Crowdsurf HITs

Discussion in 'Requesters' started by Orion0767, Sep 5, 2014.

  1. Orion0767

    Orion0767 Active Member

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    Are there ever any Crowdsurf Support transcribing HITs that don't require a qualification ? I have a qualification of 100 for Crowdsurf - although I don't remember taking a test - but it seems all the HITs that I am finding all require a 900. How are you supposed to increase your qualification if you can't do the HITs ? I contacted them but go no response. I'm really interested in doing these but can't. I am growing more and more frustrated every day ....
     
  2. lunarobverse

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    There's more than one qualification for Crowdsurf. The one for transcribing, and the one for reviewing others' transcriptions. If your value is 100 I would guess, though I may be wrong, that your qualification is for reviewing transcriptions, because that's the number range for those HITs.

    The 900 and up HITs require a test, I believe, though it's been a year and a half since I've gotten the qual so I don't remember the details. Here's a link that may help.
     
  3. Orion0767

    Orion0767 Active Member

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    Would it make sense that I can review with my qual but not actually transcribe ? Like I said, I'm getting frustrated with my Tuking. I'm working every day but can't seem to make over $15 a day - $20 if I'm lucky. Doing lots of surveys which I really don't want to do but you gotta do what you gotta do ... I know it will get better the more that I do but it just seems like I find something that I am really interested in doing and I can't and I'm too chicken and scared of rejections to venture too far out of my comfort zone. Thanks very much for your help ! I'll check it out. I appreciate it more than you know :)
     
  4. kcott84

    kcott84 User

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    I think crowdsurf changed their structure... now you can hardly transcribe ANYTHING without a value of 900.
     
  5. BloodRayen

    BloodRayen User

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    Current qual requires a score of 900+. All old quals were updated when the new system was implemented. If you have a 100 it is not for the standard transcription unless yours got downgraded that far
     
  6. bobbie01

    bobbie01 User

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    Read the guidelines and take the test. You have nothing to lose. You may find that you love doing them and it will be a good way to make money. I don't know how many hits you have done but you might need to get your numbers up so after you make your minimum for the day, do a bunch of the safe, penny type of hits to pad your numbers. The higher your base the more opens up to you.
     
  7. Orion0767

    Orion0767 Active Member

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    Just an update for anyone who cares. I tried to take the qualification test again but that was a no go - wouldn't let me take it again. So, I emailed them a second time and thankfully they responded very quickly and told me that they would "update" my qualification asap.
     
  8. DeniseH

    DeniseH Member

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    Their staff is pretty nice and they encourage us to email them for anything from small to major, but it does often take about a week to a week and a half for them to respond. Just long enough to get antsy if you are not familiar with them yet. Good for you and best of luck, they are my favorite requester on Mturk.
     
  9. kcott84

    kcott84 User

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    My score went from 830 or so to 50 in ONE hit. I was only doing the short ones, so I really don't see how my score could have dropped 600 points over less than a minute's transcription.

    I took the qual test again, but of course didn't pass and was informed I would be unable to take it again. So I'm sorry, I find them a bit unreasonable.
     
  10. DeniseH

    DeniseH Member

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    That is huge. Maybe you were just unlucky to get the ding dong reviewer that strikes randomly here and there. An unfair score would do havoc when you have done only a small number of transcripts. I would try emailing them, and asking for a copy of the transcript. They are pretty good with working with you.
     
    #10 DeniseH, Sep 9, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 9, 2014
  11. BloodRayen

    BloodRayen User

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    i agree with DeniseH that you might be gotten at the wrong reviewer. The extreme downgrade is nothing i can fully explain. According to their HITs you shouldn`t be able to work on them if your score fall below 900 or is yor 850 from the old rating? In the first instance i would guess that they downgrade everybody who fall below the magic line to a 50 to have a clear separation. This would work in your case if the min value was 800. 830 -40 for a fraudulent HIT brings you to 790. If the second case is true i would mail their support and ask what is wrong.
     
  12. Orion0767

    Orion0767 Active Member

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    I'm not familiar with them at all. I took the test back in June and then immediately after, I lost access to my computer. I never even got to do one of their HITs after taking the test. I got my computer back and then started to really concentrate on getting my numbers up and that is when I discovered what ever this discrepancy is with my qual. I hope they get it straightened out soon, I'm ready to get started.
     
