Sorry I'm late to the party, but I have a bunch of ideas:
- Your robots.txt file seems to be too restrictive. I use WGet to download most web pages I look at (I'm on a 10 hour dial-up internet account). But your robots.txt file blocks wget from the /images and /themes directories, so I couldn't see much but the text.
- "The SETI Team is building a Team Beowulf Cluster" - is this still current?
- I notice the TeAm rank is on the side of the page, but not in the body text.
- It would be nice to have some short table or set of icons like
the Aspenleaf page has (though obviously we shouldn't steal theirs) to list OSes and dial-up friendlyness. I'm biased, but we might also want to include links to a few popular accessory programs, like proxy or caching software.
- It might be nice (or at least seem nice to me) to have some quantifiable stats/goals for each project, rather than just saying things like "We need some help" or "This is a small project so even one machine can make a huge difference". This may be overly ambitious, but here's what I'm thinking:
1. We could put some simple overtake stats on the main page. Just based on today's or yesterday's rate, not a 7-day moving average or anything. Namely, days to overtake the next team we'll overtake (if any), days to overtake the #1 team (if possible), and days until we are overtaken by the first team scheduled to overtake us (if any).
2. When these numbers don't apply, it would be nice to be able to say how many computers we need to reach a goal. Obviously, these numbers can and should be approximate in most cases.
Here are some examples, just pulled out of thin air (the stats are mostly phony):
Community TSC:
- We are currently in 14th Place.
- We need about 7 more P4 2GHz machines to stay ahead of the 16th place team, "mad 1337 hax0rz", before they pass us in 20 days.
- At our current rate, we will pass the 12th place team, "Team Picard", in about 30 days.
- We need about 127 more P4 2GHz machines to keep pace with the 1st place team, "Dutch Power Cows".
Seventeen or Bust:
- We are currently in 2nd Place.
- At our current rate, no teams are threatening to pass us.
- We need about 384 more P4 2GHz machines to keep pace with the 1st place team, "ARS Technica Team Prime Rib".
And I think I'll throw in a stats idea that's sure to be controversial.:evil: (remember, these stats aren't necessarily real):
DPAD:
- We are currently in 1st Place.
- At our current rate, no teams are threatening to pass us, and we could divert up to 42 P4 2GHz machines to other projects before the 2nd place team, "Dutch Power Cows", would match our speed.
I know this may be asking a lot, but I think it would be worthwhile.