Decrease in points

[thekip]

Allthough I can't imagine that this hasn't been asked before but I'm gonna ask it once more nonetheless. Yesterday I had a decrease in points of exactly one test minus the points I submitted that day. I know there are a few ways you can actually get a decrease but none of them is applicable.

I do run a SBQueue using 1 pc but this pc is only halfway it's test, it has always been flushing on the queue and still is (also after reboots) and the test is still in my list of pending tests. All my other computers are flushing automatically. I'm not cheating or anything, nor isn't a single rig overclocked.

I know this is a pretty hot topic especially from a historical point of view, a long time ago (some users lost 25% of their total on one day) I decided to pull all my power out of the project because of this and the lack of an explanation. A few months later I decided that because it didn't seem to happen any more I should put back some cpu's on this project but now I've gotten up to speed a bit I'm getting this again. Is there anyone who has a clear explanation for this?

[[DPC]Frentik]

:Pokes: anyone here to answer??

[CaptainMooseInc]

I still think it looks like the project has been abandoned by its runners.

Wouldn't suprise me.

[hhh]

Well I will try a response, even if I am not an expert on this kind of stuff.

Did you not finish a test, and start another one? Because credits given for tests that are not finished are erased later. (Can one understand me?).
Did somehow your test get abandoned? 30 day expiring? Bad clicking on the homepage?

Otherwise I have no idea. Which doesn't mean that there is no reasonable explanation.

And what concerns the last post, I think that the project running smoothly for months without big problems and (problem-related) forum traffic isn't a real indicator for it being abandoned.:umm:

Yours H.

[LAURENU2]

I think it really SUCKs that the powers to be set it up to remove work they did not couplet a full test. I think it is plain stupid to make a WU that has to run for a week without stop. And to make it So if you do stop. crash, reboot, the client does not restart the same WU but starts a New WU Instead
I know they tried to blame it on M$oft But that really does not fly in my book as this is the only project that I know of that has this Problem
FIND A BETTER WAY:Pokes:
I have over 100 WU still stuck on my PC's that will not restart because of the BAD coding of the client:swear:

[thekip]

Well I will try a response, even if I am not an expert on this kind of stuff.

Did you not finish a test, and start another one? Because credits given for tests that are not finished are erased later. (Can one understand me?).
Did somehow your test get abandoned? 30 day expiring? Bad clicking on the homepage?

I know these things can make you get a decrease in points, but I'm completely sure not a single test had expired and I have no clue why a client would start a new WU on it's own.



And what concerns the last post, I think that the project running smoothly for months without big problems and (problem-related) forum traffic isn't a real indicator for it being abandoned.:umm:

Well distributing work isn't a lot of work, after it's set up correctly everything is done by servers. It kind of annoys me that the owners (those who are in my opinion the only ones with the answers) don't care to reply to their own forum..... It almost looks like the only thing they care for is to post another discovery on their front page :(

[hhh]

I have over 100 WU still stuck on my PC's that will not restart because of the BAD coding of the client
In this case I suggest you read this thread:
Fix for lost test (http://www.free-dc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=7434)
The client for sure has not to run weeks without stop. In the options section, there should be a box like : "Quit test when exiting" or something, try checking or unchecking that box, please.

Now to thekip's problem.
I have no clue, and probably, indeed only the admins know the answer (If...).
That they don't pop in, well - I know that they still have manual work to care about; the project is still demanding time, and after all, they have a real life, too. That might excuse them. It is a big project, after all.

H.

[thekip]

In my opinion hosting a DC project isn't that easy, hosting a project comes with obligations for the owners, WE are doing their work, allthough I don't have a huge ammount on power (on this project) I still want to be taken seriously and as I know this problem has occured a lot more I can't think of a reason why the owners should not have a look at their own official support forum. It's all in the name, SUPPORT forum, if they can't cope with the workload then they shouldn't host a project like this after all, they're using my power and the spare time of my hardware.

[hhh]

I disagree with you on some points, while I agree on others.

I agree with you about the neccisity of being taken seriously. This is something that applies to any part of the life.

About your argument that if the admins don't have the time to respond to every question, they should just stop, I disagree. While you might feel abadoned or whatever (excuse my English), the project might work for others just fine and they might be happy with it.
It is true that you give time, electricity, etc. But after all, it does not mean that you get any right on revenue or return by this. You cannot even legally demand to figure on the statistics page.
You can morally demand it, though, be disappointed if you don't get credit, complain about is, demand an explanation, and so on. But if you don't get one, for whatever reasons (Perhaps the admins are on a vacation? Who knows?), the best advice is to stay calm.

I see the project more like an offer, like a private street you are allowed to use, but which doesn't give you any warranty. If you take it and it is a shortcut or offers a fine view or whatever, you are happy. If you happen to spend more time on it than usually, it is your damage. It was your choice to spend this time, not theirs, after all.

