*** ChanServ changed the channel topic to 'Mt.Gox Channel - Most issues fixed, perf OK, now have to decide a time for opening of trading'

I had the same concern, but as it turns out everything is ok. Just expect a 1 or 2 days delay on multipool.

It means that for 7594 shares multipool has submitted to a pool on your behalf, it is not clear yet how much they earned you. Maybe the pool where they have been sent has not found a block yet. Most of the time it's because the block where they participated in has not matured yet (less than 120 confirmations). As soon as those blocks reach 120 confirmations, the shares will no longer be pending and your "Earned" will go up. Later the "Collected" will go up, as Multipool gets payouts from pools. Then you get paid out. It's 12-24 hours usually from "Pending" to "Paid".

The shares that go to "solo" however take really long to pay out, because multipool has not found a block yet.

Aside from the odd connection issue:

Difficulty has doubled (almost i think) so any growth in the pool would have to take that into consideration... Further, as pool hashing increases in magnitude, unless your hashing personally has increased to match, you represent a smaller part of the solution then what you once did. This combined with the increased difficulty means that your contribution in shares is less as a proportion of the total shares req'd for solution; therefore lower payouts.

So long story short, if the pool doubles in power, and difficulty also doubles, then you will get less payout then what you did before on average. Welcome to the difficulty conundrum, and why so many are getting out of mining period. The difficulty is not likely to ever get easier from here till the end.

I understand what you are getting at, but I disagree. Just because you have a larger operation doesn't mean you will mine for longer. Given the equivalent hardware, once BTC earned from mining becomes equal to the electricity costs of mining, the guy with 10x more machines just loses 10x more money as the guy with 1x machine. The people who will last the longest are those with the lowest electricity costs. Efficiency of hardware will play a small factor (but not that large since there isn't a lot of variance in power efficiency). The bigger factor will the $/kwh paid for electricity. Basically one's geographic location will for the most part determine how long he/she can continue mining and still make a profit.

There will be a few people who get "free" electricity because they run their systems at work, in a dorm or whatever, but I think they will be outweighed by the tons of people who drop out of mining because their electricity costs make it unprofitable. Europeans I think will be the first to drop off, then big city dwellers in the US. Difficulty may dip for a while but it will eventually start growing again, at a slower rate, as some people jump back in, and those with cheaper electricity scale out with the new-found breathing room.

bcpokey: In other words, reduced variance is the only advantage of pooled mining.

Can the guys who are selling it all please comment and let me know what your motivations are?

Someone that thinks that it will be higher later?

its only worth what someone's willing to pay for it