DC and [FAD] What happened to the fun???

[sharder8]

Not that long ago, [FAD] was a fun, lively, spirited bunch.

We were growing fast, we were flappin' lips, we were challenging everybody!

Then along came the complaints about the posting and the arguments about [FAD] and our posting habits.

Now, we're losing members and not replacing them as fast as we lose them. There's not much excitement, just the core "keepin' on a crunchin'!" And the DC forums are pretty DEAD again.



Makes ya' feel good to know when ya' played a part in ruining a good thing, where people were having fun for a good cause, where there was life and joy.

Harder

[Tomteriffic]

I dunno.... I don't crunch FAD, being a longtime UD Junkie, but the same sort of thing applies, I think. The team grows like crazy, it's a barrel of fun, then the infighting and bickering start, and the encouragement of new members drops below where it should be.

Next thing you know, there's a new "team of the month" if you'll pardon the expression, and only the true die-hards are left crunching for the cause.

In the case of UD, the Central Command didn't help much, but a lot of what happened can be traced to one person. Don't know about FAd since I haven't been following it. Seems to be a pattern, though.

[geobot]

yep they ruined it for me. i came here because of the open dialog. then it got knocked down to nothing. not much chatter at ecc2 either, but i didnt expect it so i'm not disappointed. people also lost site of the true goals, crunching the fast easy wu's for points turned me off. when ecc2 is finished i may restart FAD.

[BitSpit]

Having a record of our stats since late March makes it obvious to me. When the whole fuss about our posts started, there was some droppoff. However, the big dropoff is very noticable. Immediately when we had to go to a weekly stats thread, there's been a constant loss of members and very slow addition of new members.

We're no longer getting noticed. There have been times that it's upset me enough that I've thought about giving the admins the proverbial finger and doing a daily post just to revive things. While the daily posts may have annoyed people who don't know how to ignore things, they did get us attention and provided new life on a regular basis.

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

I have also noticed this, I see less and less posting now, I know I haven't been as active as I should, However work is taking a heavy toll on me (just got in, been a 12 hour day)

The spirit of the team used to be high, however since all the NEEDLESS fighting over the daily stats threads, team spirit has been down, I realize the mods were pressured into doing something to sooth the 6???? members that were complaining about something that did no harm.

This team was the fastest growing, and still is the highest producing team, perhaps some think searching for points on a curve is important, or cracking the newest encryption will stop world hunger or do something PRODUCTIVE.

I find the lack of involvement dissapointing, but I can only figure it to be directly caused by the whining that occurred in recent times about FaD's dominance in this forum.

Perhaps a certain team should have listened to their own motto...

[Mickwish]

Must admit the fun of FAD has personally gone out of it for me lately. Mainly because I can't really compete anymore, but also because I'm tired of having to justify every time I want to welcome someone new to the team.

Hopefully this thread will be a wakeful call to the mods/admins about nurturing community in distributed computing teams.

IMO, anyway.

Cheers
Mick

[ragtop]

Those that have been around a while will realize that all the DC teams have ups and downs sooner or later. Its really hard to keep the enthusiasm for a project at a constantly high level - regardless of how hard you push it. Things have a particular tendency to slow down during the summer months - when the weather's nice, people have better things to do than sit at home and watch their computers crunch DC projects. Other people have problems with the summer heat and have to cut back or shut down their machines.

At the risk of being flamed, I'd like to say that you can't blame a debate within the forums for driving your members away. Clearly there's more to it than that. Actually, when there's heated debate between the teams it usually increases interest among the members. Internal arguments within a team are what really drives members away (I've been on a team where core members left amid controversy, and that really messed things up).

The best cure is to emphasize the positive - don't keep posting about all the members who leave, or how its no fun any more. Just keep talking up your team and hang on - fall is coming, and interest is likely to increase over the next couple months.

[PresterJohn]

Originally posted by ragtop
At the risk of being flamed, I'd like to say that you can't blame a debate within the forums for driving your members away. Clearly there's more to it than that. Actually, when there's heated debate between the teams it usually increases interest among the members. Internal arguments within a team are what really drives members away (I've been on a team where core members left amid controversy, and that really messed things up).

i'm not gonna say that the big debate alluded to above (which was about how the FAD threads were 'intruding' on other DC and techimo threads) was 100% of the reason, but i'd say it was a big, big part.

i found it very disturbing to see certain members from other DC's (you know who you are!) speaking out against the FAD members and the posts. the direct result of all the ensuing controversy made me cut back a lot on posting here. that's the cold hard truth...i find it very patronizing and condescending when you other people pooh-pooh the significance of those actions.

and when you consider that i am a hard-core DC'er and that i found the backlash deeply disturbing, you can rest assured that the newer members (who were probably drawn to FAD by the comraderie shown in all our posts) were turned off even more. and guess who were the ones who stopped posting replies and stopped crunching???...yes, many of them were the new members. and this dropoff occured right around the same time all this bickering by some discontented few. a coincidence?...nope, i DON'T think so!

the damage has been done. the best we can do is try to get back back on our feet again and roll some more.

the sad thing about this is that since those ugly events, the techimo team has taken over the #1 spot in FAD (under the points system). not ecc2, not ud, not seti...can make those claims. what should have been a great congratulatory moment, a time when we could have "taken our place in the sun" for our team and for techimo, was instead turned into a side note.

i hope all you other DC'ers are happy. you guys succeeded in doing what the competing teams could not!

ragtop, i'll agree with you about one thing...it *was* bickering which hurt our team. but the bickering was not from within the FAD team, but from everyone OUTSIDE it.

take a bow you guys...you probably feel mighty proud about now.

[edit] typos

[Mickwish]

I agree wholeheartedly with PJ. That doesn't happen often, either!!

In regard to internal team dynamics, we have had less internal team dispute since the whole complaint about posting was raised. In fact, we've had less internal team discussions since then!!

I'd like to see the FAD team banter back. Don't know if it ever will be now, but it would be nice to see.

Cheers
Mick

[PresterJohn]

Originally posted by Mickwish
I agree wholeheartedly with PJ. That doesn't happen often, either!!

shucks, mickwich...you & i have agreed plenty of times.

it's just that the times we disagreed, are the one's sticking out in your mind.