About the FAQ

[Mictlan]

Seems that I need to do some maintainance to the FAQ sticky, so I'm posting here what should be done with the sticky:

I was thinking that we need to get a new one with the BOINC info to keep it nice and organized, but I would do what the majority decide. The poll will remain active just for one week.

The two options are:

1.- Get everything into a single FAQ, longer but less stuff stickying in the top of the forum.

2.-Keep the current sticky (I'll update the neccesary info as needed) and generate another one to cover all things BOINC :D (Including Climate prediction, Einstein and possibly others :D)

3.-If someone has any idea please post it and develop. If possible I then will try to get it incorpoarted into the FAQ.

Please also tell me what things need to be covered in the FAQ. Currently I'm thinking in the following:

What is the project about (BOINC, SETI, Einstein and Climate Prediction).
Who we are.
What the difference between SETI@Home Classic and BOINC
How to set up BOINC and the diferent clients.
How does BOINC work
HELP, I completed some WU but haven't received no credit of them
How to compile your own client (useful links to the thread in the forums)
Stats

Remeber this will be a FAQ, so we need to get as much info (and links if needed) to help our fellow members and new recruits :D

[edit: Some typos and the suggestion of clarifing the credit system]
[edit2: Added the difference between Classic and BOINC]

[Tyrinon]

Good idea Mictlan! Here is a question for the FAQ: "I've turned in a work unit, now where is my credit?" I'm on my way out the door for work, so I'll leave it at that for the moment. :)

[SunRedRX7]

Tyrinon hit the nail on the head with that question, probably the number one question once someone gets BOINC going.

Information on each individual projects credit system, WU lengths, deadlines....

Information on the "Cross Project Identifier" and how to get it to sync up if you are running more then one project.

Some ideas to organize this, make it one big sticky, with links in the first post to serve as pointers to other posts in the sticky.
POST 1 of the thread would be a table of contents with the contents being below it in the other posts.

The more stickys there are, usually the higher chance of them all being ignored. Also with the topics divided up by posts, if someone asks "Why don't I have credits after turning in a work unit?" You can link them directly to the section of that sticky.

[JigPu]

Initially I was going to vote for two stickies, but the more I think about it, the more a single unified sticky makes sense. It can be a "one-stop-shop" for new members, and will probably be a lot less confusing.

Since I was going to originally sticky SunRedRX7's post (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=391013), I can't help but feel a bit obligated to ask that if a unified sticky solution is voted for, that his post be merged (or created anew) into that sticky. It's got great BOINC setup information, and I'd feel a bit like a turncoat to say that I'm going to sticky something and then not do it...

I wholly agree that the very first post in the FAQ should be a table of contents, though you will either need to edit your posts to make the first one the the TOC, or create a new thread for me to sticky for this to work. Unfortunatly I can't just put a TOC post in before the rest because vBulliten orders everything by the date posted :(.

The only thing I can think of off the bat that should be covered (perhaps before other project-specific info) is the difference between Classic and BOINC, and the reason Berkeley decided to make BOINC. I'm sure there's loads of other things that should go into a BOINC FAQ, but I can't think of any at the moment...

JigPu

[Mictlan]

I've been thinking in those last comment done by both SunRedRX7 and JigPu and with a good TOC (just like the one found in the CPU forum) this could be neatly organized :D.

[eaglescouter]

The two stickies should be kept separate because:

1. Classic services only SETI, while BOINC is multi project in nature. Persons seeking BOINC info may not even know SETI or SETI Classic exist.
2. Classic will die. Not today, but it will eventually be shut down. Until that time, keep it in its own stickey.
3. KISS Keep It Simple Stupid! (no offense intended) Don't risk loosing crunchers because they don't understand the differences between the two seti platforms. If a user comes in search of classic then give him the data and be done. A BOINC searcher deserves the same info. If someday classic dies, then the classic users will be aware that the platform changed and they will seek information on the new platform.
4. If we are going to combine BOINC and Classic into a single stickey, then let's do the obvious next step and combine the SETI and Folding sections into a single forum, since they are both distributed computing.

[sir_LOIN]

This might sound harsh, but if someone is confused because of a few stickies, maybe they should get a few IQ points and talk later! I mean this isn't rocket science! Some good members here took the time to write all these newbie helpers so the least they can do is to read them all before asking a stupid question! Maybe I'm just roid raging... lol

[Mictlan]

Sir Loin,

You'll be amazed how lazy some people are (and not just newbies BTW). In some forums besides OC there's been trouble with some very basic skills like reading and compresation. In one forum I regularly see threads of where can I find......right next to regular thread "Do you know how to use google to get your basic answers" and a big sticky of FAQ and regularly used information?

