[The Llama]

All I suggested before and all I suggest now is that no one willfully builds up points by turning off the network capability of the BOINC client and that no one uses others' computers without the knowledge of those owners.
For me, it's not about winning prizes and never has been. In fact the tiered system for prizes is brand new, so I'm not sure why it's being looked upon as a factor in determining the rules overall.
And it would be nice if included in the updated rules we include something about "the rules laid down here are not the end all, be all. Just because it's not written down doesn't mean you shouldn't do it."
There's nothing in the rules that says I can't do a DDoS attack on all of the participants so I can win - but I'm pretty sure we'd all agree that's a no-no.

 

[The Llama]

OK, so I've given this a lot of thought and I think the best way to express this whole idea is with logical scenarios, each assuming you front load. If I'm missing one, please let me know.

Scenario 1: You don't crunch at all, but the BGB is an excuse for you to fire up your rigs. You take the week before the BGB and load up on all of the PrimeGrid, Milkyway, DNETC that you can and wait for the contest to begin. These drop and you continue to crunch the whole BGB.

Net outcome - no harm done to the team as you weren't crunching anyway and who cares when they drop. Plus, you'll stop again when it's done so it's actually a net gain since you crunched the week prior and during the BGB.

Scenario 2: You have a pet project like Rosetta that you crunch 24/7, but nothing else. BGB is an excuse for you to fire up multiple rigs and get the GPU's burning. You've done the math and you figured out that you can load up on DNETC and PrimeGrid for 2 days before the BGB and that's the limit. However, by doing so you also hit your Rosetta limit somewhere around 1.5 days (purely example.)

Net Outcome - Hurts both the team and the research (a little) in that there is a .5 day lull in Rosetta which would have been crunched otherwise. It doesn't matter that you'll continue to do so throughout the event as you crunch 24/7 on that project and that's simply lost time.

Scenario 3: Same as above but you didn't do the math. In order to get the most points possible you've started 2 weeks out to front load every single GPU project that BOINC offers. Again, somewhere around say day 1.5, though (again example - it could be day 3, 5, whatever) you've finished all of your Rosetta WU's.

Net outcome - REALLY hurts the team and research. In the above example you've let Rosetta sit for almost 2 full weeks without an update and if you kept all of those units they might have expired, losing them as well.

Scenario 4: You crunch 24/7 and don't change any of the things you crunch for the BGB. You do the math and are able to front load the GPU tasks in 2 days.

Net outcome: If you have CPU tasks that are sitting for a period of time it hurts a little like in scenario 2. If you only do the GPU tasks and you timed it properly, then there is no harm done.

Scenario 5: Same as above but you didn't do the math.

Net outcome: Whatever amount of days your computer is sitting idle is harm to the team and research.

So it looks like you get a net gain only if you don't ever crunch. Otherwise at best it's break even for the team, or a net loss of varying severity depending on how careful you are.

Of course, if there's a scenario I missed, please let me know and I'll amend.

 

[The Llama]

So, I was on another message board talking about this debacle and they were mocking me and linked me to this. I was forced to admit that I reached the infinity level.