make the GREAT HITS section for members only

Discussion in 'General' started by rricplay, Nov 28, 2012.

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Should the "GREAT HITs" section be restricted to members only?

  1. Yes

    85 vote(s)
    52.8%
  2. No

    76 vote(s)
    47.2%
  1. l1n7

    l1n7 User

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    harsh? psh.. not even! :D

    I already said my opinion on this and I still feel the same way.
     
  2. atkins

    atkins User

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    You got that right! That used to be me however I have started turking more since this summer. Here is my 4 year total. I am still just a casual turker but have finally figured out how to make some $$ since I only do this on my lunch hour and maybe an hour or two in the evening. I do appreciate the Greatest Hits thread and this forum very much.
    2012 $1150.53
    2011 $0.54
    2009 $0.01
    2008 $0.24
     
  3. naturegirl

    naturegirl User

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    I'm not singling you out personally, hobomatic. I just picked your post to respond to because I think it's a classic mindset for someone who has not been around the forums much, and it provides a great jumping-off point for some things I've been wanting to say about this thread and this movement.

    If you're here steadily for even a month, you'll see posts here and there by folks doing at least as well as $80 a day. That would honestly be very unlikely if the ratio of 1 in 10,000 was anywhere close to accurate. There just aren't that many people Turking out there---and people Turking and reading this forum are even fewer. So the fact that there are even a handful of posts like that in any given month means that there are a lot more folks doing well than you think, and it's not as impossible as you think.

    That's natural. Many beginning forum members are amazed at the thought of $10 a day, and then their expectations start to ramp up, as they should. (And as you say, many people without the benefit of any forum give up completely, never reaching their first 10 days to get payout.)

    But although it's easy for people to think, "I need the Great HITs forum to succeed at Turking and therefore others can't share it if they're not making me money, too!"...I think that's shortsighted.

    I only even heard of Turk at the end of August this year, and I signed up for MTF on, I think, the last day of August. Started Turking on September 1, the day my account was approved. Now, I've had 3671 HITs approved (notice how low; obviously, I'm not a Great HITs user) and have a 99.7% approval rate (took chances for a bit there on writing requesters with no TO). I've taken a total of about three weeks totally off in that time, plus I haven't Turked full-time hours since mid-September---most weeks it's now 15 hours or less, and in addition to weeks off, there have been other weeks when I've Turked 5 hours or less for the week.

    Looking at my dashboard right this minute, it says total earnings are $1,639.07.

    I've had a $100 day ($114, I believe), but that included a sizable bonus that came through on that day. (I wasn't even trying to top the $100 mark, although I was already over $60 that day anyway.) As I posted in your Introductions thread, by now, I know that I can make $50 on most any weekday if I need to, and that's good enough for me, because I prefer to keep this part-time at most.

    The last time I even entered the Great HITs thread, it was to tell folks about the paid TurkOpticon interviews being done. I popped in, made that post, and was gone again. And yeah, I Turked that day. But as usual, I never used that thread at all. I loved it for my first 2 or 3 weeks, and it really helped me understand how Turking works. After that, I figured out a way that makes me personally at least as much or more every day, in lots less time, doing it a different way.

    You can say, "What do you know, you don't need or use it!" But here's my point: the Great HITs thread provides one good approach to making good money on Turk. There are others, including some I'm sure I'd never have thought of. Getting too protective of that one thread also can mean getting so invested in it that you'll never see (or create?) other Turking methods that are equally viable and profitable. I'd hate to see people get that tunnel-visioned and spend that much energy protecting something when it's just...one way to do it.

    My motto: always have a backup. That works a lot better than trying to keep other people away from what you think is a prize.
     
    #63 naturegirl, Dec 6, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 6, 2012
  4. leelu

    leelu User

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    Good morning everyone, thought I would throw in my opinion on this thread as well.
    I have to admit when I first saw this I thought "heck ya!" and voted yes on making greatest hits a members only forum. First thing that came to my mind, is we're the ones posting the hits, we should be the only ones that benefit.
    Then I read through some of the arguments, and have to say I changed my original thinking.
    First of all, registration is free, there are plenty of members who are on here regularly and don't contribute a thing except chit chat (not that there is anything wrong with that, I am one of them on occasion). Second, there are far more mturk workers then could ever be represented by this forum. I think while there is a possibility that lurkers snatch up some awesome hits before other forum members can, they were probably going to get snatched up anyway. Finally, I think some of our best members started out as lukers *ahem (me included ^_^)* and once they saw what an awesome group of people we are, decided to join the forum, and as a result became great members as well.
    I'm not familiar with any of the other turking forums, as this is the first one I have joined, and I like it here. But for people who want a strictly "members only" forum, where there is no banter or chit chat, I guarantee they are out there. I'm not saying people need to leave if they don't like how we play, I'm just saying its their choice. ANYWAY rant over, just wanted to throw in some food for thought!
     
    #64 leelu, Dec 6, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 6, 2012
  5. ChrisM77

    ChrisM77 Banned

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    I'm new and my opinion may not matter much, but here it is anyway.

