Okay, like a lot of people, you’re trying to use Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (AMT) to make some money online. You are a diligent and steadfast worker, providing your Requesters with expedient and quality work. Your Acceptance rate is a sterling 100% and the pennies are building up in your Amazon account.
Here are a couple scenarios to knock your Acceptance rate down and lower your trust not only in the Amazon Mechanical Turk system, but in humanity.
Scenario #1
One day you see a bunch of juicy HITs with a decent reward and decide to jump on them. You open the HITS and read the instructions. They seem somewhat ambiguous and there might be some contradictory instructions. You decide to plow ahead anyway because the HITs look easy and the reward is good. You take a couple hours and you have a lot slew of these HITs completed and are awaiting approval from the Requester.
The next day you log on to Amazon Mechanical Turn and much to your dismay you see the wreckage that was once Acceptance rate and a lack of money in your account.
Scenario #2
You see a nice HIT that handsomely rewards the worker for a writing assignment. The Requester is new the AMT game, but the HITs has a great set of instructions.
Do this to this degree.
Finish this to match this criteria.
There’s some research to be done and you hit the books (or the wikipedia) and you are armed with all your necessary facts. You then set down to write. After an hour or so, you have a piece of art ready for submission and do one final check, then hit the Submit button.
The next day you get to experience the an unqualified rejection with no explanation. You write the Requester and get no response.
Well, in a normal workplace, you’d go right to management in effort to fight injustice, defend inequity, and protect humanity. And you hope to get paid.
Good luck with that, I say. I have approached Amazon in the past with a complaint regarding a poorly worded series of HITs that received a slew of rejections and they cited their standard policies:
“A Requester may reject your work if they believe the answer is wrong, the HIT was not completed correctly or that the instructions were not followed. If you believe that your work was rejected in error, you may decide to contact the Requester directly.”
Then they cited their policy on their role in Amazon Mechanical Turk process:
Amazon Mechanical Turk's Role:
Amazon Mechanical Turk provides a venue for third-party Requesters and third-party Providers to enter into and complete transactions. Amazon Mechanical Turk and its Affiliates are not involved in the transactions between Requesters and Providers. As a result, we have no control over the quality, safety or legality of the Services, the ability of Providers to provide the Services to Requesters' satisfaction, or the ability of Requesters to pay for Services. We are not responsible for the actions of any Requester or Provider. We do not conduct any screening or other verification with respect to Requesters or Providers, nor do we provide any recommendations. As a Requester or a Provider, you use the Site at your own risk.”
In other words, you are on your own.
If you know this, you then can take steps to protect yourself from being taken advantage of. I have an article where I discuss how to Avoid Rejection in the dog-eat-dog world of AMT. Check it out.
One day you see a bunch of juicy HITs with a decent reward and decide to jump on them. You open the HITS and read the instructions. They seem somewhat ambiguous and there might be some contradictory instructions. You decide to plow ahead anyway because the HITs look easy and the reward is good. You take a couple hours and you have a lot slew of these HITs completed and are awaiting approval from the Requester.
The next day you log on to Amazon Mechanical Turn and much to your dismay you see the wreckage that was once Acceptance rate and a lack of money in your account.
Scenario #2
You see a nice HIT that handsomely rewards the worker for a writing assignment. The Requester is new the AMT game, but the HITs has a great set of instructions.
Do this to this degree.
Finish this to match this criteria.
There’s some research to be done and you hit the books (or the wikipedia) and you are armed with all your necessary facts. You then set down to write. After an hour or so, you have a piece of art ready for submission and do one final check, then hit the Submit button.
The next day you get to experience the an unqualified rejection with no explanation. You write the Requester and get no response.
Well, in a normal workplace, you’d go right to management in effort to fight injustice, defend inequity, and protect humanity. And you hope to get paid.
Good luck with that, I say. I have approached Amazon in the past with a complaint regarding a poorly worded series of HITs that received a slew of rejections and they cited their standard policies:
“A Requester may reject your work if they believe the answer is wrong, the HIT was not completed correctly or that the instructions were not followed. If you believe that your work was rejected in error, you may decide to contact the Requester directly.”
Then they cited their policy on their role in Amazon Mechanical Turk process:
Amazon Mechanical Turk's Role:
Amazon Mechanical Turk provides a venue for third-party Requesters and third-party Providers to enter into and complete transactions. Amazon Mechanical Turk and its Affiliates are not involved in the transactions between Requesters and Providers. As a result, we have no control over the quality, safety or legality of the Services, the ability of Providers to provide the Services to Requesters' satisfaction, or the ability of Requesters to pay for Services. We are not responsible for the actions of any Requester or Provider. We do not conduct any screening or other verification with respect to Requesters or Providers, nor do we provide any recommendations. As a Requester or a Provider, you use the Site at your own risk.”
In other words, you are on your own.
If you know this, you then can take steps to protect yourself from being taken advantage of. I have an article where I discuss how to Avoid Rejection in the dog-eat-dog world of AMT. Check it out.
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