Surprised how quiet this forum is

I see the Doc, StreetSam, Scorpuk and a few others post quite a bit, but there doesn't seem to be much activity from many of the other long term folders. I'm not criticizing that, just a bit surprised that more of the active folders aren't more active in the forum.

On a different subject, I added a pair of GTX970's to the fold over the weekend. So now I've got an R9270X, 2 GTX960's, and 2 GTX970's. The 960's appear to do proportionately better with core_18, ~40% increase in PPD compared with core_17. The 970's appear to get about the same PPD for core_17 and core_18

 

That's probably because most long term folders fold for the science, not for recognition.

 

I'm not sure how that relates to being active on the forum? Are you suggesting the more active members are simply after recognition?

I don't think that is true at all. There used to be loads of dedicated folders on the old customPC forum, and I simply don't see the same level of activity around here.

 

The CPC gang were always a lot more vocal than the Bit gang in terms of folding, and whilst a lot of them still fold for the cause most of them either didn't register on here during the great merge of 2009 or just don't post.

 

On a slightly different note, what PPD are you getting from those 960's wilding? My 660 isn't a happy bunny at the moment when folding so a future replacement is in order.

On the original point, it does seem a bit quiet these days and I include myself in that.

 

The 960's get a steady 100kPPD with core_17 and 140kPPD with the few core_18 WU's they've had. Both are at stock speed

However I've got the 960's installed in a S939, and I'm pretty sure that some combination of PCIe1.1/chipset/ram/cpu is holding them back a bit. They rarely show GPU usage above 80% unless they're working on core_15 which makes them run at 96~99% load.

For comparison the 970's are in a MSI Z97S Krait Edition, and their load is pretty much at 95~99% on all WU's.

 

I think that there are a few reasons for the 'quietness';

1. Getting Folding working these days, even in Linux, is pretty straightforward compared to how it used to be(!), so there are fewer posts from individuals asking for help.
2. We've lost a number of Folders, some who would have been regarded as stalwarts; for some, the changes the Pande Group have made regarding bigadv was the last straw, for others the deprecation of clients (e.g. PS3), and for others the obsolesce of existing hardware.
3. Some Folders have moved to other teams where there are 'incentives', so the likes of CureCoin for example.
4. For others, the economic squeeze, or retirement or redundancy, has meant that cutting back on utility bills (and capital outlay) has been more of a priority, so Folding has ceased with a knock-on effect on the Forum.
5. If you look at the Folding stats, we have a total of 9,456 Folders on the team, but only 236 are actually active. So we are few in number, and a proportion, probably like me when I started, won't be interested in 'forums' (obviously those of a slightly older generation - which probably includes myself these days!). Also, as Shirty has mentioned, some continued Folding following the CustomPC/bit-tech team merge, but did not re-register with bit-tech.

If anyone has any thoughts on 'geeing up' the team, with the potential knock-on effect to increased volume on the Folding forum, send a mail to saspro as he is our man with a link to the Custom PC mag.

 

Totally Agree with what the Doc says, I used to post a lot more going back a few years but I have so much going on these days with work, family, car projects etc means I don't get the chance, plus im still sulking a little bit about the loss of bigadv/bigbeta lol

 

Hey all, I didn't realise there were so few active, can't believe I never noticed that before. Have to agree with Doc as previously stated.

I for one have been folding with CPC since 2007 I think but rarely comment in the forum. I consume more than I contribute. You guys know a lot more about it than I do so I feel my contributions wouldn't really be up to par on a lot of the discussions that take place.

Also still sulking at the end of bigadv...

 

I fall into number 4. Bought a house and put money into doing it up, changed jobs and getting paid less plus the wife is heading back to Uni in September so stockpiling for loosing her income. Top it off with my hardware is a GTX460 or a GTX260 in the spare PC. I can barely justify using the desktop since internet can be browsed on the phone or tablet and even football manager 2012 (haven't upgraded it either) runs on the tablet as does final fantasy 7. I will occasionally run folding@home in the browser of my laptop or tablet in work or round in a friends house.

 

I've been quiet on the forum for a while now, and have found that it is something you get out of the habit of doing. Life gets busy or other things come along, and you just forget to look. Unless there is a problem with your folding kit, or you are thinking of buying some new hardware, you just keep plodding on each day, slowly building your points up and gaining on the person above you. As you get higher up the table, nothing happens very quickly, so checking every day drops to every week and on to every month or so! I will endeavour to be better in the future.

 

Wish I didn;t respond to the wrong thread!

Doh.

Sorry Docjones for hijacking your thread.

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=284671

 

Just checked out Curecoin as I'd not come across that before. From my calcs, my 3820 which produces about 20k ppd is worth about 3 pence per day. I know it's effectively free if you're hell bent on folding, but let's say that I shall be sticking with Bit-tech's team.

One thing that I did a couple of years ago was a little experiment to see if I could increase awareness of folding on HEXUS.NET's site.
The site itself didn't ever appear to listen to our requests, which ultimately, became my reason for returning to Bt/CPC - however the community, and their awareness, certainly increased while we were doing our "things".
Before I started we had maybe 10 active folders in Hexus which I think rose to 30-40. They're back down to single digit folders now (6) so I can say with a degree of certainty that an active community WILL help.

I can't claim that we came up with any novel ideas, as I fundamentally mirrored what CPC were doing in their mag.

Show us yer rig - photos of rigs and projects
Folding hints and tips - getting the best out of your setup
meet the folder(s) - as per CPC mag really....
Folder of the month - e-peen awards for folders
Stats ranking folders and ranking them not just on OVERALL points, but also in increased production rates


It'd be nice to see some of those ideas running on here and it's something that I'd be keen to get involved with - back when I did this it was a serious time burden putting together the numbers, but I'm learing MS SQL Server and was going to start a project to hopeful to get the stats automatically produced, thus only then requiring human commentary of the results.

I'm a way off that at the moment as I've not even built the server yet, but it's very much a plan I intend to deliver as I study for my Microsoft BI certification.

I appreciate that a this stuff is not new, but with a concerted focus, it can really improve/increase participation.

I'd appreciate your thoughts?

 

#correction#

There were 31 active folders when I started the project and within 5 months this had risen to 78.

As a team Hexus also made it into the top 100 folding teams, rising 30 odd places. They now languish down in 195th....

Can;t believe I've only dropped to 3rd in their rankings


For an example of what I'd done - it was all very waffly and amateur (me - waffly? Never ), but will give you an idea of what I'm on about.

http://forums.hexus.net/software/198...ary-stats.html

 

Fantasy folding was another idea which would work along the lines of selecting 5 users for your team (from Bit-tech of course), each time they reached a landmark (overtake, 10,million points, mention in the magazine on the folding pages etc) they get points and we start a league and/or cup to track performance.

It raises awareness and is something that EVERYONE can get a bit of fun out of while folding...

 

Not one comment in 5 days...Guess I'm barking up the wrong tree....

 

Sounds an interesting idea.


Can you re-link the link as its not working. the dots appear in the link too.


Maybe CPC / Bit-tech could push the boat out and have a CPC / Bit-tech mug as the prize for whatever criteria.

 

Part of your problem here is that CPC and Bit-tech have completely parted ways. It just happens that the new owner of Bit (David Ross) has kept on some of the writers as freelancers and they just happen to have retained their freelancing contracts with Dennis as well, but there's no leadership of the folding team any more.

I'm not certain what the future entails.

 

CPC is completely run by freelance staff.
I do the folding pages in the mag and I'm more than open to suggestions for stuff you'd like to see, especially as getting people to send interviews back is getting harder & harder every month.

 

Linky