hello,


im sorry if this is not the right place to ask this... so please tell me if this is the case, ill do it better the next time :)

now the question: are there any efforts in reviving old users with have a average credit below lets say 20? or simply users who didnt get credits for the last 2 or 3 months. its obvious that those users dont help rosetta anymore....

i thought of a email to those users, like this:


dear cruncher,

we noticed that you werent active at rosetta for 2/3 month. its very unfortunate that you blah it would be apreciated if you blah would help again blah and so on.



but you shouldnt write blah in the mail :)

maybe you could add something like "many things have changed, rosetta is improved with everey new version so if you ended helping rosetta because of failing WUs you could try again"

in short many things have changed, your reasons to end may be outdated.



im sorry if those mails are already automatically written...



johannes


edit: i think this could be helpful for users who actually want to help but simply forgot to install boinc after a reinstallation of the OS/ a new computer or whatever. or if you paused boinc and simply forgot to reactivate it :) this happend to me a few times, but i noticed it the next day....

I like this idea. But you only gets so many chances to do this and you need to get the message right the first time.

hello,


im sorry if this is not the right place to ask this... so please tell me if this is the case, ill do it better the next time :)

now the question: are there any efforts in reviving old users with have a average credit below lets say 20? or simply users who didnt get credits for the last 2 or 3 months. its obvious that those users dont help rosetta anymore....

i thought of a email to those users, like this:


dear cruncher,

we noticed that you werent active at rosetta for 2/3 month. its very unfortunate that you blah it would be apreciated if you blah would help again blah and so on.



but you shouldnt write blah in the mail :)

maybe you could add something like "many things have changed, rosetta is improved with everey new version so if you ended helping rosetta because of failing WUs you could try again"

in short many things have changed, your reasons to end may be outdated.



im sorry if those mails are already automatically written...



johannes


edit: i think this could be helpful for users who actually want to help but simply forgot to install boinc after a reinstallation of the OS/ a new computer or whatever. or if you paused boinc and simply forgot to reactivate it :) this happend to me a few times, but i noticed it the next day....

I like this idea. But you only gets so many chances to do this and you need to get the message right the first time.

i didnt understand it, sorry... except "i like this idea" :)

so there are really no mails sent?



edit: a picture from boincstats.com.... i think it will clarify why those mails could be helpful :)

click

To date, the R@H team has not used email as a way to reach current or past volunteers. It is unfortunate that we don't use this powerful tool to encourage current users, revive past users and recruit new users.

It is a good idea.

keep crunching!

---

Thx!

Paul

I think the Rosetta team doesn't want to be accused of spamming.

There's a risk that sending a mass email will result in a number of people clicking on the "this is spam" button, causing their ISPs to put Rosetta in their spam filters.

It's a good idea. See history here.

But it took considerable effort (both to write, and to deliver), received minimal results, and risks being seen as SPAM by ISPs and participants alike.

---

Add this signature to your EMail:
Running Microsoft's "System Idle Process" will never help cure cancer, AIDS nor Alzheimer's. But running Rosetta@home just might!
https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/

minimal results? sure?

i think the risk of being seen as spam can be ignored, as tha main target is to get old members back.... the few who mark those emails as spam really dont want to help any longer :)


i thought of an atomatic sending of this email when a user is getting inactive for ~2months. not 70000 mails at once.

Ya know, distributed computing is volunteer work at the participant's expense. And volunteers by definition must have unencumbered freedom to participate or not at their own discretion for their own reasons. Who are we to bother them with our own views and opinions about the level of their participation (even if it is zero) or about the importance of this project (charity) above another.

And volunteers by definition must have unencumbered freedom to participate or not at their own discretion for their own reasons.

when you say "please help again", they have unencumbered freedom to participate. as i said, this is for volunteers who forgot rosetta or stopped because of bugs or something like that.

And volunteers by definition must have unencumbered freedom to participate or not at their own discretion for their own reasons.

when you say "please help again", they have unencumbered freedom to participate. as i said, this is for volunteers who forgot rosetta or stopped because of bugs or something like that.

They tried this over at Seti several years ago and got almost no response, the result was not worth the time spent to think it up. Now that was Seti, this is Rosetta, times have changed, the volunteers could be different. But most people leave/stop for a reason, finding that reason may be the key to success. Instead of asking them to come back, ask them why they left. By default it might rekindle the interest for some people to return, and give you some idea of why other people move on. Personally I think the problem is too many projects to chose from. Many sound interesting, but when you come down to it, they are all the same, download a unit and return it. If this project works on this facet of Science but Aunt so and so dies of that disease, maybe we switch to help others with that disease. Maybe we think the Project loses touch with its users? Maybe we think the whole concept of the project is unworkable, who knows? Until someone has a handle on it, people will leave and not come back.

