F.A.Q.

Statistics

Do I lose credit in my combined statistics when I detach all my hosts from a project?

No, it's like money in the bank, it'll be there forever. You do however risk a split CPID: when your CPID changes detached projects won't update the CPID.

Do I need to be a member of BOINCstats to use the stats?

You don't have to be a member of the BOINCstats team to use the stats on this site. Everything on the site is available to everyone.

Do I need to register on BOINCstats to use the stats?

You don't need to register on BOINCstats or in the forum to use the stats on this site. Everything on the site is available to everyone.

How can I find my stats or my team stats?

This is actually very simple:
On the top left of the page is a searchbox. Type your (teams) name and hit Search.

The search is not case sensitive.

The blue icon under options on the results page will take you to your detailed stats.

If you can't find your account, please verify that you have at least 1 credit granted in at least 1 project. Also check (on the frontpage) if the project has updated its stats.

How can I have more credit than my team?

For this a little background knowledge is needed about the workings of team credit in BOINC: Teams get their credit from their members, but only the credit that a member earns while he is a member of the team. A member that already has credits doesn't take these with him to the team when he joins. Only his newly earned credits will be awarded to the team as well.

So, if you already had credits when you joined the team then the team doesn't get all your credits. If this is a small or new team then you can easily have more credit than the team.

At the moment it is not possible to calculate how much credit you have contributed to your current team. Therefore the percentage is based on your total credit. That this is not always correct is obvious, but unfortunately this is something we can do nothing about.

There is one project where these rules do not apply and all your credit will transfer with you to another team, and that project is Climate Prediction. This project (unfortunately) does't follow BOINC rules.

How do I create my own signature graphic?

You need to know three different things to get this working:

First how to set up a signature on the relevant site; on a BOINC site try looking under forum preference

Secondly how to include a graphic image in a signature. On BOINC sites there is often a link 'How to use BBtags' on the pages where you can use them. If you can't find out how to do those two things, please ask on the relevant site - BOINCstats can't help you further on these.

The third thing you need to know is the URL for your stats banner:
The signature URL for users looks like this:
http://boincstats.com/signature/-1/user/479/sig.png

The numbers are replaced with your own BOINCstats ID number. You can find this number on your BOINC detailed statistics page.

HTML example:
<img src="http://boincstats.com/signature/-1/user/479/sig.png>

BB code example:
[img]http://boincstats.com/signature/-1/user/479/sig.png[/img]

This will get you this:


The signature URL for teams looks like this:
http://boincstats.com/signature/-1/team/712/sig.png

The numbers are replaced with your teams BOINCstats ID. You can find this number on the teams BOINC detailed statistics page.

Adding a number after the ID-number will get you a signature with the projects divided over multiple columns. This is practical when you participate in many projects. Example with three columns:
http://boincstats.com/signature/-1/user/479/3/sig.png

This also works with the team signature.

How is BOINCstats RAC (BS-RAC) calculated, and why use it instead of project-RAC?

BS-RAC is the gained credit of the past x days divided by x, where x is the number of days in the day-history (also used for the 60 day history chart), with a maximum of 60 days.


Some projects do not correctly update project-RAC which makes this RAC too high or too low compared to reality.


BS-RAC is more accurate than project RAC because it is updated every day together with the daily update and it represents your true average credit per day.

How is the overtake calculated?

First a creditrate is calculated with the following formula:

creditrate = ( (last month credit / 30) * 3 + (last week credit / 7) * 2 + (last day credit) ) / 6.


We also have the creditrate that is calculated for the item just above the current item (which for this F.A.Q. we call prev-creditrate).


If prev-creditrate is greater then creditrate, overtake is 0. It will not happen.


Now we take the current credit from both items, and add the creditrate's to these. We do this until the credit of the current item exceeds the credit of the previous item. Then we check how many times we had to add before we reached this point. That is the overtake value.

How often is BOINCstats updated?

BOINCstats checks for XML updates every half hour, and, when available, downloads them, reads the content into the database and updates the credits and ranks.

The numbers from this update are used to display current credits and ranks for the stats only.

The incremental updates take between 15 minutes up to one hour to complete.


At 15:00GMT each day all new info from the XML files is imported into the BOINCstats database. New users/teams/countries are inserted at this point, and daily/weekly/monthly numbers are calculated. When there is no new XML file for more then a day, the stats will show zero credits for those days.

The numbers from this update are used to display the numbers on the frontpage and the detailed stats pages.

The daily update takes about 2,5 hours to complete.


The same update, but then just for hosts, runs each day at 1:00GMT, and takes about five hours to complete.