The idea here is to get the easier FAQ so that the people that do read it get's the most for their time. Thankfully our members are pretty smart and do try to get the starting points on their own with some research and our friendly neighbour the search button :D

Cheers to all.

[JigPu]

1. Classic services only SETI, while BOINC is multi project in nature. Persons seeking BOINC info may not even know SETI or SETI Classic exist.
True, though a unified sticky through could still cover both. It'd be a bit tricky coming up with an appropraite title ("SETI Team FAQ" sounds too classic-oriented for people looking for BOINC stuff, but just "Frequently Asked Questions" dosen't seem friendly enough...), but I'm certain it could be made so that both Classic and BOINC people will notice the thread as containing answers.

2. Classic will die. Not today, but it will eventually be shut down. Until that time, keep it in its own stickey.
This was originally my own concern as well. With Classic supposedly dying just around the bend, it'd be simpler to maintain a dual-sticky system. Once classic ends, I just unstick the thread (or edit it to mention that now BOINC is the de-facto platform) and that's that. However, it's not a whole lot more work to split (or edit in the same way) the FAQ once classic ends.

3. KISS Keep It Simple Stupid! (no offense intended) Don't risk loosing crunchers because they don't understand the differences between the two seti platforms. If a user comes in search of classic then give him the data and be done. A BOINC searcher deserves the same info. If someday classic dies, then the classic users will be aware that the platform changed and they will seek information on the new platform.
Can't agree with you more :) In the case you point out, a dual sticky system would indeed be better. However, for a new member who has no clue about the difference between Classic and BOINC, a single thread which talks about both would be better IMHO. I don't have a clue which kind of member signs up here more often, but it would definatly influence my vote.

4. If we are going to combine BOINC and Classic into a single stickey, then let's do the obvious next step and combine the SETI and Folding sections into a single forum, since they are both distributed computing.
In a way we already are ;) As two sides of the same coin, we're both under the "Teams" section of the forum. It's not exactly the same as being in the exact section, but each of our respective areas get sufficient traffic to warrent specialized sections. Squishing the two into only one forum would end up way too crowded -- like if you tried squshing "AMD CPUs" and "Intel CPUs" together.

JigPu

[Mictlan]

Been thinking about it and in a unifed sticky we just need to start with some general information like what is SETI, what is BOINC, is there something else to be done with the BOINC, etc......again I would like you to get an idea of what we are thinking about a Table of Content (TOC) please go here (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=316870).

[SunRedRX7]

Jigpu, I would have no problem with my guide added into a larger sticky.

The way I'd like to see the sticky done would be similar to the Welcome to OCForums' F@H Team! (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=386159) sticky in the folding forum.

An introductory sticky to welcome people to the team, with links to other stickies, which could be kept in a subforum, like the watercooling section has I think would be perfect.

Having a long list of stickys at the top of the page just tends to increase the amount of ignoring of them.

In regards to classic, if there is a link to joining classic in the "Welcome Sticky", put it after any information about BOINC and add a comment that its recomended to signup with BOINC instead due to classic nearing its end.

[TC]

Personally I think a little house cleaning is in order - i.e. dump the classic tutorial completely.

[Mictlan]

This poll don't seems to get enough attention :(, but with the most recent news on another thread, SETI Classci is seeing it's last days.....Hurry up and do come and post something :D

[Mictlan]

Bumpty Bump.....

This poll will close tomorrow morning, so if anyone care to add something else tonight ;)

[SunRedRX7]

Some more questions to add into the FAQ, TollhouseFrank's question on how BOINC handles multiple CPUs and HT.

"What happens when the project goes down?"

As BOINC goes on, we can just continue to take questions as they come up and add them into the FAQ as well.

[Mictlan]

I thank to all who particpated into the poll. I'll start working in the new FAQ for all BOINC projects. If I see that SETI Classic remains alive after the end of June, I'll try to do some cleaning and prunning to keep it updated for the Classic users with us :D

[Dk Jedi Allianc]

Juan....some ideas to what you could put in the FAQ:

(some of them are pretty obvious :p )

1. What is it?
2. What does is do?
3. Where do I sign up and how?
4. Where do I get it?
5. How do I install?
6. Now it is running - is it supposed to do that? :p
7. What are "pending credit"?
8. How come I only get xx CS, when my client claimed xx CS


You get the idea :cool:

[SunRedRX7]

Thought up another topic for the FAQ.

How to remotely monitor/control your farm

[Mictlan]

Currently gathering all the info for the new FAQ. I will be reusing some info already in the Classic FAQ, but wait for a new facelift of that classic info :D