1) Message boards : News : Server Downtime March 25, 2022 (24 hours starting 17:00 UTC) (Message 72257) Posted 27 Mar 2022 by Arne Post: It's probably just the frustration talking, sorry about my tone. And yes, if I spend two hours clicking through the forum and half a dozen threads I do come to the conclusion that something's off, but that did require work I was not prepared to spend. I am, by habit and inclination, a lurker. I’d have been happy as a clam to contribute and see the numbers go up. It gives me a low dose of fuzzy feelings. I like numbers going up. Makes me feel useful. Now let me paint the picture from my point of view: Last time I used to crunch, about five years ago, I saw WU's being downloaded, analysed, results being uploaded, and credit being given in the span of hours to days. Just to frame my expectations. Recently I got a new computer, one where I’m not feeling vaguely guilty by having it crunch numbers instead of putting it in standby or powering down (that old computer is over a decade old). I think to myself, hey, why not fire up BOINC and crunch again? So I do. Two out the three previous projects I crunched for have gone belly up in some way, the scheduler doesn’t receive any WUs in any case. Okay, let’s see what projects resonate. I skim a couple descriptions, MW@h looks nice. Forum’s been actively posted in the last couple days, so it’s apparently not gone the way of the dodo. I register, download WUs, crunch them, upload results, and wait for credits being received. I wait one day, because sure, they might be swamped. I wait two days, because eh, why not. I fire up BOINC on my old computer and let it crunch WUs for WH@h to see if my new computer is the problem. I wait three days and get nervous. What is taking so long? I check the project website. There’s no FAQ. FAQ’s are like a staple, at least in my expectation, they’ve been around since the usenet. Whatever’s going on here? I check the forums. 3 out of the ten most recent news threads include the word 'server'. Oh boy. "Server Downtime", "Server Trouble", "Server Outages". Oh boy oh boy. There’s no FAQ, most recent news is about failing servers, what's going on? Did I join a dying project? Did I waste my crunch time? Maybe a closer look will help? I read a couple entries, find out that a guy named Tom is responsible for the project, or at least many people refer to him and he's active in replying, but what’s going on with the forum? Why the heck are quotes bigger than the reply text below? I’m left with a vague feeling like I’ve stumbled into a backyard off some craigslist entry. Everyone is fully cognisant and accepting and accommodating. Okay, this feels off. Better ask in the forum. Huh. I can’t open threads or post replies until I got some credits. Apparently these guys had some spam problems, and this is a nifty way to circumvent that. Neat! But this is the opposite to a solution to my problem. I pause the crunching (or rather, I don’t download new WUs) and wait. And wait. And wait. Days passed. A new thread opens up with "Server Problems". I get more suspicious. Finally one (1) WU gets validated. I can post. But I post with a very sour taste in my mouth. Don’t get me wrong, I can understand why y’all are fine with that when that’s within you expectations, or you’d been forewarned, but to me this felt like entering a different public bus line than usual and seeing a puddle of vomit in the aisle. It doesn’t matter that this only happens once a year or something, this first impression will undermine any goodwill and colour my expectations for the future.

2) Message boards : News : Server Downtime March 25, 2022 (24 hours starting 17:00 UTC) (Message 72253) Posted 27 Mar 2022 by Arne Post: What is frustrating is that I had to wait 8 days after registering, and downloading, computing, and uploading a work unit and its results to receive any credit and enable me to post anything, in particular to ask why the heck this takes so long. A FAQ would really do wonders. Like, I have (had) two computers crunching, one somewhat current (A) and the other a decade old (B). B's were validated first, despite B taking far longer to work the unit than any A received, and despite B downloading WU's at least a day later than A. (I actually had started crunching on B only to see if A was the problem for not receiving credits in any appreciable amount of time.) Like, for days I wondered why I received no credit, because there is no section with or anything with information about it, or if there is it's not easy enough to jump out to me, and I couldn't ask anything because that requires at least one WU having been fully processed. Case in point: A has 0/321 WUs validated (70 pending, 160 inconclusive), while B got 1/28 valid (26 pending, 0 inconclusive). A FAQ that made it crayon-drawing clear the steps between WU being sent out and being credited with crunching them would really help, and If I am any metric, prevent much frustration and possible project-dropping due to apparently not being appreciated (with credits). To me it looked like I was simply burning computing time and I kept (and honestly still keep) wondering if MW@h was worth spending my crunching time on. Keeping in mind I kept my old computer crunch a lot for the longest time (Rosetta, WCG, SETI) before I stopped a couple years ago.

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