In reply to Dave's message of 20 Jan 2026:

However, I would suggest that the overwhelming majority of BOINC users come to the platform not via the BOINC pages but via one of the projects. I first heard of climateprediction.net and installed BOINC to crunch for them. I only later started to crunch for other projects when no CPDN work was available. Those who come via the project route are not going to be affected by what you suggest is a problem.

End users expect things like email, web browsing and word processing along with media management to just work. Those installing BOINC on their machines are by and large a bit more savvy. Thousands signing up is only going to happen if there are projects that catch the imagination of the public to a far greater extent.

Exactly. That is how Seti@home garnered such immense interest and the start of distributed computing because the research topic incited an interest in science looking for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence that any layperson could join in by simply installing a screen saver to their home PC.

Thanks for the history. Vitalii, I get that maintainers can't micromanage projects, but for a new user in 2026, clicking a 'capable' project and getting zero tasks immediately feels like a failure.

Dave and Keith, the 'savvy user' has limits.

High-TDP iGPU and ARM users (M4/Panther Lake) are ready to crunch, but they're hitting 'Project has no work' walls.

If we can't filter lists, maybe a 'No recent activity' warning for specific platforms would help.

It wouldn't be policing—just letting people know what's actually active before they waste time attaching.

Smooth onboarding is how we keep the next wave of hardware owners from leaving.

The projects are responsible for the delivery of applications and availability of work. Also work availability can vary dramatically from hour to hour, and expecting a third party like BOINC to deliver the service you desire - that is totally down to the individual projects.

The so called new wave of BOINC projects is highly dependant on projects becoming available that grab the noses of potential users, and those are few and far between...

If we can't filter lists, maybe a 'No recent activity' warning for specific platforms would help.

It wouldn't be policing—just letting people know what's actually active before they waste time attaching.

There is no easy way to get BOINC to give that warning. What would make more sense would be some sort of notice on the download page, telling users to check with projects about work availability before they install the software.

Dave, I agree that a notice on the download page is a great middle ground.

It addresses the technical difficulty of a client warning while still giving new users a heads-up that project activity varies.

robsmith, I agree that projects are independent.

My concern isn't about policing them, but about user retention.

When a beginner downloads BOINC and attaches to projects with 0 tasks available, it creates a poor first impression.

The goal is just to help them find active work faster so they stay engaged with the platform.

In reply to kasdashdfjsah's message of 22 Jan 2026:

The goal is just to help them find active work faster so they stay engaged with the platform.

And again: Science United is the perfect fit for this purpose: just create an account, and forget about it.

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BOINC maintainer.
For any insight, check my BOINC Development Blog.

When a beginner downloads BOINC and attaches to projects with 0 tasks available, it creates a poor first impression.

The vast majority of users DO NOT come to BOINC by just downloading BOINC, they come because the have found a project that grabs their attention, then later they see the much bigger world that BOINC offers them.
One thing to realise is that many user do not spend much time watching what their computer is doing when they aren't actually using it (which is after all how BOINC is meant to be used!). Indeed I would suggest that many users never even bother reading announcements from the projects they are connected to, for example I've just had a PM from a S@H user asking why they haven't got any work, and that's several years after S@H "went into hibernation".

Indeed I would suggest that many users never even bother reading announcements from the projects they are connected to

To be fair, the level of useful information on the project forums varies greatly!