New team Capt for XS WCG team

[Movieman]

I just arrived into my small office and noticed it's really cold here.. Oh, why? Well, yes - Milkyway's feeder is not running, so some of my GPUs were idle the whole night
But what now, the heating is not working yet... Ah, yes! Let's load all CPU cores with WCG to warm up !
Now, isn't this good marketing?

I like that idea!
Just a small thought but an important one I always tried to empathize to the teams:
Always remember "Friends first" even when someone on the team posts something that might get your Irish temper up.
We all have things in common BUT also are also very different from different backgrounds, countries and cultures.
Because of that something I might chuckle at might offend someone else.
Basically always remember to "cut each other some slack" in your dealings with one another.
To me the friendships I have made on XS since 2005 are the best of my life.

I would suggest you keep this open for at least a week, maybe two, to ensure that everyone sees it and if at that time you
haven't decided maybe talk all three names and toss in a hat and pick one.
That might be a better solution in the long run as the last thing you want is any of those three guys feeling "second best"
That wouldn't be true of course as they are all winners in my book.

[PoppaGeek]

Originally Posted by uh, i forget his name: maybe corporate isn't the right word,

I think the reason I reacted so strongly is the use of the word corporate and what the word means to me. What Otis11 describes sounds very good to me. I would add that the team captain does not need to do all those things just make sure they happen. Delegating to volunteers seems fine to me. And I volunteer to post daily any Milestones and will do the Newb Welcomes. I'll be nice.

Yes MM, Irish. Mostly Scot with some English thrown in. My family tree is populated with drunks and sluts so no telling what else there might be.

I think we all need to be more active and the Team Captain needs to be the one to keep it so.

Why would you think anyone would join a team with cobwebs on the forum?

[Sparky]

What I don't want to happen here is what happened to my old, first DC home of F@H. It got real slow and then one day... gone.

At the same time I've not had the time like I used to have, plus having to pay for all my utilities now along with other costs I'm not as ready to run a bunch of powerful boxes like I once was. I just couldn't afford it. I still run it, but just on reduced hardware count to keep costs a bit lower. The summer is definitely a double whammy on that front.

[stoneageman]

There is a 'magic bullet' for increasing membership. It's called a financial incentive. Ripple labs, RSC & Easynews have used it to good effect. Perhaps we should create our own XScoin
However, the most successful team on Boinc as a whole is Sicituradastra which does not offer financial incentives. They started around 2006 & by 2012 were #1 team overall (currently #2) XS=17th. So how did they do it?
An interesting interview with the driving force.

[OldChap]

Hey Sparky, we all of us just do what we can when we can for as long as we can. Just 'cos someone doesn't put up a shed load of points daily it makes him no less of a team member. Hell, by next year I could be out of a job for all I know and that will cut back my contribution in a BIG way.

It is nice to see anyone on the team post too..... We thank each and every one of you for doing your bit.

[PoppaGeek]

There is a 'magic bullet' for increasing membership. It's called a financial incentive. Ripple labs, RSC & Easynews have used it to good effect. Perhaps we should create our own XScoin
However, the most successful team on Boinc as a whole is Sicituradastra which does not offer financial incentives. They started around 2006 & by 2012 were #1 team overall (currently #2) XS=17th. So how did they do it?
An interesting interview with the driving force.

Interesting interview. Sounds like a strong community with a strong leader with drive and vision were the main ingredients. Sounds familiar.

I think some of what Otis mentioned is important too. People like being noticed and their achievements recognized. We've all just gotten lazy and distracted.

[Mumak]

An interesting interview.. Well, in fact I haven't read it thru... coz I stopped at the photos(s).
Now it's all clear to me... we need to rethink the entire captain concept! I believe we're totally off...
We need a female captain !!! With BIG ... ideas !

[jeanguy2]

Hell, by next year I could be out of a job for all I know and that will cut back my contribution in a BIG way.

OC, sorry to read that your job maybe on the chopping block by next year. It is very unpleasant to have to put up with job insecurity. Hopefully the settling of the possible breakup of the United Kingdom will help boost your UK economy and secure your employment. Keep on trucking... we are rooting for you.

[OldChap]

No point in worrying about it, just deal with it if it comes. Having more time would be good, having no money makes it a lot less so.

Looking at the title of this thread you can maybe see why I have considered disqualifying myself just in case the worst happens.... I find it a tough call.

[Otis11]

The more I look into it the less I think we need one "Leader" to do everything and the more I think we need one or two people to pester everyone into being active in the forum... I mean just look at how much life this forum has taken on in the past 3 days!

Still a long way to go, but it's night and day compared to what it was! (There might have been more posts in the last 72 hours than the previous 3 weeks...)