Only users, teams, hosts and countries with at least one (1) total credit are listed!


When an update is running, there is no check for new XML files until the update is finished. This is why the time since last update can be more than one hour.


Until this date, BOINCstats never failed to run its daily update , which means: when new credit is granted and the XML output by the project is OK, you'll get your credit on BOINCstats within 25 hours.

I don't want BOINCstats to display my stats (anymore)

If you want to have your statistics removed from BOINCstats you have to realize that these stats do not originate from BOINCstats but are exported by the various projects you participate in. If the projects from which your stats originate are still active the only way to remove them from BOINCstats is by going to the website of those projects and either remove or anonymize your account there, or, when you are using BAM!, you can use BAM! to anonymize the project accounts, but you can’t remove the accounts!

If the project is no longer active you can ask for account anonymization in the forum ("BOINCstats general" section). Accounts will not be removed! Do not send emails or private messages to ask for removal/anonymization, those will be ignored! By asking for anonymization in the forum others will have the option to object when your ownership of the account is in doubt.

I got credits, but BOINCstats doesn't show them.

BOINCstats depends on the XML output of the projects.


BOINCstats checks for XML updates every half hour, and, when available, downloads them, and reads the content to update the current-credit.

Once a day all stats are updated, and all info from the XML files is pumped into the BOINCstats database.


Sometimes the XML output is delayed, or there isn't any XML output for an extended period due to (server)problems at the project. When this happens, it's impossible for BOINCstats to update, and your new credits won't show on BOINCstats, until XML output is resumed.

I have selected a different non-English language, but sometimes I still see English words or sentences?

BOINCstats is still in development. Pages are added or changed. All pages are designed in English. To prevent a page from having no text, all text defaults to English when no text is available in the selected language.

For graphs it's a bit different. The program that renders the graphics has a limited character set. Sometimes this makes it impossible to display correct text in the selected language, and English is used instead.

I signed up using different names on different projects.

This is not a problem. BOINCstats will use the most common name. So when you have four projects with name John and three projects with name Connor then your name will be John in the stats. Names of retired projects are not included in the count.

I used different email addresses with different projects.

This could be a problem. The email address is part of the algorithm to match a user across projects. If the email address differs, you might have two BOINCstats accounts that won't merge.

This can only be solved by going to all projects and make sure the same email address is used for all projects.

What are the shoutbox rules?

The following rules and limitations apply to the shoutbox:


  • Shout can be no longer then 250 characters
  • Shout can not be empty
  • No more then two messages in a row are allowed from the same IP-address
  • Posting the same message twice is not allowed
  • Hostile, racist or offending language is not allowed
  • The shoutbox is not the right place to post bugs or support questions. These posts will be removed.
  • Questions about BOINCstats/BAM! workings or operations will not be answered in the shoutbox (because I'll have to repeat the same answers again and again).
  • No team related shouts. There is a team sub forum in the BOINCstats forum for all teams.
  • In addition, all forum rules apply.


Abuse of the shoutbox will be followed by a warning. A second abuse will result in blocking the IP-address used for posting. This is irreversible.

The moderators can and will delete shoutbox messages that are in violation with the rules.

What columns are there in the stats?

All stats:

Last month: shows the position shift over 30 days.

Last week: shows the position shift over 7 days.

Last day: shows the position shift over 1 day.

Pos.: position in the stats (depends on sorting method).

Total Credit: the total amount of credits

Credit day: credit accumulated in the last day.

Credit week: credit accumulated in the last 7 days.

Credit month: credit accumulated in the last 30 days.

Average credit: the average credit granted over the last few days.

Overtake: days needed to move up at least one position in the selected stat.

Options: links to other stats or statistic.

Compare: shows a graphic comparison of selected items. 5 maximum!


Country stats:

Population: number of citizens in the selected country.

Credit/capita: the average credit per citizen in the selected country.

Credit/user: the average credit per user in the selected country.

Users/capita: percentage of citizens that runs BOINC.


Host stats:

CPU: the processor in the host.

# CPU: the number of processors in the host. Between brackets is the number of virtual processors, courtesy of hyper threading or dual-core.

Operating System: the OS of the host.

What is a retired project?

Retired projects are projects that are no longer active. These projects have reached their goal, and are no longer sending results to hosts. It's also not possible to sign up or attach to these projects.


Credit granted by these projects will always be part of your BOINC combined account, except when your CPID changes and differs from a retired project. As these projects do no longer update the CPID, it's impossible to join these stats with the combined account again. If you do however have a BAM! account, and the project is included in it, then you can use the 'Sync retired projects' feature to include the project back into your BOINC statistics.


