Did any of you do this HIT back when it was offered? If I remember correctly, the task was to write a 250-word story about anything you wanted, with the knowledge that it would be posted to mechanicalturkdiaries.com. I'm pretty sure the requester promised that the site would never have any ads and no attempt would be made to profit from the stories. 25 cents. Or was it 20? Not surprisingly, many chose to write about their life circumstances and how Mechanical Turk fits into that. Others didn't constrain themselves. Quite a few of the stories are very engaging. There's some impressive writing to be found among them, some real gems. Yes, and you may even find a number of stories rather depressing. Definitely one of the most interesting projects I've seen pass through MTurk.
I was surprised at how many people did that HIT, it was like a trip down memory lane reading some of them!
Very interesting stuff, but who is behind it? Do we know? This is exactly the kinds of people I'd want as our community callers! I don't see any contact info on the site, which looks like Tumblr
I honestly DO NOT understand why that requester does not want to profit from the site? We are all out here to make money and I am sure if the site was profitable turkers would love to do more HITs like that one.
Profit isn't measured only by money. 25 cents is hardly fair compensation for a 250-word story. The requester made a sacrifice of money in order to encourage workers to sacrifice a good story for a below-market (even for mturk) wage. Would I share an interesting 250-word story for 25 cents with someone who intends to make money off of it? No. If you're going to profit financially from mturk, pay at least the going mturk rate for the amount and quality of work you want done. So the requester ended up with an interesting site, with better stories than he normally would have gotten for his investment. Though every piece is different, the collection taken together tells a story. Maybe he wanted to hear that story and share it with others. Workers got out of it a place to see their writing showcased together with their fellow workers', where the origin being from mturk isn't hidden like some dirty little secret. Sounds profitable to me.
Are you kidding me? 25 cents not fair compensation? Sure it is. Otherwise no one would have done it, don't you think? I know I sure as heck don't work on any turks that don't offer me compensation that I think is fair. Its free market.
I explained this already: The requester made a sacrifice of money in order to encourage workers to sacrifice a good story for a below-market (even for mturk) wage. I've seen the work that gets submitted when wages are too low even by turking standards. This requester got good work by changing the normal dynamic. People who normally wouldn't have accepted such a HIT did so precisely because of that. Some of them even mentioned so in their writing. Most requesters who solicit writing from turkers and won't pay the going rate end up leaving soon afterward, because few decent writers accept such tasks. It's not worth saving $2 if you have to spend significant time editing what you receive. Or they end up having to raise their rates. One recent requester admitted she spent all day editing the submissions she received. When she learned that she could spend less time editing by paying more and making it clear that only good quality articles would be accepted, she did so. You'll understand after you start soliciting a lot of work through mturk yourself. Sometimes you get lucky with a few people, but for the most part you get what you pay for. The only way to consistently get excellent results while underpaying is to imbue the work with some other incentive -- make it fun, make it unusually interesting, make it seem worthwhile for reasons apart from the base financial reward. Few requesters manage this successfully. But feel free to try. Mechanical Turk is still largely unexplored territory even after 3.5 years. You may find the winning combination.
Bingo!, dude. "Profit" can also be explained as satisfaction, an urge to get something off ones chest, a desire to proselytise, or simply a desire to help one another. There are thousands of online forums where UNPAID volunteers willingly impart their knowledge to those less educated. For NO money but just because it make them feel good. I would guess that 98% of the people that post on the internet do so without regard to monetary gain. And for those of us...who both do "volunteer work" on the help forums AND earn a few shekels...some fun money...on Mechanical Turk, well more power to us! My keyboard is NOT coin operated.
And we've one of the best examples of such great persons here itself: the one whose post you replied to - ergo
JF, thanks, man. I can always count on your support. Everyone needs a true fan! Don't forget, folks, the membership fee for the Ergo Fanclub will be due again soon! The price is going up to $20/yr, but that includes not only the membership card and monthly newsletter, but a 4x6" autographed picture as well. (8x10" $10 extra.)