I just recently started mining a bit at your pool, and I do have one question..
I understand the double geometric scoring system, and I love the idea of it...
I am curious, though, why my prop-diff is quite often negative. I'm not starting and stopping the rig, so I'm hashing continuously. Shouldn't I be at 0 or higher? What would cause me to get paid less than my share (proportional) if I'm not 'hopping' or taking breaks in mining?
Enigma
If you've started recently what you're seeing is probably your score building up. Your score starts at 0 and as you continue mining it increases until it reaches an equilibrium (which changes if the pool's total hashrate changes). So at first you'll receive less than proportional, in equilibrium it will be roughly the same, and if you quit at any time your score will gradually decrease to 0 and you will keep receiving rewards for some time.
I have a feeling that he's referring to the wildly varying payout compared to the proportional calculation that a number of us have been experiencing over these past 60 or so blocks. The big up-swings in pool hash rate have caused some of us consistent miners to receive significantly smaller payouts when compared to proportional calculations for those blocks where the hash rate is unusually high. Once the hash rate settles back down, the payout very slowly recovers.
I, for example, am still down compared to proportional for about the past 60 blocks. I have a highly consistent hash rate and near 100% up- time, but the big swings in pool hash rate have not been kind to my payout.
That seems to be exactly what I'm talking about - although I can't be sure since I don't know the exact calculation/formula. Some blocks I'm ahead of the game, some behind - it's very inconsistent. Overall, I'm up compared to proportional - I'm just trying to understand why I often times end up in the red for a block or two. This definitely isn't me complaining - EMC seems like a great pool - I just want to be able to understand where the numbers come from.
Enigma
Oh, it is perfectly normal for there to be variations in the prop difference between blocks. These are caused mostly by fluctuations in the pool's total hashrate.
BUT I want it to be very clear that it is the proportional reward that changes, not the DGM reward. DGM is guaranteed to give the fair payout on average, proportional isn't. What you may have been seeing is that the fluctuations would cause you a higher than average rewards with prop, but DGM isn't affected so you see a negative differential (eg if people happened to join before a block was found, and quit after). If the fluctuations are random they could just as well decrease the prop payout and then you would see a positive differential.
Of course, I am not in any position to rule out technical problems with the pool itself which could cause abnormal behavior.
What would you like to know about the calculations? The details of DGM are described in the DGM thread, the prop reward is calculated by your shares / round shares * block reward. Maybe there could be a graph showing your share density over the round, if it's lighter near the end it means people joined there which would cause a higher proportional reward (and lower prop differential).
This has also been my experience, I mine 24/7 and, to be honest did much better with a scored system. Is there anyway to monitor our 'scores'?
This
is a score-based system, though different (and better) than the specific score-based method currently used in slush's pool. If you've received less reward per unit time than with another pool this is most likely a result of bad luck (maybe specifically the recent invalid blocks).
The displayed "estimated reward" is directly proportional to your current score.