I suggest that, as has been requested before, as soon as you open an evo you are no longer able to work on your solo solution.
To allow the soloists to contribute to the evo just delay the close of the evo version of the puzzle by a set number of hours.
Yes people can still share pictures and so on but it will make things sharper all round.
That would also let the solist engage more in getting the best from group solution(s).
Of course if galaxie and gmn the only two people who have been rank 1 on both solo and evo would like to tell us all how they do It I am sure we would be all ears.
Perhaps a Black Belt Folding session would be appropriate?
Oh and of course the evo in question - is shared with the whole community perhaps? Yes generally people will cluster to the highest scoring solution initially, the more intrepid may find rewards elsewhere.
It's a potential solution for "pure soloists" issue (see http://fold.it/portal/node/998335#comment-29687), also to the fact that if you want to be evolver n°1, you need to be in a top group.
But, with this system, most top solo players would wait the last minute to try to evolve anything (otherwise they'll loose on their solo ranking).
When a group finds a promizing solution, it's good to have the experimented players on board: I prefer then your latest suggestion (1 day public evolving). Personally, I would find it exciting.
Many soloists don't care to spend a lot of time doing evo, or just don't have much time, or their solution may be stuck. Something like this has the benefit of letting everyone share in evo, especially new players or those who choose to not join a group. Much more inclusive, rather than evo being the preserve of the same handful of players.
Would also address the frequently asked request by newer players to have a way to see the top scoring puzzles.
You can back to solo in 2 easy steps:
not if doing that technically forces it into evo mode once you have opened a solution by any other player.
People don't run a client for each puzzle, one solo, and one evo (after a decent start) at the same time…? No? Just me…?
I don't like the idea of "overlap staggering" solo/evo. That's a limited assumption as to how different soloists/teams approach evos. I usually wait until the last day or two before starting an evo but there are many on my team that begin evos as soon as one is posted.
Proposal:
It would seem fairer to me that each puzzle be issued first as non-shared and after expiring, be issued a second time for evo purposes. The first puzzle would yield solo points, the second puzzle would yield evo points.
In the current system, there are cases where some soloists work slowly and surge close to puzzle expiry and don't get evo'd due to time constraints. The proposed method would allow time to evaluate more possible evo candidates.
With the proposed system careful planning during the solo phase (saving solutions at stages useful for later evo), more useful data for review by devs and/or for creating instructional materials would be available. It definitely seems more in line with the scientific method than the current (frantic, haphazard) system.
Of course! Why wouldn't you do that?