Are bots now an epidemic problem with HITS?

[user9430961]

When I first started as a Turker back in April 2018, I had no problem getting and working HITS, yet over the past 3 or so months, I would guess about 25% of my HITS now require me to check off that I am a “human” or use CAPTCHA or have some form of puzzle type check to ensure that I am a human and not a bot completing a survey.

Yet I was just wondering, is there now an epidemic problem with Amazon Turkers using a form of bot system to complete HITS?

I have now done over a 1,000 HITS, yet with as many attention checks that I have found with a good percentage of my HITS, I can not image that someone has come up with a bot to do these various random type HITS, with the chance of the bot not being able to get pass the attention check(s) and the strong chance to the HIT being rejected.

Yet I would guess that these bots seldom make mistakes and can out smart the attention check(s), so that the HITS that the bots complete do not make enough mistakes to get enough rejections to close/suspend an account with too many rejections.

In my case, I take my HITS seriously, and strive to never get a rejection. “To me”, NOT getting a rejection is more important than whatever the HIT pays "To me", working a HIT is kinda like a game for me, where working the HIT and NOT getting a rejection is the fun that comes from working HITS and getting paid in the process for not getting a rejection.

 

[TSolo315]

A researcher noticed a pattern regarding junk responses he was getting: https://www.reddit.com/r/mturk/comments/95yy96/data_contamination/

Made the assumption it was a bot issue and scared other researchers into adding bot prevention measures to their surveys,

Turns out it was really foreign workers using VPNs just inputting nonsense: https://blog.turkprime.com/after-th...h-data-collection-on-mturk-and-how-to-stop-it

So no, bots are not an epidemic. Making a bot to fill out surveys without looking like a bot would be very difficult and more trouble than it would be worth.

 

[user9430961]

TSolo315, thank you so very much for shedding light on this issue. OMG! Up until I read those articles (via the 2 links you provided), I had no idea that is what had happened.

Thanks again.

 

[MICHAEL BUDAY]

I to started on MTurk December 2017, and have also noticed the amount of work way reduced since last May. I too have done over 2500 jobs and only have 19 rejections. I do everything I've read here to get more work, and to some degree am able to nonchalantly make $10.00 a day (just want to cover some bills), but I've heard about these "bots" and TSolo315 gives some thanks in making me feel a little better.
I do know that there are a ton of us wanting to do jobs, and they always go way to quickly. But, what gets me is when a HIT goes up and is looking for 15 or more people, that those HITS vanquish quickly as well.
I really hope there isn't anything shady going on, as it's nice working from home. And MTurk is a Godsend.

 

[user9430961]

I to started on MTurk December 2017, and have also noticed the amount of work way reduced since last May. I too have done over 2500 jobs and only have 19 rejections. I do everything I've read here to get more work, and to some degree am able to nonchalantly make $10.00 a day (just want to cover some bills), but I've heard about these "bots" and TSolo315 gives some thanks in making me feel a little better.
I do know that there are a ton of us wanting to do jobs, and they always go way to quickly. But, what gets me is when a HIT goes up and is looking for 15 or more people, that those HITS vanquish quickly as well.
I really hope there isn't anything shady going on, as it's nice working from home. And MTurk is a Godsend.

Hey there Michael. Congratulations on doing over 2,500 HITS! WOW!!!

I know that there is still a TON of stuff I need to read about Amazon Turk, but I just don’t have the time . . . I really would just prefer to concentrate on making $5 to $7 a day, and I’m happy. Thus far, if I really apply myself, at least during the week (Monday - Friday), I usually can make that amount. Yet often I don’t bother Turking on the weekends, because “for me”, it is often hard to make $1 on a Saturday or Sunday (since there does not seem to be many HITS available (when I try to Turk), and I don't have the time to wait to stare at my computer for HITS to come in on a typical weekend . . . yet a few months ago, I was able to score a nice $5 HIT early one Saturday morning, I guess because there were not that many Turkers online at the time, so I was able to get the HIT.

If I am not mistaken, I think I read in an article (before I started Turking), that there are various computer programs that Turkers can get (that can be customized) to automatically accept HITS when they are available . . . thus making it hard to manually get the ones that a person might want or making it harder to manually get a high paying one . . . thus with those programs, a HIT looking for multiple people are scooped-up in about 1 - 2 seconds. Yet I think with those computer programs, you can set it to automatically accept a HIT (for example) when it is more than $2 . . . thus those HITS disappear as soon as you see it.

Yet I really don’t want a program gathering HITS for me, because I do not want to take a chance I miss or forgot one and they end up expiring . . . which may effect my overall performance record.

Yet I do find it irksome that some HITS have tiny Attention Checks, that it seems like the requestor “REALLY” wants a Turker to fail, just so that there HIT is rejected. Out of all of the rejections I received (I only have 5 thus far, out of 1,175 HITS), it was always on a HIT that payed less than 40 cents. I often do not find such hard & stern types of trickery in HITS that pay over $1. As a rule, I always block a requester that rejects my work . . . to better avoid their possible tricks for future HITS. I try always be thorough with all of my work, but I hate rejections, and it seems like I have gotten less rejections by blocking the requestors that have issued me a rejection.

Yet it really irks me, when they hid Attention Checks in the main information page of a HIT, where it might have a question at the end of the information page, but buried in the HIT information page, it will say something like “skip answering that question at the end of the page, and hit the arrow button to start the survey, to show us that you are paying attention”. I’m like, who has time to read an information page that will take 3 - 5 minutes to read, when the HIT only pays 25 cents, but will take 15 - 20 minutes to complete (AFTER) you read the main HIT information page. GRRRRR!!!

