I would like to request the option to cancel tasks from the web interface. I recently had serious computer troubles and lost all the tasks I was running for different projects but many of them are listed as still in progress. An option to release these work units back into the pool would be beneficial for all

MikeG input:

People are always asking me to kill tasks for some host, and my answer (and our policy) is always to politely refuse.
There's two reasons for this. Actually, two variations of the same reason.
Once in a while a dead / lost / erased / spontaneously combusted host miraculously comes back to life. Then the user is asking you to restore their tasks.
More often, the user tells you the wrong host, or told you in error, was the victim of a "practical joke", etc.
In either case, be prepared for the inevitable "Oops!" request.
Also, users have been known to "BOINC while drunk" from time to time.
Also, not deleting those tasks (in most cases) doesn't hurt anything. Usually, there's no rush to complete a WU.
If there is a reason to want a WU to finish quickly, I still don't kill the tasks. I simply create additional tasks to speed the process along. Killing a host's tasks is just asking for more admin work to be done when something goes wrong. Enough things go wrong on their own without me helping!
We get a request like that once a month. The regulars know the drill well enough that the admins usually don't even have to answer. "Just ignore those tasks. They'll just time out and the server will send them out again."