There are some changes to the stats system which are needed for consistency between the web site stats (eg https://stats.foldingathome.org/donors) and the flat files (eg https://apps.foldingathome.org/daily_user_summary.txt.bz2). The main issue is how we handle passkeys and their impact on donor rankings. I want to stress that this will not change point values or anything other than how we list the ordering of donors in our ranking.
Passkeys are a relatively recent addition to Folding@home. The passkey, a new feature beginning with the v6.0 FAH client, is a unique identifier that ties your contributions directly to you (not just those with your donorname). The use of a passkey prevents others from cheating using your name.
In order to have the stats flat files match the web site in terms of donor ranking, we need to change both the flat files and the web site. The issue is how we handle passkeys. The web site ignores accounts with passkeys right now (needed to do a fast SQL count(*)), whereas the flat files aggregates all passkey accounts into the same donor name and then orders by the aggregate points for that donorname.
Our proposal to fix this is to treat each donorname+passkey combo as a unique donor in terms of ranking in the flat files and web site. This would let the two be consistent. We've batted around alternatives and nothing else would fit the goals of being fast for the web site and consistent between the two. We will not of course give out the passkey in the file, although we are planning on distinguishing passkeys by revealing the last 2 digits. This should be enough to identify different accounts without giving away any critical information.
In the next few days, we will release flat files with the additional donorname + passkey info. After May 1, we will transition the FAH web stats to use the same method. This lag between the two is intended to give 3rd party stats a chance to update their scripts, if they choose.
I want to stress that 3rd party stats could choose to aggregate in the old way or the new way. We are making this change mainly so that the stats we present are consistent.