To add to my previous post about bad test questions
for example: What is 2 + 2
obviously the answer is 4
but wait
"for the question "what is 2 + 2" you answered 4, but the correct answer is 9"
so this gets reported to the CF rep in the forums and quite often the response is "reported, will not affect your accuracy"
but every so often the response is "Most contributors did fine in this job"
Now put on your thinking cap. Think real hard. I know you can do it.
Maybe reports of bad test questions should be taken a bit more seriously even though it appears that there are contributors doing fine in a specific job. That is, if CF is TRULY concerned about bad data
And they are, right? RIGHT?
Thursday 28 April 2016
Another day, another batch of broken/unfair tasks that are 'cleaned up" by CF.
Yeah, these TAs are who *I* want in charge of handing out flags. Yeppers. They've proven themselves deserving of such a high level of responsibility. They're totally right in not allowing mistakes - they've set a fine example of not making any themselves.
/sarcasm off
Yeah, these TAs are who *I* want in charge of handing out flags. Yeppers. They've proven themselves deserving of such a high level of responsibility. They're totally right in not allowing mistakes - they've set a fine example of not making any themselves.
/sarcasm off
Wednesday 27 April 2016
Tuesday 19 April 2016
Does CrowdFlower ever get tired of cleaning up the TA's messes? Today I counted not less than SEVEN broken/unfair tasks (confirmed by CF peep).
Yet these TAs are given the power to ruin a person's tasking "career".
They shouldn't be given the power to scratch their nose, let alone affect someone's income.
Clearly there's a problem here, and that problem ISN'T with the workers. So WHY are the workers suffering?
Yet these TAs are given the power to ruin a person's tasking "career".
They shouldn't be given the power to scratch their nose, let alone affect someone's income.
Clearly there's a problem here, and that problem ISN'T with the workers. So WHY are the workers suffering?
Saturday 16 April 2016
With an overwhelming majority, the new task list design is a big fail. At this moment the votes are 81% saying it sucks (paraphrasing). Seriously, what was CrowdFlower thinking? Were they trying to distract us from the REAL issues that need fixing?
Newsflash: We're not that dumb
Whoever designed it should be flagged for poor quality work.
Newsflash: We're not that dumb
Whoever designed it should be flagged for poor quality work.
Wednesday 13 April 2016
oh cool...my badges now have 6 sides - yeah, that was worth putting any kind of USEFUL changes on hold...yes indeedy
is CF freaking serious?
this has to be absolutely THE WORST insult to the workers yet. Don't fix the flag problem. Don't do anything about the constant broken tasks. Don't do anything about the bad task authors.
No sirree bub.
Let's work on the important stuff like making the task listing page as ugly as sin.
is CF freaking serious?
this has to be absolutely THE WORST insult to the workers yet. Don't fix the flag problem. Don't do anything about the constant broken tasks. Don't do anything about the bad task authors.
No sirree bub.
Let's work on the important stuff like making the task listing page as ugly as sin.
Tuesday 12 April 2016
Finally got time to work on that post I mentioned last week. It took me so long to get back to it because I was busy trying to figure out who Negan killed. It better not be Glenn or Daryl or I will be:
a) extremely highly annoyed
Humanity
It's something that needs to be stressed. The human factor. I'm not talking about the scammers and cheaters. They can take a long walk off a short pier.
I'm talking about the honest workers. Like me. And from what has become apparent, Crowdflower has let the scammers and cheaters cloud their vision, and they don't see the rest of us. The "everyday" people. The human beings who have lives, families, hopes, dreams. The ones who would rather take a wrong correction for a RIGHT answer than give a WRONG answer that would be accepted.
Some time ago there was a letter writing campaign as part of the turker's We Are Dynamo project. Turkers wrote to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to tell him a bit about themselves and why they were turking. They did this to show their humanity, and that they are all different and they turk for different reasons. They wanted to show that they aren't just some "algorithm" getting the work done. They are human beings. Real people that deserve to be treated with respect and be treated fairly.
As an honest Crowdflower worker I feel the same way. We are real people too. We also deserve to be treated fairly and with respect. And if only ONE thing gets accomplished with this blog, I hope it's this.
So I will continue with the good fight. Some may not like what I have to say, but that only means that what I am saying is hitting close to home.
a) extremely highly annoyed
Humanity
It's something that needs to be stressed. The human factor. I'm not talking about the scammers and cheaters. They can take a long walk off a short pier.
