enough to say, "Oh, ok, it's a desktop site - I'll go to my laptop/desktop and check it out". They do so. The new user clicks on Download in the upper right hand corner. They are told that "The World Community Grid software will be downloaded for:", and are asked to select a radio button. They select Android, and are now told "The World Community Grid software will be downloaded for:" - and then see two buttons: GET IT ON Google Play / Available on kindle fire. (I won't nitpick about how nothing will now be "downloaded for" Android *here*, but okay). So, that new user is tacitly instructed (they figure out that they are being asked to do this) to go to Google Play, and search for "World Community Grid software". But when they do so, it is not there! It is not there, because "World Community Grid software" does not exist on Google Play. Now, you and I both know that what they are wanting on Google Play is BOINC. (And yes, I also know that BOINC is the first thing that comes up when one searches for World Community Grid on Google Play.) But the new user DOES NOT know this. Does WCG really expect the new user to *know* that BOINC is what they want on Google Play? Because if they do, they do not understand the average new user. WCG, you might want to explain to the new user that they are needing to look for BOINC on Google Play. Hello? I wonder what went into the decision to brand BOINC "World Community Grid software". I wonder if there is a concern that if users understand that BOINC is generic, some users my start running other projects that may compete with WCG projects. Currently, the only people who are going to join and participate in WCG are nerds who are savvy enough to reverse engineer what the heck is going on and how to get up to speed. Average new users - especially on the smartphone - are lost in this UX. For the issue of the software confusion (BOINC vs. World Community Grid software, no World Community Grid software on Google Play), there are two solutions: 1.) Create real custom software called "World Community Grid software" and get it in the play store (not gonna happen, I know) 2.) Tell the user in plain English what is going on. "Please download BOINC in the Google Play store, and then please add the World Community Grid project to BOINC on your Android phone." Stop, entirely, branding BOINC as a WCG thing. Provide coherent instruction about how to a.) create an account b.) go to Google Play store and download BOINC c.) add WCG project to BOINC Help the new user get their mind around what is happening by explaining to them what is happening. For the website, there is one solution: 1.) Overhaul the entire site to make it responsive. This is critically important if WCG wants to grow it's user base. +1 & I might add: - make m.worldcommunitygrid.org web page! |
||
|
|
|