Changes to Forum Awards

[aveline]

I just want to give everyone a heads up that we are putting both the Crowd Pleaser and HIT Poster awards on hold indefinitely, as of today.

Over the last year, we've seen a pretty sharp decline in not just this forum community, but the MTurk community in general. Frankly, we're struggling to pay our server costs and just can't afford the extra costs of running two different awards each month.

Hopefully, it's not permanent. We're planning on having a discussion soon to see if we can figure out a way to rework the forum awards and their prizes, and we will keep you updated.


Thank you, everyone, for your participation in our silly monthly awards and for the donations that allowed them to keep going for as long as they did. You all are wonderful.

 

[Achilles2357]

I've only been doing this around a year, so I wonder: what are the signs of decline and what are the hypotheses regarding the cause?

 

[aveline]

I've only been doing this around a year, so I wonder: what are the signs of decline and what are the hypotheses regarding the cause?

I don't know, I guess it's just sorta personal observation, so I don't have hard numbers or anything. And I don't mean to make it sound like I think MTurk is dying or anything because I think it will continue to be around for quite some time, especially since Amazon seems to be more engaged with it lately than they had in the past. So maybe I spoke with a little hyperbole when I said "sharp" decline.

Personally though, I do believe that there isn't quite as much work out there as there was 2-3 years ago. Again, I'm not trying to imply that it's dire or anything; people do still make their goals every day and I think I see more high earners these days than I used to. But it does feel like there isn't as much volume anymore (I really wish Panos' site still properly tracked this stuff because I would love to compare the last couple years, just to see.) And maybe related or not, but I feel like I've seen more long-time turkers pulling away from the community in the last year or so than I had previously. I also think the community as a whole is slightly less willing to offer help or share knowledge. That's harder to judge though because the MTurk community has always been secretive/protective of knowledge.

And before someone inevitably takes exception to this, yet again, this is all just my opinion. A guess. My point of view could possibly be skewed by focusing more on this forum's community, which has always had a very large group of long-time turkers at its core. I could also just be jaded with the community, myself, after having been around for so many years.

As for the forum itself, the only real major decline seems to be the donations. The donations have certainly dropped off in the last couple months and that's something that the staff here will have to address. We've also lost a handful of key people (both members and some staff) due to them getting jobs or just needing to focus on other stuff. That has led to the activity here declining a bit, but that sort of decline is typically temporary as new people just kinda come in and take their place (and our new member registrations are at the highest point that they've been since last winter, which is right where we expect it to be heading into summer.) There's also a forum next door that's really hitting its stride right now, so there's a bit of a difference from when we were the only major forum in town a couple years ago.

Again, nothing dire or absolute. This just what was going through my mind when I said that.

 

[basketcasey]

What about keeping the forum awards with no monetary prize? I think it's good for morale and people might be happy just with the recognition and snazzy banner.

 

[kryss]

What about keeping the forum awards with no monetary prize? I think it's good for morale and people might be happy just with the recognition and snazzy banner.

If everyone likes that idea, I wouldn't see a problem with that at all!

 

[Pleco]

If everyone likes that idea, I wouldn't see a problem with that at all!

Time for a poll?