How to increase productivity and interest in my folding team

[NOi]

Hello everyone..
I'm Tonny a.k.a NOi from (team name/number deleted)

several senior members of my team have contributed consistently each day because we had a good faith on this project
Recently on this week, we had an improvement on our productivity..it because some newbies have joined with us to contribute
But unfortunately, the newbies still do not have enough knowledge and motivation to contribute in this project

Therefore, I want to ask for suggestions from you all, how to increase the interest and the productivity of a newbie in my team to keep on fold on this project?
I had given an adequate explanation to them, but I still feel that not enough

Thx in advance,


Tonny

[bruce]

We're always looking for ways to interest people in running FAH.

Fundamentally I know of two approaches. One works for some people and the other works for other people.

1) The altruistic value of contributing to scientific research that may cure diseases and save lives attracts some people. This is particularly true for those who have had a family member or close friend who has had one of the diseases that are associated with mis-folded proteins.

2) The competitive value associated with the points attracts other people. It helps if you have a blog that reports on new members, on members which pass others in the points standings, or on members which reach a certain plateau (and, if appropriate, print a certificate from the Stanford Stats pages). Similarly, many teams compete directly with other teams attempting to pass each other in the team standings.

This forum can be helpful if your newbies have technical troubles, but it should never be used to discuss the points competition in item 2. For that, you'll need your own team forum.

[kelliegang]

Seems like this would be a problem common to most if not all folding teams... personally I'd just suggest keeping up to date with the research results and advances in technology related to folding [new video cards, new cooling systems, new ways of keeping everything running smoothly]. Present summaries of this type of information every couple weeks [or if it's results to do with the project as soon as you are aware of it] to your team just so they keep thinking about it. If they're folding due to family members or contacts which have related diseases perhaps keeping them apprised of all developments related to those disease not just those achieved through folding@home might keep their interest up.

I think it would be a good idea for the folding@home project to have a newsletter email we could signup to when we start folding to achieve this same goal [keeping people interested... or at least thinking about the project]. I understand that Prof. Pande has the blog and we have this forum but what's wrong with the old methods?

[NOi]

We're always looking for ways to interest people in running FAH.

Fundamentally I know of two approaches. One works for some people and the other works for other people.

1) The altruistic value of contributing to scientific research that may cure diseases and save lives attracts some people. This is particularly true for those who have had a family member or close friend who has had one of the diseases that are associated with mis-folded proteins.

2) The competitive value associated with the points attracts other people. It helps if you have a blog that reports on new members, on members which pass others in the points standings, or on members which reach a certain plateau (and, if appropriate, print a certificate from the Stanford Stats pages). Similarly, many teams compete directly with other teams attempting to pass each other in the team standings.

This forum can be helpful if your newbies have technical troubles, but it should never be used to discuss the points competition in item 2. For that, you'll need your own team forum.

I think point#1 is one of the difficulties for our team, because as far as i know all of my team member especially the nubs didn't have relation who had one of the diseases that are associated with mis-folded proteins. Point #2 could be a great idea to lift motivation of our team.
I expected the competition will be something interesting for our team member to remain exist in this project. And it will be discussed in the forum of our team

I think it would be a good idea for the folding@home project to have a newsletter email we could signup to when we start folding to achieve this same goal [keeping people interested... or at least thinking about the project]. I understand that Prof. Pande has the blog and we have this forum but what's wrong with the old methods?

i personally think the same way too..imho maybe that way can be more effective to keep people fold on this project

anyway, thx for all the suggestions you have provided both

[kiore]

My team (deleted name/number) has recently really taken off, and has just broken into the top 1000!
Basically we kept on talking to each other and encouraging friendly competition, this brought us attention from other users on our forum and our active membership has almost tripled, coupled with offering help and support to new members plus sharing information. We started getting enough posts to get our topic thread stickied in the 'General Science Discussion' section of the forum. Each member has also been encouraged to recruit to F@H generally rather than just to the team, this has kept the interest level up and showed our commitment to the science, rather than some sort of gamer geek competition. Some members have joined because of friends/loved ones with illnesses, others were involved in other distributed computing programs and still others were intrigued and 'seduced' into the program by discussions on the science.
The effect? In January we were happy to get 40k points per 7 days, today I checked and it was reading 218k for past 7. Team members are building, re building and recruiting, and we're having fun!
Luck.
kiore.

edit: to remove identifier for team.

[7im]

Please be careful. Posting to promote or recruit for your team is against forum policy, and a Mod or Admin might delete your post.

You can discuss ways to promote or recruit, but don't specifically mention your own team info in that same post. If you have listed a team number, you're probably right on the line, or over it just a bit.

[kiore]

Please be careful. Posting to promote or recruit for your team is against forum policy, and a Mod or Admin might delete your post.

You can discuss ways to promote or recruit, but don't specifically mention your own team info in that same post. If you have listed a team number, you're probably right on the line, or over it just a bit.

