Predictor@home is censoring massively at their boards and is restricting the freedom of opinion of their registered users in an inappropriate manner.
After a discussion had started about the attitude of the project administration towards a big cheating issue in this thread that thread was closed immediately to avoid any different opinion.

After that any new discussion thread and any question concerning "censorship" were "answered" with the immediate deletion of the postings/threads. Even accounts were fully blocked for posting (in my case until the year 2038!!).
In between even account creation was disabled to prevent the "bad users" from posting further questions. After that didn't help meanwhile whole IP ranges are blocked from access to the complete Predictor homepage!

I think it is not acceptable that the freedom of opinion is restricted in that way and I want to ask the BOINC community members to form an opinion about this. Try for yourself and start asking about this all at the P@H message boards!



There's an ongoing discussion over at the BOINCstats forum, where also the beginning of this whole mess is to be found. See: Trojan boinc installation by rogue member

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Grrrrrrrrreetings from the Lazy Cat...

Thema: Predictor and the censorship

Posting: http://predictor.scripps.edu/forum_thread.php?id=2546&nowrap=true#13787
Page: http://predictor.scripps.edu/forum_thread.php?id=2546
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koko (my alias while my original account is banned up to the year 2038)
Joined: Mar 24, 2007
Posts: 2
ID: 79844
Credit: 0
RAC: 0
Message 13787 - Posted 24 Mar 2007 0:19:15 UTC [Edit this post]

You realy delete one post after the other. What the hell is going on in your head? You can't the whole world forbid to say what you here doing. Your deeds blame the Scripps Research Institue. The whole BOINC fellowship await your offical apology for your effronteries.

This Text will be copied in all forums I can reach, included the advice, that the text here will be deleted by a admin of censorship like all the other posts!
ID: 13787 | Rating: 0 | rate: + / - - Report this post as offensive

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It doesn't sound like an approach that is going to get the results you were after. Writing an email to the developers of the project, calmly and diplomatically explaining the proof that the accused is doing inappropriate things, and then showing how similar people have been dealt with on other Boinc projects should allow it to be dealt with properly.

If you've managed to get them to remove your posting privileges on their forums, then you need to calm down, step back, and diplomatically write them and probably apologize. (I listed all the failings a company made in dealing with my order - and the bum was so offended that he refused to do business with me ever again - so I'm not perfect in the diplomacy department. :)

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Well, to be honest I did not post anything offensive there. So why should I apologize? But I'd take his apology...
The admin there deleted, banned and blocked not only me but several users because he can't deal with any opinion different from his own. :-P

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Grrrrrrrrreetings from the Lazy Cat...

It doesn't sound like an approach that is going to get the results you were after. Writing an email to the developers of the project, calmly and diplomatically explaining the proof that the accused is doing inappropriate things, and then showing how similar people have been dealt with on other Boinc projects should allow it to be dealt with properly.

If you've managed to get them to remove your posting privileges on their forums, then you need to calm down, step back, and diplomatically write them and probably apologize. (I listed all the failings a company made in dealing with my order - and the bum was so offended that he refused to do business with me ever again - so I'm not perfect in the diplomacy department. :)

Apologize for what ???

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this is Roesetta at home, what this project got to do with predictor at home?

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Well, the "Trojan boinc installation" issue is concerning the whole BOINC community IMHO and I think the behaviour of the Predictor admin was worth a note on other BOINC based message boards as well.

Besides that I posted it here in the Café where usually also "off-topic" or non-project related things can be discussed.

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Grrrrrrrrreetings from the Lazy Cat...

This is something that should be read by the whole BOINC community (and this is the Cafe here - not number crunching or so, isn't it?) cause admins playing god at projects lots of people gave their ressources to is something that should not be tolereated.

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this is Roesetta at home, what this project got to do with predictor at home?

this project is part of BOINC or uses it's technics

so if someone does cheating or even criminal acts it affects to all projects using BOINC!

furthermore is this the place OT - themes are discussed.

