Foldit

bkoep Staff Lv 1

September 02, 2022

Foldit is updating the website! The URL will stay the same, but soon https://fold.it will have a brand new look, a slightly different layout, and a handful of new features.

There are two things you need to know:

Website downtime. On September 7 at 17:00 UTC, Foldit will go offline for a few hours while we switch over to the new website. During this time, the Foldit team will be available on Discord for questions and status updates.
Re-install Foldit. After the update, you will need to re-download and install the Foldit app. We’ve tried to find a way around this, but it’s unavoidable: re-install is required to keep playing Foldit.

However, the new Foldit app comes with a game-changing protein design tool. The Neural Net Mutate action uses an AI algorithm to predict a sequence that will correctly fold into the given structure. Not only does it drastically outperform traditional Mutate, but it is much faster; we can design an entire protein in 1-2 seconds!

Read on for details about the new website. Or, see it for yourself: a preview of the new site is available at https://dev.fold.it.

What do I need to do?

Before the update

All puzzles (including Contests!) will close on September 7 at 16:00 UTC, before the website downtime. So make sure you've finished your work in Puzzle 2193, 2194 and 2195!

After the update

Check back in after the downtime on September 7 and re-install the Foldit app.
After re-installing the app, import your preferences from your old install. In the new app, you'll find the Import Preferences button in General Options -> Advanced. When prompted, select the location of your old Foldit app to automatically copy your options and view presets.
Import your old Cookbook to the website. From now on, your Cookbook is managed from the Foldit website. The new Cookbook page will have a button to import your Cookbook, with instructions. If you have any local recipes in your Cookbook, these will be imported as self-shared recipes.
Join us for special office hours next Thursday evening and Friday morning after the update. The whole Foldit team will be in chat and on the Discord channel to talk about the new website, the new Foldit app, and all things protein folding! The official office hour times are Friday Sep 8, 00:00 UTC and 17:00 UTC.

Note that all online data will be automatically transferred to the new website. This includes your user account and profile, your comments and forum posts, your puzzle scores and achievements. After the update, you'll be able to log in as usual and start folding a brand new set of Foldit puzzles!

Why the new website?

The original Foldit website was developed in 2007, and much of that software has become obsolete and difficult to maintain. Numerous features have fallen into disrepair, it's become harder and harder to track down bugs. Major portions of the code no longer conform to industry standards, which makes it difficult to integrate work from other web developers. And it's tough to find experts who can consult on 15-year-old software!

We've completely rewritten the website from the ground up. The new website uses a more modern framework that will be much easier to maintain and develop. That means the Foldit team will be able to make improvements and fix bugs more quickly. And server communications have been streamlined in a more robust format (so recipe downloads won't fail if you disconnect from IRC!).

What's changed?

You will notice lots of changes in the new website: it has a new look, and individual webpages have been moved, or removed, or reorganized.

You should notice almost no changes in the new app. Most of the app changes take place "under the hood," so the new Foldit app should appear and behave identically to the old app. The main exception is with editing recipes and managing your Cookbook: There is no longer a recipe editor in the new Foldit app. Instead, recipes may be managed and edited from the new Recipes page.

Some of the biggest changes are:

Feedback, Forum, and Blog pages have been reorganized into a new Forums page.
Forum posts and comments support markdown formatting and players can be tagged with the @ symbol, like @bkoep.
You can attach images, .pdb, and .txt files to any Forum post or comment by clicking and dragging a file into the text field where you are writing.
Players can choose to receive notifications about Forum activity, for example when you are tagged in a post, or when others reply to your post. Manage your notification settings on the Forum preferences page.
Global Score has been retired, as we switch over entirely to the Category ranking system. View category rankings on the new Leaderboard page.
Players can now edit recipes from the website, using a browser like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Safari. If you have a recipe in your Cookbook, the recipe will be updated automatically whenever the author updates the recipe.
Your Cookbook is now managed online. Add, remove, and sort recipes into folders from the Cookbook page. Changes are automatically synced in the Foldit app.
Lua V1 and GUI recipes have been retired. Only Lua V2 recipes will be preserved from the old website.
Recipes can no longer be edited within the Foldit app.
Contests and Dojo are temporarily unavailable.
Players may not load old puzzles or solutions into the new Foldit app.

We have also taken the opportunity to make some other miscellaneous upgrades:

The new Windows app uses 64-bit machine code (instead of 32-bit).
The Foldit app can securely remember your login credentials without storing your password in plaintext.
The Foldit app has added a new button to import preferences from another Foldit installation.
The Foldit app can launch raw .lua files as recipes.
User preferences for username sharing and newsletter subscription can be managed from your Account Settings page.
The new website supports a 3D molecular viewer so that players can easily share and discuss solutions in the Forums. Try out the viewer on the September Design of the Month puzzle page.
The new app has better support for AI algorithms, and includes a groundbreaking Neural Net Mutate action. You can expect a whole blog update on this incredible new protein design tool, stay tuned!

Coming soon

Experience points (XP) and levels are coming to Foldit. You will notice that throughout the site, usernames are displayed with flair that reads Lv 1, and player profile pages show each player as Level 1 with 0/100 XP. In the future, we plan to award XP for Foldit gameplay and participation, so that players can track their overall progress in Foldit. As you play more Foldit puzzles and accrue XP, you will advance to higher Levels.

The main idea of the XP system is to better reflect how players contribute to Foldit's scientific goals, something that is poorly captured in leaderboard rankings alone. The XP and leveling system is not yet complete, so all players are currently locked in at Level 1 with 0 XP. Stay tuned for updates on this new feature!