Quote Originally Posted by Fire$torm View Post
@litehouse43: Good points to be sure. Good of you to make such an effort.

I guess my peeve with many projects is how is it they can be so unaware of the volunteer community? In this modern world with all of the corporate PR that goes on, common sense dictates that in order to have true success one needs to engage with the source of ones profits. I.E. the customer. BOINC volunteers are the repository that fuels all BOINC projects. Can they really be that ignorant of the fact that all the potential computing power available in the volunteer pool requires no input on their part? This seemingly blind attitude It bugs me to no end. Forgive the comparison but its like they have this Master/Slave mentality, they are the masters and the volunteers are the slaves. "Good Tobi, back to the field and make your quota". I'm sorry but I be NOT a Lemming.
I tend to think (/hope) it is less of an intentional construct. I know most of the scientists I work with (and is quite to stereotype) cannot describe their work or put in appreciable terms for laymen. With a "citizen science" style platform to BOINC you are asking scientists/engineers to put down their notepads and pick up a microphone. By design BOINC takes these people out of their element. Being a scientist myself, I can appreciate their challenges. A fundamental part of being a good scientist is being able to persuade others your work has merit. Some projects don't quite have that down yet. Honestly a bunch probably don't feel as if they need to either. Most scientists make their case to a funding review board and then go on their merry way. Most are not used to sharing their work during the research process and keep results quiet until publishing time. We may just be facing traditional, outdated scientific mentality issues, as unfortunate as they are.