
Ask HN: How to grow a distributed computing project - jacobevelyn
I&#x27;m trying to grow the userbase for Compute for Humanity (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.computeforhumanity.org), my distributed computing project, but I&#x27;ve been unable to really gain traction with any group of users.<p>I&#x27;ve tried posting on HN, writing blog posts, posting on lots of subreddits and relevant forums on various websites, pitching articles to journalists and tech news sites, and adding mild gamification sharing features to the app. So far, nothing&#x27;s really caught on.<p>I&#x27;ve gotten some feedback that it seems &quot;untrustworthy,&quot; but I&#x27;m not really sure how to fix that. I&#x27;ve revised the website text many times to make it friendlier and easier to understand.<p>Any advice or honest feedback would be supremely helpful and appreciated!
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detaro
One issue that you can't fix is: there is money involved (vs other projects,
that donate compute power for scientific purposes. Even though they could be
running coin miners and most users wouldn't know, on some level it feels
different).

At some point, the user has to trust you that you do the right thing with the
money. I don't know if you can make that more transparent? Ideally, I as a
user of the software could check each step of the way what happened. Right
now, I can look at your /financials page, but I can't trace "x% of the coins
were mine, and that was the conversion rate back then, and ...".

If you find good charities that take BTC, or a reputable service doing the
giving, you could make all steps really transparent. Links to blockchain
viewers etc, allow to say " _I_ mined the coins at that address, and then it
went to there, and _here_ is the transaction that goes to the charities
address". But even if you don't, you can make the flow before you convert to
USD more transparent, and hopefully can find a way to prove you donated the
money.

Potentially, allow users to set up their own miner and donate the coins.
Blockchain stuff can be really transparent, and if you want to target
bitcoin/... enthusiasts that might be your chance to convince them you are
legit.

(EDIT: also, how _does_ your project look once you factor in energy cost? If I
spend more money generating coins then I end up donating through it, it's not
very efficient...)

~~~
jacobevelyn
Thanks for the feedback!

I agree that money does complicate things (doesn't it always?) here.
Unfortunately, Dwolla (my fee-free payment processor) doesn't have a way of
making transactions publicly viewable (though I'll be making the feature
request—thanks for pushing me on this). I've seen other projects use letters
from the nonprofits as "proof" of the donations, but since this project only
donates a few cents at a time I thought it wasn't worth imposing that on the
charities—but perhaps that's not true (since I'm sure they have to write those
letters all the time).

Bitcoin definitely can make things very transparent, and I appreciate your
thoughts around taking advantage of that. I'm somewhat worried about driving
away non-technical users with an overemphasis on cryptocurrencies though. It's
been a tricky needle to try to thread.

Anyway, lots of good stuff to ponder here—thanks!

------
seeing
\- Improving a site's design usually helps.

\- I clicked to install it and, like you mention, I too thought it's
untrustworthy. How do I know you won't steal the data on my computer? Is it
open-source? Where can I download it? Can I compile it from source? How?

Why are you working on this? Are there other ways to solve the problem you're
trying to solve?

~~~
jacobevelyn
Thanks so much for the feedback! To address your questions about trust:

> How do I know you won't steal the data on my computer?

The website footer has a link to the privacy page:
[https://www.computeforhumanity.org/privacy](https://www.computeforhumanity.org/privacy)
From what I've seen the privacy link in the footer is pretty standard.

> Is it open-source? Where can I download it? Can I compile it from source?
> How?

The main page of the website says "All code (including the code for this
website!) is open source." next to a link to the GitHub page.

Clearly the website isn't communicating well if you have these questions even
after visiting the site. Do you have advice on how I could improve the website
to better address these questions?

To answer your last questions, I'm working on this because I think distributed
computing projects have enormous potential but they typically:

\- are confusing to explain \- are complicated to install \- only support very
technical causes (like finding extra-terrestrial life) rather than things like
ending global poverty

~~~
seeing
To improve the site, instead of adding a lot on it have very little on it:
only what's needed to get someone to install the software. I suggest you erase
EVERYTHING from it, and start from a clean, single white page trying to get
people to download it.

Make it legible first. What you have isn't legible no matter what the page
says. When my eyes land on the site they move away from the site within 1
second:

\- I didn't see the website footer.

\- I didn't see the "open source" part.

\- All I saw was the pictures and the orange button.

Assume a visitor will give the site no more than a 2 second glance. Design for
that.

I would change "save the world from your sofa" to "end world poverty" and
increase the font size from 30px to 60px.

I wish there were instructions for me to compile the software from source. In
Linux I can often run ./configure && make && make install; and know that I'm
installing something clean from source. Can I do the same with this software?

Now, onto why you're working on this. Do you have a specific "enormous
potential" problem -- AN ACTUAL PROBLEM -- that you, personally, needed to fix
yesterday?

Do you personally need to end global poverty? Why? How will distributed
computing end it anyway? How many years have you spent being in poverty to
understand that the one and only solution for poverty, out of the possibly
thousands, is distributed computing?

Are you doing this because you believe distributed computing will mine
Bitcoins, change that into money, and donate the money? If that's the plan, it
never crossed my mind after visiting the page.

I'd be great if global poverty ended. I'm not saying distributed computing
can't end poverty but I'm not fully convinced either.

All this said, don't get discouraged. You may find that what you're working on
could easily change into something else. But whatever you release try to do a
great job at it.

For example, what if I'm willing to just donate something to end poverty and
not hog my CPU? That would be a completely different website. If you can make
me trust you that the money won't be mishandled, maybe I'm willing to just
donate $5 a month to end poverty, and not have to compile anything from
source. If I can afford $2k for computing equipment, maybe I can afford $60/yr
to end poverty and not hog my CPU.