Anyway Michael, that is my two cents worth. Yet maybe someone else will come along and shed more light on your post.

Good luck to you.

 

[jan]

Hey there Michael. Congratulations on doing over 2,500 HITS! WOW!!!

I know that there is still a TON of stuff I need to read about Amazon Turk, but I just don’t have the time . . . I really would just prefer to concentrate on making $5 to $7 a day, and I’m happy. Thus far, if I really apply myself, at least during the week (Monday - Friday), I usually can make that amount. Yet often I don’t bother Turking on the weekends, because “for me”, it is often hard to make $1 on a Saturday or Sunday (since there does not seem to be many HITS available (when I try to Turk), and I don't have the time to wait to stare at my computer for HITS to come in on a typical weekend . . . yet a few months ago, I was able to score a nice $5 HIT early one Saturday morning, I guess because there were not that many Turkers online at the time, so I was able to get the HIT.

If I am not mistaken, I think I read in an article (before I started Turking), that there are various computer programs that Turkers can get (that can be customized) to automatically accept HITS when they are available . . . thus making it hard to manually get the ones that a person might want or making it harder to manually get a high paying one . . . thus with those programs, a HIT looking for multiple people are scooped-up in about 1 - 2 seconds. Yet I think with those computer programs, you can set it to automatically accept a HIT (for example) when it is more than $2 . . . thus those HITS disappear as soon as you see it.

Yet I really don’t want a program gathering HITS for me, because I do not want to take a chance I miss or forgot one and they end up expiring . . . which may effect my overall performance record.

Yet I do find it irksome that some HITS have tiny Attention Checks, that it seems like the requestor “REALLY” wants a Turker to fail, just so that there HIT is rejected. Out of all of the rejections I received (I only have 5 thus far, out of 1,175 HITS), it was always on a HIT that payed less than 40 cents. I often do not find such hard & stern types of trickery in HITS that pay over $1. As a rule, I always block a requester that rejects my work . . . to better avoid their possible tricks for future HITS. I try always be thorough with all of my work, but I hate rejections, and it seems like I have gotten less rejections by blocking the requestors that have issued me a rejection.

Yet it really irks me, when they hid Attention Checks in the main information page of a HIT, where it might have a question at the end of the information page, but buried in the HIT information page, it will say something like “skip answering that question at the end of the page, and hit the arrow button to start the survey, to show us that you are paying attention”. I’m like, who has time to read an information page that will take 3 - 5 minutes to read, when the HIT only pays 25 cents, but will take 15 - 20 minutes to complete (AFTER) you read the main HIT information page. GRRRRR!!!

Anyway Michael, that is my two cents worth. Yet maybe someone else will come along and shed more light on your post.

Good luck to you.

In your post, you worry about not wanting hits to expire.

Amazon used to collect that as a statistic and it was used, albeit rarely, by requesters. (Very, very rarely).
It is no longer collected as a statistic. So, returned hits and expired hits are no problem

 

[jan]

I to started on MTurk December 2017, and have also noticed the amount of work way reduced since last May. I too have done over 2500 jobs and only have 19 rejections. I do everything I've read here to get more work, and to some degree am able to nonchalantly make $10.00 a day (just want to cover some bills), but I've heard about these "bots" and TSolo315 gives some thanks in making me feel a little better.
I do know that there are a ton of us wanting to do jobs, and they always go way to quickly. But, what gets me is when a HIT goes up and is looking for 15 or more people, that those HITS vanquish quickly as well.
I really hope there isn't anything shady going on, as it's nice working from home. And MTurk is a Godsend.

There are literally thousands of turkers on line at any moment - so while 15 hits disappearing all at once seems remarkable (as you watch your computer).

It's not. The competition is fierce

 

[user9430961]

In your post, you worry about not wanting hits to expire.

Amazon used to collect that as a statistic and it was used, albeit rarely, by requesters. (Very, very rarely).
It is no longer collected as a statistic. So, returned hits and expired hits are no problem

Thank you Jan, I appreciate your help. I feel better now.

Out of curiosity, when a HIT is returned, do they pop back up as an available HIT or does the requester have to resubmit it again, so that another Turker can work it?

 

[jan]

Thank you Jan, I appreciate your help. I feel better now.

Out of curiosity, when a HIT is returned, do they pop back up as an available HIT or does the requester have to resubmit it again, so that another Turker can work it?

it comes up as available. That's why we panda hits that are gone - so that we can catch them -if they are returned or expire for someone else

 

[user9430961]

it comes up as available. That's why we panda hits that are gone - so that we can catch them -if they are returned or expire for someone else

Thank you, Jan. I appreciate your help and great answer to my question. Thanks so much.

 

[Minx2121]

https://imgur.com/a/6Qf5K0V

I know this isn't the right forum for this so I apologize, just testing to make sure I remembered how to post a picture

 

[Louiedoo1]

Hello, I have just completed my first month! But I do have a question and I hope I'm on the right thread to ask it. When you are working on jobs that require you to go to another website for information like Linked in or Craigslist, how do you prevent your accounts on those sites from being restricted? I know can't get in to my Linked in account until I give them my Driver's license photo and what for review. Is there a way around this for future reference?

 

[TSolo315]

Hello, I have just completed my first month! But I do have a question and I hope I'm on the right thread to ask it. When you are working on jobs that require you to go to another website for information like Linked in or Craigslist, how do you prevent your accounts on those sites from being restricted? I know can't get in to my Linked in account until I give them my Driver's license photo and what for review. Is there a way around this for future reference?

You could make fake accounts for working on batches and have a turking dedicated browser/profile that keeps you logged into them. If you look like a bot they might just block your IP though -- although I've been doing this a long time and that's never happened to me.