Some folks on the folding forum have begun to notice that interest in F@H is waning and that the number of active participants is declining along with the TFLOPs donated. I'm interested in your opinion as to the cause. As an aside, I note that most of the members of the committee aren't participating in the OCF to the degree you have in the past and wonder as to the cause. If you look at our active participants you won't see a pretty picture.
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What's going on?
- Thread starter ChasR
- Start date
- Joined
- May 31, 2004
I'm guessing 3 thing.....
1. The appearance of an unfair point distribution that belittles smaller machines.
2. The economy means people are cutting back on power usage as well as buying
new equipment which combines with #1 to make old machines look worthless.
3. Machines are so powerful now that OCing isn't really necessary for most uses so there is less need for an OCing site.
The fact that 50% of our first page have ZERO point contributions recently is not good at all.....Perhaps contacting those people and asking why would be a good start so we know for the horses mouth exactly what's going on.
1. The appearance of an unfair point distribution that belittles smaller machines.
2. The economy means people are cutting back on power usage as well as buying
new equipment which combines with #1 to make old machines look worthless.
3. Machines are so powerful now that OCing isn't really necessary for most uses so there is less need for an OCing site.
The fact that 50% of our first page have ZERO point contributions recently is not good at all.....Perhaps contacting those people and asking why would be a good start so we know for the horses mouth exactly what's going on.
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2004
My personal case, I've got something going on in my life that is taking up a lot of time and money. I hope it will be resolved soon, and then I'm likely to be able to participate more. Also, I've worked 70+ hour weeks for most of this year.
However, I doubt I'm typical.
However, I doubt I'm typical.
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2004
- Location
- N of splat W of Torin
I don't have much to add since I have still been able to afford to upgrade and pay the electric bills.
It just seems that desktops in general are on the wane. I mean I have folding and gaming. Everything else can be done just as well on my MBA or even a tablet or phone. Seems like Desktops are becoming dinosaurs. Why would I ever need to upgrade a 2600K?
I don't see the move to tablets or laptops ever stopping. I can run an MBR for a year on the electricity my 2600K uses in a week or 2. A tablet or phone uses all most nothing.
I think it will pick up a bit when the cold wheather hits and people(Like myself) spend more time indoors.
It just seems that desktops in general are on the wane. I mean I have folding and gaming. Everything else can be done just as well on my MBA or even a tablet or phone. Seems like Desktops are becoming dinosaurs. Why would I ever need to upgrade a 2600K?
I don't see the move to tablets or laptops ever stopping. I can run an MBR for a year on the electricity my 2600K uses in a week or 2. A tablet or phone uses all most nothing.
I think it will pick up a bit when the cold wheather hits and people(Like myself) spend more time indoors.
- Thread Starter
- #5
I took a look at the trend line of active participants of the top ten teams. 8 out of ten show a decline similar to ours. I didn't check lower than that. THe downward trend of the whole of FAH started about two or more years ago, so it's not just a summer in the northern hemisphere thing. It's not strictly an economic issue either as BOINCs PFLOPS have gone up while FAH TFLOPS have declined.
I'm sure the economy plays a role and it has certainly impacted me. Combine tight funds with drastic points imbalance and it makes it a lot easier to ignore FAH and save the money.
Good to hear from you all!
I'm sure the economy plays a role and it has certainly impacted me. Combine tight funds with drastic points imbalance and it makes it a lot easier to ignore FAH and save the money.
Good to hear from you all!
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2004
- Location
- N of splat W of Torin
I don't know that Adak is still around. I think we can all agree he is one of the best recruiters around. Along with other talents. I always like to hear his opinions...I'm not sure he wasn't MIA when this Sub section was created. I am not so sure he has access. We should fix that.
Not sure if I should just get a MOD to make sure his account is in, or contact him first. I may even be in violation for mentioning someone who doesn't have access to a sub section. Hopefully I'll serve my 3 day Ban with Grace and Dignity...
Not sure if I should just get a MOD to make sure his account is in, or contact him first. I may even be in violation for mentioning someone who doesn't have access to a sub section. Hopefully I'll serve my 3 day Ban with Grace and Dignity...
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2001
- Location
- Moderating
It's the economy.
Money is tight all around.
Not all our Folders (members) have their final, most stable job.
Bills have to get paid, other interests arise. RL, it just happens.
I know, without changing anything on what I have running, my PPD dropped 50% in 3 months.
And I didn't touch a thing on them.
The points, the WU's it's all being switched up behind the scenes.
My GPU went from working on WU's worth 2500 each to one that are worth 6-10,000 each.
And they are taking SO much longer. Even right now the GPU WU';s are being changed.
It's not the points I care about, it's how strangely and weird they (?) are messing with the WU's.
I understand if a project is done, that's one thing. But to see a steady stream and just plugging along and then it's taking 2x longer to finish a WU, that's just nuts.
I have been so temppted to stop trash and restart just to see what I will get. But thats a bad thing to do so I didn't.
I think the one day I checked, my GPU was working on an 80xx WU, the same as my CPU is crunching. (I think- not sure) but I was still like WTF? over.
Ok, off my soap box now.
