Casting words sucks?

Discussion in 'CastingWords' started by spudarthur, Jun 24, 2012.

  1. pwt

    pwt User

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2012
    Messages:
    191
    Likes Received:
    0
    I used "Doctor XX" and someone changed it to "Dr.", even though the style guide says not to use abbreviations.

    Same old crap.

    I'll do that sometimes. My dictionary says "OB-GYN", but Wikipedia says "OB/GYN". I used the latter and left a note saying I was sticking with Wiki.

    I think the no abbreviations rule is for fake abbreviations, like "u" for "you". I see no reason why "OB/GYN" has to be written "Obstetrics and gynaecology" when that's not what the person said. I guess that's a little different than Saint, though. Two words, same pronunciation. Same with Doctor.

    They should clarify that in the style guide.

    On an unrelated note, I hope the work I'm doing right now gets good grades. $0.23 for 2:00 (takes me 9-10) is really slogging it. Glad for the work, though. There wasn't anything to do Thursday and Friday. Need to make up the lost time.
     
  2. hapless

    hapless Guest

    Yeah maybe I should've avoided the abbreviation, but I was in an ornery mood. (Doesn't matter. It's another sure 8 regardless.)
     
  3. hapless

    hapless Guest

    ... And boom. Turker grade 9, final grade 8.
    Typical, typical, typical.
     
  4. pwt

    pwt User

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2012
    Messages:
    191
    Likes Received:
    0
    I'm back to getting auto-approved 8s tonight. Two of them so far. Grade 9 from the same turker for both, paid for 8.

    Thanks turker, whoever you are. I appreciate the vote of confidence.
     
  5. pwt

    pwt User

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2012
    Messages:
    191
    Likes Received:
    0
    You gotta love this:

    Paid for an 8. I'll take that..

    And from the two exact same guys for the next HIT I did:

    Paid for a 9. $1.25 HIT, $2.50 bonus. Now that's what I'm talking about.
     
  6. interneteditor

    Joined:
    Jul 6, 2012
    Messages:
    362
    Likes Received:
    0
    Anyone else think 0.07c flat rate for transcription grading is a bit miserly? I skip through to see if there's a short one and if not I ignore them. You have no choice but to listen through the entire audio, sometimes more than once and if edits are required it can take a long time.

    They should alter the rate depending on the length of audio you have to listen to.
     
  7. pwt

    pwt User

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2012
    Messages:
    191
    Likes Received:
    0
    Not sure what I did, but I'm doing some great CD-quality Bulk Express (with premiums!) and 7/8 HITs were 9s. I've never had that happen before.

    I also noticed a day or two ago that my PPT actually changed for the first time since last fall. 93 to 94.

    I hate to think it means anything because it may be a fluke and I'm just setting myself up for a disappointing string of 8s. But I like this. I was expecting $19.60, but got $23.03 out of it. I think the only reason one of them was an 8 is because I keep typing "alright" instead of "all right". I know better, but since "alright" is a valid word and what 99% of people use, that's just what keeps coming out.

    Anyway... it's "Casting Words rocks" for me today.
     
  8. hapless

    hapless Guest

  9. interneteditor

    Joined:
    Jul 6, 2012
    Messages:
    362
    Likes Received:
    0
    Good idea Hapless and well done pwt on your 9s!
     
  10. pwt

    pwt User

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2012
    Messages:
    191
    Likes Received:
    0
    I'm dropping this in the CW sucks thread because it belongs here more than anywhere. I'm just kind of laughing at the first two HITs I did today, and this feedback.

    First HIT:

    Second HIT, same source, I did it *identically* to the first:

    CW gives me a 9, a Turker gives me an 8.

    CW gives me a 7, a Turker gives me a 9.

    Well then.

    For that 7, CW can do the nearly 250 HITs they have up today (many with a 160% premium because nobody wants to do them, but I was..) themselves. I'm taking the day off.
     