Stats of the retired projects will remain visible on BOINCstats, and will be frozen on the day the project stats were last updated.

When is an entity active?

An entity is active when it has credit granted in the last 30 days.

Where do the icons under options take you?

All stats:
Detailed statistics for the selected user/host/team/country.

User stats:
This or any other flag displays the user stats for that country.
User stats from this user's team.

Host stats:
All hosts from the selected host's user.

Team stats:
This or any other flag displays the team stats for that country.

User stats from the selected team.

Country stats:
User stats from the selected country.
Team stats from the selected country.graph.gif[/img] Detailed statistics for the selected user/host/team/country.

Why are there ads on BOINCstats, I think they're ugly, irritating, slowing down, etc, etc.

Running BOINCstats is a costly hobby. Apart from absorbing a lot of my time, it also needs money for the server that BOINCstats runs on and for the co-locating + used bandwidth and power. The ads cover a part of these costs. Without this income it would be impossible to keep BOINCstats online.

Why can't I post in the forum?

Due to the increasing number of spam messages, posting abilities for new users are limited. This limitation is lifted when a user is proven to be a 'real' BOINC user.

New users can prove they are real users by adding projects with credit to their account or by attaching a host to BAM!.

Why do I have duplicate/split accounts in the BOINC combined stats?

The cause of this is the CPID, Cross Project IDentifier. Every project assigns a new user a CPID. It is partly based on the email address you used to sign up, the other part is random.

The CPID is used by BOINCstats to identify a user across projects.

Whenever you sign up with a new project, you'll get a new account on BOINCstats because the CPID is new.


What to do to make sure you'll end up with one BOINCstats account:


  • Use the exact same email address for every project.
  • Run at least one system with all projects, or one system with project A and B, and one system with project B and C. If there is a project that runs isolated from the other projects, its CPID with never line up.


When you join a new project, this project assigns you a new CPID. This CPID can either change to the same CPID as the other projects, or the other projects change (one by one) to the new CPID.


It is impossible for me to manually edit your accounts to create one account. It would take to much time too do this for everyone. Just wait a while, and your accounts will line up automatically.


One last thing, which is not too important, but nice for the stats: use the same username across projects, otherwise you get a username like 'Al Bundy @ SAH / Al Bundy @ Predictor / A. Bundy @ CPDN'.

Why do I lose credit in BOINC combined stats?

When you attach to a new project, or reattach to a projects that restarts after a 'break' your CPID for a project can change. It takes a while for all projects to line up again. During this time, you may loose some credit in the combined stats, and sometime all credit will go to a new account with a new CPID.


BOINC Account Manager

After I've attached to BAM I can't detach from any of the projects. The client says "This project must be detached using the account manager web site". What should I do in order to detach my host from this project?

You must log in to your BAM! account, then go to the corresponding detailed host page, uncheck the checkbox next to the project and press "Set". Then update your client from BAM!.

At what time intervals does my client contact BAM?

BAM! sets a time interval for the host to (re)connect after a certain time. When attaching a host the first reconnect is 60 seconds, after that once per day. Your can change the frequency in your BAM! settings.

BAM! doesn't do what I want, it's incomplete, I don't like it, where can I complain?

Nowhere. BAM! is free software, as is. You can file a bug report if you like, or make a suggestion for future enhancements (both in the forum).

BAM! doesn't find my existing accounts at the projects, while I'm sure they're there.

BAM! can only find accounts when the email address, the username and the password of the project are the same as those of BAM!. Check these at the project, and change it when needed.

Can I use BAM! when I'm not a member of the BOINCstats team?

Yes

Do I have to detach my client from all projects to which I'm currently attached before I attach the client to BAM!?

No, you don't have to detach. BAM! will recognize to which projects the client is attached, and will add that information to the host account.

Does BAM! completely replace the BOINC Manager?

No. The BOINC Manager is still usefull for viewing work unit progress, suspending projects, not allowing new work, disabling network access and many other things.

Does becoming a BAM! user also means becoming a BOINCstats team member?

No! You choose of which team you want to be a member and that doesn't change when you start using BAM!.

Given the name, is BAM! written and supported by the Berkeley BOINC team?

No. BAM! is a development of the BOINCstats team.

How can I help?

By making a small donation (this will help to pay for the co-location of the servers, or to upgrade to faster server(s) when needed), or by translating BOINCstats into another language.

How do I get my CPID?