    I just recently got back into Turking. I was spending (wasting) my time doing other "beer money" sites, mainly because there was a "fun" factor to them. I got bored with mTurk and found it nearly impossible to tolerate because of the monotony.

    Coming here changed all that. I'm a very competitive guy, and while I will never have the time to hang with you freak $100+ dollar a day people, I will still use you as motivation to get all I can.

    That said, if this forum starts over moderating, or becoming more like those other forums, then the spirit of what makes this place awesome will be lost.

    The only change I could see is having guidelines on HITs posted. I know this isn't r/HitsWorthTurkingFor, but it is "Great Hits" and a .70 30 min survey is not "Great".
     
  6. Moutheater

    Moutheater User

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    I try to keep my HITS and convos in one post with the HIT being bolded so people can find it if they're scrolling.

    That being said lighten up people. A little bit of convo never hurt anyone. Memes can be used to uplift your spirits when things suck. And HITs will be posted no matter what. I joined because I saw what it was like here before I signed up. I lurked for maybe 30 minutes and then signed up. The thread's gonna stay open and if you need need NEED to have a no nonsense thread--go make one, we're a forum not a dictatorship. Oh, and don't be RUDE to anyone.


    /rant.
     
  7. TurkworkOrange

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    I honestly don't see the 'problem'. HITs get posted, you try do them. Sometimes you can, sometimes not. I second all Rob's comments. naturegirl makes a great point about there being other ways to turk and leelu points out that lurkers gonna lurk - whether they are registered or not.
    I believe making it members-only will have zero effect on the way that thread and the forum in general works. And that's fine with me. The only real justification would be if it had a negative impact on bandwidth\cost to run the forum, which it doesn't sound like it from Rob.
    Also thanks to Rob and Andy for running a top quality forum! Deffo helped me a lot.
     
  8. Maggiemw

    Maggiemw User

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    I agree with RWStein. I came over here from the *other* forum where any useful thing I posted got immediately sent over behind the Separation Wall and I never saw it again. The experience taught me to despise secrecy, elitism and the whole "we're gonna make money and you're not, nyah nyah on you" mentality.

    If I can post something useful and pay forward what others have shown or taught me here, then that's good. I don't care who learns it.
     
  9. l1n7

    l1n7 User

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    just commenting on this last part (I just posted a .75 survey that was bad so i am very guilty of doing that lol). I think that would be hard to do (having guidelines). That brings up the "people should take the survey before posting" "debate" again. It is the greatest hits thread but it's hard to post just great hits because we don't know the outcomes of what we're going to post. Idk how everyone else posts (it's most likely like this), but when I see a survey, I check the TO and if there's an approximate time and then post it on the forum. I go off of that and hope it's going to be a good one so no one spanks me (ive been saying spank a lot lately on this forum). anyway.... my main point is that having guidelines will mean people that post surveys on the good hits thread will have to take the survey first which will cause a lot of people to miss out on it if it's gone when they're finished.
     
  10. aphotic

    aphotic User

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    I enjoy the Great HITs thread just as it is and I hope it stays that way. I started mTurk a while ago to try and make some extra money, but never really got anywhere with it. I'm a longtime reddit user, so I started using their HWTF sub when I found it. I would do the surveys posted there off and on, making about $5 a night.

    A couple of months ago, things got really tight financially. If anyone has worked in a tech startup that bootstraps, you'll know what it can be like. So I started looking for ways I could get more out of mTurk since I work from home with the startup. I started checking out the reddit sidebar for links to more mTurk sources.

    I registered for one site and then found out that you couldn't have access to their good HIT section until some fuzzy participation level was reached. Well, that really turned me off, but I registered, intending as a last resort to come back and try to "be a member." I check another cloud based option, but you had to register to see their forums. After the first scenario, I didn't feel like registering for yet another site where I might have to win good graces to get into "the good section" even though I wasn't sure that's how they worked.

    So then I came to mturkforum. I browsed around and like what I saw, a simple vBulletin solution that was clean and I could view all areas. I proceeded to check out the different forums and found the Great HITs section pretty quickly. I was amazed and how active it was and how many HITs were constantly posted. So I lurked for a few days and saw my best personal mTurk numbers I had ever seen.

    After a few days, I saw a post from RW (I think it was) saying how if you're a lurker, it's be great to have you register. I signed up that day. My turking skills have improved 1000% and I know now that if I had to get to by without mturkforum, I could. However, I enjoy coming to the Great HITs thread daily and really enjoy the conversations. I try to keep my posts mostly on topic, but when you turk for 10 hours a day, sometimes it's nice to have a bit of talk with others in the thread. Truthfully, if it was just HITs, I'm not sure how much I would enjoy it as much.

    I'll leave one suggestion. If the thread ever goes to HITs only, it would be nice to have some sort of chat room where people could talk and ask questions about how to do the HITs, or about requesters and such.

    I'm sorry this ran so long, but I really enjoy this site and how it is in its current state.
     
  11. ChrisM77

    ChrisM77 Banned

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    Did someone say memes?

