10/26 - Finish Strong Friday!

[Merovign]

Also from a total noob who shouldn't tell anyone anything about anything, I see a lot of talk about Masters and I don't think it's relevant to 99% of people 99% of the time.

I mean what little official has been said indicates it's really out of your control, and it seems like they're looking for workers with really specific characteristics, and that means they *want* top find *you* and not the other way around, because if you're trying to shape your statistics to meet that goal they won't get what they're looking for.

So basically, I've decided not to worry about it. I don't think it's essential. I also think most of them are really busy and not chatting with the folks, probably, like most other 1% alpha-achievers.

 

[keladry2009]

Numbers (as in HIT quantity) typically only matter for your first 1,000 HITs, or if you want to try to hit 5,000-10,000 for some HITs that require you to have completed a lot in order to do them.
I have a rough PE goal to hit, a "soft target" (low, but good enough if I have other things to do) and a "hard target" (if I hit this, I am happy, and can consider the day over at any point).
I have a time I am SUPPOSED to set aside for working, but I tend to blur that with doing 10 other things, and never stick to it, but that's just me. Having set hours can help you hit your set PE goals MUCH easier (or be like @SherryNotShirley and start at like 5am and work until you hit a big number or pass out, whichever comes first ).

Numbers matter less and less over time, and becomes about quality of surveys/games/whatever, and batches (big groups of HITs that you can do many of, but that pay enough to make it worthwhile). Batches tend to be where the money is, if you can do them efficiently and accurately, or have the qualification for certain ones (some of which no longer offer the qualification test to get them, which is dumb, but hey, MTurk).

TL;DR, Try hard, work hard, learn as you go, ask questions before taking leaps, and use your resources (the ones available on this forum especially, and of course plug-ins like MTS, with Hit Finder, and PandaCrazy).


I don't know why I'm giving advice, since I'm currently missing my targets and feeling less confident than ever, but hey, I've heard this advice enough times that I could probably write a guide and STILL have no idea what I'm doing!

thank you i appreciate all the advice anyone can give me! haha! i just downloaded mts the other day and its AWESOME but i haven't tried any panda software since i just finished my first thousand and it seemed like they were more about quality hits than quantity. I should give it a shot! ill let you know how it goes for me!
And speaking of batches, I was doing those sweet Noah hits i kept hearing about on the forum today and promptly got kicked off them! Which i was TOTALLY bummed about hopefully next batch i can do better!

 

[Merovign]

thank you i appreciate all the advice anyone can give me! haha! i just downloaded mts the other day and its AWESOME but i haven't tried any panda software since i just finished my first thousand and it seemed like they were more about quality hits than quantity. I should give it a shot! ill let you know how it goes for me!
And speaking of batches, I was doing those sweet Noah hits i kept hearing about on the forum today and promptly got kicked off them! Which i was TOTALLY bummed about hopefully next batch i can do better!

Well I can't help much, though I am a compulsive researcher so I've read and viewed all sorts of tutorials over the last few days. I figure I know maybe 2% of what I need to know now. I think just listening to what other people are doing, trying different stuff (risk of rejection), keeping track of your results, and modifying your search pattern as you go is most of it.

This is definitely faster with scripts, but I figured I'd learn vanilla for a couple of days (besides I was doing updates on the new machine all yesterday).

I definitely plan to work away from distractions at some point, I have a desk in my bedroom I need to clear off. Maybe not all day but for a few hours. I think that will help because not counting complete wastes of time / failed hits, I'm probably only 50% efficient still.

 

[EverfreeTree]

thank you i appreciate all the advice anyone can give me! haha! i just downloaded mts the other day and its AWESOME but i haven't tried any panda software since i just finished my first thousand and it seemed like they were more about quality hits than quantity. I should give it a shot! ill let you know how it goes for me!
And speaking of batches, I was doing those sweet Noah hits i kept hearing about on the forum today and promptly got kicked off them! Which i was TOTALLY bummed about hopefully next batch i can do better!

Well I can't help much, though I am a compulsive researcher so I've read and viewed all sorts of tutorials over the last few days. I figure I know maybe 2% of what I need to know now. I think just listening to what other people are doing, trying different stuff (risk of rejection), keeping track of your results, and modifying your search pattern as you go is most of it.

This is definitely faster with scripts, but I figured I'd learn vanilla for a couple of days (besides I was doing updates on the new machine all yesterday).

I definitely plan to work away from distractions at some point, I have a desk in my bedroom I need to clear off. Maybe not all day but for a few hours. I think that will help because not counting complete wastes of time / failed hits, I'm probably only 50% efficient still.

Honestly, the best advice is just... try hard, try your best, and be sincere. Give every HIT a fair attempt, don't try to cheat it or rush it or whatever, unless you know that's okay already (like in some batches).
Rejections can be overturned, or, if the requester is responsive and reads your messages, a quick apology and sincere attempt to make up for a mistake can avoid a rejection entirely.
I have 3 rejections. One being an actual error, 2 being from requesters who do not listen to communications and are on my block list.
I've avoided them beyond that, by just sending an honest and apologetic message.
And, hilariously, some requesters are human enough to understand your mistakes and will avoid rejecting you on some simple slip-ups, while others are apparently super-human and have given me a bonus for kindly explaining my error and helping them to improve the design of their HIT, to avoid it in the future.

