Mildly Interesting Fact
Kwitko
Sheriff of Banning (Retired)By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
in Folding@Home
When I started folding in 2004, it took me roughly 8 years to amass 1.5 million points. Since I started folding again in June 2016, I've amassed nearly half a million points in 5 weeks.
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If I could ever remember to un-pause the client on my main rig, 1.5 million would take me just over 3 days. No more WUs for 100-150 points a pop these days.
Is that really an accurate explanation? The point values are against specific hardware and much CPU/GPU architecture has gotten way better than that, so I would expect to get a lot more points now that I did back in 2004.
https://folding.stanford.edu/home/faq/faq-points/#ntoc3
among other entries on that page, specifically
https://folding.stanford.edu/home/faq/faq-points/#ntoc9
In other words, if your computer has a massively parallel stream processor sweet graphics card in it then you are going to smoke the reference machine.
Correct. My problem was with the use of inflation as the analogy
I read it as a good joke and a mild political jab.
@Tushon They do inflate point totals over time faster than hardware gains. When I started, they were still issuing fractional points. My understanding is that in the beginning they were doing < 1 point WUs.
Note this was several years into Team 93. Our earliest conversations are obviously long lost.
Interesting. Thanks! Maybe people needed their numbers to go up faster to stay involved.
If there was no inflation of points/WU, then it would be really hard for anyone just starting into it to feel like they were accomplishing anything, and the teams with the lowest numbers wouldn't have to do much to stay ahead. Inflating the points is part of the gamification of the project.
This precisely.
Back in 2004, hitting 100K was approximately like hitting 100M now. We created a virtual plaque for everyone who'd made it: http://icrontic.com/uploads/5/8015.attach
We also had separate virtual awards for reaching 1,000 and 5,000 points - usually months apart.
The drawback is that it's a little disheartening to old guys who are coming back. After folding for years to collect astronomical scores, then to come back after a long absence and people just starting out pass you by in a few days...
If it was only a game, and not helping people and junk, it would be bunk. :-D
Vote Ron Paul. Return F@H points to the gold standard.
I agree completely, it's sad to see newcomers blow away the points it took me years to build within their first few weeks of folding. Although if it took newbies as long to amass their first ten thousand points as it took us, it would be a disincentive to start folding.
Getting lots of points quickly still requires a pretty hefty hardware spec. My current i5 and GPU combo would only get me like 100 points a year or something like that.
I don't mind. I only care about my personal goals. In the end it's all about moving science forward.
Real Talk. It don't bother me none, neither. It's interesting to observe the mechanics of gamification, though.