  11. hapless

    hapless Guest

    Enjoy your day off ~:)
     
  12. Whimsy

    Whimsy User

    Joined:
    Apr 22, 2012
    Messages:
    805
    Likes Received:
    0
    questions....is mjrichard2 from CW?

    I'm kinda confused. And I'm sorry about the grades. The willy nilly comment would chap me, too.
     
  13. pwt

    pwt User

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2012
    Messages:
    191
    Likes Received:
    0
    I believe he/she is, but I don't know that for sure.
     
  14. pwt

    pwt User

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2012
    Messages:
    191
    Likes Received:
    0
    As I tried to explain to you on the other thread, your experience is not a typical one. Far from it. There are many people who regularly do CastingWord HITs and have for years that have never had a problem with them.

    Just because you had a bad experience doesn't make them a bad company.
     
  15. beo

    beo Member

    Joined:
    Oct 29, 2013
    Messages:
    12
    Likes Received:
    0
    I feel the need to respond to Fallon with a far different experience. I've worked for CW for years. The work is better-paying than just about anything else on Mturk and not problematic problematic at all. Occasionally a job gets a bad score by accident or something like that happens but it never takes them more than a day to clear everything up if you email them about it. I've had only two out of approximately 2,500 jobs rejected (and honestly, both were my fault).

    I'm not sure why you asked them to delete your account, you could simply stop going to their site...
     
  16. pwt

    pwt User

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2012
    Messages:
    191
    Likes Received:
    0
    Ditto on the rejections. I've had two rejected out of 786 and those two were because I mistook instructions inside the HIT that was meant for editors for instructions for the transcribers.
     
  17. pwt

    pwt User

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2012
    Messages:
    191
    Likes Received:
    0
    You don't have a clue what you're talking about. I made $27.21 from CW last night in an hour and 48 minutes worth of work. That's $14.98/hour.

    Just because you only made $2-3 hour doesn't mean that is the experience that everyone has. You sound pretty new to CW which means your PPT only allows you to do the lowest paying HITs that CW has. People who produce quality work consistently have higher PPT scores which gains them access to higher paying jobs.
     
  18. vordai

    vordai User

    Joined:
    Aug 21, 2012
    Messages:
    51
    Likes Received:
    0
    I agree with pwt. Most of my HITs are CastingWords, and if you're PPT is high enough, you can work on their Expedited, which pay $1 per audio minute.

    It sounds like you've had bad experiences where you've been scored low on your transcriptions, probably due to issues with their style guide.

    I will say CastingWords is not for everybody. You have to clean up the transcript (non-verbatim) without changing the speaker's meaning. This can be subjective. Some people clean up too much, or not enough. I really think a worker's 'grammer personality' has to fit with what they're looking for. Either you're a good fit for the style they want, or you're not.

    Have you looked into SpeechInk? They're mostly verbatim so they might be a better fit for you. Also, CrowdSurf is good if you're just starting out. They're verbatim, and they put up really short video files. Just be aware that if you don't pass they're qual test the first time, you can never retake it.
     
  19. dancingfingers

    Joined:
    Jun 21, 2013
    Messages:
    61
    Likes Received:
    0
    FallonR don't stress just do SpeechInk hits or Redwood, Claritrans etc. It isn't worth getting yourself all worked up. As for some people here on this forum working for Castingwords, it would not surprise me.

    I transcribe for Speechink and have had no issues, but if someone does I would not be on every thread that questions or is critical of them defending, but instead would keep that information in the back of my mind.

    The constant and on every thread defending this company at every turn is pretty obvious and actually quite pathetic.
     
  20. dancingfingers

    Joined:
    Jun 21, 2013
    Messages:
    61
    Likes Received:
    0
    Actually the part that SpeechInk is " mostly verbatim" is untrue. I have completed hundreds of hits that are in fact not verbatim, and SpeechInk pays considerably more.
     

Share This Page