SUncleSamA: Introduction

[trigggl]

Hey!. I resemble that remark! Just because you don't see me doesn't mean I am not here.

The board says your last visit was Dec 1969.
http://setiusa.free-dc.org/vbforum/m...name&order=asc

[SUncleSamA]

Don't evaluate the messenger, evaluate the message. I also don't gain anything here, just the team. Everything is also quite above board and explained in the original post.

[Teratoma]

The board says your last visit was Dec 1969.
http://setiusa.free-dc.org/vbforum/m...name&order=asc

Awesome. How many stars do I get? 41?

Don't evaluate the messenger, evaluate the message. I also don't gain anything here, just the team. Everything is also quite above board and explained in the original post.

Sorry, but I prefer to have a little more knowledge of my saviours. Got any thoughts about May 21st of this year?

[joker]

Don't evaluate the messenger, evaluate the message.

Who made you the messenger? How was it decided that you carried "the one true message" for this team? Was that by a committee of 13 people? Please show me the forum where this all happened and where you were "voted" as the messenger. I suspect that it does not exist. In the end I surmise that what you are saying is just your own opinion. "Do what you want with your scalp but don't be telling us what to do with ours."

[STMahlberg]

Don't evaluate the messenger, evaluate the message. I also don't gain anything here, just the team. Everything is also quite above board and explained in the original post.

Who made you the messenger? How was it decided that you carried "the one true message" for this team? Was that by a committee of 13 people? Please show me the forum where this all happened and where you were "voted" as the messenger. I suspect that it does not exist. In the end I surmise that what you are saying is just your own opinion. "Do what you want with your scalp but don't be telling us what to do with ours."

@Joker - I understand what you are saying here but at the same time the message of "direction" is something I think all of us feel at times that we lack as a team. The problem as we have experienced in the past, is how to obtain that without issues which is the big question.

@SUncleSamA - I have to give you considerable credit... you have taken a lot of flak since your original post and you come back cool and level-headed. I know that I have been a part of that barrage; I don't assume to speak for anyone else but as far as I am concerned, my issue was not the "messenger" or even the message... it was the tone.

I am glad to see you posting, asking questions... so with that, and on that level, I for one welcome you as a team member.

[trigggl]

...Got any thoughts about May 21st of this year?

Yes, it's 16 days after my grandson's birthday, or were you talking about the coming of the "end times"? That already happened at Pentecost, but that's a different discussion. I don't know if there will be a rapture or not, but the end times have been here for 2000 years.

I'm more concerned with March 3rd.

[DrPop]

Huh. That was literally the first expression that popped into my head when I read your first post. Interesting.

After reading this thread so far, I'm going to take an entirely different tack. If you are from the Gov., then I'm happy you are here. You will see a group of individuals on this team who represent the USA. Gladly throwing our limited resources into a project and hobby for which we help others to better the world, with little hope of tangible reward for ourselves.

And yet, it is the very thing -individuality - that makes us truly "American", that hurts us in team performance. Every person is entitled to such a degree of autonomy, as to render the word "team" a very poor fit for our group. At times, we behave as a coalition of individual crunchers at best.

So, let me recap by saying I welcome your presence, and would like to know what the Gov. can do to help. If this were a pet project of a ranking senator, for example, we would suddenly find ourselves with grant money for a nice Cray of blade server. Not that I feel those things should happen, it's just the truth. If the Gov. would be willing to let BOINC run at night on millions of Gov. owned computers, that would truly be a beneficial use of public funds that went into "public property", that is currently useless a good portion of its life, as it sits there every night.

If you have a few friends in certain places, perhaps they could encourage different universities and foundations to crunch a few high credit projects for us during their night shifts or downtime? Currently, our Gov. controls the greater part of high speed computing in the world, although this is rapidly being challenged by the Chinese.
One other possibility I can think of, is some sort of marketing campaign. We all know that it just takes a little media exposure, and suddenly, the most obscure things become the latest fad - literally over night. Due to its high level of purpose and philanthropic nature, BOINC could be just that, and what better team to represent our country than SETI.USA?

I will leave you with this: what exactly would you have us do differently? I am willing to listen...and maybe others are as well, for the good of THE TEAM.

[SUncleSamA]

First I'd like to thank you for your support. Your trust (sorry if that word is too strong, maybe I should have said interest) is not misplaced.

I'm a bit pressed for time at the moment so I can't give a complete response. I also haven't digested the other thread and responses about the SC. But I have noticed some good, positive team posts about recruiting and members getting involved which was one area I thought needed at least some form of unified approach. If appropriate I'll post some other thoughts tomorrow.

The first post tried explained why the direct tone: taking the role of a type A person and being direct and too the point with the tone of being unwavering and inflexible and not open to discussion.

About the government statement. Read the line immediately following it. Look at the avatar. It was an attention getter opening line. Guess it worked and also didn't work: depends upon ones point of view.

[STMahlberg]

First I'd like to thank you for your support. Your trust (sorry if that word is too strong, maybe I should have said interest) is not misplaced.

I'm a bit pressed for time at the moment so I can't give a complete response. I also haven't digested the other thread and responses about the SC. But I have noticed some good, positive team posts about recruiting and members getting involved which was one area I thought needed at least some form of unified approach. If appropriate I'll post some other thoughts tomorrow.

The first post tried explained why the direct tone: taking the role of a type A person and being direct and too the point with the tone of being unwavering and inflexible and not open to discussion.

About the government statement. Read the line immediately following it. Look at the avatar. It was an attention getter opening line. Guess it worked and also didn't work: depends upon ones point of view.

I saw this and wanted to quickly respond and duplicate something that I said over in the SC forum on the issue of decorum...

This and Fire$torm's original post about Robert's Rules is something that we need to keep in mind when posting. I am guilty as well of not following a decorum, I have attacked the messenger when the message was valid just because I didn't like the delivery...

For my original post in this thread I must apologize. I did attacked you because I didn't like the delivery even though the message is valid.

Once again I apologize for my insolence.

[SUncleSamA]

I'm back!!
Actually I never left.

Been working on getting credit in three projects and being on the boards for three months so I can be a valid contributor of opinions or ideas. End of a deliberate cheap shot. Now back to business.

Also remember the premise of my existance here from my first post.

It's really nice to see the progress here over the last few months. You don't have a steering committee but you do have a core leadership (emphasis on the leadership) to be a guiding light, provide arrows for direction and provide support and motivation. A+

You need to do at least two more things now. Both some what related.

First: you need to declare the team goals. There have been several posts that have tried to enumerate them and have come quite close in my opinion and I think would represent the teams current thinking. If I find the post I'm recalling I'll bring it to the Team Only section (which was also a good thing to have created by the way).

This leads me to the second thing you really need to work on, or start to work on. The front page. It needs to tell people visiting what you are all about now (insert goals here). It also needs to post some charts, graphs, tables, etc. Something that shows progress or current status of the team. BAM, right in their faces. Much like, but better than, what the old site had. Things like current member ship, project status, credits, progress on current goals or challenges, so on and so forth, etc. Think of the type of people who BOINC: they like to help, crunch, compete, achive milestones, and support their country, etc. They want to know the score and see changes in scores: to see the numbers!! It's a motivator, a challenge, a goal to shoot for, a carrot or brass ring held out, etc.

Look at the front page now. What does it tell a new user who arrives? Does it say join us? Come help us? Or is it blah and shows some stupid comments we make?

And for those who mistakenly paint me as some sort of second coming: This is the end of this sermon.

p.s. I joined the Top Gun division because that's all that matters right now. Even if I only can contribute a little at the moment.