FB 2020

[Dark Angel]

Well, it's now 12-11 and the page is down AGAIN.

[ubt - mikee]

11/13/2020 03:00 (UTC) - 11/16/2020 02:59 (UTC)
Canceled

[UBT - Timbo]

11/13/2020 03:00 (UTC) - 11/16/2020 02:59 (UTC)
Canceled

HI all

Well, this is sad....and yet another example of poor administration. No apology, no accepting of responsibility, in fact nothing at all.

I (and I am sure others) have offered help to keep the FB website running and to help provide feedback to BOINC members to keep this Challenge Series relevant...but no replies to PM's or emails. And this makes me even sadder.

Time for an alternative annual BOINC competition to be set up...so, if you have some PHP coding skills, PM me or message me via (say) PrimeGrid project or on the Discord UBT channel (https://discord.gg/4ak39Mfa) and let's get a new Challenge up and running.

regards
Tim

[ubt - mikee]

Hi

Last sprint has been announced for voting and guess what - still broke - can't vote!

Mike

[bluestang]

Beginning to look like Sebastien just doesn't care anymore and also won't swallow his pride (or arrogance) to ask or let anyone help him. Sad really as when it works well this is a fun competition.

The lack of communication is mind boggling. Almost like he wants it to die.

[ubt - mikee]

Hi

Just checked and it's back up! But for how long?

Mike

[bluestang]

So is there going to be a poll for projects for FB 2021 or is this the end of it?

[Skivelitis2]

I hope this is not the end. I don't plan my crunching around FB for the most part but do keep one eye on it for fun. The sprints could go away for all I care as they seem to be more trouble than not for a variety of reasons (all the complaining, voting for dead projects, etc.). It seems towards the end of the year viable projects have dried up unfortunately. Anyhow, would like to see Gaia and SiDock (moving to production added for 2021, and any other new projects from earlier in the year that I am forgetting.

[megacruncher]

I hope Formula Boinc continues. No-one has asked for suggestions re 2021 but here are some anyway!

The Projects for the Marathons should be any active project with points etc allocated exactly as presently.

The sprints should also continue. But there shouldn't be voting. It just increases the scope for bunkering. I enjoy bunkering but you can have too much of it. We have enough experience to know which projects cope with sprints and which can't. Asking the admins of the projects for permission to use their Pentiums & Pi s as racetracks wouldn't hurt. Seb/Any other admin should chose each time. It's not as if he is a voluable chap likely to give the game away with his incessant blether! If there aren't enough projects for a different one each time then repeats would be fine.

A bit more communication would be good. Not least on whether FB will still be going in 11days time.

If the current FB does not continue into 2021, then I think someone, not me, I have neither the coding skills, nor the work ethic required, should consider it a bit of discarded intellectual property, to be picked up and up-cycled! We wouldn't have to wait until 2022. If we are sticking with the Formula One timetable then they are dormant until March at least.

[Skivelitis2]

@ megacruncher: Agree with everything you said. The #1 problem will always be the bunkering. If everyone would just adhere to the spirit of the competition some of the projects might be able to handle the increased load for 3 days. But when their servers are crashed within the first 3 minutes, it ruins the competition for everyone. And btw, there is plenty of info online about multiple clients and advanced bunkering techniques so this is not a matter of "just because I/we do it better than you....blah blah blah", it.s about maintaining a viable and fun competition. I don't see any way around this other than the honor system (think golf) and I think we all know how well that would work.