Or maybe b*tch is a better word for it. Gripe, complain, kvetch, grumble, mutter...

It's been over two months since my donation to GPUUG and I still don't have an official green star. I'm getting tired of using this obnoxious huge one as my avatar. (Hmm, maybe I'll go with a Sneetch with a star. Or one of Marvin's instant Martians [just add water]; they're green.)

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

I look forward to seeing a green star next to this mans name!

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#resist

You might want to ask Slavac what the hold up is. While some time may be involved, it should not take 2 months.

Disclaimer: due to a family emergency it may be several days before you get a response.

I promise, no one is trying to cheat you out of your rightful Green Star.

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Janice

Green stars occur with donations directly to Seti@home. I'm not sure that donating towards hardware actually gets you a star.

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Green stars occur with donations directly to Seti@home. I'm not sure that donating towards hardware actually gets you a star.

It absolutely DOES.

Donating thru the GPUUG fundraisers does count towards a green star. It's just that the information has to be transferred and applied to one's account manually. And as busy as all support folks are these days, this has surely fallen through the cracks.

I believe Slavac said that at some point the process could be automated, but of course, that will take a back seat to some of the more important advances being made at Seti currently.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

From Slavac's feb 29 2012 post

I apologize. Sadly it's out of my or Uli's hands at this point and is up to the SETI guys for implementation.

Come to St. Louis and I'll buy you a compensatory beer to say sorry.




Im betting the Guys just forgot all about it, What with fixing all the problems they have had to deal with. Maybe a little bird could shout a whisper in some ones ear?

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[/quote]

Old James

Donations via the GPUUP web site do seem to have a more direct effect on getting things done. Targeted hardware is procured very quickly, but the green star awarding rely's on passing the information manually, which can fall through the cracks. Althoug it shouldn't be necessary, you could donate to Seti the old fashioned way, perhaps $10, and a star will show up within a few minutes. That way you can have the direct impact by advancing Seti through GPUUG, and still get the green star.

Steve

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Warning, addicted to SETI crunching!
Crunching as a member of GPU Users Group.
GPUUG Website

Okay this is the final straw. The green star awards are out of our hands once we submit them to seti. Once there I swear they fall into narnia.

I've gotten threatening emails, threats of legal action and so on and so forth over someone's green stars.

Once I get back from Texas we will no longer be awarding green stars on the seti website for donations. We will come up with an alternative at that time that doesn't involve factors out of our control. Previous donors to the organization will still receive their green stars...whenever seti implements them.

This will likely cost us donors in the end but as this is a very small organization with a small staff of volunteers, I feel our time is better spent on other avenues of fundraising. We raise zero dollars for seti in spending hours drafting an Excel sheet that may never get implemented.

In the future if we are able to get the automatic process enacted, we will resume green star awards.

Apologies for any typos or nonsensical gibberish, I'm typing from my cell on the way to the services.

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Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org

Okay this is the final straw. The green star awards are out of our hands once we submit them to seti. Once there I swear they fall into narnia.

I've gotten threatening emails, threats of legal action and so on and so forth over someone's green stars.

Once I get back from Texas we will no longer be awarding green stars on the seti website for donations. We will come up with an alternative at that time that doesn't involve factors out of our control. Previous donors to the organization will still receive their green stars...whenever seti implements them.

This will likely cost us donors in the end but as this is a very small organization with a small staff of volunteers, I feel our time is better spent on other avenues of fundraising. We raise zero dollars for seti in spending hours drafting an Excel sheet that may never get implemented.

In the future if we are able to get the automatic process enacted, we will resume green star awards.

Apologies for any typos or nonsensical gibberish, I'm typing from my cell on the way to the services.

Hey, I didn't mean to piss you or anyone off. There is certainly no call for anyone to threaten anyone over a silly green star. The guy who posted in the hardware thread about Paypal not working could have used a nicer tone, too.

All I really wanted was for someone to remind someone that mine and probably a number of others are still pending. I'd hoped all the nonsense I added to the original post would indicate that it was a lighthearted thread.

And I haven't yet come across the thread where you mention what services you're driving to Texas for, but if condolences are in order then you have mine.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Oh no worries at all N9JFE

My gripe is that once we submit the numbers into SETI it's out of our control. We have no say when the stars are awarded, no time table, nothing. Here recently it seems they're sent into a black hole.

It sucks for us because our donors were promised A, complain when they don't get A (as they have a right to do so), and there's nothing the GPU Users Group can do to make sure they get A. This causes grief for our donors as well as our staff (namely me) and takes away from the real goal of kicking the money tree for SETI.

As such I think we're going to depart from awarding green stars until we can get either an automated system enacted or a way so that I can manually implement them.

I think the alternative will be our own banner system showing what the donors contributed towards and the level of their donation. That way we can automatically award our donors, others on the forum can see they're a contributor and more importantly the awards system is entirely within our power to dole out and if a donor doesn't get their banner, we can immediately rectify the situation.

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Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org

Slavac, I'm sorry for whatever loss you have suffered.

I think your solution is perfect and "the only thing you can do." It always stinks when you are responsible for something that is entirely out of your control.

I don't care about having a green star. Since a person can make donations anonymously without a green star ever showing-up, it isn't really a good way to identify donors even within the community. Outside of the community; who cares?

Which reminds me>

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it is much too dark to read."
-Groucho Marx

Easy there, Slavac.

Breath.

Relax.

Buddy.

It will work itself out. Just catch your breath.
Really.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

I'm just surprised that control of the green stars cannot be granted to a trusting community/project member. I almost laugh when I think that a project scientist has to make it happen....

[even wordpress sites could allow this amazing feat]

Surely they must be able to provide modify privileges to the appropriate data and a trusting person....

[To me this looks as simple as adding a tiny .gif to the tail of a username]

---

#resist

I'm just surprised that control of the green stars cannot be granted to a trusting community/project member. I almost laugh when I think that a project scientist has to make it happen....

[even wordpress sites could allow this amazing feat]

Surely they must be able to provide modify privileges to the appropriate data and a trusting person....

[To me this looks as simple as adding a tiny .gif to the tail of a username]

The clerical staff is.. well it isn't. They have 0.

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Janice

Easy there, Slavac.

Breath.

Relax.

Buddy.

It will work itself out. Just catch your breath.
Really.

Did you read my post above? No one's upset but there is a need for an awards system that's entirely within the control of the GPU Users Group.

Right now if someone doesn't get their star and emails me about it, all I can really do is send an email and hope someone will get around to implementing it. To be fair and in my opinion, SETI has more important things to do than worry about stars, but at the same time, the whole process is causing our donors and our organization grief.

We'll hammer out a new system soon so no worries. N9JFE's thread reminded me I had this idea about 2 months ago but let it fall through the cracks in favor of other projects. Once Matt gets back I'm going to have a chat with him to see if we can't improve on the automated system we have (which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't) or if I can simply have access to implement the stars manually.

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Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org