It's RL, and we're all trying.
Are more people moving to HAND HELD devices? instead of pc's?
just a thought.
Money is tight all around.
Not all our Folders (members) have their final, most stable job.
Bills have to get paid, other interests arise. RL, it just happens.
I know, without changing anything on what I have running, my PPD dropped 50% in 3 months.
And I didn't touch a thing on them.
The points, the WU's it's all being switched up behind the scenes.
My GPU went from working on WU's worth 2500 each to one that are worth 6-10,000 each.
And they are taking SO much longer. Even right now the GPU WU';s are being changed.
It's not the points I care about, it's how strangely and weird they (?) are messing with the WU's.
I understand if a project is done, that's one thing. But to see a steady stream and just plugging along and then it's taking 2x longer to finish a WU, that's just nuts.
I have been so temppted to stop trash and restart just to see what I will get. But thats a bad thing to do so I didn't.
I think the one day I checked, my GPU was working on an 80xx WU, the same as my CPU is crunching. (I think- not sure) but I was still like WTF? over.
Ok, off my soap box now.
It's RL, and we're all trying.
Are more people moving to HAND HELD devices? instead of pc's?
just a thought.
- Thread Starter
- #9
A graph of Active CPUs:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlVJhzLM5aDCdFJTTFVPSXVWTFh3QVdTSGxvUWJpY1E#gid=7
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlVJhzLM5aDCdFJTTFVPSXVWTFh3QVdTSGxvUWJpY1E#gid=7
- Joined
- May 31, 2004
The drop in Linux machines is crazy (166k to 25k). I assume Linux means real enthusiasts who are willing to make a big commitment to FAH. It does seem to correspond to the economic situation though.
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2001
- Location
- Moderating
Something I was just thinking about, with the changing WU's, the "Ease" of set up.
What all is involved in setting up a rig to Fold, and being able to move between it Folding and home owner daily use.
Just random thoughts on my part is all.
Thanks for that graph though, it does look drastic.
What all is involved in setting up a rig to Fold, and being able to move between it Folding and home owner daily use.
Just random thoughts on my part is all.
Thanks for that graph though, it does look drastic.
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2001
- Location
- Moderating
We need a Sponsor, someone to kick in a monthly prize maybe.
Free computer gear is always cool.
But they have to be a Folding member.
Free computer gear is always cool.
But they have to be a Folding member.
- Thread Starter
- #13
The drop in Linux active cpus may be misleading. All BA WUs are run under Linux, so all those enthusiasts that sold off multiple machines to build MP machines have reduced the active cpu count. A 48 core 4P is counted as a single CPU.
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2001
- Location
- Moderating
That would be huge.
Shutting down a "Farm" for a single 4P.
Would it be possible to compair the current active cpu chart (the one linked)
to a Team PPD chart over the same time period?
See what the cpu/ PPD camparison is.
That might reveal a bit more and either confirm or deny that hypothesis.
- Joined
- May 31, 2004
Well, today I wanted to quickly set up a new i5 machine to fold, so I looked up folding download on google, it took me to the FAH site and the site recommended a client. I installed it fairly easily, but once it started working I realized it was the single client and not SMP.
Back to the drawing board.
I went to the advance clients, and found several listed, I couldn't tell which one I needed on a quick look so I picked the most obvious one. Again installed it easily.....OOOPS, only works for GPUs.
Back to the drawing board.
I picked another client on the advanced page, installed it and finally it ran SMP like I thought the first one would. Got an A4, and 14k points, not bad.
BUT, it took a lot of work to figure out what to do from the list of multiple clients listed on the download page....WTF, why are so many different clients needed for Windows alone.
Conclusion....its not as easy as I would have said a few hours ago to find the right client, download it, setup and configure it. So my answer has become, its not all that easy for a noob.
- Thread Starter
- #16
There is a problem with the way Google lists folding downloads. If you google folding@home and click on the home page link, you will be taken to the v7 install page. If you click on the downloads link, you will go to the older clients download page and get confused.
- Thread Starter
- #17
Boinc's active users graph is available on this page:
http://boincstats.com/en/stats/-1/project/detail/user
Boinc is experiencing a user decline similar to FAH over the last 60 days. They are however experiencing an increase in production without an exponential bonus.
http://boincstats.com/en/stats/-1/project/detail/user
Boinc is experiencing a user decline similar to FAH over the last 60 days. They are however experiencing an increase in production without an exponential bonus.
- Joined
- May 17, 2005
- Location
- High Desert, Calif.
For me it's mostly ecomomics, the 'smart meter' installer finally snuck in the yard and swapped out my analog electric meter and installed the new meter, which now means that SoCal Edison can more effeciently bleed the customer to death.
Some people I'm sure are not happy with the points system; Pande Group must think it's working O.K. , or else they'd fix it.
- Joined
- May 31, 2004
The point system seems to indicate that old computers have exponentially less value and I think that influences people's thinking, making them less likely to want to donate. Perhaps that's what Pande wants. Is it? Or are they so desiring 4Ps so much, that they are taking for granted the vast majority of contributors, assuming they will be there no matter what.
