Why do folks stop folding?

[MarkF]

Why do folks stop folding?

[MarkF]

Hi, Gang!

After checking out the team stats, I noticed that quite a few folks seem to have dropped out from our folding team, and wondered why they'd stop folding.  Would any of you that's stopped be willing to discuss why you've stopped?  Don't get me wrong, the Sudhian Folding Team is doing very well, indeed!  However, we could be doing even better if more folks stayed on the team for the long-term!

In particular, I feel concerned about this because I'm worried that folks will see some of the big scores and feel that they could never compete with those scores.  That may or may not be true, but one thing is certain: there's no way our team can compete without broad participation by lots of folks - ideally all of our active users!

Whatever the reason, won't you let us know?

Everyone: Whether you're an active folder, ex-folder, or just a non-participant, let's be extra careful not to get on anyone's case in this thread.  The only way we can grow the largest, best folding team is if we can learn how to do things better to bring more folks to the team, and to help keep them on-board!

Best Wishes!
MarkF    

[Factor X]

I almost stopped folding when my ranking started going DOWN...  It's a little less fun to watch yourself sinking and interest wanes.  

I got jealous of all those people who had dozens of PC's at work that they could employ.  

But I'm still in.

FX

[MarkF]

Hi, Factor X!

Though I realize that it's a very small consolation, I've got similar issues.  Looking at some of the other "individuals" who are generating lots of points, it's pretty clear that they aren't individuals at all, but are very likely teams in disguise (something like 7 of the top 11 appear to be so [the number next to an individual's name, indicating different spellings for different systems, provides a big hint]).

Well, I'm very glad that you hung in there!  May I ask what kept you going?  Were there other things we could or should have done as a team to help out in some way?  What about selecting a "team member of the week", and asking them to tell something about themselves - would that have done any good?  Any other suggestions?

Thank you very much for responding!!!

Best Regards!
MarkF

[shinysteve]

Its a good point Mark. Really.
I think we have under 50% active CPUs now meaning that of those CPU's that have returned scores, only 50% of them are still returning scores. (Or is it that 50% of registered names in our team have dropped out - I hope not)

There's a gulf of difference between some of the single person 'teams' , those that are investing money into it, those that are using work PC;s and those that are trying to squeeze every last cycle from their home PC's. It would be good to instantly see how many CPU's each person has so that you can 'race' like for like. I think this info is only available in your personal page on the stanford web site.

So again, to those that have dropped out, please come back! If every CPU that has dropped out comes back, we'll have...er....well...a lot more possibility of getting further in the 'race' and more possibility of making some medical history.

Maybe we need to set up a stats table for those with single CPU's.

Steve

[Factor X]

shinysteve - you're one of those guys I watched leap-frog over me!  I got a little more firepower (and interest) when a few of my friends had me build them relatively fast Athlon systems.  I went ahead and put the F@H client on each of them and told them what it was.  Small price to pay for a custom-built PC.  So, now I've got a few PC's working for me in the southeastern USA, which increased my output, and likewise, my interest.  

I've often thought maybe we should all rally around MarkF for a couple of weeks.  We could all "become him" for a while and see how high his (our) weekly output could go.  Just for a little while.  Could he/we become one of the top folders?

I believe interst drops off when you start going down the rankings.  It may start happening to our team as a whole, too, once the dust settles.  We've become accustomed to rocketing up the charts.  Wasn't it just December or so when we broke into the top 100 teams?  Once we start losing a place every couple weeks, it will be a little depressing to watch.

Just my .02 - FX

[Tmagic650]

Hi Guy's,

there is a feeling of never being able to attain a folding position any higher than say, where a single system folder started. When I started, we had 50 Team members or so. I quickly attained position 20 and added a second system last November, to keep that spot. I think there is only one, 2 system Team member ahead of me now. All the rest of the top 15 have more than 2 computers folding under a given user name. Without a feeling of advancing, even with the great folding cause, folding can become tedious and boring.

Mark's idea of earning free point's is a great one... It should be implimented.

[shinysteve]

Tmagic.
I completely understand.
It won't be long before I have to start losing places. Although i'm regulalry a top 5 daily folder, a lot more powerful PC's will be taking over soon. I think my average CPU is only 800Mhz P3, so it won't be long before a single Athlon (XP3000 in Feb?) can outdo my whole farm.

At that point, i'll probably think about donating my WU's to others in the team. If someone's just joined or needs, for some fun reason, to beat someone else then why not. All the points will stay in the team. Maybe i'll team up with a few others and take Mark off the top slot!!! he he!!

Steve

[Wrawrat]

I guess people stop folding when they want to be in the "competition" but they know they won't be able to get a good rank...

Personally, I don't care. I only have a Duron 1000, and I fold whenever I can. 20th, 50th, 100th, I don't care. I fold for their cause, not mine...

[fall-apart]

Wrawrat - indeed - I'm slipping, but I don't think that that's going to stop me from Folding... I think part of the problem is that people change user names, so the old user name shows that they have returned points, but obviously, if someone's folding under a new moniker, the old one will not be currently active.  This is true for those that changed their names to include SFF at the end...

[Jasper]

I was #1 for a long time, but have of course lost that spot now. I've never really followed personal stats, because for the most part there isnt a lot I can do about it. I put my best foot (processors) forward and it will beat some and lose to others. I have way more fun constantly following our team stats though and daily point outputs and our competitions from other teams.

