Running code on someone's machine without notifying them is trojan-like behavior. That's a bunch of BS. Hell, I would even take ad-ridden pages before I let someone add my machine to a distributed processing network.

Well, it is advertised on the bottom...

But If you want to get rid of it, get the "No Script" add on...
Although honestly, it's like stealing from the site...

I see it at the bottom of the page now, but a small icon so far down at the bottom that you won't notice it normally does not constitute notification to me. It's not mentioned anywhere during registration, and yes, I do read the agreements on websites specifically to avoid messes like this.

I'm aware of NoScript, and I have it downloaded and configured now. I don't care if you think it's stealing from the site. I'll deal with ads or maybe even a subscription, but I don't want unknown code hogging my processor, wasting my battery, heating up my machine, etc.

@ Malleus
Dude, there's no need to overreact.

It was prominently announced and, if you decided to check, easy to find. Asking in the forum gave you the response immediately - there's nothing confidential/conspiratory about it :)
The site is (partially) sustaining itself this way and it's not such a big deal - definitely not a trojan/hack. No need to BS at anyone.

Btw, there's a facebook version with a lot of banners and no distributed processing if this is such a huge problem.

"I'll deal with ads" - that's one of the many reasons why the site doesn't have them. Whenever you get ad's people remove them, and with that remove the source of income.
If you donate there is a donation feature that can be activated by a mod to remove the processing script.

I think you should think about it the other way: you joined phpdiplomacy to play diplomacy and that is happening. No-where in the registration does it say "We will *not* run a small java app to pay for the system". It is just the way people have become with the internet that they expect everything to be free.
Moreover, the script has been running for over half a year, so your sudden outrage seems even less warranted.

I signed up two months ago. I don't remember seeing any prominent announcement, nor is it in the FAQ or any of the registration pages. The reason for the sudden outrage is that I just switched to Linux and I noticed the fan coming on at odd times. After checking top, I saw that java was eating up all my spare cycles. Maybe it's behaving oddly on Linux compared to the previous Windows install or my Mac at home, but still, I find it unacceptable. Websites should not be jacking all your extra cycles without very clear, unambiguous warnings.

When I said I'll deal with ads, I never said I would remove them. Maybe I should have said, "I'll put up with them."

The announcement was made when the change was implemented, that's why you did not see it.

The link is also in the bottom of any page that uses the app.

I agree that it should be in the registration page and/or the FAQ though.

hey how can i configure 'NoScripts'.... i've been having horrendous problems with my processor speed as well and did not realize until last month that it was this site doing it...

how can I get around this?

1) NoScript? how does this work and how can I activate it?
2) Donateion? how much do I have to give and how do I do this?

Firstly, why would this be any worse than having a badly programmed site that eats up cycles, spare or not?

It seems that you would prefer to have the developer of the site pay for your privilege of being able to play on it than have a sandboxed application run to support it.

I am startled that you looked so hard to find information about it in the FAQs and still didn't notice the icon at the bottom. It was announced when it was introduced, heck Kestas even asked us if we minded. We said "no". You can, if it causes particular trouble to you, opt-out by asking Kestas. If it is just you not wanting to have your computer run to play diplomacy, then what are you doing playing it on your PC anyway?

Of course, if you really don't want this, feel free to donate instead (think of it as a subscription fee). I shouldn't need to give you the link because you've already read it whilst checking over the whole site for an announcement when you signed up, but, for Babak's sake:

http://phpdiplomacy.net/faq.php#faq18

But really, please don't get worked up about developers' who are trying to cover their costs when giving you a service.

I don't see the big deal personally. It's not like I run consistently at 100% CPU usage by any means. If nothing else my computer's getting a little workout this way.

Also, if you investigate the Plura website, you can see exactly what the cycles are used for. Some of it is really good stuff. Do the words "it's for a good cause" mean nothing to you?

Well, I'll opt Babak and Malleus out...

The next version will allow players to manually opt themselves out, though for Kestas' sake I hope they don't, because he needs the money to cover server costs. It's really not a big deal... and a small price to pay for such a great site.

Ghostmaker, like I said, I'm willing to support the site in other ways. I understand that Kestas needs a way to support the site. But while you were around for the original announcement, I was not. Imagine what it's like to find out that, unbeknownst to you, a website was taking all of your spare processor cycles. That certainly doesn't inspire confidence, trust, or goodwill.

Chrispminis, thank you for opting me out. I suggest you add something to the registration and FAQ pages. I would have been far more amenable to running the applet if it had been disclosed upfront.

@malleus how old is the system you are running linux on. i didn't even notice it on any of my computers(though all of my computers are multicore 64bit processor with 3+gb of ram.) you might also want to make sure that java was properly installed and its the latest version.
i would be willing to donate more of my cpu i am never using more then 15%of my cpu when i am on diplomacy anyways

I had thought something was already added to the FAQ. Apologies about that.

