Team FTL has been neutralized by Stanford

[DrPepper]

I wasn't suggesting that. It was a simple question.

My bad it looked like you were suggesting something

 

[El Fiendo]

Well, his comment did come off as a little snide (only because he doesn't have the whole story quite right and it was a little elitist when he referred to people as monsters without the background info), but no I was wondering because I don't think he's on our team but it sounds like he does fold.

 

[DrPepper]

tbh I agree with his point. Its become like a competition like hwbot etc. Although thats beneficial productivity wise it will encourage people to cheat to be (fake) best. I've been folding since its inception although stopped recently because its expensive. I never folded to get points or Wu's just as a kind gesture.

 

[BUCK NASTY]

So you complained to eliminate a team that folded the most? Great job you just made it that much harder to find a cure.

Folding at home isn't about winning its about finding cures and helping science.

Flame me all you want, the people that complained are just monsters.

Thanks for inquiring Damian. BTW, we don't flame in this section. Team FTL's folding client was distributed through a illegally downloaded CD crack and violated F@H's EULA. The client was installed voluntarily by the user as a service, whether or not they had knowledge of F@H or the stresses it would place on their system. Many user's were unable to stop the installed service and needed professional help to remove it. Complaints mounted from computer tech's concerning the process's they were finding on customer's rigs. This painted F@H in a negative light and legitimate folders became frustrated when Team FTL zoomed past them in the rankings. Additional complaints ensued and Stanford took appropriate action only after months of investigation. It only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch. The determining issue was the method of client distribution and EULA violation. This is the only reason they have been stripped of their points. The science has not been lost and Folding @ Home has experienced unprecedented popularity as of late. Thanks for your comments.

@ Damian: Also, do you fold?

My thoughts exactly.

 

[Damian^]

Well, his comment did come off as a little snide (only because he doesn't have the whole story quite right and it was a little elitist when he referred to people as monsters without the background info), but no I was wondering because I don't think he's on our team but it sounds like he does fold.

Heh the monsters thing was just a joke my other comments stand though. but in all seriousness I don't care if they are on top of the scoreboards or on the way bottom. Keep folding!
Yes i do fold!

 

[fadedmemories]

I wasn't suggesting that. It was a simple question.



I'm pretty sure Stanford doesn't make a profit. I'm not even sure how they could possibly. Maybe if you think not spending the money on a supercomputer that couldn't do the work anyways.

Profit as in WU.

 

[Damian^]

http://teamftl.blogspot.com/
Their site, in case anyone wants to read.

 

[infrared]

So you complained to eliminate a team that folded the most? Great job you just made it that much harder to find a cure.

Folding at home isn't about winning its about finding cures and helping science.

Flame me all you want, the people that complained are just monsters.

Guys... who cares if the points are getting deleted for that team.

Stanford is still recieving the WU's, so banning the "team" isn't working against the goal. It's just a lesson to team FTL that underhanded tactics don't work.

 

[El Fiendo]

Right, and now that they've legitimized themselves, cool. In fact earlier in the thread I made a comment that it was almost justice in a way that they were exploiting the exploiters. Its just that it could have really looked bad for F@H. Now that they've taken measures, more power to em.

 

[El Fiendo]

Sorry for the double post, but it looks like Team FTL has been hit by a big stick of a different kind. I'd say the last of the accounts with illegitimate installations have been neutralized (banned). They now pull ~200k daily.

 

[BUCK NASTY]

Sorry for the double post, but it looks like Team FTL has been hit by a big stick of a different kind. I'd say the last of the accounts with illegitimate installations have been neutralized (banned). They now pull ~200k daily.

Not a double post if more than a day separation. Thanks for the heads up and proving that legit folders always persevere.

