Posts by John37309

41) Message boards : The Lounge : LHC Rap (Message 19648)
Posted 20 Aug 2008 by John37309
Post:
This video got 354,217 views since July 28, 2008. That would make it the most viewed boinc project related video on youtube! Shame the credits don't mention the LHC@home BOINC project in the video. It would have sent thousands of new users to the project.

Its good to see science being promoted in this way!

John.
42) Message boards : Promotion : Analyse of the user survey and improvments (Message 19168)
Posted 4 Aug 2008 by John37309
Post:
Andrew Gillette and I would like to distribute a set of surveys on the demographics of the BOINC Community. We would like to tailor our questions specific groups within the Community such as Volunteers and Admins. We intend to submit the results through a publication and present some of these findings in a presentation.

Thoughts?

Jack

Its an interesting thought Jack!

1. How would you plan to distribute the survey?

2. Would you expect a good response from both project admins and users?

3. Is it likely to be much different to the current BOINC user survey? Or why do a different one instead of full analysis of the current survey?

4. Who would you present the results to and what do you think might happen as a result of the survey?

I can foresee great difficulty in this, but the concept is good!

John.
43) Message boards : Promotion : You can't teach an old dog new tricks... (Message 19005)
Posted 31 Jul 2008 by John37309
Post:
Its a very good way to get people involved Nick, if you have the means to get the word out to them.

A few more posters here; BOINC posters

John.
44) Message boards : Promotion : How can we address BOINC's retention problem? (Message 18706)
Posted 21 Jul 2008 by John37309
Post:

Pro-active, interactive, some kind of “active” is necessary to keep people interested. Look at how many skins are available for the BOINC manager. Clubs, groups, orgs, etc. have the same age old problem: the same people volunteer over and over and over and… to fill the positions necessary for an org to function.

A lot of people are cut off at the ankles with the “tecky” complexity that exists with BOINC, Grid Republic, BAM, etc. Quite a few letters say so or complain about WU not being available or other issues.

One thing is certain, it will never get done if it’s just talk. Come up with a game plan. Implement it. Fix it along the way. Get it done.

Just a thought.

I currently working on the pro-active, interactive element. This "Promotion" forum is a good start.

I'm working on several idea's at the moment. They will be released soon.

John.
45) Message boards : Promotion : Post your ideas for promoting BOINC (Message 18487)
Posted 15 Jul 2008 by John37309
Post:
Its difficult to simplify it any further, the whole thing is quite complex for various reasons.


John:

Here I have to disagree with you.

BOINC 101, designed for the newbie and those who want a set it and forget it experience could be set up to run as a screensaver [and only run when the screensaver appears], with no more thought to it than any other screensaver.

This could run a basket of BOINC projects [either selected automatically or as options], tailored to the capability of the computer and the newbie's usage style.

I have real reservations about accepting the status quo as being as good as it can get.

Don't get me wrong, i agree with you. There is room for improvement in everything.
46) Message boards : Promotion : Post your ideas for promoting BOINC (Message 18484)
Posted 15 Jul 2008 by John37309
Post:
Its difficult to simplify it any further, the whole thing is quite complex for various reasons. In the last few months, the guys brought in a new feature to BOINC manager so when you attach to a project, you just click the name and it adds the URL to the box. I must give credit to the developers, that small feature has made a world of a difference. It made it simple for users to just pick the projects they want. Super feature, one of the best yet!

I have not used BOINC 6.xx.xx yet, so i don't know what it looks like. I do think the next step to improve attaching to projects would be choosing your projects by clicking "Icon's" for the project. People relate better if something is "visual and written". To see what i mean, see the new mod we have been developing for the "Your account" page on the projects; Test page for "Your account". That "Your account" mod is working on MindModeling@home. I think choosing the project to attach to in BOINC manager should have similar icon's. Example; Click the SETI@home icon to insert the SETI@home URL. And the user should have no need to see the URL either, that sould be an advanced function for BOINC addicts like me. I should be just putting a tick beside the SETI@home icon and then clicking "Proceed to the next step".
47) Message boards : Promotion : Analyse of the user survey and improvments (Message 18431)
Posted 14 Jul 2008 by John37309
Post:
Its a good point,
The user survey is currently BOINC's best data for analysing what needs to be changed.

John.
48) Message boards : Promotion : BOINC Merchandise based on Participation Levels? (Message 18430)
Posted 14 Jul 2008 by John37309
Post:
Looking in the store of Machinae Supremacy, I see they are also selling shirts specifically for women and children plus they're doing hats, caps and underwear.

Would you buy BOINC underwear if it was available through the BOINC shop?

It sounds like a limited market Jord, but you never know :)

I would imagine that the common stuff would be the best sellers.

John.

49) Message boards : The Lounge : Olympic logo London 2012 (Message 18384)
Posted 12 Jul 2008 by John37309
Post:
Mo,
It was a very controversial logo when they released it first, possibly because like Aaron said, it cost a lot of money.

