I realize this is probably a stupid question for this board but I can't find an explanation or FAQ that addresses it on the general SETI page.

I'm new to this so if anyone has the patience - when you view your account "results" - how is "Claimed Credit" and "Granted Credit" calculated, and what exactly is the difference between the two? (I'll look for a place for suggestions but if anyone in charge sees this it would be great if you could make those titles on the results page links that define what they mean).

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I realize this is probably a stupid question for this board but I can't find an explanation or FAQ that addresses it on the general SETI page.

I'm new to this so if anyone has the patience - when you view your account "results" - how is "Claimed Credit" and "Granted Credit" calculated, and what exactly is the difference between the two? (I'll look for a place for suggestions but if anyone in charge sees this it would be great if you could make those titles on the results page links that define what they mean).

Welcome. Go to the link below it may help.

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/credit.php

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hi, welcome to Boinc. there are a few ways to find the answer. One, as you can imagine you're not the first to ask this. from the main page under 'Community' click on Message boards. Then from this page you can do a "keyword" search of all previous posts. This can be done by thread title or thread content.

additionally, a fellow user has collect info and made a helpful website. this site contains a FAQ and Users manual you can find it here

another way is to ask it the way you have done. Basically, and I mean very basically, Boinc uses a "Benchmark" to figure out how much credit to ask for. Unlike "Classic" seti, boinc gives each WU(result) to 4 users, each user then crunches the result and returns it. Boinc needs a Quorum of 3 results to issue credit. Boinc discards the high and low "Claimed credit" and averages out the middle ones and awards that amount to all who return a wu that passes validation.

does this help?

tony

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oh yeah, on the main message board there is also a Q&A and FAQ (i think)

PS since Boinc has to get all the other results returned to issue credit, it can take days to get you're credit, but once you start getting them, they'll just pile right up.

tony

Thanks to all who have replied so far, and for being so kind to a newcomer - this is exactly the info I was looking for. I'm a biologist, not an astronomer, so I understand some of the concepts but not the language. I wasn't finding it easy to track this down searching the SETI site but that's probably b/c I should have been searching BIONIC too. I'm glad to contribute in my own little way to this effort.

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BOINC that is...

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you're welcome. Now you can look it up yourself OR ask here, or at the Help forum. by the way this project is called Boinc and stands for the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing. It's not a 1970's sitcom LOL

tony

did you know you have 1 hour to edit any posts that you might make? look for the "Edit" link on your post.

tony

I have looked at your 15 returned results and see nothing out of the ordinary. Your slower celeron processor is likely to continue requesting higher credit than it will get. Someone did calculations and figured the Average credit was 32.29 cobblestones/WU.

did you know you have 1 hour to edit any posts that you might make? look for the "Edit" link on your post.

tony

Excellent, thanks for the info - I'll sign off now and leave people to the important stuff.

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I have looked at your 15 returned results and see nothing out of the ordinary. Your slower celeron processor is likely to continue requesting higher credit than it will get. Someone did calculations and figured the Average credit was 32.29 cobblestones/WU.

Thanks, though I have few for comparison I noticed one was about 79 - much higher than the rest - and that's what got me curious about what those calculations mean. Metadata, metadata...

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I have looked at your 15 returned results and see nothing out of the ordinary. Your slower celeron processor is likely to continue requesting higher credit than it will get. Someone did calculations and figured the Average credit was 32.29 cobblestones/WU.

Thanks, though I have few for comparison I noticed one was about 79 - much higher than the rest - and that's what got me curious about what those calculations mean. Metadata, metadata...

I've heard that when the results are in that they take the highest and lowest and throw them out. Then they sort of pick something out of the middle and grant credit based on that. I think some of the previous links people posted will explain it better as it is sort of a confusing topic.

It looks like you got lucky on the high one.

P.S. Getting our questions answered is the important stuff.

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I've heard that when the results are in that they take the highest and lowest and throw them out. Then they sort of pick something out of the middle and grant credit based on that. I think some of the previous links people posted will explain it better as it is sort of a confusing topic.

I missed the earlier part of the thread, but I can pick up this bit: After the highest and lowest results are eliminated, the remaining results are averaged, and that average becomes the awarded credit. If there are only three results to start with, that leaves the middle one as official. With four completed, the middle two get averaged.

When three results are validated and awarded, and then a fourth result is reported within the time limit, that fourth result gets the same credit as the first three.

P.S. Getting our questions answered is the important stuff.

Exactly right!

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Thanks to all who have replied so far, and for being so kind to a newcomer - this is exactly the info I was looking for. I'm a biologist, not an astronomer, so I understand some of the concepts but not the language. I wasn't finding it easy to track this down searching the SETI site but that's probably b/c I should have been searching BIONIC too. I'm glad to contribute in my own little way to this effort.

One of the most underutilized parts of the site I put together is the Glossary. There are definitions of the common terms with links to places they are used. So, if you are reading about the "Projects Tab" the underscore links take you to the Glossary where you can mouse around and see the standard meaning of the the term.

So, for example, there are definitions of simple concepts of things like Credit which has the following associated terms:

Credit
Benchmark
Pending Credit
Claimed Credit
Granted Credit
Total Credit
Recent Average Credit
Quorum of Results
Validation
Deadline

Unfortunately, BOINC is a little more complex than single project systems because it is more flexible and capable.

I remember when I first started working with SETI@Home Classic, I had so many questions ... moving to BOINC was similar. But, BOINC is so much more interesting ...

I am doing 5 projects and that was something that was not possible (well, not easily) with earlier systtems.

Ok, last thought. If you ask here we (the global "we") will attempt to answer all of your questions. But, the answers are usually incomplete because there are many "it depends" built in. Add to that the fact that it is difficult to put into these posts/answers all of the relevant material. So, the answers are always missing some of the implications.

My site has 700 pages of stuff. Some hold this as an inditement of the system and an indication that BOINC is needlessly complex. I prefer to think that we have only created a decent body of documentation that collected most of the common wisdom into a comprehansive set of material.

Anyway, Welcome to BOINC!

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I have looked at your 15 returned results and see nothing out of the ordinary. Your slower celeron processor is likely to continue requesting higher credit than it will get. Someone did calculations and figured the Average credit was 32.29 cobblestones/WU.

That works out great for the faster processors... I have several where I'm claiming 16-17 and am granted 30 something :) With 24 WUs a day that can add up.

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