> > >Secondly, if - when I ask the server to give me "whatever kind of work
makes
> > >most sense" - it gives me something else, whether out of spurious
concern for
> > >my feelings or for any other reason, then not only are the programmers
> > >betraying my trust in them, they are also indicating that they don't
trust me
> > >to ask for what I want.
>
> I agree. Either you allow people to choose the type of work they
> want, or you tell people plainly that you will select for them the
> type of work you will ask them to do. Either works, but a mixture is
> inconsistent.
I'm confused... I know there's the option to have Primenet "request whatever
type of work makes the most sense", or you can uncheck that and select a
particular type. That works fine.
However, if you do select multiple options, the server will still select
which, from among those options, is most suitable for your machine.
Personally, I'd always wondered why it let you select multiple types when
the point was to override any server "default" and get the type you want.
It should be a radio box instead of a combo box on that one, near as I can
figure.
<...>
> Clearly this is ridiculous. I don't have a problem with George
> offerring a few exponents "selectively" through this list, because
> the list does not have a closed membership. The only sane alternative
> is to wait for "deadline critical" assignments to complete in the
> normal way - something which some people have vociferously objected
> to.
Agreed with that, Brian. Besides, people on this list are probably more
interested in what's going on than the fellow who just likes knowing that
his computer is doing something with all those spare cycles. So offering
limited "cool" things to list subscribers is fine by me.
Perhaps there could be an option somewhere in the "user information" (same
place you set your email address) that would allow you to "opt in" to the
mailing list? I fear that many folks may not be aware of the list, or find
that subscribing seems too hard (odd as that may sound to us experts :)
Next time they're online, it'll update their computer info, generate a
subscribe letter for that email address, and they'd still have to respond to
the subscribe message, but it's a heckuva lot easier for some people that
way.
Of course, it would require Scott to do something on Primenet to allow such
an option to be trackable, and to generate the subscribe messages to the
list. But I reckon you'd see the list membership jump up quite a bit if
only it was easier for folks to subscribe.
Aaron
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