So yeah, give everything a sincere try, and if they still reject it, give them a kindly-worded message, gently requesting that they give you a make-up HIT so they can overturn the rejection, and if they STILL don't respond or overturn it... shake it off and move on.
That's about all I can say.
...
Inb4 tomorrow I wake up to 40 rejections and start screaming.
Carry on.

*edit*
Also, even if don't think you made a mistake, a simple "Thank you " in the "comments/feedback" box can make a requester think twice about a rejection .
That helps sometimes.

 

[Merovign]

I have 3 rejections. One being an actual error, 2 being from requesters who do not listen to communications and are on my block list.
I've avoided them beyond that, by just sending an honest and apologetic message.

Yeah this one, I'm pretty sure which one it was, I should have just hit return. It was flawed, let's say. I did send them a message apologizing, tried to give a little feedback, didn't really ask for a reversal because I think I blew it (at least it was day two instead of day one!).

Next time if there's a doubt, I'll just return it and move on. Because you don't *have* to eat what's on your plate around here... as far as I know (there could be requests you can't back out of for all I know).

 

[Merovign]

P.S. the one I got no credit for was dvamnr (requester), if you're curious, you probably wouldn't do it because low payout, unless you're trying to get your numbers up (it was pretty easy, but again no credit at all even though it submitted).

 

[Kerek]

 

[Merovign]

I feel like this all the time.

 

[Theta Carinae]

what's everyone up to?

I finished my wretched paper and now I'm going to go ESO my brains out.

Everyone reading this right now: IT'S FRIDAY NIGHT GO DO SOMETHING FUN

 

[Merovign]

I finished my wretched paper and now I'm going to go ESO my brains out.

Everyone reading this right now: IT'S FRIDAY NIGHT GO DO SOMETHING FUN

How's ESO doing these days? I kind of threw up my hands the last time I logged in and had to respec everything on every alt.

 

[turkinlight]

P.S. I'm still running really inefficient right now as I don't know my way around yet, and while the scripts are on the new machine I'm setting up to dedicate to this, I'm doing these hits on my gaming machine, with none of the extras set up! I really shouldn't do that, probably why I got the rejection, not checking requesters out first. Bad form. Will have the new machine ready tonight or tomorrow.

I ALREADY LIKE YOU. I HOPE you STICK around

 

[Merovign]

I ALREADY LIKE YOU. I HOPE you STICK around

I intend to.

Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Little Black and Blue Macheenie

 

[turkinlight]

I intend to.

Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Little Black and Blue Macheenie

GLAD to HEAR it. There are FOUR QUAL tests up RIGHT NOW by the HIT MAKER AKIN. You SHOULD DO THEM. QUALS are a KEY to SUCCESS on the MECHANICAL TURK platform!

 

[Castor]

Sergey fatigue is hitting me hard tonight. My dog abandoned me about 150 hits ago

 

[Merovign]

GLAD to HEAR it. There are FOUR QUAL tests up RIGHT NOW by the HIT MAKER AKIN. You SHOULD DO THEM. QUALS are a KEY to SUCCESS on the MECHANICAL TURK platform!

*Thank you* Doing them right now (if I end up qualified, as I say I was "born" yesterday).

 

[turkinlight]

*Thank you* Doing them right now (if I end up qualified, as I say I was "born" yesterday).

Make SURE to TAKE your TIME on these. It is BETTER NOT to WORRY about AN HOURLY rate on a QUAL TEST.

 

[Merovign]

*Oh boy* somebody doesn't know what "transcendence" means. (sigh)

(At least they are very specific about what they want, which is a good thing.)

 

[TissueHime]

1 hour left for dibs!
if you do call it, please tag me or else i might miss it

 

[JenniLeigh]

Also from a total noob who shouldn't tell anyone anything about anything, I see a lot of talk about Masters and I don't think it's relevant to 99% of people 99% of the time.

I mean what little official has been said indicates it's really out of your control, and it seems like they're looking for workers with really specific characteristics, and that means they *want* top find *you* and not the other way around, because if you're trying to shape your statistics to meet that goal they won't get what they're looking for.

So basically, I've decided not to worry about it. I don't think it's essential. I also think most of them are really busy and not chatting with the folks, probably, like most other 1% alpha-achievers.

That's probably pretty true... since I have Masters... but also shitty internet, and hardly catch anything It's not always about that.

 

[Merovign]

That's probably pretty true... since I have Masters... but also shitty internet, and hardly catch anything It's not always about that.

Well, congratulations! You have the work habits they desire! Sorry about the internet, though. Rural?

Also, why do I always catch spelling errors in posts when other people quote them?