I ran into the same problem myself, posted about it a couple different places so I would get different responses from different people and not the same canned responses all the time. Not one thing out there is going to show you how it works. These pools we join are all done by programmers. That programmer is the only person who knows what's going on. I hear so many people say they are making great return...then my story is the opposite. Who knows. Once it all becomes commercialization we won't have to worry about anything.
I have tried a couple different pools myself....staying on each on for a few days....I do favor one of them above the rest, but according to some of the online calculators I've tried out, i'm still making a little less than what I "should" be getting back. I've come to the conclusion that everyone is in the same boat and to compensate they just go out and buy more hashing power to make themselves feel better.
i think i shant like to be included in this boat you speak of
i work by the numbers, not superstitions
i made great returns, my mistake was not buying a batch 1 or 2 avalon and not keeping the thousands of bitcoins i mined. but as for the asics, there hasnt been one worth buying in over 6 mo
asicminer smart, sell all that shit for 3x value instead of mining with it. gpus required a little more technical expertise, now we're open for the masses.
bitcoins version of the transition from .edu, .gov, .mil, and the few .com shell providers to using slip/ppp on crap like AOL