[Otis11]

So, thought about this quite a bit, and here's what I've come up with:

Team Captain - Someone VERY stable, and VERY PC (The whole, above reproach speech...) Main responsibility is articulating the vision of XS and guiding the group in that direction. (Plus making sure everything runs smoothly...)
Member retention specialist - Someone willing to pester the crap out of people when they don't hang around much or contribute. Simply ask for 1 post in WCG section and 1 WU per week minimum (Sound do-able to everyone? Just something so you don't forget XS is here...). Regular recognition for milestones (Even yearly anniversaries of joining maybe?)
New member Welcome/Recruiting Head - Starting personal new-member thread, finding ideas for recruiting people to the team (or helping brainstorm/implement ideas at least - remember, the idea is quality people, not quantity.)
Special Events Coordinator - SC week, give-aways, any new ideas... (Might be better for the TC to control this and allocate on a case by case basis?)

What do y'all think? Good basis to work off of or is there a better idea completely? Separate Special Events Coordinator or is that intruding on TC duties?

[Otis11]

No one? No comment?

Do I need to offer cookies?

[Sparky]

Maybe condense a little but I like the general idea.

Just as long as I'm not involved in that as I suck at coordinating stuff (I can't even decide what I want to do myself half the time!) and am certainly not PC lol

[PoppaGeek]

So, thought about this quite a bit, and here's what I've come up with:

Team Captain - Someone VERY stable, and VERY PC (The whole, above reproach speech...) Main responsibility is articulating the vision of XS and guiding the group in that direction. (Plus making sure everything runs smoothly...)
Member retention specialist - Someone willing to pester the crap out of people when they don't hang around much or contribute. Simply ask for 1 post in WCG section and 1 WU per week minimum (Sound do-able to everyone? Just something so you don't forget XS is here...). Regular recognition for milestones (Even yearly anniversaries of joining maybe?)
New member Welcome/Recruiting Head - Starting personal new-member thread, finding ideas for recruiting people to the team (or helping brainstorm/implement ideas at least - remember, the idea is quality people, not quantity.)
Special Events Coordinator - SC week, give-aways, any new ideas... (Might be better for the TC to control this and allocate on a case by case basis?)

What do y'all think? Good basis to work off of or is there a better idea completely? Separate Special Events Coordinator or is that intruding on TC duties?

While unreasonably low demands also unfair. We have forum members who do not put points up for this team but who are our friends and make contributions such as helping people with PC and Boinc problems. I doubt seriously too many people would get much help without them the way things have been for some time. I posted a thread about a new PC build and got ZERO comments on liquid cooling or what WCG points I might get. Seriously? No opinions on Liquid cooling? No one ever used a AMD FX for WCG? No. No one cares to take the time to respond anymore. When I post an article on Cancer research or one of the WCG projects there is 3-4 people that might acknowledge the post. Very seldom does anyone else. Even if you do not read it you can say thanks. It shows others there is interest and response to postings.

Also things happen in peoples lives and they have to stop crunching or are unable to come to the forums. Several times in the past people who have had serious life situations and disappeared for weeks or months came back just to reconnect with their friends, get advise, request prayer and get some sympathy. Lately we have not even been real good at responding to that. But to ask for or require a certain level of participation is going to leave someone out eventually. Sometimes people want to be a part of something but are unable to "meet requirements" to no fault of their own. Someday their situation will hopefully get better and then they can contribute more.

If you want activity in the forums recognize and respond to people when they post. Answer the questions you can, welcome new people, congrats for achievements, say thank you for info and links to articles.

People do not post to forums for fear of being ignored, being scolded for a dumb question or for asking a question that has been answered, or asked if they have heard of Google. We do not do that here. But visitors would not know it would they?

You can do whatever you guys want. But I do not think we need a bunch of rules, laws or commandments. We need people to care and then ACT on it.

We have a great bunch of people here, we need to let people see that. And I believe if we do the numbers will grow.

[MaxCFM]

I agree with PG, having been in change of large groups of volunteers before (which is more or less what we have here) pestering the crap out of people will most of the time not achieve what you want or worse the very opposite. Everyone in here is a Member retention specialist, its called engaging with each other. I know VB has a thank you system in it at this point, maybe Fugger can turn it on in this forum as test to see how it we use it? I myself hesitate to mention it because it takes away some of the real interaction between people that should be occurring. Maybe we have turned into Facebook zombies? since there is no one click way to engage someone we move on not doing anything.

I believe a Team Captain and Co-Captain or 2 should be all we need... and the rest is really on the group as a whole.


I know for myself when life gets rough/busy I withdraw because honestly most people don't want to hear how badly your are doing for days/weeks/years. I would like to believe this group is different then that. I'm doing my best to remember that and force myself to engage because if I can help one person feel better that day that does wonderful things for me.

[Sparky]

Sorry PG I saw your post about the FX, and I did run an 8320 for a while, but I didn't pay too much attention to its output nor its power usage as it was a work PC for a long time and I haven't had it for a few months now... I didn't have much to offer there.

[PoppaGeek]

Sorry PG I saw your post about the FX, and I did run an 8320 for a while, but I didn't pay too much attention to its output nor its power usage as it was a work PC for a long time and I haven't had it for a few months now... I didn't have much to offer there.

Well, I'll let it slide this time.

What got me was even a thread on PC building and liquid cooling did not get too much of a response. I kinda can see how some of the medical, science threads are not real popular but since when is a new PC build not interesting here?