But the more i see this London 2012 logo, the more i like it. It has class and style and most important, its very easy to recognize at a glance.

I like it :). The Olympics will be a massive event for London.

John.
50) Message boards : Promotion : Newsletters; Can other projects learn from WCG, can we help! (Message 18316)
Posted 9 Jul 2008 by John37309
Post:
I got a very nice newsletter from WCG and i am wondering can other BOINC projects learn anything from the format, style and content of this newsletter?. This news letter is very high quality, with very high quality news about REAL SCIENCE and lots of links to keep users interested. I don't see any of the typical BOINC project news in this newsletter about "My server back-end crashed" or "Sorry, our API's TND got FRI'ed and the MPTR is broken and we need a VSTP to back up the XZZW".

This newsletter is written in plain English that your granny could read and understand.

Or a better question. Is there anything we can do as volunteers to help a scientist or project admin to produce high quality newsletters that would help in retaining volunteers for there project?

I think this newsletter is a quarterly newsletter, so it would not be unreasonable for a project admin or scientist to produce something like this 3 or 4 times a year. But I'm sure that volunteers could help take some of the hard work out of making the newsletter and let the scientist concentrate on the words and the content of the letter.

Its worth noting that producing a newsletter like this one is more complex that it looks. It contains many images and things that you don't notice. But its not so complex that volunteers could not do the hard bit. The IBM payed professionals made this newsletter, but we can use the format to make templates so any scientist could just fill in his news.

John.

This can also be viewed HERE.


51) Message boards : Promotion : How can we address BOINC's retention problem? (Message 18285)
Posted 8 Jul 2008 by John37309
Post:
OK, i will start a list of reasons why people leave BOINC projects. You can add to the list by replying to the message and adding what you think.

The first 5 reasons i have listed here are direct feedback from a user that quit SETI@home. He ran SETI for 2 and a half months and quit in May 2007. I just spoke to him a few minutes ago.

Reasons why people leave or quit BOINC projects!
1. Uses too much resources - I need them for other things
2. Not exciting – no competition
3. Nothing to gain – nothing in it for me
4. Electricity cost - too expensive
5. Don’t believe in the science or don't really care
6. Too complicated - could not get it to work properly
52) Message boards : Promotion : BOINC Merchandise based on Participation Levels? (Message 18283)
Posted 8 Jul 2008 by John37309
Post:
There are 2 people working on this at the moment. Jack Shultz of the Hydrogen@home project and Rytis Slatkevičius of the PrimeGrid project. I believe they will be avalable very soon. They were discussing it about 4 or 5 days ago and i believe they are in the process of setting up an online shop for BOINC.

You should tell them about the QMC mugs!

John.
53) Message boards : Promotion : How can we address BOINC's retention problem? (Message 18263)
Posted 7 Jul 2008 by John37309
Post:
Here is a link to a message where Paul D. Buck talks a lot about what we are discussing here in this message; http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=46181

Same message, this particular post is good; http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=46181&nowrap=true#739206

Its worth reading!

John.
54) Message boards : Promotion : How can we address BOINC's retention problem? (Message 18262)
Posted 6 Jul 2008 by John37309
Post:
One thing might be helpful to know :

Is there a connection between the time people stay with a project and their membership to a team?

Do people in teams stay longer than single crunchers or is there no difference?

If team people stay longer (in average), projects could focus more on presenting teams and encouraging people to join teams.

Ananas,
Its a good point. Around this time last year there was a big push from David A and a collection of team founders to try to improve the "Tools" that team founders have, to see if we could improve the way teams work. Many good new features were implemented as a result of the discussions but things fizzled out and development in this area stopped.

I think it very much varies from team to team, i have no way to measure the statistic but i do think teams are more likely to create "something extra" to keep people involved and crunching.
John:


I believe we would do better to examine why people get involved in BOINCing in the first place.

Sid,
These are two separate things and when trying to learn from this, we should not confuse the 2 issues of "What attracts you in the first place", and "Why people leave".

So this is a list of reasons why people join and is separate to the retention issue. Sid i think you should post this as a separate topic, we need to chat more about why people get started in the first place. We need to keep the topics separate.

I believe that people get involved in BOINC projects with many motives, some being:



  • They are interested, even excited, about the underlying science.

  • They feel that they are making a difference and participating in real, relevant scientific research.

  • They want to contribute to worthwhile causes and BOINC provides an avenue.

  • They are technojunkies and BOINC proves that size matters.

  • They have time and computers on their hands, and BOINC provides a little bubblegum for the mind and excuses to buy more computers.

  • The want to explore online social networking and BOINC teams stroke those people.

  • They join teams to network with people with similar interests and to participate in competitions.




I believe the real reasons why people get into BOINCing resolve down to their desire to participate, to contribute, to come away with a sense of individual accomplishment and sense of purpose.