    [​IMG]
     
  12. Kris

    Kris User

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    I've been sitting here for a while, trying to get my thoughts into coherent words, and getting frustrated that it wasn't coming out right. THANK YOU for saying what I was having trouble with.

    I've also seen the elitist clap-trap, not only over there, but in areas other than MTurk. I've got no desire to play some sort of kiss-up game and walk on eggshells in everything I do for fear of pissing off a grand poobah and being banned. What attracted me to this place to begin with was the sense of camaraderie, of helping each other and paying it forward.
     
  13. jckruth

    jckruth User

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    I can only do MTurk while caring for my daughter (doing this helps avoid daycare and their costs) so even though my name is constantly logged in here, I am often away from the computer. I know I do not post as often as others, but I'll share my opinion.

    When I am actively turking, I always try my hardest to share HITs that I find that are not already posted and that are actually worth the time to do. I lurked here for a month or so before signing up. The Great Hits thread is what caused me to sign up. Without seeing that thread, including their jokes and off topic conversations, I would have never joined. I saw numerous MTurk threads, and this was the only one that appeared both helpful and fun. If we take that away and hide it, how many potential members would we miss out on? Also, if we did start to miss out on more members, even part-timers like myself, wouldn't that equate to us possibly making LESS money since they wouldn't be around to post?

    Why "fix" something that isn't broken? We don't want to start appearing greedy (which would be the cause of hiding a great thread) and blend into the other forums that are out there
     
  14. hobomatic

    hobomatic Member

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    I have only been here a few days, but yeah, I have seen quite a few already.

    I think the disparity here is in what we are considering turkers. I am basing those numbers on the millions of mturk accounts, and I think you are talking about people who actively use mturk. The difference in these two groups alone is probably 1:100. So that puts it closer to 1 in 100 active turkers (people who use MTurk atleast one day a week) who can reach $80 dollar a day. IDK though, it was a pretty rough estimate.

    But I agree over all. Someone may be able to justify closing the thread off to non-registered users in the small, but I don't think it would have a positive impact on much of anything in the large.
     
    #74 hobomatic, Dec 6, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 6, 2012
  15. Rawrtin

    Rawrtin User

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    I think the thread is infinitely more helpful to people who are new. When you are new, you have no clue what constitutes a good hit, what TO is, what batch hits are, etc, etc. It takes some time to figure it out. I was a lurker for a long time before I became a member. I don't expect someone who is new to post great hits right away. After a while you kind of realize which requesters you prefer and what types of hits you excel at and the thread becomes less significant in achieving the amount of money you set out to make daily.

    Even if the forum was members only, I don't think that would solve a lot. I've seen members ask for batch hits while not contributing themselves. There's no easy way to force people to contribute. You kind of have to take the good with the bad.

    Slightly off topic but I saw that it was mentioned.. I understand that there's going to be off topic chatter in the hits thread. Thats good to a certain extent but when it gets out of hand and someone mentions people making a separate thread for whatever they are talking about, that person is attacked. There can be a lot of groupthink and it can derail the thread. I guess I just don't fully agree that the thread should be a free for all. It's not the only thread in the forum and it shouldnt be treated a such.
     
  16. RWStein

    RWStein User

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    Agreed!

    And there is a poll at this moment in the daily thread to determine what THOSE MEMBERS and USERS would like to see (and not see.) Any one who does not vote in that thread poll has no reason to complain about what happens... :D

    This is an open forum as a whole and in every part and will remain that way. However, majority rules in terms of what is or is not appropriate for a thread that was designed for a particular purpose. So let your voice be heard and let us know how you want it run (with the exception that it will remain open, PERIOD.)

    The daily thread generally moderates itself to whatever the popular desires are. So let's make those desires known. Trust me when I say - "Your voice is being heard!"
     
  17. Andy

    Andy Administrator
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    I'm loving the preliminary results for that poll.
     
  18. j0sh

    j0sh User

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    You mean the 83 (73.45%) NO's? :)

    Okay guys and gals... I think we've all pretty much added our 2 cents to this topic and both sides have been heard. Obviously Andy and RW made a decision and it's going to stick.

    So lets have a group hug :grouphug: and lets get back to Turking :)

    My 2 cents.
     
  19. RWStein

    RWStein User

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    To be FAIR... That poll is about more moderation... Not even whether it should be for Members Only... So WOW! at this point! It looks as though the people have spoken - but we will have a whole new crowd come later today and we shall see those results.

    To be FAIR - additionally - it looks like we may need to cut down on some unneeded chatter that is better suited for PMs as well as some R-Rated comments - but the group as a whole will handle that as usual. We also need to make sure posted images are on-topic and relevant and certainly not R-rated.

    Other than that I am very much looking forward to tonight's results and I will certainly stick by them!!!
     
  20. jckruth

    jckruth User

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    For all of those that want less off-topic chatter and such, have you ever stopped to see who it is that is often involved in this chatter? It is often those who post a ton of HITs and offers great advice. Piss them off, and see what good it does to your Turking abilities.
     

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