As for Babak's concern, Plura only uses processing power that is not otherwise needed. It should in no way be preventing you from running other programs etc. (Though I can understand the concern about heating up if you use a laptop and tend to leave phpdip open regularly).

While I'm not freaked out by the plura system, I do agree it would be good if it was disclosed more clearly when you sign up for the site. It could certainly be a bit of a surprise.

And as has been discussed before the FAQ could really use some work anyway, might as well add that to the list of things to add!

I would really like to add a page to the menu called 'Plura'
It would have a full description of the project (with a frame to their website maybe?). More importantly it would have the applet on it also, so even if you'd opted out for whatever reason, you could still run it when feasible

Safford, it's a fairly new Core 2 Duo with 2 GB of RAM. It wasn't slowing down the machine noticeably, but it was definitely heating it up quite a bit.

Ghost, the difference between a java applet continually running and a web page is that NO web page will EVER use all your excess processor cycles. That isn't how DHTML and Javascript work. If javascript starts running out of control, most modern browsers sense it and ask if you want to continue running the script.

A website may very well use up more than the excess processor cycles, conceivably at least.

When I found out about plura a couple of weeks ago I was pissed off as well.
If you've got firefox' addblock installed just right click on the plura image and addblock that frame. The filter I'm using is "|http://pluraserver.com/?*".
I also remember calculating that leaving plura on, on an AMD XP 2400+ for 8 hours a day would cost about 3-5€/month in extra power.
Before I go on, let me just say that I don't think kestas or any of the mods are evil or malicious, if they were, they'd delete post like this one :-) , they do a brilliant job keeping this site up and running but I do think that using plura is a bad idea.
It's annoying (maybe not to all but to a lot of people), it slows down your computer, heats up your cpu, runs down your battery and you can't easily tell which website or program is causing it. It's this obscurity feature that makes it much worse that popup adds ever were.
Perhaps the powers that be might consider setting plura to be switched off by default and have people opt-in instead of the other way round.

I'd also like to repeat my suggestion that giving people who donate useless, but pretty stars beside their names would increase donations. Hell, if it would help get rid of plura I'd even code it myself.

thank you Chris -

I use a pretty old Laptop with 256mb of ram... yup... that bad. =P so hearing up is indeed an issue.

thx again.

I tend to agree that it should start disabled. Heck, you could even have a message appear once in a while asking users to either enable Plura or make a donation! And I like the idea of an addition icon — one icon for donators, one icon for Plura folks, perhaps a different icon if you do BOTH, and an icon for freeloaders.

I don't think it should be disabled by default, but maybe pointed out slightly more.
You wouldn't have turned it on if you didn't have to, which costs the site money. Its very expensive running this site, and you can't expect Kestas to pay for that himself, especially as he barely plays diplomacy!
Would be great if we could get more donations in though, and I've brought up donator icons with Kestas recently, so we'll see...

I'll ad my $0.02. It took me a couple of days to realize about the Plura Processing after I signed up. I completely understand and would have been fine with it if I had been told DURING the registration process.

As it is, I'm not concerned at home - but if I check on PHPDiplomacy at work, it's not my computer. I don't have the right to rent out it's CPU for my gaming pleasure. So, to be completely up front, I have to either never check my games from work, or something else. I chose the 'something else' - I simply use my hosts file to black hole PluraProcessing from my work computer. To make up for it, I leave phpDip up and running on my home computer so that they can use my CPU there.

It's a "nice'd" app. meaning that it only ever uses unused cycles - any process requesting CPU time will take precedence.

But it needs to be PROMINENTLY disclosed. And anyone that doesn't want to allow it should either be able to opt in to ads, or be pushed to the facebook app.

I understand that ads are more in your face and that this is more subtle, but people are getting mixed up about the motive, which is that.. ads are more in your face and this is more subtle. If I used ads I would block them myself, because I hate ads, and that would make me a hypocrite. Plura I have no problems running because I don't notice it, so I don't have a problem using it

I understand if people think it's about being devious and sneaky, but it's actually because I just hate ads. This has come up before and in the next version there is already a message in the FAQ and a manual opt-out feature. But remember that it only uses 70% of your CPU's unused cycles, there is nothing shady about it (it's for people who can't afford super-computer time), and that it helps keep this site running

jbalcorn; you're still using the CPU to render this page, it doesn't use as much CPU but it's hard to see a solid distinction there.


Ultimately if you don't like it feel free to block it, that's the policy that is in place in the new version. The fact that people are complaining that they didn't notice it for a long time I consider a good thing

Thanks to everyone who runs the applet for supporting the site. Think of it as your CPU cycles translating into the CPU cycles that generate these pages