Sprints 2024 - timetable and projects selected

[UBT - Timbo]

HI all

Just got home from the fancy dress event !

The original coding didn't work quite as expected (despite some original testing which seemed to be OK).

I will admit it isn't quite perfect as there is a slight difference between the figures displayed on the PG stats page and the FB League tables.

BUT, all the stats started at ZERO, so as long as the stats on the final day and on the last update are all "lined up" then the results will stand.

So, given the special coding that Sebastien worked on to get the ongoing stats for this special Sprint working, Sebastien is to be thanked for making the relevant adjustments quickly tonight.

regards
Tim

[Tamagoch]

Hi Tim,

I just thought, that FB wasn't counting pending tasks before they are validated. And the Primegrid challenge stat does. How it's going now?

I remember a huge drop in my performance especially during WCG sprint because of that.

My first GFN-21 tasks should arrive soon, so I may see the answer by myself. But your explanations are always so clear and detailed

Thanks!

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi Tim,

I just thought, that FB wasn't counting pending tasks before they are validated. And the Primegrid challenge stat does. How it's going now?

I remember a huge drop in my performance especially during WCG sprint because of that.

My first GFN-21 tasks should arrive soon, so I may see the answer by myself. But your explanations are always so clear and detailed

Thanks!

Hi

The initial FB stats page (for Sprint #25) wasn't working quite right and last night, Sebastien has made some adjustments (to his coding) so that the two pages (the 2 PG Challenge webpages and the FB League Tables webpage) should all now align.

AFAIK, the PG stats only show the awarded credits and so the FB pages show the same, but only detailing those teams/members registered on FB:

PG Team stats page:

https://www.primegrid.com/challenge/202 ... teams.html


PG Members stats page:

https://www.primegrid.com/challenge/202 ... users.html

FB League tables:

https://www.formula-boinc.org/sprints.p ... printid=51

Hope this clears things up?

regards
Tim

[Icecold-TAAT]

Kudos to Sebastien for getting the stats working correctly!

Primegrid challenges (thus Formula BOINC in this specific sprint) do award credit prior to the task validating and then Primegrid claws the credit back after the fact (in the "cleanup phase") if a task fails validation. It's pretty rare these days though because Primegrid has a lot of error checking so it's pretty rare that a task will complete and upload successfully and then later fail validation. It's also likely with it being such a long challenge that a lot of tasks will validate during the sprint itself, so even less chance of tasks failing validation after the sprint is over. I don't see it as a big issue and it beats the alternative of everybody having a ton of pending tasks that they don't get credit for in a challenge.

The way Formula BOINC has implemented the stats for this sprint are the best way to do it, so again kudos to Sebastien for getting it working and having it fixed quickly after the start of the sprint.

[UBT - Timbo]

But it is clear from what I have seen that certain BOINC accounts have falsified their credits which has prompted the SIDock admin to nullify some of the credits earned over the last few days.

This WILL lead to further action being taken and in due course this will be notified on this forum.

regards
Tim

Hi all

Following the issue that occurred during the SiDock Sprint (#24) the following actions have been taken and these are now shown on the relevant FB website pages:

Action #1
TSBT have been disqualified from the results of the above Sprint. They have not been awarded any FB points and other League 1 teams have been re-allocated placings and FB points accordingly:

https://www.formula-boinc.org/sprints.p ... printid=26

Action #2
The FB members of TSBT who had deductions made to their BOINC credits by the SiDock admins, have been disqualified from the Sprint #24. Other League 1 Member placings and FB points have been adjusted as a result.

https://www.formula-boinc.org/sprints.p ... printid=26

Action #3
TSBT member "megacruncher" has voluntarily resigned from the FB Members League and he has requested that all his stats be removed for the entire 2024 season. League 1 Member stats have also been adjusted accordingly. TSBT team League 1 stats have also been adjusted as a result of Megacruncher credits and associated FB points being deleted, in both Marathon and Sprint stats.

https://www.formula-boinc.org/users.py? ... nding=user

Action #4
TSBT have requested that they are NOT included in the forthcoming 2025 season. As a result, TSBT have been deleted from the initial listing of registered teams for next years FB season.

https://www.formula-boinc.org/teams.py? ... nding=user

It goes without saying that this episode of cheating has been damaging to Formula BOINC and also to many individuals.

However, the above actions have only been taken after many internal discussions (between various parties) and it is imperative that every team and every member recognises that any proven cheating that takes places WILL result in similar action being taken. The Marathon and Sprint rules will be amended as a result, to include the actions that will be taken if cheating is proved to have taken place.

And I am grateful and indebted to Sebastien for spending more of his own free time to edit and re-calculate the various League 1 team and member BOINC credits totals and the resulting FB point awards.

regards
Tim

[JeromeC]

If some people are capable of doing that for a virtual points race with nothing at stake in real life (I hope so !) then how far would they go in real life ? Or would it be the other way around ? Will we ever know ?

Thanks Tim for all the energy you've had to expend too, and of course thanks to Seb.

[UBT - Timbo]

If some people are capable of doing that for a virtual points race with nothing at stake in real life (I hope so !) then how far would they go in real life ? Or would it be the other way around ? Will we ever know ?

Hi

Sadly, in my humble experience, there are always going to be a minority of people who want to find a way to exploit a situation for gain, whether it is for financial or political benefits, or just because they had a skillset that they could use to ensure other people lost out because the perpetrators were being dishonest.

It is just human weakness I think...part of being "human" that greed, arrogance, dishonesty can drive people in such a way as they can cause harm (mental or physical) or loss to others.

Thanks Tim for all the energy you've had to expend too, and of course thanks to Seb.

Thank you for this...being an admin is quite a simple job in most cases, EXCEPT when issues arise and this can lead to tricky situations especially when people (who have never had such responsibility) expect instant reactions and instant processes to take place.

That is NOT how procedures should take place - good administration requires impartial and deliberate consideration based on the facts - and this can take maybe minutes, hours, even days to perform. Knee-jerk reactions are usually the wrong way to deal with such matters.

Hopefully, this will be a lesson that all can learn from; cheating is not acceptable in any way and if you get caught, then be prepared for events to take place. This is true on Formula BOINC, on projects or in real life.

regards
Tim

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

There are now just over 48 hours to go, until Sprint #25, featuring Prime Grids GFN-21 Challenge (in honour of Willy de Zutter) will end.

It is nice to see that many FB Teams and Members are taking part, as well as all the unassociated Teams/Members who are taking part.

Unfortunately, as of writing this, NO Primes have been found (so far !!):

https://www.primegrid.com/stats_genefer.php

But 372,551 tasks have been completed and no doubt more will be uploaded/validated in the next 2 days.

Please keep up the good work !

regards and season's greetings to all
Tim