I think "computer time" is a concept that anybody can grasp easily. Power words? Keep them away from me! Fake market-speak impresses nobody, but my feeling is "spare and un-utilized computer resources" is a tautology, incomprehensible, and (despite your claims) an ineffective selling point.

To attract the most people, WCG must use easy to understand, non-technical language wherever possible. I don't feel they always manage this as well as they could, but I'm not convinced this is a candidate for alteration.

Alot of women here in Albuquerque in particular are well educated, smart, discerning and skeptical of things they know nothing about. They are especially this way when it comes to trying to get them to join an unverified project such as the World Community Grid. There is alot of mistrust that the website might be fake, hoax, contain a virus or otherwise have no benefit and interest to them.

I have studied them for a while and they use what I have come to call "filtering techniques". They look for improper english usage, little imperfections in grammer and really anything else to dismiss and discredit and to have no responsibility. I've discovered a great majority of people have real doubts that serious illness and disease will ever be cured especially using a computer at home. They don't even want to make the effort or care.

I have gotten farther with people in this city by using more sophisticated words in context, using accurate words to describe the problem or situation, not treating them as they have a lower intelligence, respect, honest and open, unbiased, and just having the right overall judgement for the right situation.

I look at the webpage folding@home and right away I see "nanotechnology", News, Awards, Science, Results and somehow it just feels more creditable and I have all the information right away that I could want or need.

I have been watching the statistics and it seems like we keep loosing as many people as we gain somehow. I'm sure there are improvements and refinements to be made which might encourage members to stay and more to join then otherwise would.

Also, I'm guilty of posting messages in wrong sections, irrelevant messages at times, and stuff with no real value. I don't know what effect messages boards have on people in relevance to joining or staying. But, I do think message boards tend to get off topic and sloppy in general at times.

Overall, I think refinements and stricter policies would bring more creditability and therefore more users to come and stay.

I don't claim my theory or way of thinking is correct, good for this project or beneficial. I only wanted to raise awareness on how alot of people think regarding the internet atleast in this city called Albuquerque, NM. The internet is a fake imaginary world to them full of hoaxes and bad stuff. The ability to quickly discern good information from bad information is now a main topic being taught at the University of New Mexico. I don't see enough references or information that can be verified to pass the required tests people may do.

Would be nice to hear what other have to say and think. I'm interested on how important wording and accurate image might be.

First off, "creditability" is a word. I did have to look it up, and it's certainly not as common as "credibility"... but it is a word.

Second, I agree that not everything on the WCG site is necessarily explained as well as it could be, but I kind of tend to doubt that's the reason people are quitting at the same rate they're joining. My guess is that has more to do with the impact (allegedly none) on people's computers.

As for people not joining because of the wording on the site... it's possible, but I don't think changing a single word on the home page will make a difference. I think what would make a bigger difference is putting big banners with the projects or graphics like we see on the agent. If people are turned off by the imperfect wording on the home page, then we need to reach out to more people to get all the people who won't be so quick to dismiss.

"They look for improper english usage, little imperfections in grammer and really anything else to dismiss and discredit and to have no responsibility. I've discovered a great majority of people have real doubts that serious illness and disease will ever be cured especially using a computer at home. They don't even want to make the effort or care"

If this is really the case there in New Mexico, this is a bizare way of making a decision. Glad I dont live in albequre with my grammer skills I wouldn't pass muster at all.

Logicly speaking though being a grammer Guru is hardly any basis for considering oneself educated. A truly educated person is one who has the ability to criticaly think in a resonable manner.

Sounds to me like they just dont want to crunch and dont trust the internet. So they come up with the grammer ruse in order to justify not wanting to take part.

I must say that I, too, make judgements based on grammar, spelling and punctuation when judging web sites, etc. That said, I say thank God for spellcheck and I consider myself a great speller and proofreader. Nobody is perfect.

However, I joined WCG mainly because the causes are undeniable, IBM is associated with it, and there seemed to be an "all business" attitude that I did not find on other grid sites. Your mileage may vary.

My computing has never been affected by WCG and I run 100% on two machines, one a slow Celeron and another a P4 HT where I run both "processors" 100% and have no problems. I did figure out I like BOINC better.

I do not need fancy graphics or pats on the back. I need stable applications that do meaningful work that don't crash and that is what I have found here at WCG.