Oh the Possibilities.

[MrMacMan]

Make a Difference for MacRumors and Folding for Diease Research.

With the apparent green light by Rower I hearby Convene:
The MacRumors Distrubuted Convention.

We hope to accomplish:
1) A Overall Strategy when it comes to marketing our team, along with;
2) New ideas to make our team a successful one, while also;
3) Bringing up Old ideas that seemed to have fallen by the wayside.
4) Other Strategies or Tips!


Debate Numbero Uno will be set for 11/17 ~ 11/23 (obviously we don't have to follow, but lets do this in some order please):
What is our stragety to recruit people.
Obviously we are only one site without the backing of of any coorporations (MacAddict sponsored by... duh MacAddict. MacOsX getting free publicity from Apple Corp. itself).

How are we finding new members? Is it physically meeting other mac using and suggestioning them to check out the folding project?
Is it trying to recruit from the site itself, aka Front Page News Article?
Is it a signature or even a Image banner?


I hope we can discuse this in a manner that is appropriate of MacRumors.
Have a spirited and fun convention.
Work well.

--MrMacMan

[MrMacMan]

31 Views.

No one man or women enough to post?

Its a suggestion thread for the teams sake post your ideas.

[wdlove]

Whatever happened to the banner that was designed by a fellow member? I think that would be a big boost. If more members were aware, I think that they would participate.

[MrMacMan]

Whatever happened to the banner that was designed by a fellow member? I think that would be a big boost. If more members were aware, I think that they would participate.

Well we had a few great banners.

Then we said we were gonna do it and that it was an awesome idea.

Then people thought it was gonna be done and waited.

We waited like 3 months and I dug the thread up saying whats happening with the banner:
Last post in original thread Feb. (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=37799)
The 'Which Banner do you like' Poll, which I bumped to see what was going on and Mr. A locked. (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=60689)

And wdlove -- you have mentioned it in a bunch of topics, whereas your post was ignored. :(


The Fact is we have 2 great banners. They just never were *used*.

They have 2 possible uses:
1) They alternate between our folding banner and the ad cycle.
2) They allow us to use images in our signatures so we can use an image.

[NoahJ]

Obviously we are only one site without the backing of of any coorporations (MacAddict sponsored by... duh MacAddict. MacOsX getting free publicity from Apple Corp. itself).

6 months of effort my dear sir. 6 months of persuing something that seemed totally unachievable, for a team that had NO site, No backers, and no other purpose but folding. That is where we still are for the most part. The only site we have is our team site. The only purpose our site serves is to bring folding to the forefront. And the only backers we have is our team membership.

Did I, as the team leader sit down and cry about it? NO. Did many of those on the team even know what I was working on? NO. Did I ask another to do something I could do myself? NO.

Ask not what your team can do for you, but what you can do for your team. Once that question is answered by you, others will follow. It is the way of the world. People are willing to follow those who are willing to lead. I hope you can get more people folding for your team or at lest folding. That will be good for the overall project. But be willing to do more than just talk, you will get much further.

Fold on!

[MrMacMan]

Why are you here?
Your not apart of this team.
Your not helping me make this team better.
Your critiquing my method of reforming our team.

Your idea of me is me crying?
No Sir. No Sir at all. I am not crying, I am rejoicing that after our membership respond to this call to reform and envigorate our team, we will all be better, stronger and much more effective.

'Ask not what your team can do for you, but what you can do for your team'
I don't need an overused JFK quote, the quote can't always be fitted to adapt to your POV.
I am asking my team, what can we all do? What can each of us bring to the table, lay all of our cards out and say:
This is what we have, and this is what we want.

Thats what I want. We have a banner's: Lets USE them!

I am trying to lead, I have tried to lead this team for sometime in one fashion or another, but we have no leader, I realize that, we are headless. Which is why I created this thread.

So we can talk about where we are going. I'm extremly suprised you are against me polling our General MR Team Body for their views and opinions. But I guess since you are the leader of the oppositon you have something to gain if we fail.

