Did we lose someone?

[STMahlberg]

I just started reading this thread and I am sorry to hear that Crunch3r is leaving; it is very unfortunate to lose people, change can be difficult. I hope that perhaps he will change his mind and return but he must do what he feels he must.

Personally I will admit that some of the happenings on this Team in the past several months have been very trying amongst dealing with real life as well; there have been times that I have had to step back and reevaluate my goals and desires as far as my contributions here. As I have said before, I started crunching BOINC for the science; what I may not have said, is that I joined this Team because I wanted to be part of something great and I know that I am.

I love our motto, “Together we will accomplish something amazing!” And I believe in our motto because we can and will. From what I have read the original Team hit their goal of being #1 in SETI in 10 months… that’s amazing and perhaps that’s part of the problem as well. Not all things occur quickly, people want instant results and that is just not the way of things.

We are going through a metamorphosis per se and we are having growing pains; we are all human and the problems with humans is that we ALL have our quirks and with that can come disagreements, flared tempers, and hurt feelings. The board has changed, the administrators have changed, and our ranking in position has changed… and no one likes change because we are comfortable with familiarity.

I believe we need time in order to become comfortable once again with what has changed and to settle into our roles on this Team and we need time to grow again to increase our membership.

Someone said something about us no longer being #1 and that too many people don’t care about being at the top; I think that many here do want to be #1; I for one would like this Team to be #1 but not at all costs.

I am relatively new here and most of you know this; I know nothing of crunching strategy or what needs to be done in order to be #1 once again... but I do know this much, we do have a problem with the current numbers we have.

We have lost touch with ~93% of our member base from the old board; this occurred prior to the new board changes. As of this post we have 157 members on this board; according to BOINC Stats, 1309 member are crunching… that means ~12% of our members actually know what’s happening on the Team and what we are doing.

I can’t possibly be the only one who sees a problem with this… no matter how you slice it; we cannot obtain a #1 position with these numbers. We MUST grow this Team… we are NOT a sinking ship; we simply need more crew members.

I’m a Steelers and a Dallas Cowboys fan and I’m not going to dump either of them just because the Steelers don’t win the Super Bowl every year or Dallas just happen to suck this year anymore than I’m going to dump SETI.USA just because we’re not #1 at the moment.

Just my two cents…

[Mr. Hankey]

Crunch3r told me as much via PM on the old forums that when they (old forums) went away so would his support for the team. That was a day or two before thanksgiving.

[Fire$torm]

Fire$torm, I'm not directing anything toward you or what you said.

Sorry triggl, I should have been more specific. My Apologies. I got pulled off my square by the following:

I guess I've been negligent in keeping up....... I never realized that we were supposed to only crunch the projects that someone else dictated......

[EOL] ......Elvis has left the building.

[Groundhog@SETI.USA]

Sorry triggl, I should have been more specific. My Apologies. I got pulled off my square by the following:


[EOL] ......Elvis has left the building.

Well, after reading the first 4 pages, that is the impression I was getting. And I felt it is a contradiction to welcome help from people on other teams for challenges, but talk about dropping our team members who occasionally crunch for some other team. Not a very welcoming reception. I don't know the politics that have been going on but would like to stay with the team. I got the email about voting for new admins and had heard that some people had left but I didn't worry too much about it. Maybe I don't have a killer instinct but do want to contribute what I can with the limited resources I have. I like to help out on challenges but I also have a few projects I like to support.

[DrPop]

No one is dropping any body. We need every single point we can get from ANYONE who wants to contribute to the total. Obviously, I would encourage anyone to crunch "high paying projects", but the honest truth is this: one PC or a Cray Super Computer, I don't care what you own or what you crunch. We need you and thank you for staying with the team. Please consider inviting friends and family to join our cause.
Sincerely,
Pop

[Fire$torm]

Well, after reading the first 4 pages, that is the impression I was getting...... I like to help out on challenges but I also have a few projects I like to support.

Dude, this is an American team. As far as I am concerned, its your hardware, your money and your time. Crunch whatever you want. Helping out on challenges would be greatly appreciated. If you want to crunch projects that we are in danger of losing position in, then by all means go for it. Do you have one or more favorite projects? Good, crunch those.

The problem (within this team) In my not so humble opinion is that there are some who do not like certain projects or how others measure success and so show disdain. This gives the impression that one MOST do this and crunch that.

I say Nay Nay.

And for the L337 of mind let me say this, you almost lost another team member. Me. Frankly one of few reasons I'm still here is my obligation (As I see it) to those who have helped me with their donations for Keithinator, Blackie and Seven of Nine. The other factor (of equal weight) that I will speak on is the friendship and comradery with a few of the team.

With all the... stuff that has been posted of late...

Well, I'll stop here. But only to honor my word to a comrade.

[Spankinmonkee]

Just do what I do...run the project YOU want to run. I don't give a shit what anyone else is doing...lol...I say this being very open. I'm like slicker and like the projects that pay the most credits. As for me when I read the forums...its taken with a grain of salt.

Its all about havin fun....but thats me.

My post is in no way meant to offend anyone that has posted in this thread

[Teratoma]

First let me wish Crunch3r all the best. He has not only been a major contributer to this team, but to the entire DC community IMHO. One of the major reasons I joined this team was the way some members defended him when he was being bashed at S@H for his optimized code. Eventhough he was not a member of this team, the team defended him which did not add to the team's popularity. We were there for him. We had his back. It saddens me to know that he does not feel that from us now. And perhaps he is right to feel that way. We are not the same team we were then. Some of what Dr. Dan posted is so very true, but returning to the old ways is not always so simple or even possible. Things change. People change. Cultures evolve (and not always in a positive way). I wish I was smart enough to put things back to the way they were. Maybe I will be someday...

Second, I believe it has been posted that #1 in S@H is our primary goal. That is correct. There is some conjecture regarding gaol #2, 3, 4, etc. I know that there is another thread regarding this topic, and I will join that discussion as soon as I can. For now, I will state without reservation that goal #2 is to regain and hold #1 in overall BOINC credit. I will have to discuss this with Mr. Hankey, buit I think we should make that our #1 goal officially. I know, it seems pretty obvious, but it needs to be stated.

One of the things that changed from back when we were a younger team is where we rank. Back then we were "small fish in a big pond" or something like that. ( that is how we got the goldfish as an unofficial mascot) We only had one place to go....UP. Fighting for #1 is a hell of a lot different than Defending #1. Clearly we failed at defending it. We changed the game on the rest of the BOINC world back then....and then the game changed on us and we did not adapt fast enough. We still need to adapt.

So now that we are free of thinking defensively, we need to think aggressively. We need to find a new way to stomp. Directly attacking #1 & #2 may not be the best approach to our long term success....unless someone hits the lottery. We need to generate some excitement about SETI.USA. Simply crunching the best paying projects ain't gonna do that. I don't have the answers now, but this is just some food for thought. I will try to expand on this some more in the other thread.

[NJCaNS]

Where's a link that shows the comings and goings of team members? I suspect someone in the top 60 has detached from Rosetta and now Einstein.

[Crazybob]

Free-DC only lists the new members, the site that listed both, I think is gone. Not sure who would have left?