  13. Orion0767

    Orion0767 Active Member

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    Wow .... that kind of scares me. Hope it gets resolved for you :(
     
  14. DeniseH

    DeniseH Member

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    Just to give you a heads up Orion, once your score breaches past the 1,000 mark, they stop rating you that way. I almost look at it as a probation period. After that, you only have a more estimated score from week to week that rises and falls, but as long as you maintain a decent QC average there's no immediate consequences. It seems much more relaxed than when doing that 900 to 1000 point range. So just try to get some "perfects" in, and get past 1000, and you'll be in more stable waters. The score to pay attention to after that is the score that you can view under your statistics tab that's visible after accepting a hit. Also, take a few secs to glance over their guidelines for any new changes about once a week, new stuff usually is listed in red writing for at least a few days. They sometimes can pull a 180 on major guideline rules.

    Other than that, I think it gets better with practice. Though I can't help but curse under my breath every once in a while when I get some nasty rating from the loose screw reviewers. My main peeve is that they let just about anyone review, and they don't have to prove that they know or understand the guidelines. Sort of sloppy in my own opinion. But you can also help to dilute this random issue by putting in some numbers. If it seems like you are getting one bad review after another, and you know it's not you, just take a break. I looked at the review hits one night and was surprised to see that the few hits I had pending kept coming up in the reviews. The system would not let me do them because they were mine. But I was surprised to see how often I kept getting my own hits. That's when it occurred to me that if there is just one bad apple reviewer, they may be reviewing a lot of your hits. ( Not just sporadically.) I run into bad ratings less often during the day hours than late night, maybe because there are more different reviewers, so less of my hits are all funneling to the same person.
     
    #14 DeniseH, Sep 11, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 11, 2014
  15. BloodRayen

    BloodRayen User

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    I fully agree with your first section.
    The second is true in its basics. There are some bad reviewers and almost anybody can work on their HITs. So you can accept to get some mediocre ratings. Some problem i see in the review task in the ending of an audio. Many people simply end it with a period, even if the sentence is cut of. Crowdsurfs states to not rate this error but I assume that many reviewers give you an error there. Another point is the quantity. If you only work a few transcriptions over the week your ratings will move a lot, since they are calculated over few tasks and you might have a bad run with reviewers. if you get a higher amount in you will see a stable score (if your work is good ofc).
    Every once in a while you will see your own transcriptions out for review. You cannot take them yourself because of cheating prevention. They usually show up if you had a difficult audio to transcribe. Many people cherry pick transcriptions and reviews. If you ever stumble over your own tasks don`t worry.

    At the end something about reviewers defense: There are MANY transcriptions that have mistakes in it. Most occur on capitalization (small letters in transcript, big letters on screen), punctuation (identifying breaks and end of sentence) or verbatim stuff (some people leave stutters out of the transcription)
     
  16. DeniseH

    DeniseH Member

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    Actually, I suspect that most transcribers are not ending hits with punctuation. This issue was brought up in the reddit forums, where people said that they viewed some of their own hits that had punctuation inserted even though they did not place it there. Crowdsurf chimed in and said that they were aware that there was a quirk in the system where it was randomly inserting punctuation at the end of hits. They quickly put a bandaid on it after they placed the instructions for reviewers to disregard punctuation at the end of a hit. Hopefully that's remedied now and people who review heed the instructions, it really isn't the transcriber in most cases where it's a glaring eyesore. I do agree with the rest, there are a lot of issues with capitalization and sticking to verbatim. But my score sometimes goes up in the day and plummets at night, even when I'm going slower and taking my time. So I really do believe it's possible that if you are working when most people are sleeping, there is a higher possibility that one person is getting more than just a few of your hits. But yeah, there is also a strong possibility that you missed something in the guidelines if your score is always dropping.
     
    #16 DeniseH, Sep 12, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 12, 2014
  17. BloodRayen

    BloodRayen User

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    thanks for the info on the bug in their system, didn`t knew about that.
    After another week i agree on your idea on times. my score goes down in the (US) night times and goes back to "normal" when the native English speakers come back to work. CS should find a better way to grant the qual only to people who know what they do
     
  18. DragonsPhoenix

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    I don't know, I think there's something odd going on. I've done tens of thousands for them and went up, up, up, hit over 1000 didn't hear anything from them for a long time, then I've gone down a couple points just today. First time ever. I've been transcribing since middle school and I'm 34 so I'm pretty accurate. I sent them a message because along with those, I've earned top bonus on 10 of the "extra bonus" hits that are of poor sound quality. It doesn't seem to fit to me.
     
  19. Orion0767

    Orion0767 Active Member

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    Well , I finally got my qualification problems straightened out. I just submitted my first three HITs. I'm anxious to see how I did and if they get approved. I hope so because I really liked doing them !
     
  20. BloodRayen

    BloodRayen User

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    don`t worry too much, they are really fair and only reject fraudulent work. for your start i suggest to work on good quality audios. boost your qual a little and then you can work without major issues. once you are over 1000 you won`t get up, only down. so don`t worry if you only get qual decrease mails once you reach this point
     

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