--MrMacMan

[Mechcozmo]

When you log in, if the site doesn't detect any folding software, no luck for you... that would be mean.

I honestly have no real suggestions. Anyone else there who is not awake at midnight?

[Dreadnought]

Let's all install folding on every computer we can lay our hands on! Legal or not! Every Lab, school, office, everything!

Unfortunately I got a feeling that I won't get a lot of people backing me up saying this... So, to be serious, let's get the banner up first on the front page. Maybe also some statistics running over the front page saying like:"Congratulations MacRumors folders! We have folded 40.000 points yesterday, bringing our total to 12.000.000." Or something like that. We have to get the publicity, let people know that there is something, if they see that enough, they will get interested and check it out. Let's start first with our own members, get them active (again).

BTW, can someone say why the banner didn't get placed on the front page?

[MrMacMan]

No one can say why the banner never worked.

And a live statistic?

That could be very nice.

[bousozoku]

If you would just get people with desktop machines to folding one WU a month, it would help and they wouldn't be inconvenienced a huge amount of time or processor resources.

I know this is the 3rd of 4th time I've mentioned this, but I feel it's a valid, small contribution that everyone can make.

[wdlove]

No one can say why the banner never worked.

And a live statistic?

That could be very nice.

What can we do to get this process moving again? I suppose that a poll is a possibility, but the problem is participation. Do we have any of the mods on our side?

[MrMacMan]

What can we do to get this process moving again? I suppose that a poll is a possibility, but the problem is participation. Do we have any of the mods on our side?

Please ask them.

[kilpajr]

Why are you here?
Your not apart of this team.
Your not helping me make this team better.
Your critiquing my method of reforming our team.

Your idea of me is me crying?
No Sir. No Sir at all. I am not crying, I am rejoicing that after our membership respond to this call to reform and envigorate our team, we will all be better, stronger and much more effective.

'Ask not what your team can do for you, but what you can do for your team'
I don't need an overused JFK quote, the quote can't always be fitted to adapt to your POV.
I am asking my team, what can we all do? What can each of us bring to the table, lay all of our cards out and say:
This is what we have, and this is what we want.

Thats what I want. We have a banner's: Lets USE them!

I am trying to lead, I have tried to lead this team for sometime in one fashion or another, but we have no leader, I realize that, we are headless. Which is why I created this thread.

So we can talk about where we are going. I'm extremly suprised you are against me polling our General MR Team Body for their views and opinions. But I guess since you are the leader of the oppositon you have something to gain if we fail.

--MrMacMan

Why are you so defensive towards someone who was able to do something that we want to do and was willing to come in here and give suggestions to help us out? If you are going to be a leader, you need to welcome suggestions and not attack other people's ideas.

Also, PLEASE try to use correct grammar and spelling. I am not asking you to be perfect but it is almost painful to read you post. If your English is not that good, you could type your message in Word and then copy and paste it to post.

I do have a suggestion. I don't know if it is possible, but could Macrumors put a ranking below the normal one that says Macrumors newbie, Macrumors member, etc. We could have something like Folding Contributor: Level xx. The level could be increased based on the number of points the person has accumulated. I know I wanted to post more when I got close to becoming a member and then a regular so I think adding this status would get more people to fold.

[neilrobinson]

I do have a suggestion. I don't know if it is possible, but could Macrumors put a ranking below the normal one that says Macrumors newbie, Macrumors member, etc. We could have something like Folding Contributor: Level xx. The level could be increased based on the number of points the person has accumulated. I know I wanted to post more when I got close to becoming a member and then a regular so I think adding this status would get more people to fold.

i like it - currently i am folding with my redhat box AMD64 2800+ :o (its cheap)

i agree that something can/should/something else goes here... be done, BUT people need to start it. its really easy to say, not quite as easy to do (like me).

maybe a coordinator, at least in the start that does monthly meetings ect (via irc or whatever) and reports to ops/mods what they can do to help us. and associated bits like that. i will put my hand up for this...

any other idea's?