Overally, I think it is a project far above the average. The client, despite its user-interface-lacks, is cutting edge on the computation side. If it works fine, you can be sure not to waste electricity. The community, even if a bit sleepy at the moment, is nice, and normally present. There are way worse projects with way more participants, no need to spell the names. But that doesn't mean that SoB is perfect. It is not. I personnally just find it fair enough.

I hope I didn't upset anybody with my point of view; if you still like the idea of hunting primes and just don't get to smoothly work that damn client, you can try out llrnet-based projects like riesel-sieve. (It is about the same thing, but with k*2^n+1 instead of k*2^n-1.

Yours H.

[vjs]

To thekip,

I believe you have 9 tests pending and have only completed 13, is this true? I think the reason why you have lost points is because some tests have infact expired on you. How many CPU's or computers do you have running the client?

A comment on points, project wise half completed tests or even 99% completed tests are useless therefore they get zero points in the end. It's unfortunate but it's the way prime testing works if you can't test the whole number...

If I were you, I'd start by reading the first post in this thread and checking how many outstanding tests you have. Sure there might be better ways to handle the tests than using the registry, however this is the way it's being done.

Generally tests are not dropped by the client unless there are other factors at work. Does your computer blue screen from time to time or do you simply unplug or reset the computer instead of shutting down? I'd also suggest you try running a memtest program.

Try logging into your account from the main page and let us know. You might have more dropped tests than you care to know about.


------------------

Same thing at Lauren, you can recover those tests if not please expire them through your account login.

[LAURENU2]

hhh I have done the Fix on some PC's, many times it just did not work a few it did.
I just gave up on trying to reset 70 nodes becuse it took to Long

But you miss my point I shold not have to if they did the programing better!
SOB needs to look into a better way to recover the data that our pc produces

[hhh]

But you miss my point I shold not have to if they did the programing better!
SOB needs to look into a better way to recover the data that our pc produces

That is true, the idea to rely on the registry was poor and a mistake. Even the programmers recognise it.

If you are really fed up with it (which I could understand) try rieselsieve with the llrnet client. This should work, I guess/hope. The tests are shorter, too.

Yours H.

[thekip]

....

Thanks for your reply and understanding vjs but allthough my numbers aren't that big I have a long record on this project. I know exactly how the client works and what I should not do. I do know that in case of an unfinished test all the work is useless and I do feel and allthough I do know this I still think it's unfair to give people a decrease in points.

However :), I'm 100% sure about what's going on, I know how many tests I have, how many cpu's I'm running it at (around 6 which are most of the time switched off) and if I look at my pending tests (which I do pretty regulary say every 2 days) I don't see any test which hasn't reported in for more than 5 days. And I just can't stand something like this happening without an explanation.

@hhh
I'm not trying to get a reward or something over here, there are way bigger users than me (fortunately) but my reward is in the statistics and I know there are way more users who have this feeling. So having something like this in you client which has no real explanation is inacceptable to me.

After all, the reason I got into this project was because of the team statistics, I'm not really high in the stats on this project so in order to make my overall stats better I had to do this project.

[hhh]

It is for sure not my client.
But I like this project, and it's because of that that I tried to defend it in the extend I could. I am beginning to feel the obligation to admit that I just can't help, and I am sorry for whatever happened to your stats.
Yours H.

[thekip]

It is for sure not my client.
But I like this project, and it's because of that that I tried to defend it in the extend I could. I am beginning to feel the obligation to admit that I just can't help, and I am sorry for whatever happened to your stats.
Yours H.
Thanks a lot for you're input here, I don't want you to feel sorry about this it's just something that IMO some other people should fix/explain.

[Alien88]

I think it really SUCKs that the powers to be set it up to remove work they did not couplet a full test. I think it is plain stupid to make a WU that has to run for a week without stop. And to make it So if you do stop. crash, reboot, the client does not restart the same WU but starts a New WU Instead
I know they tried to blame it on M$oft But that really does not fly in my book as this is the only project that I know of that has this Problem
FIND A BETTER WAY:Pokes:
I have over 100 WU still stuck on my PC's that will not restart because of the BAD coding of the client:swear:

If only it were as simple as "finding" a better way.

Louie, Dave, and I make no money off this project. It's a hobby, something we've done in our spare time. We've never been financied (we don't want to be either). We've had donations from users for the server and for the hosting of the server, but that's it.

All 3 of us are quite busy with in our life right now. Louie and I both make sure that everything still runs smoothly with the server.

I am sorry you are unhappy with the client, and I know some of you think this project has been abandoned but that is simply not true.

[jasong]

k*2^n+1 instead of k*2^n-1.
I can't believe nobody has corrected this for 13 days.

Riesel Sieve is minus 1 and Seventeen or Bust is plus 1.

An honest mistake, but that symbol makes two totally different problems.