I always look at the forum listing to see how many Viewers WCG is getting. It amazes me how high that number often is. Twice today I saw it at or near 40. While alot of them are visitors that is a lot of traffic to show what this community is about. Fast cars, hot chicks and cold beer! No wait that's another one. (Sorry can only be serious for so long) Uh, PCs, PC building and trouble shooting, Linux, Boinc, science and medical cures with a few jokes, a few personal stories and sharing successes and achievements. It was that stuff that made XS-WCG and it will do it again.

Sparky ain't wrong about the Folding@home team. It's gone. No forum due to no activity. It was once a good size team, active forums and put up some good numbers. Slowly died up to a point and then it died almost over nite. Gone.

Please note I keep saying "we". I am guilty of neglect too.

[Sparky]

Part of me wants to sell off just about everything to then fund a total new build. My PC has been using the same case, with the same basic water cooling setup (aside from a couple block changes) since 2007, with just a few incremental upgrades over the years. Something totally different would be fun.

But then, my PC does everything I want it to, and the other reason that I'm not as active as I used to be is my car is the big money-sucking hobby these days, and likely will be for the next few years.

[Otis11]

Yeah, I didn't mean that requested minimum as a requirement... simply a request so that people stay active. (I know for me personally, if I get on just once a week I'll end up getting on most days, but it's also fairly easy for me to get caught up with life and ignore the forum completely - like what's happened for the last 2 years... when life gets busy/hard, I tend to buckle down and work until things get fixed and forget about the little things.) And I didn't say the WU had to be for team XS! Just meant to encourage people to keep boinc on at least 1 computer or phone, no matter how rarely it's used...

That said, y'all are right, it's probably not necessary, or even beneficial.

Part of me wants to sell off just about everything to then fund a total new build. My PC has been using the same case, with the same basic water cooling setup (aside from a couple block changes) since 2007, with just a few incremental upgrades over the years. Something totally different would be fun.

But then, my PC does everything I want it to, and the other reason that I'm not as active as I used to be is my car is the big money-sucking hobby these days, and likely will be for the next few years.

Yeah, my main rig has dwindled down to this 2008 laptop... sadly. And my crunching farm is down to 3 machines I built in 2011, 2011, and 2010...

But then we start to differ... my money-sucking hobby these days is buying groceries... That counts as a hobby right? The only other things I spend any money on are plane tickets home, books and tuition/housing. (Being poor in grad school sucks... though, there's a lot more free beer than I remember in undergrad...)

[PoppaGeek]

I am going to comment on building a new PC but in my other thread to not derail this conversation.

Originally Posted byMaxCFM
I know for myself when life gets rough/busy I withdraw because honestly most people don't want to hear how badly your are doing for days/weeks/years. I would like to believe this group is different then that. I'm doing my best to remember that and force myself to engage because if I can help one person feel better that day that does wonderful things for me.

I love to laugh. Best stress and depression reliever I have found. Usually stuff pops in my head at Robin WIlliams speed at George Carlin sarcasm level. It's ALL for a laugh. And I love it the most when someone says "Thanks I needed that" or "OMG I almost peed my pants". I know from life long experience that not everyone understand or appreciates my sense of humor but I get too much out of it and there are people who do enjoy. I think it is great if I can give someone a little relief from the stress of daily life or the depression of feeling crushed by life. And these forums do have an ignore function. It is dangerous. I REALLY do not want to hurt someone feelings. But it is almost impossible these days to say anything without offending someone. Whatever. Be offended. Or get a sense of humor. Or get offended by children with cancer and do something about it!

So back to team captain. Shall we vote on whether it is a vote or a draw?

Would the candidates like to comment on anything that has been discussed?

Would the candidates like to make any statements?

I think the candidates should be able to answer those questions without being debated or challenged. Just so we can get a feel for their views. Agreed?

Anyone have any questions for the candidates?

[PoppaGeek]

Personally I think we should draw a name. No one has voiced any objections to the candidates and I agree with MM on the voting.

If MMs mom is agreeable and feeling up to it maybe she draw the winning name? She has done that in the past for us. If not then MM? Or MM could assign it to someone.

Is there anything else to discuss? Should we get this done and move on?

[PoppaGeek]

If you do not think this team is in decline or forget what we once did take a gander of the last year numbers for the team.

09/26/2014 4:036:07:12:09 5,031,577 7,488
09/27/2013 5:093:03:48:55 7,299,134 16,563
10/27/2013 5:328:15:52:48 8,569,966 23,806


Numbers are pretty average for the time period.

Team daily contribution 365 days.

Notice how high numbers started getting in late Oct thru Nov and early December. Ripple Labs came online in Dec IIRC.

[stoneageman]

I hope there will be the obligatory 'none of the above' option in the hat

[PoppaGeek]

I hope there will be the obligatory 'none of the above' option in the hat

[Otis11]

I hope there will be the obligatory 'none of the above' option in the hat

Hahaha...

And I'd like confirmation from the 3 nominees that they would, in fact, like to be considered for captain or if they'd like to take the co-captain position...

If we have contention for it, I'd vote on drawing from a hat as well...