[dobbin]

I think a news story on the front page about the MacRumors team would be great for people like me who don't know much about Folding. Perhaps Arn would allow it next time we go a whole week without any news or rumours as people will be desparate to read *anything* if there's no news or rumours!

I never really got Folding working on my old cube - I got bored before it got to the end of 1 work unit (weeks??) but I will d/l it again and try to do some work on my new iBook. I might be the first success of your new recruitment drive.

[Dreadnought]

I have the same here, it is getting boring after a while, especially when the community here is a bit in a slob. It used to be here that there where every night 5 or 6 threads that where going on, so you visited every night. Now there is sometimes no news or threads that you already have read. You still see the same people here, but they just post less and less. How can we make it more interesting for all our folders?

Owh and sorry guys, but just started today to shutdown my G5 when I'm not behind it... Normally it was folding 24/7 (same as my G3, but shut that down permanently) because of my energybill... The year statement was a little bit higher then expected (about 3 times as high). So I won't be that productive from now, sorry guys...

[MrMacMan]

Good ideas everyone.

Keep them flowing...

Dreadnought -- Sorry you can't output as much as you want... :(

[Dreadnought]

I know, this really really sucks! I used to do 250 per day, know I'm back to 0 for the last 4 days!! And the thing what's even worse, I now have to wait until my dual G5 has booted! Normally the only thing I have to wait for is my old apple screen getting warm. Will help you out guys, will help you out! But the fun thing will be when that day arrives and I will have my mac folding again 24/7 is that I can climb the ranks once more. I was a bit stuck on that 34th spot :D

[MrMacMan]

Any more ideas?

[RugoseCone]

Any more ideas?

What about some good old fashioned solicitation? Ask other people on other forums to join? Friends, neighbors, relatives?

I guess it sucks to see our production as a team decline, but does it really matter who is in first place or twentieth place? I only make this point to try and stop people from getting discouraged. Seems too many people lose their big point producer and then get the "awww forget it attitude". It's especially funny after they seem so gung-ho about folding and talk about how great they are doing.

What about PM'ing the inactive members of the team that still post in the forums or give some other indication that they are still around? Maybe send them a message and ask them to get involved again. However, the Mods might view that as spamming, so before anyone does that, one of them should weigh in.

[StarbucksSam]

You need to make it look more human. People like me say it and say "I'm so close to computer geek - this would really do it for me." See my point?

[RugoseCone]

You need to make it look more human. People like me say it and say "I'm so close to computer geek - this would really do it for me." See my point?


No not really. What difference does it make? If ones self-image is so low, that helping to do research that could potentially benefit mankind a great deal, deflates it further; I think there are deeper issues at hand than being a computer geek.

I'm not intending to be harsh, I just don't see how this makes one a "geek". Everyone I've ever mentioned it to thought it was really quite cool. Not that it's turned into more folders for our team, but no one has ever laughed or pointed or called me names.

I don't think you could make it any more human than the project's intended goal.

Now SETI, that would be geek. ;)

[Sparky's]

I do what I can without knowing what I can do. I have the "Folding@Home" link on my signatures in the other forums I belong to. It is also in my signature to everyone I e-mail both personally and at work. I even got the backing and OK from my boss at work to install it but we haven't completed our migration to OS X yet (I'm a graphics professional with 3 G3s just waiting for OS X) In the meantime I'm going to try and figure out how to get it going on my PC at work running Win 2K, the unfortunate thing is that I am compelled to turn off the machine each day and only have it on for 8 hours a day 5 days a week :(
I have been running my G3 at home (now a G4-500) 24/7 since the beginning of April this year and have moved up to the 420th position.
From previous posts in other Threads I have mentioned I'm a cancer survivor and recently lost my Gall Bladder in an emergency surgery. I have reason for folding, though maybe not directly. I am not in competition with anyone except disease, my position in the standings do not matter, just the fact that I do what I do is enough satisfaction for me.

