Hi. I'm new to Community World Grid although I've been doing distributed computing almost since its inception. Some of you probably are also active in Boinc (which I still love and care about), so I can write this without feeling as though I'm "back-stabbing." Two days ago, in a huff, I uninstalled my Boinc software after leaving a post in a couple of places on their message boards why I was doing so. It seems that at least one of the projects in which I was participating is run by some folks who spend almost zero time watching their message boards. Some months ago, a thread there was hijacked which went on and on about a number of people who, in the thread author's opinion, should be murdered, shot in the head, assasinated, and/or beheaded. In all my years as a forum animal, I have never seen such hatred and avocation of blatent bloody violence--and after a number of months it was still up. Being an advocate of Free Speech, I'm a bit suprised about how upset I was/am. So, as decribed above, I left. I was later told by a Boinc administrator that this was not the first such incidence at that site, that the project administrators would go for months without looking at their boards, and that I should contact the administrator of that project with my concerns. Fair enough. However, I'm thinking that it may be, overall, a Boinc problem even more a particular project problem. I'm wondering as to what degree of control does the Boinc organization have over it's member projects. I realize that this is an extreme stretch, and I only present it as a topic of discussion, but what if a Boinc project wanted to work on an atomic weapon? What if their message boards consisted mainly of violent rhetoric? At what point would the existing contracts allow Boinc to step in? Please understand that while I, personally, may be very much against what the superpowers are doing in the world today, hatred is hatred, violence is violence and I really believe that the ballot box is the ultimate solution to the problem.

BTW, to add a little balance, I get a bad feeling in the pit of my innards when I see the Department of Defense being part of any volunteer, supposedly peaceful, distributed contributing project. I spent 36 years as a Public Health Microbiologist. If, as a scientist, you find out how to protect against a bioterrorist agent, you are also sure to find out how to make it more deadly. IMHO I believe that such research should be left to civilian agencies as the very well equipped and staffed Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia (I've been there for training.)