[BMWRider]

I think there are a lot of reasons folks stop folding.  Maybe concerns about wear and tear on their machine, or higher operating temperatures.  I stopped folding this week, not for any big reason, I just do not have internet service till the 6th.  Move got in the way of folding.  Anyway maybe we could reach out and "touch" some of these folks and see why they stopped.  Be good.

[Factor X]

OK, I've lost touch with my low-teens competitiveness.

I want to be a "Mark J. Foster"

Same team...  Same cause...

I want to give my points to a MarkF farm.  Is that so wrong?

He's become a team in himself.  So, what's the EXACT username:  Mark J. Foster?

FX (now Mark J. Foster) ! ! ! Gladly! ! !  Triumphantly ! ! !  Who's with me? ! ! !

[Tmagic650]

I've slipped from 18th place to 28th place... I have 2 CPU's running 24 hours a day. As long as there are protieins to fold, I'll be there to do my part

[PCZ]

The P4 and Athlon sub-teams have helped at Asusboards.

I thought that they weren't the right way to go but I was proved wrong.
The small producers are getting enjoyment out of rising up the chart, and the rivalry between the two teams is strong.
This rekindled the interest of people who had lost there places to the big producers.

Brian

[SpyderCat]

I'm with PCZ here.
I doubt Mark would really welcome others to fold in his name.
Maybe he accepts it without uttering his dismay, but let's be careful not to use someone's name.
Create the Single_System_Folders team (SSF10688-team for short) and let that subteam compete with the farms.
ASUSBoards has done a good thing with their sub-teams like the "Beggin_for_Power" team that contains all those really slow systems.  Several of their members have machines in more than one team.

Fold on!

[Robin]

I'll be stopping folding in a few months when I finish university. Mainly because I get free electricity included in my bill here ^^;; I'll be moving back in with my parents for a couple of months while I sort out what I'm doing, so I might start again when I get a flat of my own.

[pav]

I stopped because the pc would freeze up because of the sloooooow processor while i did other tasks, I got a new comp, and everything is fine now

[SFFNooB]

back when I was folding for HardOCP I quit partly because there was no challenge for the team or myself left there... and partly because of being booted out of the forum for posting something the site owner didn't like... it wasn't any different from other threads on there..  he just must have gotten sick of it or something.. so without even a warning I was banned..  I then apologized and got a very snotty and rude reply from him in which he said I was banned for a month and he would think about it.   so basically I told them to go pound sand..  I don't even read reviews there or anything anymore..  

[Supdawg]

Yes,

At  Asusboards, we were seeing the same thing. People losing interest in folding. It really isn't that fun to pass one member and then to be passed by 3 more people in the next few days. I think now that the subteams were a great idea, because I could see that the journey was getting a bit tedious. Take for instance, our top folder, and the team creator Ozzie, he was our top folder for like over a year. But he gave up his 12000 points and started folding for the Athlon team. The rivalry between the P4 and the Athlon team is great.

I didn't really like the idea of the sub teams at first also. But I have to agree that it was the right thing to do in hindsight.  

[Bruce Lee]

Hey guys,
I know I havent been around lately, and my folding has gone to the crapper.
I just quit my job so I lost 3 machines there. And I am gettin married so I had to get rid of the 2 extra computers I had in the house.
Hopefully when things settle down a bit I can continue to bring up computers to fold, but for now you guys keep up the good work!
btw....I just saw your new farm Mark....all I can say is......WOW!!
See ya!

[CADof1714]

I have to agree with my fellow AB team members.  The sub team concept proved a sucess for us.  I started out as an individual folder, but now I've split my rigs between two teams, one new school (Team Athlon) and one old school ( team CUSL2),  they're both fun due to the comaradrie.  As a result Team AB has shot up thru the stats and the folding cause has benefitted.

We have seen some folks stop folding, one that I remember was simply power consumption; his father told him the the elec bill was to high and he attributed it to the cumputer being on 24/7 (probably just the extreme cold weather during the time but either way we lost a folder).    

[Medalat]

I was folding with a few machines at home, but I found that the F@H program when running and initially it was running 24.7 on my machines an XP 1700, 3 Athlon 1 Ghz, 1 Duron 700 Mhz caused some erratic program failures.  i.e when the F@H was runnng other programs seemed to lag from initial click to startup, as I recall this applied to IE, MS publisher and word etc.  I did have the exclusivity set at 100 I think. The constant running up and downstairs when someone couldn't get something started caused me to disable all the F@H clients.

Again I was folding for the cause, not the team or personal stats.

If I had a machine that just sat in a corner doing nothing then I would get it running again, but at the moment the home computers are used for homework, work work, music, surfing and of course gaming.

I know you guys will point to benchmarks showing that their is no performance hit while running F@H but that was not the case with me.  If I had taken the time to configure F@H as a service that may have improved matters but by that time I am afraid I had lost interest, and weight

[Black Cat]

i had problems at first with the windows version.  Dlevens told me to use the command line version which i have found to be unintrusive.  i am new to this, but i don't expect to lose interest because i enjoy the friendship with everyone as a team and i also enjoy building systems.  i had run out of reasons to build new systems except for friends which is rare.  this has given me a project which i love.  i am working on a farm concept and am gathering the pieces.

i think the subsystems is a good idea.  right now it is fun for me to climb the ranks, but i am really concerned about getting the team past our friends at Asusboards.  i think we have had some great ideas to help new people get started.  i also think this thread has some good ideas to try to help keep people. 

if there is anything i can do to help, please just call on me!

Brian