SUCCESS !!! (Score 1)

Text of letter posted earlier on the Seti@home forums. (Short version for the impatient: Success! They're listening. They're doing something about it. DON'T stop proccessing your WU's for Seti@home. But keep an eye on 'em, oui! ;-)

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Ladies, Gentlemen, Others-Who-May-Be-Observing-Humanity ;-)

Seriously. Seems that all our ranting has indeed borne good fruit. If you reread my original furious "open letter" post, you'll note the part about forwarding a copy directly to the Top Dogs...

Well, it got through. And suspect it had companions banging at the Gates of the City, too -- if you keep your eye on the stats you might notice some "high-rollers" are suddenly finding their high numbers "zeroing out". Shucks! Bye-bye birdies, don't let the door hit you on the posteriors on the way out...

I've been in correspondence with Dr. David Anderson, Seti@home's Project Director, over this past day, and he's been kind enough to grant permission to quote from his emails to me in response to our concerns:

First off, a caveat in perspective:

"Dealing with SETI@home statistics and cheating is normally low on our list of priorities."

Wonder why? Could it be they have "actual science" distracting them from all the "Mine is bigger than yours" guerrilla warfare going on out there?

"But we realize ... that the recent surge of "mega-cheaters" could cause major problems both in terms of participant morale and possibly result integrity (though actually I don't think it's had an impact there so far)."

The "result integrity" was at the top of all our concern-lists (right, ye guerrillas? ;-), so they're keeping a close eye on that. And they're sensitive to the morale issue. Excellent! Now will all those posters over on Ars Technica and SlashDot and other free-fire zones out there saying they're quitting the field in disgust please come back? Pretty please? There are WU's waiting for you...

As for the cheaters:

"So we're going to start a process of detecting cheaters and zeroing their accounts. Some of this involves manual labor; We only have a few man/minutes per day to devote to this, but I think you'll see significant results immediately, and I hope this deters the cheaters."

There you have it. Success! They heard us. And they're doing something about it. Pat yourselves on the back, you all! Let there wine, and song, and dancing in the streets!

Oh, and people -- in case you've ever bemoaned your "amateur status" of being an uncompensated volunteer, it might cheer you up to learn Dr. Anderson doesn't get a dime for being Project Director. To wit:

"My work on SETI@home has been as a volunteer, sandwiched around various day jobs ... I don't even get a paycheck!"

He adds:

"Fortunately, this will change soon because we got an NSF grant to work on BOINC."

For the one person who's been hiding in the basement over the past months, BOINC is Seti@home's successor (and it is being coded from the ground up with anti-cheating features). As for the National Science Foundation, perhaps we should pool our energies and send the good folks at the NSF a note of appreciation and a bouquet of flowers to thank them for using our (well, yours actually -- I'm Canadian ;-) tax dollars to help the Seti@home project continue the good fight. (At least, some of the project team will be able to upgrade from Kraft Dinner Lunch Special and hiding the equipment in a broom closet down the hall...)

Seriously, a short and polite note (and *don't* you dare mention *anything* about "cheating problems" !!!) to the NSF thanking them couldn't hurt. They may be bureaucrats, but they're also human beings, and it's nice to feel the (tax-paying) public appreciates the projects you fund. Remember that it's BOINC, and not the current Seti@home, that they're helping to support.

~Thomas N. Cooley, NSF Chief Financial Officer and Director: [e-mail]

~Donald G. McCrory, Deputy Chief Financial Officer and Director: [e-mail]

Now let's allow the good Doctor and his long-suffering colleagues get back to work, shall we? Or, as he wryly states:

"We're all generally overworked and swamped with emails, and we do a balancing act between writing grant proposals, writing papers, dealing with database and server issues, maintaining our web site, doing some actual scientific or programming work, and so on."

I shudder to think what their email Inboxes must look like by now . Kudos to all who took the time to address this issue and don't give up on the project! Keep those WU's rolling and pass on your valuable and well-appreciated efforts to BOINC once it gets going!

Dr. Anderson has already posted a message to this forum earlier today and has certainly privately enmailed other concerned parties on the side. Please pass on the news to all who are still ranting and raving. Tell them to come back @home, SETI stil loves them... ;-)

Peace on you all.

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