Your CPID is automatically set by BAM!. It's not a continuous process though. Once an hour all accounts without a CPID are checked. If any of your projects has a CPID then your BAM! account will get one too. If you have multiple CPID's, then the most commonly present one will be used. Only the CPID's for projects that you have added to your BAM! account will be checked.

It is not possible to enter your CPID manually.

How does a team join a team challenge?

The founder of a team can enter a team into a challenge.

The team founder (here on BOINCstats) is the person who is founder of the team in most projects. To check who is the team founder, find your team on the profile pages and go to the profile. The founder is listed on the team profile page.

The team founder has a extra section in his BAM! menu (Team founder) and in that section he will find the Challenges. Once there everything is self explanatory.

The team founder is assigned by an automated process, he can't be set manually! If your team has a separate admin account then create a BAM! account for this admin as you would for a normal user (so same email and password). Include all projects but do not attach hosts to it or use any of the managing functions other than the team functions. It will not link to any stats, only to the team it is a member of and it will show as founder, so your team can participate in challenges.

Gathering/updating user information including founder status is done once a week during the night from Saturday to Sunday! Once a week because it's stressing the project servers.

I can't log in.

Please make sure you are logging in with your username and password, NOT your email address and password!

If you still can't log in, try to recover your password, find the text "Problem with login?" at the top of this page and click it.

If the password recovery claims that your username or email address can't be found or if you do not receive the recovery email then please make sure you really have an account at BOINCstats/BAM!. An entry in the stats tables is not the same as a BOINCstats/BAM! account, you need to create that separately!

I have accidentally added a wrong project account to my BAM! account.

Remove this project from your BAM! account (you can do this on the "Project list" page) and wait until all your host detached from the project.

Go to the project's website and change the account details (email address) from the wrong account. Now BAM! can't connect this account to your BAM! account anymore. Now you change the account details from the correct account so BAM! can connect this account.

Finally you go to the "Sign-up for projects" page and let BAM! find the existing account.

I have updated my preferences in BAM, updated the client from BAM but the preferences are still the old. Why?

The preferences aren't updated directly from BAM. BAM updates the preferences to the projects and then the client updates the preferences from a project.
In order to update the preferences of the client after you have edited the preferences in BAM, press the "Save to projects" button. Then update a project (no matter which) and you will receive the updated preferences.

I've forgot my password/login. Is there a way of retrieving my account information?

Yes there is. Find the text "Problem with login?" at the top of this page and click it.

Is it useful to use BAM! when having only one host?

Yes (resource shares/prefs updated to all projects from one page, joining/quiting teams etc)

Weak Authenticator

Each BAM! account has a weak authenticator. Someone who has your weak authenticator can attach computers to your account, but can't log in to your account or change it in any way. This is useful if you need to install BOINC on public computers, or if you want to let someone compute on your behalf without giving them access to your account.

When a host is attached using the weak authenticator, only projects that support the weak authenticator can be attached. Also, your BAM! account needs to know the weak authenticator of the project. (BAM! tries to import unknown weak authenticators on a regular basis, it is not something you can update yourself.)

If you want to attach a host to BAM! using the weak authenticator, use the weak authenticator instead of the username and leave the password empty when asked for the user information.

You can find your BAM! weak authenticator on your BAM! account page.

What do the states attached/attaching/detached/detaching mean?

attached - the host is currently attached to this project

attaching - the host will be attached to this project during the next contact with BAM

detached - the host is detached form this project

detaching - the host will be detached form this project during the next contact with BAM



If the state is detaching (attaching) you can cancel the operation if you check (uncheck) the corresponding checkbox and click "Set".

What does AMS stand for?

Account Management System

What does BAM stand for?

BOINC Account Manager

What happens with hosts that no longer run BOINC?

These hosts can be removed in the host list. Systems that do not connect to BAM for over a month are removed automatically.

When I click on the CPID link on the host page I get the following message: "The host doesn't exist in BOINC Combined or doesn't have credit". But my host does have credit.

Every time the client attaches to a new project it generates a new Host CPID. This host CPID is then sent to all the projects. The projects will then include the new host CPID in their next XML export and BOINCstats will pick it up on the next update. So at least a day is needed in order for the stats to get lined up.

When should I renew my CPID?

Renewing your CPID only updates your CPID in BAM!. It doesn't change anything at the projects! The only use is to re-align your CPID with the CPID most used in your stats. It does NOT fix a split CPID!

Why I'm getting an "Incorrect response from project" when performing an action in BAM?

Not all projects have the latest version of the BOINC server code installed on their server. If they use outdated code, they may not be able to handle the request made by BAM!, and return invalid results.