@Uplinger:
Thank you very much for clarification. That's really interesting.

One of my PCs has now caught up on uploads. The other one will try again in about 20 minutes.

All my uploads are now going straight through without any back-offs

Keith, in the inevitable post-mortem I am sure you're going to have to do, a suggestion: have the documented processes modified so that News items are required to be created when a problem occurs/conditions exists that could impact users such that they are unable to perform some normal aspect of crunching (uploads, downloads, reporting work, etc.) with updates required at least daily or when there is a significant change in circumstances.

The vast majority of crunchers have never used the forums, much less followed anything in them regularly. The News function is now the designated process for communicating information to users and provides options for them to see such News items in BOINC Notices or as email. Without this, users only see something not working properly and have no information about the nature of the problem or its scope (is it me or everyone?). When crunchers have to wonder or guess, it encourages moving elsewhere. Taking a proactive approach more accurately reflects what has normally been done in the past (we're used to finding something about it in the forums). For those of us who want/need to discuss an issue, nothing stops us from doing so in a forum thread and we won't have any problem copying something from News. Again, this is a suggestion and in no way a criticism.

@Janus_Kobain

Glad you found it helpful though it wasn't meant as a hint.

News items are great for telling you what has happened but they're too late to tell you what is happening.

The News item Addressing issues with volunteers sending results was only posted late on Apr 08. By this time the problem was well on the way to being corrected.

For those, like yourself, who noticed the problem Tuesday morning (or as early as late Sunday evening) the information could only be found as a response in a forum thread.

[edit]Nothing in this post should be regarded as criticism of uplinger's handling of the recent system issues The criticism is directed at a system that only provides information to forum habituees (a very small proportion of WCG members) and not to the wider community.