(...)
These people are getting a punished while we don't deserve that.
(...)
And the last thing we need is our pool operator kicking us while we're down by cutting our pay.
To me, this is injustice.
Ah, I understand your issue now. From the pool's perspective, unintentional disconnects look the same as pool-hopping, but round-based pool like Slush's must have protection against pool-hoppers -- that's why Slush scores each share based on its time submitted -- round.total-score = sum(share.score + exp ((share.time-since-round-start)/c), where c is calculated based on total number of shares for the round and your shares-per-second across the round. While it might seem that older shares are reduced in value as they age, the truth is that each share after your first one increases in value.
You are not "punished" for a disconnect. Let's say you submitted 100 shares then dc'd for the rest of the round. At the end of the round, those 100 shares have the same score based on when they were submitted as they would have had if you'd mined all the way through the round. You are paid for the work you did.
This is not quite true.
- To be paid for the work you did, you have to go for a PPS pool.
- There's effectively no difference whether your new shares pay more than the old ones or the old ones pay less than the new ones.
- Your score (value of shares) is recalculated from time to time in long rounds. The ratio of the old shares to the new ones is kept, but their absolute value is not.
These are facts to be corrected relating the quoted post.
In fact, you
are punished for disconnection. You're punished
exactly the same way you'd been in PPS in the long run, provided that you disconnect asynchronously, i.e. randomly.
At Slush's, you can either lose, when you disconnect near the round end, or you can gain, when you disconnect at some other time. In the latter case, your payout for the round won't be decreased due to the disconnection, although you would deserve some decrease. And as the time constant
c is hopefully still 300 seconds and an average round is several times longer, it's greater chance for you to gain a bit than to lose substantial part of the reward.
Anyway, in the long run that should
even out, as is the popular phrase in this thread for some time already... :-)