Simplified Attach

Current

Currently, attaching to a project involves several steps:

New volunteer case:

• Visit the project web site (say, via a link in a news story).
• Click on "Download" on the project site, taking you to the BOINC download page.
• Click on "Download BOINC".
• When the download is done, click on the installer
• Click on "defaults" in the installer.
• The Manager runs and brings up the Attach wizard. Click on Add Project.
• Find the project in the project list (hopefully you still remember its name). Note: if the project is new and is not in the list, you need to go back to its web site, find the URL, and copy/paste it into the wizard. New volunteers are unlikely to figure this out.
• Click on New User
• Enter email address and password.

A lot of steps; we lose a fraction of volunteers at each step.

Existing volunteer case:

• Visit project web site; figure out what to do next (standard project front page doesn't say).
• Open the BOINC Manager
• Open Attach wizard
• Click on Add Project
• Find project in list
• Click on New User
• Enter password (email should be pre-populated).

Proposed

This document describes a new scheme that simplifies both scenarios.

New volunteer case:

• Visit project web site, click on "Join (download BOINC)". Download happens, browser remains on project web site (see below).
• When download is done, click on installer.
• Click on Defaults in installer
• Manager runs and brings up Attach wizard at the "enter email/password" page; no need to select project etc. Enter email/password.

Existing volunteer case:

• Visit project web site, click on "Join (already running BOINC)".
• Taken to page saying "open BOINC Manager" and select Add Project.
• When they do that, it brings up Attach wizard at "enter email/password" page.