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.