The more we can identify and stroke these motivating factors and minimize the negative factors, the higher our retention factors will be.



It is difficult to separate the two issues. But many of the things you have listed will be on both lists because "Getting started" and "Retention" are interlinked.
55) Message boards : Promotion : How can we address BOINC's retention problem? (Message 18255)
Posted 6 Jul 2008 by John37309
Post:
Perhaps when electricity isn't so expensive, people aren't going on summer holidays, houses aren't washed away by hurricanes/tornados/levees breaking, etc. etc.

Otherwise, why?




Seems to me that it is futile to promote BOINC only to watch 75% leave.

Seriously, we need to explore why roughly 3 out of 4 people who register for BOINC just walk away from it.


I agree 100% Sid. This is a very serious issue and it needs to be addressed, its not a joke.

This topic was briefly discussed last year at the BOINC workshop in Geneva and Bruce Allen of the Einstein@home project actually had a more accurate figure on this. Bruce said that the average retention rate from the Einstein project was about 30 days. That means that the average user signs up to Einstein and quits crunching roughly 30 days after starting. This figure of about 30 days was confirmed by other projects also.

Bill Bovermann of the world community grid project said they were definitely getting a much higher retention rate by sending out a "Please come back" email to users about 30 days after they stopped crunching.

I think we should compile as much information about this topic as we can. We need to think of all the possible reasons why people leave BOINC projects and study the information. If we can make some sense out of our collection of ideas, we can see what solutions we can offer. Then we write it out properly and add it to the trac wiki for project admins to find.

We need be methodical about this. There is no point in asking someone else to do it. We need to do the work here otherwise this chat area just becomes a talking shop where nothing gets done. So lets compile this list with everything we can think of that might be a possible reason for people leaving BOINC projects.

This is the current trac wiki page dealing with this topic; http://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/VolunteerRecruit

Sid, i like the way you called this thread "How can we address BOINC's retention problem?". How can we address the problem is a very productive way to look at things!

John.
56) Message boards : Promotion : Post your ideas for promoting BOINC (Message 18106)
Posted 29 Jun 2008 by John37309
Post:
John:

I have been lurking on this site for the last hour or so and one thing that needs to be worked on to attract [and retain] the interest of the newbies is to move away from the technojargon and strive to be more newbie friendly.

I agree!!

But even the most basic things in BOINC are explained using technical jargon. Think about this, if Microsoft, Google, yahoo and all the other Hugh computing companies never bothered to make the "Internet itself" user friendly, none of this stuff would exist today. It takes a very clever program developer to understand that. If everything is programed so complete dummies can use it, then the users with more advanced knowledge will simply figure out the more advanced stuff by themselves.

Take "Internet Explorer" browser for example, its used on about 90% of the worlds computers. IE is a very very complex computer program for browsing the Internet, complete dummies can learn how to use it in a few minutes. Does the user see any of the complex program, NO. Does the user need to know anything about the complex program, NO. You simply open the window and start surfing. There is no typing necessary, just keep clicking your way around the Internet using visual images, buttons and icons.

BOINC is heavily dominated by text, typing and textual looking websites. 90% of internet users either don't want to type anything or can't type anything or have bad spelling and are afraid to type anything. They just want the simple life of surfing with their mouse.

John.
57) Message boards : Promotion : 3D BOINC logos (Message 17888)
Posted 16 Jun 2008 by John37309
Post:
Here are a collection of 3D BOINC logos. There are 2 types, flat 3D and layered 3D. They are all PNG images and you can display them against any color background and they will look perfect. You can also manipulate this type of image to make better team logos for your team and stuff like that!! If you need any of the master image files for other image formats, send me an email or PM me.

Please feel free to use them. Do host them yourself if you plan to use them a lot.

Layered 3D BOINC logos




















Flat 3D BOINC logos















John.
58) Message boards : Promotion : Volunteers with Graphics & Imaging skills needed (Message 17866)
Posted 13 Jun 2008 by John37309
Post:
If you have graphics and imaging skills, or you have image editing software on your PC and you know how to use it, and you would like to volunteer your skills and some time to BOINC promotion work, then please do contact me;


Having Photoshop or the ability to create flash would be very handy.

Thank you,
John.
59) Message boards : Promotion : Post your ideas for promoting BOINC (Message 17865)
Posted 13 Jun 2008 by John37309
Post:
Please do post any thoughts or ideas you have for the promotion of BOINC and all the projects.

John.
60) Message boards : Promotion : Volunteers needed; BOINC promotions team (Message 17864)
Posted 13 Jun 2008 by John37309
Post:
If you are interested in getting involved and volunteering some of your time, skills and effort to promoting BOINC and the projects, then contact me at the following address;


Criteria needed for the job;
None!!!!

Just a willingness to put some time and effort into promotional activities as part of a "BOINC projects promotional team" of volunteers.

Further updates will be posted in this BOINC "Promotion" section of these message boards as things develop.

John.


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