Whoops sorry, wasn't trying to recruit to my team was intending it to used just as an example. Have now edited out team number and name. We have had a remarkable turnaround and I had added the details incase I wasn't taken seriously that this is what had happened so that people could check the stats if they doubted.
Do think the idea of recruiting generally rather than to the team in particular, is a successful strategy added to a high public profile and support for new folders, no matter what team they belong to.
kiore.

Addit: 7im, would I be also in breach if I was to add my stats to my signature line? I haven't as yet but I was considering doing so. Do agree with the principle however, am recruiting hard for my team, but no benefit in getting people to change teams as the output remains the same, only want to recruit new folders not just redistribute current work.

[MtM]

Addit: 7im, would I be also in breach if I was to add my stats to my signature line? I haven't as yet but I was considering doing so. Do agree with the principle however, am recruiting hard for my team, but no benefit in getting people to change teams as the output remains the same, only want to recruit new folders not just redistribute current work.

If you look around, toTow who is a mod has stats in his sig Stats are also a means of promotion, but it's also a motivating factor for allot of people who are already folding. So stats aren't directly linked to reqruitement. If you posts (team) stats with the added line of -' Help me increase team xxx/my production ' that would be reqruiting.

And to 7im, if Bruce did not object to the mentioning of team name and number in the opening posts there is a small lack of consistency when you point out that it is not allowed ( though, you never did imply it was aimed directly at either Kiore or in general ). Just an observation.

[bruce]

And to 7im, if Bruce did not object to the mentioning of team name and number in the opening posts there is a small lack of consistency when you point out that it is not allowed ( though, you never did imply it was aimed directly at either Kiore or in general ). Just an observation.

Bruce did object . . . but the forum is busy today and I'm having trouble keeping up with everything.

[MstrBlstr]

And to 7im, if Bruce did not object to the mentioning of team name and number in the opening posts there is a small lack of consistency when you point out that it is not allowed ( though, you never did imply it was aimed directly at either Kiore or in general ). Just an observation.

Bruce did object . . . but the forum is busy today and I'm having trouble keeping up with everything.

As I would have as well. But I am often late to these sort of things. Overworked, under paid...

[7im]

As I recall, .sigs with team info are permitted (as a compromise), as they are a passive mode of communication, the picture sizes are limited, and most people ignore them anyway. Team info in your profile is okay as well... same passive mode, overlooked, and small font size with limite text space.

Actively promoting or recruiting threads tend get out of hand sooner or later. And since this forum's goal is to be agnostic (i.e. showing no favoritism), that includes FAH Teams as well as Sports Teams, hardware, politics, religion, etc. The one exception, the official Stanford University mascot can be promoted here as much as anyone wants.

[MtM]

Sorry 7im

And MstrBlstr you know we all love you, that's pay enough

[whynot]

several senior members of my team have contributed consistently each day because we had a good faith on this project
Recently on this week, we had an improvement on our productivity..it because some newbies have joined with us to contribute
But unfortunately, the newbies still do not have enough knowledge and motivation to contribute in this project

Therefore, I want to ask for suggestions from you all, how to increase the interest and the productivity of a newbie in my team to keep on fold on this project?
I had given an adequate explanation to them, but I still feel that not enough

I could mention 2 ways (in reverse order comparing to Bruce post)

Money -- works most for most cases, is fast and effective. (However, why to pay someone -- just invest in equipment.)

Education -- tiring, troublesome, errorprone, gives mostly enemies and eventually you're banned. (However, that surely works for those cases when the 1st way fails.)

Thx in advance,


Tonny

Put that in sig of your profile, then it will be automagically skipped upon quoting.

[bruce]

Fundamentally I know of two approaches.

There's one more approach that I didn't mention, (and if you'll pardon my stealing your name):

3) Why not? FAH is a way you can contribute to a worthy cause with almost no investment or bother on your part. Install a single CPU client as a service and then forget about it. You don't have to do anything except use your computer as you normally would.

Admittedly, this approach probably won't add active team members to your team forum, and the points will not be high, but for some people, this is an ideal way to make small contributions, and even small contributions are important.

We need to recognize that not everyone will share the same goals that you do, and it's best to let people contribute while "not contributing" actively if that suits their style.

[kelliegang]

Bruce.. that is a great way of getting people started... and like you said every little bit helps...

3) Why not? FAH is a way you can contribute to a worthy cause with almost no investment or bother on your part. Install a single CPU client as a service and then forget about it. You don't have to do anything except use your computer as you normally would.

Admittedly, this approach probably won't add active team members to your team forum, and the points will not be high, but for some people, this is an ideal way to make small contributions, and even small contributions are important.

We need to recognize that not everyone will share the same goals that you do, and it's best to let people contribute while "not contributing" actively if that suits their style.

ALSO:
Once you get them started if you have a way of contacting them, touching base now and then with updates to their points and/or work units allows you to slip in suggestions for how to get more out of their computer [if they're interested]