[Dreadnought]

Hi Guys,

Just was looking at our stats and saw that the tin cans are coming back! It's going slow, but they are coming... Time to get active again and fold 24/7! This goes for me as for all of you! WE NEED YOU!!

Dreadnought

[wdlove]

At least we are still in 20th place. It amazes me that Mac OS X is in 12th place, they have about double the members. As many members as we have here at MacRumors, its a shame that more aren't willing to do folding. It would be nice if our banner could be placed in that large blue space above the icon. Maybe we need some kind of incentive program.

My interest also is personal, since I'm an RN.

[bousozoku]

At least we are still in 20th place. It amazes me that Mac OS X is in 12th place, they have about double the members. As many members as we have here at MacRumors, its a shame that more aren't willing to do folding. It would be nice if our banner could be placed in that large blue space above the icon. Maybe we need some kind of incentive program.

My interest also is personal, since I'm an RN.

What if all 30,000+ members for all time folded for the team? :D

[Dreadnought]

we could only hope that happens! That would be... a Christmas miracle! :D

[neilrobinson]

this is basically a bump with a few idea's

1. Setup a IRC/Chat for a time where we can all get together and discuss folding, eg recruiting people, information etc. etc.

2. Setup a webpage (folding.macrumors.com?) with FAQ's Stats etc - even if we link of extreme overclocking in the start?

3. um havn't though of this one yet! suggestions? :p

neil

[jrrodeffer]

At least we are still in 20th place. It amazes me that Mac OS X is in 12th place, they have about double the members. As many members as we have here at MacRumors, its a shame that more aren't willing to do folding. It would be nice if our banner could be placed in that large blue space above the icon. Maybe we need some kind of incentive program.

My interest also is personal, since I'm an RN.

Hello! I just found your folding forum here via a Google link, and I am a member of Team Mac OS X (number 1971 in Stanford speak), currently ranked #8 on the team and #724 for the Folding@Home Project in total.

I think the success of Team MacOS X is our sense of "community" revolving mainly around folding, (by Mac, PC and Linux systems), mostly undiluted by other central interests, although we have threads on common interests such as Mac hardware, PC overclocking, music, etc.

Our community keeps the issue of folding for the benefit of the science central, all else revolves around that. We tend to retain members who are interested in folding by helping them get started (see our folding-specific install software for Mac, Windows, and Linux), encouraging their efforts, and supporting them when they run into difficulties.

It takes a lot of work by a lot of people, it cannot possibly be done by a few. Keep up your efforts, and those suffering from disease can reap the benefits.

My interest is personal as well, my grandmother died of Alzheimers after a long struggle, and my wife suffers from Celiac Disease.

One of my personal dreams (NOT an authorized viewpoint for the whole Team MacOS X) for the future of folding is the Unification of all Mac folding teams. I know there is a lot of politics involved, perhaps old history of conflicts, but I would hope that someday there is a method for all the Mac teams to unite for the benefit of the Folding@Home Project. If Pande would allow for "consolidation" by use of "sub-teams", without the loss of past performance, that would be a great start. Well, one can always dream! :)

Anyway, nice forums here, see your around. Fold On!
J.R.

[RugoseCone]

I think J.R. makes some really good points. Their website and team is more folding-centric, whereas folding seems to be more of a niche for Macrumors members.

Taking us out of that area and generating more "market share" is the responsibility of the team members. Unfortunately there seems to be little discussion on our boards about folding anymore. I think a new topic or a little more activity in this forum section would go a long way towards generating interest. I know seeing a strange topic heading on the front page that intrigued me is what got me to fold. I clicked the link and got interested. Now I'm the 5th (sometimes 6th or 7th) biggest producer on the team.

Speaking of which, Dreadnought, I double dare you to hold me off! ;)

I too would someday like to see a Mac-supergroup, but after all the blood that seemed to get spilled between us and OSX when we passed them and they passed us, I guess it's unlikely. Feelings are still wounded, egos still damaged, and some people still feel the need to stir up the pot. Oh well...