I used to do Seti, I left because they were not analyzing the data we were sending back, AND they were just about to multiply the data stream by several times! If you are not analyzing what you have, why increase the amount you still won't analyze?!! The Scientists didn't analyze the data, and no I am not talking about the workunits themselves, I am talking about the results of those workunits that were returned by us users! The Scientists taught classes at the school to keep their jobs, they thought of new ways to do things, but never seemed to figure out that analyzing all the data was important to us users!! So several of us moved on to a project that actually did analyze the data and wrote and published papers about those results! We went to Malaria. Unfortunately they are now in a different phase of their work and are reducing the amount of work available, at least for now, so I have moved on again! If they come back full time, I will probably move some pc's back over there. I currently have 17 running, so have lots of resources to give. I do not like running too many projects at once though, just one at a time for me. I am however doing 3 right now, Malaria, ABC and Rosetta.

---

And volunteers by definition must have unencumbered freedom to participate or not at their own discretion for their own reasons.

when you say "please help again", they have unencumbered freedom to participate. as i said, this is for volunteers who forgot rosetta or stopped because of bugs or something like that.

How many people out there are like me and no longer answer the telephone because we are tired of being badgered by the "please give me a handout" calls? If I want to contribute to a charity or other organization I first make the choice to do so and second I proactively seek out a charity/org that fits my goals, afterall, I can't contribute to everyone no matter how deserving they view themselves. And if any charity/org is aggressive at soliciting my support it has a negative effect.

Also, here at Rosetta bugs are a fact of life. People who actively support Rosetta are apparently willing to accept that fact. Others prefer only to support projects that run smoothly. Leave people alone and let them make whatever choices they want without solicitation.

wheres the problem? i just said "what about getting some volunteers back", not about being "aggressive at solicing support". if you dont like the idea, say that, but dont become unobjective.

anyway, if its proven that such mails recieve minimal results you can forget about it.

a one time email campaign is ok.
but you should have someone from the team check your text before you even try to email or message those that left. however, those that don't come back should not be bothered again. this should be a one time thing.

personally i wouldn't do this for awhile. there seems to be some new bugs that need to be worked out in the programing. i just had 10 failures in a little over 24 hrs. another user had 3 on the same day my rash of failures started.
one guy is leaving the project due to the same issue. to many client errors and no credit.

its not really a good time to go and try and get back people like this person who left in frustration and maybe will come back and try a few more tasks in a few months.

as i said this could be done automatically when a user gets inactive for 3 months. but ok, i see its not the right time to start this :)

...Leave people alone and let them make whatever choices they want without solicitation.

wheres the problem? i just said "what about getting some volunteers back", not about being "aggressive at solicing support". if you dont like the idea, say that, but dont become unobjective.

I'm being quite objective and giving one point of view that you don't like. Seeking new participants is appropriate but attempting to re-activate (nag) previous participants who have consciously decided NOT to participate can/will be viewed as intruding into one's personal affairs. I would consider this an insult to my intelligence and freedom of action and may in fact be why a previous attempt to solicit participants was met with a cool response.

...Leave people alone and let them make whatever choices they want without solicitation.

wheres the problem? i just said "what about getting some volunteers back", not about being "aggressive at solicing support". if you dont like the idea, say that, but dont become unobjective.

I'm being quite objective and giving one point of view that you don't like. Seeking new participants is appropriate but attempting to re-activate (nag) previous participants who have consciously decided NOT to participate can/will be viewed as intruding into one's personal affairs. I would consider this an insult to my intelligence and freedom of action and may in fact be why a previous attempt to solicit participants was met with a cool response.

I support a one-time reminder per person. just a friendly reminder that we're still alive and kicking. maybe consider a newsletter subscription as an alternative.

I like this idea. But you only gets so many chances to do this and you need to get the message right the first time.

i didnt understand it, sorry... except "i like this idea" :)

so there are really no mails sent?



edit: a picture from boincstats.com.... i think it will clarify why those mails could be helpful :)

click

Something I'd consider another good idea: Give the participants options to select workunits that use or don't use the following:

1. minirosetta
2. rosetta_beta
3. list any other programs for running the workunits
4. a test class, for software versions and workunit types recently out of RALPH

That could, at least, give those users who currently have problems with their antivirus program considering minirosetta 1.47 as containing a virus an option to continue participating in Rosetta@home without exposing their machines to any viruses in BOINC workunits or the programs needed to run them. Similar for other participants who want to stop running some other type of workunit without disabling Rosetta@home entirely. This could help retain some participants even sooner, and would make it easier to persuade people to become new participants.

Ya know, distributed computing is volunteer work at the participant's expense. And volunteers by definition must have unencumbered freedom to participate or not at their own discretion for their own reasons. Who are we to bother them with our own views and opinions about the level of their participation (even if it is zero) or about the importance of this project (charity) above another.

Any email sent out for this should include a link to disable getting any more such email, for those former participants who have already decided not to return. This link should be able to work even for participants who have discarded their Rosetta@home passwords, and for people who now have have an email address previously used by a Rosetta@home participant.

i just wanted to dig this out again... now we have a stable minirosetta.

i read through the thread from feet1st... are there any numbers? e.g. how many users came back?

and what do you think whether a one-time email campaign or "every time a user gets inactive a email is sent to him" is better? i would prefer the second one, as it would be more continuous, and if the first "wave" of emails is distributed to several days the chance to get marked as spam is reduced.


btw according to boinc 80% of all rosetta-volunteers are inactive.


johannes

i read through the thread from feet1st... are there any numbers? e.g. how many users came back?

Well I did ... so increment by one ... :)