This thread idea started here: http://fold.it/portal/node/2000856#comment-30609 (with some of http://fold.it/portal/node/2000842#comment-30611 thrown in.)
Hi!
With the onset of summer (at least for some of us in the world), it's a good time to talk about puzzles and balance*. As always, your input is important to us, and we try to maintain a strong balance between "hard core science goals" from the lab, and your ideas of "what makes Foldit fun". We heard the recent feedback from 1102/1103, too.
I am happy to report that we've been talking more about a variety of puzzles as a result of these recent comments, and the community should look forward to seeing some progress in that direction going forward. :)
We can't promise that you'll enjoy every single puzzle (and we would be silly to think that's the case) - that's totally fine. Nor can we guarantee that the most enjoyable puzzles will have significant science merit or incredible publishable results (because science). And of course you all know, it takes time to construct our puzzles in a way that will provide results we can use. But what we can find out in the meantime is what type of puzzles are enjoyable (or not), what you enjoy about them, and work at steering more of those type of things into the mix as much as possible**. I thought about doing a poll, but that really doesn't get into the type of particulars we're looking for.
This thread is meant to be constructive (this is not a bug report thread, we have the specific puzzle threads and feedback for that), so non-constructive feedback is likely to be culled out (that's your warning). Specifics always are great and appreciated.
Help me help the rest of the team, and by default all of you, and chime in! Thanks, everyone!
- it's always a good time for this conversation and it really should be ongoing, but there's never a better time to actually start doing it than now :)
** you might find yourself in the minority opinion on a particular puzzle type, but you'll never know until you post, just saying.
Thanks for the opportunity to give an opinion.
These seem to have faded out. They seem to be enjoyable.
Porky
I like the Science and Developer Chats and the Blog Posts that give us feedback about our results (see posts http://fold.it/portal/node/997313 and https://fold.it/portal/node/2000356 and https://fold.it/portal/node/2000276 and http://fold.it/portal/node/1998900). I was hoping the next Chat would be sooner.
Have any of the H-Bond Network designs held together well in the lab? Also, when we do revisit puzzles, can you tell if we are doing better now than in the past (see posts http://fold.it/portal/node/1998460 and https://fold.it/portal/node/988112#comment-28798)? Also, in the E Bola puzzle 1000 (see https://fold.it/portal/node/1998572 and http://fold.it/portal/node/2000209), what has become of our designs? Are they helping?
There were a number of Contact Puzzles during 2014's CASP competition.
We will need more practice on such puzzles before 2016's CASP competition.
I enjoyed puzzle 630. It helped me see the importance of sheets.
http://fold.it/portal/node/993498 630: Quick Frozen Cutpoint Puzzle
http://foldit.wikia.com/wiki/Puzzle_630
You could do bigger puzzles like this since it has less
degrees of freedom per segment than a normal puzzle.
Should go faster than a normal puzzle of the same size.
I thought the catalyst puzzles posted by DrLemming were interesting
(see http://fold.it/portal/node/993778 and http://fold.it/portal/node/994493).
Did any of our designs prove useful? Can you post more puzzles like these?
I don't mind what the puzzles are, yes some are large and slow and we seem to be getting more of these lately.
As long as they have scientific value I enjoy doing them.
I started folding in 2014, personally I don't mind a run of similar puzzles as it gives time to get my head around them and to try different things.
Some are complaining about computer processing power, that is a personal problem, others of us from other countries living in rural area have to contend with slow internet speed, that is life just deal with it.
I agree fully with Jeff re the feedback from puzzles. Are the old puzzles improved by the new methods? Did the Ebola puzzles make any headway, even by a small amount? etc. These don't have to be in depth reports, just a quick outline would be great. We are adults so even negative reports are OK, that is what science is about, give it a try if it doesn't work, try something else. :)
I also agree with Jeff re any type of CASP puzzle, we need the practice.
All in all, I love Foldit. I enjoy doing all of the "PUZZLES". Puzzles are meant to challenge your brain.
Inky
Thanks for the comment about mix. My team appreciates having at least one small puzzle so out newer folders can work on them with some help. We also have some members with limited machine capacity or time off work, so they like to have some things they can do relatively well and see some progress
I would like to see contact map puzzles too. I was just starting to figure them out when they went away…
I can't do the H-bond ones. Can't see well enough to band them into place. I can happily skip those while others enjoy them :D
Skippy
I've been wondering where the CASP ROLL puzzles went, they seemed to dry up after CASP X ended.
Unfortunately there haven't been any CASP ROLL targets since 2014 :-(
http://predictioncenter.org/casprol/targetlist.cgi