[MrMacMan]

I think these ideas are great.

Lets move foward on one of them:

--Banner
--Webpage on MR site
--Live Stats
--Image in Signature

I would make a poll, but again I lack the ability to do so.

I don't care how much complaining, I want atleast one of these great ideas put into action.

[Dreadnought]

as far as I know, the banner idea was already completly finished (or as good as). So, Arn or any other moderator, first, why isn't this been uploaded on to the frontpage? Second, do you guys feel anything for one of the above mentioned ideas and is this possible?

Common team, we don't want to lose a spot back to the tin cans (a.k.a. knights who say something or nothing...). We need the support of everybody at MacRumors, especially the moderators!

[MrMacMan]

:(




http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/MrMacMan/Forum%20stuff/image003.gif

[MrMacMan]

Sample Letter:


Dear ____ (mod or admin name),
I wish for our MacRumors Folding team to gain more publicity on this great website, I have detailed a desired solution below:
Our folding team would love to have new recruits to help bolster us in our standings, but more importantly to help research the many diseases that the folding project helps research into.
Can i request that we move foward on the ____ (banner, website) idea, it has shown much progress and I believe that this will be very benifical to MacRumors and our folding efforts.
[Note: Please include idea specific features like example for the banner 'the banner animations have been done for quite some time and such that if you wanted to place the banner on the frontpage today, its just that simple!' or for a webpage 'If we get a webpage then we could organize much more efficiently, creating a much stronger bond between members and teammates.']

Thank you very much for your time, ______ (your name)

[Dreadnought]

Mr Macman, you can put my name under that letter, next to yours!

[Chip NoVaMac]

Hello! I just found your folding forum here via a Google link, and I am a member of Team Mac OS X (number 1971 in Stanford speak), currently ranked #8 on the team and #724 for the Folding@Home Project in total.

I think the success of Team MacOS X is our sense of "community" revolving mainly around folding, (by Mac, PC and Linux systems), mostly undiluted by other central interests, although we have threads on common interests such as Mac hardware, PC overclocking, music, etc.

Our community keeps the issue of folding for the benefit of the science central, all else revolves around that. We tend to retain members who are interested in folding by helping them get started (see our folding-specific install software for Mac, Windows, and Linux), encouraging their efforts, and supporting them when they run into difficulties.

It takes a lot of work by a lot of people, it cannot possibly be done by a few. Keep up your efforts, and those suffering from disease can reap the benefits.

My interest is personal as well, my grandmother died of Alzheimers after a long struggle, and my wife suffers from Celiac Disease.

One of my personal dreams (NOT an authorized viewpoint for the whole Team MacOS X) for the future of folding is the Unification of all Mac folding teams. I know there is a lot of politics involved, perhaps old history of conflicts, but I would hope that someday there is a method for all the Mac teams to unite for the benefit of the Folding@Home Project. If Pande would allow for "consolidation" by use of "sub-teams", without the loss of past performance, that would be a great start. Well, one can always dream! :)

Anyway, nice forums here, see your around. Fold On!
J.R.

An interesting idea of a "Super" Mac Team. Though competition is a good motivator. By creating a super team i think the result may cause a reverse of the intended goal.

[RugoseCone]

Mr Macman, you can put my name under that letter, next to yours!

Yeah, I think a petition style letter would be more effective and better rec'd than several letters. Less to sift through for already encumbered mods/admins. Plus we can all unify behind one idea, rather than all of asking for something different forcing them to decide.

Pick the one you like best MrMacman, write it up, and add RugoseCone to the names too.

[Capt Underpants]

Sample Letter:


Dear ____ (mod or admin name),
I wish for our MacRumors Folding team to gain more publicity on this great website, I have detailed a desired solution below:
Our folding team would love to have new recruits to help bolster us in our standings, but more importantly to help research the many diseases that the folding project helps research into.
Can i request that we move foward on the ____ (banner, website) idea, it has shown much progress and I believe that this will be very benifical to MacRumors and our folding efforts.
[Note: Please include idea specific features like example for the banner 'the banner animations have been done for quite some time and such that if you wanted to place the banner on the frontpage today, its just that simple!' or for a webpage 'If we get a webpage then we could organize much more efficiently, creating a much stronger bond between members and teammates.']

