Just another long time contributer that has finally lost the will to spend any more time trying to get BOINC to work.

I dont want advice... tech support, suggestions, check this and that, log in here, open the Tools menu... none of it.

I DON'T WANT TO QUIT. I *COULD* plug at it and plug at it until I get BOINC running again. I've did it several times in the past. But no more - screw this.

Talk about a "college science project"... BOINC is the Rube Goldberd theft of an absolutely BRILLIANT idea.

-tb2

---

Another suicide note. I wish people would ask for help first. Sigh.

Another suicide note. I wish people would ask for help first. Sigh.

Or just go away silently into the cold, cold night.

982 others joined in the last 24 hrs. (boincstats.com)

---

Boinc V 7.4.36
Win7 i5 3.33G 4GB NVidia 470

screw this or screw lo(o)se? :P

---

Or just go away silently into the cold, cold night.

982 others joined in the last 24 hrs. (boincstats.com)

A few must have proceeded him. Quietly.
982 joined in a day.
Active users dropped to 189,121 from over 200,000 last week.
I guess it evens out, some join, totals go up, more drop out, Active goes down.

If you look at the other projects they have similar patterns ...

which could mean that the migration month was hard on everyone, and some left because they could not get BOINC to work.

Or, the holiday month could have put a damper on participation as people were doing other things.

Some went to LHC as they had work so they moved their computers over while there was work.

Also, some left SAH for the simple reason that they knew this was going to be a rough time and they went to more stable projects but fully intend to return.

You can spin the data however you like. All it shows is that there was a "blip" in the data.

The general trend is still up, with the exception of Predictor@Home which seems to be bleeding people a little faster than they have been gaining them ... and there are always those that try a DC project and leave.

I don't know if there are really good stats for Classic of active vs. total participants, but, my recollection is that the numbers were worse there ... 5.5 million total, less than 500,000 active which in my book is worse than the 50/50 ration which we are close to ...

Again, it could be better ...

---

I feel absolutely certain we lose many because of the http / 500 error issue. I have 7 waiting to let them know its sorted and then they will consider returning. Some stick with it - I have two that connect individual pCs to their modems and down load and then put them back on the LAN until upload time. Wow thats staying power!

But really this problem is denying projects real willing volunteers and as much as some effort has gone into this from the devs I regret to say its a bit of a backwater and no nearer to a solution. Well when another 10,000 leave perhaps it will ring a bell for them. Perhaps the BBC will ask about it and ten they will move on it.

Its not been without trying either as I have chased this for months and months. But I wait for a new version from Rom after a new checkin by Dr A. I wait for the scripts that Bruce did to be made available at Seti. I guess I will wait forever who knows. Its like walking in treacle tbh.

I have to say I am extremely frustrated about this. If its a project problem lets find out. If its routing on the Internet then lets find proxies for people. But leaving them out in the sun to dry and die is really very bad form.

---

I don't know if there are really good stats for Classic of active vs. total participants, but, my recollection is that the numbers were worse there ... 5.5 million total, less than 500,000 active which in my book is worse than the 50/50 ration which we are close to ...

On any project lasting more than a month, looking at or even using just the total number of people that have signed up is almost useless. By itself, it is only good for a PR headliner to attract attention. Sort of like the owners of the Titanic advertising how many passengers have signed up for a cruse on their ship. Not, how many enjoyed their first one so much they came back for a second trip. It does not reflect the number of people who have left, died, had systems crash, found it was a bad idea, lost interest, or got pissed off because it does not work from their location. Only the ratio of the number of people that have signed up to the number of people still active at a given point is important, and that will always decline over time. (Few people come back after leaving for an extended period of time.)

Only the average rate of people signing up and the average rate of change of the number of people still active is important. Those can be compared. Are we attracting new people? Are we keeping the ones we have.

New BOINC/Seti sign ups has slowed down, and the number of active has leveled off and is even in a short term down trend. Normal as a project gets older.

Seti@home peaked in 2003 with almost 650,000 Active users and then saw a steady decline due to the age of the project and the publishing of the first "nothing even close to interesting" analysis of the first three and a half years of data analysis. When it was noticed that they were no longer using the results crunched and not updating the lists after 2002, but just storing the results data, people started leaving the project. This was the result of Berkeley's lack of interest in keeping the project going as an active science project, and just using it as a spring board for a new Distributed Computing development project.

Now BOINC has replaced Seti@home and had become the focus of people who expect something that works, and are not the least bit interested in becoming testers of a Beta stage project that does not take note of and fix the problems. If they have trouble connecting and it does not work, where Seti@home did, it is not their responsibility to spend time fixing it for Berkeley. It is BOINC's problem to look into and fix the problems. Sure volunteers can try to help users, but they get little help from where it is needed and few if any fixes for the problems. Why should a user have to change their HTTP Proxy server that worked for Seti@home, just because they now have to use BOINC? Why would a user have to upgrade their router or Firewall software when it works with everything else, but not with BOINC?

If someone leaves, I expect them to take the time to tell everyone why.

If someone stays, I expect them to point out any problems they run into and complain when they are not fixed.

I applaud what ya'll are trying to do. However, I'm done with the issues I'm having and am now in the process of deleting boinc. Only one little problem, there are some files that won't delete because it says they are still being used. How is that possible when I've had it shut down for DAYS...? Yet another headache to add to the list of why I give up.

That's your decision. We can't change it. But please check in in another 3 months. 6 months even. BOINC may have changed considerable by then. Then check it against what it was now.

---

... there are some files that won't delete because it says they are still being used.

You may have had a crash, which has left a program still 'alive' from before, and holding the files.
In windows, look in your 'Windows Task Manager' to see if there is a boinc-something process, and if so, kill it. Then delete the files.

It would have helped if you had asked for help BEFORE you decided to quit, but, as Ageless said, your decision. Personally, I had / am having no troubles with the new version, having migrated through earlier, simpler versions.