 

[imperialreign]

although it's been a long while since I had any of my hardware folding - it's nice to see that a team using such insidious tactics has been stopped.

hopefully, if I can ever get to a point where other's here at home don't turn off my rig when I'm gone, I'll fire up my clients again

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

just zero them every day and let them stay

 

[El Fiendo]

Well, something is up again. After a recent spike in the past weeks I tried to check their blog to find that its been closed off to private members. Checking the stats pages on their new members (used Hard Folding stats page) I found a User going by:

"C:\Arquivos_de_programas\EA_GAMES\Need_for_Speed_Undercover\FA

So, it looks like its getting distributed by cracks again, this time for NFS: Undercover if not more games. Whether this is a rogue person undermining the team, as claimed, or not I can't tell.

Edit for link:


http://www.hardfolding.com/fh_stats/index.php?pz=101&tnum=149135

Scroll down on the new members pane until about the bottom and you should find said user.

 

[BUCK NASTY]

Well, something is up again. After a recent spike in the past weeks I tried to check their blog to find that its been closed off to private members. Checking the stats pages on their new members (used Hard Folding stats page) I found a User going by:

"C:\Arquivos_de_programas\EA_GAMES\Need_for_Speed_Undercover\FA

So, it looks like its getting distributed by cracks again, this time for NFS: Undercover if not more games. Whether this is a rogue person undermining the team, as claimed, or not I can't tell.

Edit for link:


http://www.hardfolding.com/fh_stats/index.php?pz=101&tnum=149135

Scroll down on the new members pane until about the bottom and you should find said user.

Let me know if you find any proof(link) of this alleged distribution and I will make sure the Pande Group receives it.

 

[CyberDruid]

For The Loss....

 

[El Fiendo]

Let me know if you find any proof(link) of this alleged distribution and I will make sure the Pande Group receives it.

The thread that initially was talking about it months ago has been revived on Foldingforum.org (not by me). I was going to search for the crack tonight (can't right now, don't really want to surf warez sites at work).

 

[El Fiendo]

Final Solution

 

[qubit]

TeamFTL's website:

http://teamftl.blogspot.com

please post comments there. this account will not be monitored.

Has anyone clicked the link in that post? You can't actually post on their blog, because registration is by invite only!

Something fishy with this folding team, for sure.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

The cat is out of the bag. There is no stopping it.


I admire the thought but really, the only way to put an end to it is if the FTL group gets arrested in a sting. There's nothing to say another group won't do the same either.

 

[El Fiendo]

The biggest issue is that the more that this occurs and the more people get F@H without being aware of it, the more chance that F@H has to be tagged as malware. If anti-virus programs or spyware programs started flagging it as malware it could really hurt the cause. If news reports and blogs were released about it being malware, even worse could happen as it wouldn't just affect current users, but potential users as well. One teams lust for points for something that really gains them nothing in return could really be very detrimental to spreading the userbase. It could even have a detrimental effect on other distributed computing projects as well.

I could see the reason for this if there was some sort of monetary return, or if one user was doing this to get 'folding bucks' through EVGA or something. But what ill-gotten returns would this warrant other than a ranking on an .html page?

 

[Polaris573]

I could see the reason for this if there was some sort of monetary return, or if one user was doing this to get 'folding bucks' through EVGA or something. But what ill-gotten returns would this warrant other than a ranking on an .html page?

All you need to do is look around the internet and you'll see people who will do just about anything to increase a measurement. Whether it be here where the coveted metric is a high post count or F@H where they can climb the rankings. It's not surprising to me at all the lengths people will go for recognition no matter how fleeting or trivial.

 

[El Fiendo]

I suppose. I enjoy a healthy competition with teammates and I buy hardware new to put in my folding rig. I even have better hardware in my folding/htpc rig than I do in my gaming rig. This just seems like another level. Mind you this is an example of an outward destructive solution to an obsession as opposed to my inward destruction (of monetary means). Just seems a little much.

 

[DrPepper]

All you need to do is look around the internet and you'll see people who will do just about anything to increase a measurement. Whether it be here where the coveted metric is a high post count or F@H where they can climb the rankings. It's not surprising to me at all the lengths people will go for recognition no matter how fleeting or trivial.

So true. I mean not only in F@H but christ the amount of effort people will put into getting recognition is almost as much as actually putting in real effort for something worthy.