Do cash prizes increase participation?

[smitten4science]

Do you think that the types of "cash prize" contests that are run are beneficial in getting more people to participate in the Folding@Home project, or are they ultimately inconsequential? (Note: I am talking about ones run by non-profits and things trying to increase participation for the right reasons, not those run by anyone trying to turn a profit.)

Also, should people be motivated not out of the desire for money but out of the desire to help the project?

Would love to hear what you guys think on it!

[alancabler]

Hello smitten4science,

Certain teams have run "contests" for new donors and awarded computer hardware prizes.
The result? Typically, the newbies drawn to the project for the prizes have dropped out shortly after contest end, whether they won the prize(s), or not.

Monetary rewards to fold are not favorably viewed, and Stanford has nothing to do with the concept.

In a slightly different category, some people have sold "folding time" on their machines on eBay, etc., or purchased CPU time from on-line businesses offering CPU time for sale. There was another thread within the past week discussing someone's current effort to sell Folding time on their machines.

[bruce]

I think the cash prize should probably be donated directly to Stanford for FAH. I trust them to use the money in a way that would provide a long-term benefit to the project. Whoever wins the contest will spend the money somewhere and leave the project when he doesn't win again.

Participation in FAH is based on attracting people who want to donate what they have to a good cause, not people who want to win big in Las Vegas. The prize we're all working toward is a cure for Alzheimer's Disease (or . . . etc.), not a few extra bucks to spend on a tank of gas.

[7im]

And as I recall, some groups offering prizes stipulate that you fold for their team # and very few people that are already on a team are willing to do that. And it's a little to self-promoting IMO.

People donate to FAH for many reasons, most are philanthropic in nature, some for the competition, very few for cash/prizes. Beside, the winners are usually the ones with the spare cash to add more machines. Are they the best ones to give prizes to? Some people would say yes, some not.

I agree with Bruce. Donate the prize to someone who would really benefit, or donate to Stanford in the name of FAH.

[smitten4science]

Perhaps good points, but what if the person were to use the money to increase their computing power and ability to fold? Most people I have seen make comments to the effect of they would donate the money they earned to worthy causes searching for scientific breakthroughs. Perhaps a better way to structure it would to be to donate money in the person's name to the charity of their choice?

[7im]

A donation in the winner's name is not as attractive, unfortunately. Human nature (greed?) will want the prize, cash-on-the-barrel-head so to speak. May not work any better.

Another idea, while not easily enforceable, you could ask the winner to agree to fold with the prize for at least a year after the contest ends, on his/her good honor. That helps reduce the dump and run entrants, and would tend to be better for the project in question.

[anandhanju]

I'd written a long and rather boring reply yesterday and I swear, the entire topic vanished.

I think the temptation of prizes (cash or cash substitutes) can cause some people to use un-authorized systems to run clients on in an attempt to rack up points to win the monetory prize. This can not only be bad for the person but also to the project's appearance to the general public and corporations who have agreed to let users use a few systems might reconsider their decision due to bad press etc.

[uncle fuzzy]

I'm just here for the points. The project gets the benefit of my OCD. If someone gave me money for this, I'd buy more hardware to get more points. OCD rules!

[MstrBlstr]

I'm just here for the points. The project gets the benefit of my OCD. If someone gave me money for this, I'd buy more hardware to get more points. OCD rules!

Digg loves you, uncle fuzzy!

[anandhanju]

I'm not a Moderator, but please refrain from team promotion. This forum is team agnostic. I see that this has been conveyed to you here

[MstrBlstr]

Agreed. Link removed until further inspection. Please refrain from posting links. We have been very tolerant up to this point. Consider this your final warning. Please read the link in the previous post.

[smitten4science]

Agreed. Link removed until further inspection. Please refrain from posting links. We have been very tolerant up to this point. Consider this your final warning. Please read the link in the previous post.

I just wanted to know what you guys thought about the issue in general. I am not promoting any one team over another.

[smitten4science]

I wonder if paying for small amounts of someone's purchase of a PS3 ($50, $100, whatever) with the understanding that they would run folding software whenever they weren't playing it would be a better way to increase participation rather than giving cash prizes?

Just trying to think of things since you guys are down on the money idea it sounds like. (at least the past ones that have been attempted)

[uncle_fungus]

Some teams do this already to some degree. They usually have a collection of dedicated folding machines which are run by a number of individuals, but the parts to build them were donated by other members (who can't afford the electricity bills for example).

I personally know of 1 team that offers a monthly hardware prize picked at random from anyone in the team who has folded at least 1 WU in the last month. Whether or not this actually has increased participation I could not say for definite, but my gut feeling says it has, a bit - mainly due to the fact it is advertised every month in print publication.

[folder_prime]

The cash prize offered by the Immortality Institute is supposed to be like an X-prize type award. The X-prize, Automotive X-prize, and the Lunar X-prize work. They drive competition. The people who participate in the big efforts like the Lunar X-prize know going into it that they are not going to make a profit, but the prize makes a difference. The F@H prize is similarly offered to advance science. Computer modeling of basic biological processes (like protein folding) is becoming ever more important and more computing resources in distributed computing efforts would be a great benefit to society.