Last in my opinion Predictor should banned from all stats until the account of w*** is closed and the admin did apologize by the community and all people which he banned unjustly!

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this is Roesetta at home, what this project got to do with predictor at home?

====================
Cafe Rosetta
"Trade stories with other Rosetta@home users"

The -1 ratings censors are at it here in this forum...

this is Roesetta at home, what this project got to do with predictor at home?

====================
Cafe Rosetta
"Trade stories with other Rosetta@home users"

The -1 ratings censors are at it here in this forum...

i noticed that. whats that all about? other than you can click on the link and open it up to see whats being blocked.

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As for apologizing, I spent several years on an online game where I spent 6 months documenting a singular user's breaches of the Terms of Service. It took 6 months to get rid of the punk. They let him have chance after chance.. I heard people bragging about how they claimed they weren't familiar with english and didn't realize the slang they used was banned. So when I hear of people being banned for no reason I had reason to doubt that I was given the full story. The company that bought the game from the previous owners which I'd worked with got upset with my pointing out that the new owner was caught lying publicly. I lost posting privileges on my second account when I demonstrated to the inept new staff how to properly respond to questions by the subscribers.

I've seen both sides - but I find it hard to believe that a Boinc project would ban for posting a diplomatic message about a problem. If it's the same person that was posted about here, the message here was a link to discussion about the user's transgression and the solution used on another project. (Erase all points, and perhaps give no credit for the work being turned in for that account.) A member of the Rosetta team posted that they'd zero-ed out his account, if I remember correctly.

Mind you, I didn't see any of the discussion on Predictor@Home, but if the project staff had requested that the conversation end and they banned those that broke that rule, then an apology should be a good start to getting your posting privileges back.

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Too bad many posting were deleted, but the latest thread has somehow survived, even if it's now locked.
Meanwhile there were some insulting statements, but not in the original posts from Friday evening/night (European time) and not in general from all users involved. ---> http://predictor.scripps.edu/forum_thread.php?id=2546#13866

There are two other, newly created threads as well.

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Grrrrrrrrreetings from the Lazy Cat...

new Members cant get help at Predictor anymore - they cant post - you need an minimum of credit - but it says not how much

I think they dont need any supporters beside Wate

new Members cant get help at Predictor anymore - they cant post - you need an minimum of credit - but it says not how much

I think they dont need any supporters beside Wate

Wow, that's bad! A big part of the community has been broken that way and even people not involved in the whole mess are punished.
AND new members will wonder why they can't post a simple (technical) question there anymore. :-(

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Grrrrrrrrreetings from the Lazy Cat...

Click here to vote for my Predictor profile! :-)
Vote recommend and vote often!

Join the Banned for Life team!

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me@rescam.org

Click here to vote for my Predictor profile! :-)
Vote recommend and vote often!

Join the Banned for Life team!

This may be the only time I vote for something of Misfit's....

Great profile - are you banned yet? :)

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Nemesis n. A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent.

I not only voted, a couple of times, for you Misfit, but joined the team as well.

I haven't posted to the site and haven't crunched for them for a while, but when participants are treated as tempestuous puerile entities that have usable hardware attached and they have no right to use the forums for civil conversation, well that just gets my goat.

For the lexicologists out there, I know that tempestuous is not usually used in this fashion. Grammar you've got me dead to rights, nuance I more than willing to fight.

I actually finally managed to create a profile
here

It is true, believe it or not, so if you were ever wondering about who I am or what I do type stuff have a look.

The only thing I didn't mention, was that I started to do crosswords (including cryptic) when I was 14 in an attempt to learn to spell, it didn't work, all it did was increase my vocabulary i.e. I learnt more words that I have trouble spelling :?

edit: made it a bit more readable 3rd edit

I've detached from Predictor after being blocked from posting as

it seems i didn't have enough credits, i'll stay with Rosetta.

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