Can everyone just stop doing Oscar Smith HITs already?

Discussion in 'General' started by chaos, Jul 18, 2012.

  1. chaos

    chaos User

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    This guy is a thief. Milking hours and hours of work out of people for next to nothing. The worst part is that he, and requesters like him, are ruining turk for everyone. Every time one of his HITs are completed it's like we're just saying that it's OK to pay slave wages and we'll just take it.

    If enough people would just quit doing these long 1 or 2 cent HITs, these requesters would be FORCED to pay higher wages or their work wouldn't be done. Unless a job takes 15 seconds or less, 2 cents is an insult.

    It's all a matter of people being willing to work for such low wages. Stop working for peanuts and requesters have no choice but to pay more.
     
  2. Whimsy

    Whimsy User

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    It's reliable work for Indian workers. A lot of the batch HITs are only open to US workers. Transcription jobs don't hold that qualification but your ear has to able to detect a lot from the language.
     
  3. chaos

    chaos User

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    I understand that, but it is seriously ruining mTurk for everyone. Requesters find that they can get their work done for what amounts to $2/hour (or even worse in the case of Oscar Smith), so they have no reason to pay a reasonable rate.

    That's why I stick to requesters that CHOOSE to pay a fair rate. The ones that know the value of the work they are requesting and pay appropriately. Those requesters have become rare, but they are the only thing keeping mTurk from completely falling apart. I always do work for Andy K when it comes up because he pays fairly. Some of his jobs pay less than what you would hope, but never at the level of leeches like Oscar. Also I've worked on batches of HITs for him that I thought were a little underpaid for the amount of work, and he obviously agreed because the next time he put up the same type of hits it was at a higher pay rate.

    It just disappoints me that my pay rate is ruined by garbage requesters that pay horribly.
     
  4. Whimsy

    Whimsy User

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    I believe requesters, offering crappy pay, get what they pay for.

    I know you like to do the writing HITs. I don't know if you saw them, but a couple of months ago I started seeing lots of people asking for summaries. 25-30 cents a pop. Then, every few days, they were popping up at less pay. I stopped doing them. I'm sorry, but if the most I am going to make is a half a cent a word...I'm certainly not going to do it for less than that.

    They seemed to keep going down so I just stopped looking for them. Period. It makes me happy to see now that the HITs are starting to pay a minimum of about 26 cents. The lower ones - yeah, I skip them. I'm just glad that the market seemed even itself out. Half a penny a word still blows.

    Anyways - Oscar Smith stuff...I think it's like a gateway drug =) people realize they can do batch HITs for hours. Then they start looking around to see what else they can do. More money, less time, etc. Oscar Smith is a part of the learning curve. I did some of those HITs my first few days on mturk. I won't ever again. I could be sitting here writing more of my own book, which may never see the light of day to the public, and feel better about myself than if doing business card HITs.

    If it's what someone wants to do - they're bored. They like to type up business cards. It's mindless. They Don't Care, etc. It's on them. Quality requesters will want different tasks done with a higher quality result. They will find that they get what they pay for, I'm sure of it.

    I do not think Oscar will be responsible for the downfall of everything. I believe there's a bigger problem behind it, but don't blame Oscar. The main culprit is the Amazon Machine that wants money. People can decide for themselves what they want to do with their time online. Sometimes, if this is the only way they're able to make money, they may have to look for opportunities elsewhere also.
     
  5. chaos

    chaos User

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    I generally agree with your sentiment, but I just think the effects of these requesters is a little stronger than that. More and more low-paying jobs popping up and getting completed has a negative effect on the market price for labor. It's the same reason the US has a strict minimum wage law. Too many employers finding people willing to work for unreasonably low pay sets the price at a level that is completely out of line.
     
  6. watari

    watari User

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    A libertarian should know that with supply and demand as it is they can pretty much set whatever price they will and it will get done. If not by you and me on a slow day, then by a newbie during their first week, or by somebody else who would do it... they know if they want it done faster they can pay better and the work will get snapped up.
     
  7. Whimsy

    Whimsy User

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    That opens up another whole can of worms. With task-based pay you know work is getting done. We all know or have seen the leech co-worker that doesn't do SHIT and still gets paid for every damned hour they're clocked in.

    Worked at another place where they clocked me out (without me knowing) so they could keep their labor percentage low.

    There are shady fucks everywhere. "Loyal" employees given raises because they are ass-kissing dough-boys. Hard workers left behind because they won't kiss that ass any day, ever.

    There are so many screwed up, fucked up, wrong things that happen every day in every workforce. I know to make a change it has to start somewhere. I've made enough change in my life. Now I raise my kids right and stay the heck outta other people's business. They want to let themselves be screwed over -- let 'em.

    I'm not yelling at you or taking away from what you're saying. I'm just sayin' there will always be corruption and the stronger taking advantage of the weaker. Picking and choosing battles for yourself or others is a personal decision.

    sorry for ranting lol
     
  8. bootybitch

    bootybitch Banned

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    You know what? Let the nobodys, the noobs, and the non-US workers have Oscar.

