Posts by Der_Alte

1) Message boards : Promotion : How can we address BOINC's retention problem? (Message 20749)
Posted 11 Oct 2008 by Der_Alte
Post:
Perhaps messages could be sent through the BOINC Manager directly through the message window. They needn't be full fledged messages, just something with a hyperlink to trigger you to visit a site where a more comprehensive thank you and update message can be found.

The problem is of course is the number of messages generated by the system. I only check the message window every week or two or if there seems to be a problem. This feature could be upgraded on future versions of BOINC so that some messages could be flagged by the system and the flagged messages brought to the attention of the user in a more visible manner that would require some level of user acknowledgement.

This would be useful for other things as well. New projects that join BOINC or new versions of BOINC could also be advertised in this fashion. I just upgraded to BOINC 6 the other day. I didn't realize it had been out since August for OSX as I hadn't visited the BOINC site in some time.

The nub of it is that there needs to be better two way dialogue between BOINC and its users. Future enhancements of the BOINC Manager itself may be the way to go if email spam filters are too tough to get around. Currently if users want info, they have to go out and find it once they've installed BOINC. Users need to be prompted to do this every so often in some way or form if you are to keep them engaged. If BOINC Manager can be enhanced to do this, then a whole world of other possibilities can open up to further keep users engaged and bring up retention levels.
2) Message boards : Promotion : How can we address BOINC's retention problem? (Message 20742)
Posted 11 Oct 2008 by Der_Alte
Post:
Hi. I'm new to this forum.

Just wanted to contribute as one of the silent many out there who donate their computer's time to plunk away on various projects.

I'm coming up to about 80,000 points in over a year of computing with BOINC...could even be two years by now.

I joined because I figure that its a way for me to have a small hand in helping out with the bigger problems that I ordinarily would have little to contribute to. After all, if you told most people they could help cure AIDS or cancer simply by leaving their computer on...what is there not to like about that? I do run a variety of projects based on what interests me and gives a good valuable contribution to humanity.

What does it cost me? Probably between $100-150 a year in electricity costs. More now that my local electric utility is going to a tired rate structure. I keep my computer on 24/7 and run BOINC pretty much all the time. When your power bill goes up along with other energy costs, it is tempting to shut down BOINC on the basis of cutting down on energy consumption. I rationalize it though as a charitable donation. Instead of sending $100 to the cancer society, I am donating in a different way. Unfortunately no tax receipt comes with the donation of your computer's time and electricity consumption!

I've left BOINC on for so long, I'm not likely to leave now. Still, some things would be nice. I would like it if each project sent me an email every so often to update people like me on what progress has been made on the computations my computer has been so madly chomping on. It need only be a few times a year, but it would be nice. What would be nicer would be some corporate support. It would be great if somebody like Apple stepped up to the plate and gave users $10 of credit on iTunes for every 10,000 credits on BOINC projects or something like that. It would go a long way to keeping users interested and quite frankly would benefit Apple as clever marketing dressed up as charity.

I think that sort of stuff would go a long ways to improving the retention numbers. People want to feel the work their computer does is contributing something and putting a small carrot out there certainly wouldn't hurt....although I would imagine it would greatly inflate the amount of effort required to administer BOINC. Beyond measures such as that, you are stuck with the scientifically and technologically aware crowd who view this as charity with little effort. When it comes down to it, it is charity as power isn't cheap and computers do wear out. At the very minimum an email a few times a year thanking one for their efforts would probably go a long way in and of itself.



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