Would it not be a great idea to have 2 puzzles for the university challenge game, one puzzle with a cash prize and one without - both puzzles having similar sized residue counts.
This way you will have a test standard to measure performance against. It may well be that University biology students naturally score higher than we (the average foldit player) does, and without a means of measuring this, the project's results will be difficult to analyse.
By having another contest right after this one ends (but without any prizes) we can learn two things:
1) Are these US & UK students only motivated by cash prizes
2) If not, do those who participate in the second contest fold differently than our 'regular' Foldit players.
We can test that easily by re-posting a recent puzzle (that you all have already played and are sick of… maybe CASP9 Puzzle 40 if the native is still not released yet) and comparing their Foldit solutions to yours!
Trying to stay on topic, can anyone else see how this competition may help foldit ?
A cash prize is going to attract a lot of Biology students to this game, that's for sure. Many of them will continue to play long after the Uni competition has finished, and will no doubt want to join some of the established groups.
Anyone who has played this game for any length of time will have noticed how "Boots" often scores really well in the more technical puzzles, and is the only one of us to so far have had one of his/her creations made in the wet labs. What has Boots got that we don't ? A background in biology and protein theory !
I for one would welcome anyone onto my team with this type of theoretical knowledge as it is bound to help considerably.
As far as I am concerned, throwing someone else's money at biology students sounds like an idea worth trying at least once. If it works as I suspect it may, can we have first pick of the new theoretical folders for our group please.
It still sounds like you will share your amazing developments with any university team as long as they share the prize money with you. Is there any other way to interpret this?
"We Offer everyone the chance to work with us to use everything we have acquired as a team, in skills and intuition into amino acid positions/ shapes etc etc. not to forgot thousands of hours of our time developing strategies that assist in protein folding technique which is backed up with our team ranking in the fold.it world.
Any university that would like to share this with us, is welcome to approach us for support, as long as we can cater to the greater needs of the end result which would be, Equal Rights with regards to funding and prizes for improving our our team equipment and supporting resources. (inc. our internet bandwidth cost)"
i'm not sure if some of this acrimony existed prior to this prize competition (probably yes), but the competition is surely bringing it out on the surface.
You have to remember that AD was set up as a cross-group platform specifically for CASP9 - I wasnt the only one of the top ten to open an alternate account, because the ethos was laudable. But it wasnt exactly rocket science to discover that post-CASP, AD turned out to be a longer-term venture. I kept the shadow account going, as a means of communication to the goat, when the sniping became a little more than just 'gameplay bravado'.
It's always interesting to see how FoldClub evolves and changes. Group play creates challenges and shifting sands, as talent comes and goes. But, to underline the original point, playing for money is not a healthy $tep forward. Maybe it is just a difference of opinion and culture, but openly touting a group for hire, is a $tep too far.
Charlie
As much I have to agree to disagree regarding Renton's views, I wonder if his expressed desire to commercialize Foldit is simply his own view (and thus, not representative of the rest of AD).
Trying to stay on topic, can anyone else see how this competition may help foldit ?
A cash prize is going to attract a lot of Biology students to this game, that's for sure. Many of them will continue to play long after the Uni competition has finished, and will no doubt want to join some of the established groups.
Anyone who has played this game for any length of time will have noticed how "Boots" often scores really well in the more technical puzzles, and is the only one of us to so far have had one of his/her creations made in the wet labs. What has Boots got that we don't ? A background in biology and protein theory !
I for one would welcome anyone onto my team with this type of theoretical knowledge as it is bound to help considerably.
As far as I am concerned, throwing someone else's money at biology students sounds like an idea worth trying at least once. If it works as I suspect it may, can we have first pick of the new theoretical folders for our group please.
Trying to stay on topic, can anyone else see how this competition may help foldit ?
A cash prize is going to attract a lot of Biology students to this game, that's for sure. Many of them will continue to play long after the Uni competition has finished, and will no doubt want to join some of the established groups.
Anyone who has played this game for any length of time will have noticed how "Boots" often scores really well in the more technical puzzles, and is the only one of us to so far have had one of his/her creations made in the wet labs. What has Boots got that we don't ? A background in biology and protein theory !
I for one would welcome anyone onto my team with this type of theoretical knowledge as it is bound to help considerably.
As far as I am concerned, throwing someone else's money at biology students sounds like an idea worth trying at least once. If it works as I suspect it may, can we have first pick of the new theoretical folders for our group please.
Since AD is an "open" group, and supposedly all about SHARING, why are you so bothered by my presence?
I'm curious to see what grand things you have to market to the university teams in such a mercenary manner.
So far, the only method I see AD using is posting up a solution (probably Undone to a xxxxx.99x score) so all the little ones can wiggle it up a few hundreths of a point and fill up the Evolver scoreboard. Lots of good science there.