Thank you very much for your time, ______ (your name)

Have you sent this letter to the admins yet? If not, you can add my name!

[benpatient]

the admins can read as well as anyone else. apparently 15 G5 powerbook rumors a year is OK, but not one mention of fighting disease with your spare CPU time...

*sigh*

[brap]

If nothing is happening here, then perhaps it's time for a mass migration to another team..?

Folding for team MacRumors.com is great, but with no interest from those at MacRumors.com, where's the incentive? If you're giving CPU cycles to a team, rather than an abstract group, it must be much more involving.

I'm not about to jump off, not yet... but now (let's play spot the oxymoron) we might as well be folding for team zero.

[trainguy77]

We need to have a true team leader who would talk straight to the admins. We could have a small group of people keeping the site going(which i am willing to help out with) That way the current admins do not need to do this too. We need a core Committee. Any way if we could get some feed back from the mods and admins that would be great!

[Dreadnought]

This isn't even needed, a couple of the admins are also folders (even our topfolders!) and read these forums too. So, they should know what the active folders are thinking and talking about. It's a shame that the admins don't get involved with this kind of discussions. In the past when we had this sort of discussion, there wasn't an admin around that gave its opinion. Only to shut down the thread when we got too annoying (the banner discussion, where it was and why it wasn't placed on the frontpage of MR, still wondering about that on...).

[trainguy77]

If we had a little online wizard for people to go through that would get the F@H going then they don't have to touch it. It will never bother them yet it helps science. Then if they do want to see how they are doing they can.

[atszyman]

I do have a suggestion. I don't know if it is possible, but could Macrumors put a ranking below the normal one that says Macrumors newbie, Macrumors member, etc. We could have something like Folding Contributor: Level xx. The level could be increased based on the number of points the person has accumulated. I know I wanted to post more when I got close to becoming a member and then a regular so I think adding this status would get more people to fold.

After basically proposing the extreme overclocking site (http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s=&t=3446) in a different thread thinking it was this one I've been thinking about ways to entice more users to fold.

The above idea is good but what if it were taken one step further and tied to getting an Avatar? Make it something like 100-500 points = 1 post toward your Avatar. At a 100 point to one post ratio it would take newbies 50,000 folding points to get an Avatar (that is if they don't post or only post in the forums that don't count posts). Given the number of people who keep showing up asking about Avatars we could have a great base for increasing our numbers.

[Dreadnought]

And what if you already got an avatar? Then I would like to have a second one! The idea should also be considered for getting pictures in your signature, or some sort of streaming media. Where it displays your up-to-date F@H/SETI points, the number of finished WU's, teamranking, etc.

[Vader]

Ooooo...I would like an avatar!
I fold, but I can't remember what for.

[atszyman]

And what if you already got an avatar? Then I would like to have a second one! The idea should also be considered for getting pictures in your signature, or some sort of streaming media. Where it displays your up-to-date F@H/SETI points, the number of finished WU's, teamranking, etc.

Ok, so it doesn't do much for people who already have an avatar but you've put in enough time that you should just care about the team. Now imagine if half of all of the "how do i get an avatar?" posters put up 20,000+ points in the quest for an avatar. Some might even keep going for the heck of it after they get an Avatar.

I realize that I may sound self serving since I don't yet have an Avatar, but I could really care less about getting one. I just think this could be a good way to boost production for the team.

[RugoseCone]

I think this is probably one of the best and most original ideas I've seen presented. Perhaps some of our folding moderators can bring this up as a suggestion at the next symposium...

[trainguy77]

Could some of the moderators and admins look into putting something into action, we would all greatly appreciate it! :)