    I'll take $15/hr over $1.50/hr any day - leave the good HITs for me and keep plugging away for that *magic* 5c Oscar batch. LULZ
     
  9. djolerkv

    djolerkv Active Member

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    Chaos you must realize your coworkers are people from India that get payed 250$ a month for regular average pay job. Riazthemturkhelper stated that he is happy and honored to work for a such good requester (!). He considers him good for giving opportunity to earn 250% better pay as trusted worker and because he never rejects any HIT's.

    You may find that ridiculous that someone would work for 1.5$ per hour. But if you work this kind of jobs (not considering the fact that by doing this you waste your time that could maybe be spent doing better paid HIT's on Mturk) 8h a day that would pay you 12$. That's still beats Indian (or Serbian or whatever country's) minimal wage.

    That's why Mturk was built so that you could (call it slavery, but some people feed their kids with this money) do jobs and get paid less than American minimal wage.

    You simply cannot apply pay standards here on Mturk because you live in the USA and someone lives in India. That's two different worlds.
     
  10. 2muchTurkin

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    I agree. I am done with Oscar. I have emailed him getting the business card directions down to a T. I do them identically and consistently and my rating goes from 84-89. Up then down then back up etc.... the 5 cent is unreachable... just a ruse from him. Managed $40 today. My best day in awhile and didn't touch anything under 10 cents. I shall never again touch Oscar type hits or any others like it that don't equate to at least $3+ hr.
     
  11. interneteditor

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    I like the fact there is choice. Perhaps us fortunate, better paid, "Western" workers will set our standards higher, but that's good because it does leave the work we're not so inclined to do, to those who are more than happy to!

    I don't do Oscar because I tend to avoid HITs where the subject matter is blind before you accept. I always get ones I can barely read and have to return them.
     
  12. Munawar Mohamad

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    I used to do plenty of oscar as a beginner when i wasnt acquainted with other HITs..Then as time progressed I realized tht working on Oscar eats up a lot of my time and I gradually reduced their number of Hits....Now i usually do them only at weekends or other times when no other Hits are available.It is really kinda slavery job.Had it been 0.10$ or atleast 0.05$..it wud have been worth the time.Though he gave Masters qualification to a few at the beginning...He rarely replies to mail these days.I am completely fed up mailing him each day for the Trusted Worker Status


    He has confirmed thru mail tht we leave blank the field tht are not present in the card and put those as unreadable whch r blurred or not able to read.

    Returning or getting a HIT expired tends to bring your quality score down.
     
    #12 Munawar Mohamad, Jul 19, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 19, 2012
  13. Scott

    Scott User

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    I am doing Oscar now, as I am trying to approve my rate %. (I have told the story why too much I think) - But once I am back at 95%+ I can worry about the other hits. But now I need Oscar for a few more hits.
     
  14. vijay1975

    vijay1975 Active Member

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    Hello... If you can email me the directions that you got from Oscar, it would be of great help to me. I usually do lot of Oscar Hits and my percentage is right now at 95. Would be grateful if you can email me the instructions at my mail id - ayodhya666@gmail.com - Thanks...
     
  15. shariqueahmer

    shariqueahmer Banned

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    Oscar hits is just good for mturk training. Only newbies do them to learn more about mturk and when they learn about better paying hits they leave oscar. So no need to worry, oscar knows how many new people join mturk everyday and he is actually running an mturk training session for them while still getting his job done. It's all fair, take it or leave it.
     
  16. bootybitch

    bootybitch Banned

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    You're only half right. He's training people alright - training new requesters to offer shit pay. New requesters come in, and see Oscar's HITs sitting there paying people peanuts and they think, "OH LOOK THIS GUY IS ALWAYS HERE AND ONLY PAYS 2c/min. WE CAN DO THAT TOO!" They don't see the work that actually pays appropriately, because it gets ACCOMPLISHED.

    There are PLENTY of other options, even for non-US workers, to raise your number of HITs/approval rating. CrowdFlower is a good one - they don't pay great but it's better than Oscar. Plus CF is known for being drunks, I'd rather support that than Oscar. Stay the hell away from him.
     
  17. lal37

    lal37 New Member

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    Oscar Project

    Hey friends,

    while working oscar project i got % for trusted worker 90 and i had a send a mail to him consider myself for the trusted worker because i reached the 90.After sending mail and the very next day when i checked my percentage its now 78. wtf is he doing with us???
    felling so bad :mad::mad::mad::mad:
     
  18. Maggiemw

    Maggiemw User

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    He is screwing around with you and exploiting you.

    I agree that we all need to boycott this creep, since it is clear that Amazon doesn't care what he does. He is not worth our time. Seriously.
     
  19. shariqueahmer

    shariqueahmer Banned

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    But booty crowdflower pays well only to americans while it treat indians as foot fungus and pays $0.02 for a 4 page questionairre. He just doesn't cares if any indian completes the hit or not.
     
  20. bootybitch

    bootybitch Banned

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    I said they don't pay great. Hell they don't pay US workers great either. But it's better than $1.20 (in most cases - they do have some REALLY crappy HITs) and they also don't reject. CF isn't the only ones with little to no qualification requirements, you just have to keep your eyes open. And when you find those requesters, bookmark them, set up Turk Alert, and check for them often. India has just as many (more? a little less? not sure exactly) Turkers as America and Indian workers are able to do more HITs than say, someone in China. So don't feel as though your choices are so limited you HAVE to do Oscar HITs.
     

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