I'm talking about the honest workers. Like me. And from what has become apparent, Crowdflower has let the scammers and cheaters cloud their vision, and they don't see the rest of us. The "everyday" people. The human beings who have lives, families, hopes, dreams. The ones who would rather take a wrong correction for a RIGHT answer than give a WRONG answer that would be accepted.
Some time ago there was a letter writing campaign as part of the turker's We Are Dynamo project. Turkers wrote to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to tell him a bit about themselves and why they were turking. They did this to show their humanity, and that they are all different and they turk for different reasons. They wanted to show that they aren't just some "algorithm" getting the work done. They are human beings. Real people that deserve to be treated with respect and be treated fairly.
As an honest Crowdflower worker I feel the same way. We are real people too. We also deserve to be treated fairly and with respect. And if only ONE thing gets accomplished with this blog, I hope it's this.
So I will continue with the good fight. Some may not like what I have to say, but that only means that what I am saying is hitting close to home.
Monday 11 April 2016
Busy completing some tasks with some, yeah, you guessed it - wrong corrections.
One of the upvotes said that other workers would screen cap the wrong corrections so they can give the wrong, but accepted, answer next time - meaning the TA is getting bad data.
Since CF doesn't seem to encourage the TAs to fix their bad test questions, does that not imply that CF shares in the blame for the bad data the TA gets?
I'd say it is about 80% the (lazy) TA's fault, and 20% the (indifferent) CF's fault.
As for me - I gave the wrong (but accepted) answer ONE time weeks ago, and have felt guilty ever since, so I won't do it again.
My reward as I continue to give the correct (but NOT accepted) answers will probably be expulsion, or worse, A Flag.
Doing the right thing sometimes doesn't pay.
One of the upvotes said that other workers would screen cap the wrong corrections so they can give the wrong, but accepted, answer next time - meaning the TA is getting bad data.
Since CF doesn't seem to encourage the TAs to fix their bad test questions, does that not imply that CF shares in the blame for the bad data the TA gets?
I'd say it is about 80% the (lazy) TA's fault, and 20% the (indifferent) CF's fault.
As for me - I gave the wrong (but accepted) answer ONE time weeks ago, and have felt guilty ever since, so I won't do it again.
My reward as I continue to give the correct (but NOT accepted) answers will probably be expulsion, or worse, A Flag.
Doing the right thing sometimes doesn't pay.
Sunday 10 April 2016
Saturday 9 April 2016
I just had to share this comment that I read this morning - the poster says that the quality of the tasks on Crowdflower has dropped considerably lately, and is wondering what has happened to Crowdflower.
I've been thinking that too. It seems the "good guys" have left, perhaps to move on to a company that treats the workers like human beings? heh
And now we're stuck with yahoos who can't/won't properly create a task; can't/won't verify their test questions; can't/won't correct their BAD test questions (just because an ad is vertical it doesn't make it different from the exact same ad that is horizontal) and who seem to be under the impression that a flag is a way to limit how many tasks a worker can do.
And chuckleheads who think the flag system is fair and are adamant that it is here to stay.
I've been thinking that too. It seems the "good guys" have left, perhaps to move on to a company that treats the workers like human beings? heh
And now we're stuck with yahoos who can't/won't properly create a task; can't/won't verify their test questions; can't/won't correct their BAD test questions (just because an ad is vertical it doesn't make it different from the exact same ad that is horizontal) and who seem to be under the impression that a flag is a way to limit how many tasks a worker can do.
And chuckleheads who think the flag system is fair and are adamant that it is here to stay.
Sunday 3 April 2016
I've been working on another post, but it's taking me some time to put my thoughts together. In the meantime I was reading a few message forums and saw this:
the flag system gives the Task Authors the power to be the Judge, Jury and Executioner
I've spent weeks writing on this blog, and this person sums up what I've been trying to get across in one sentence.
the flag system gives the Task Authors the power to be the Judge, Jury and Executioner
I've spent weeks writing on this blog, and this person sums up what I've been trying to get across in one sentence.
_____
And the wisdom continues:
This isn't giving me a lot of motivation for working minijobs, it's more of creating atmosphere of fear of being flagged again, even though I am doing my best...
I'm beginning to think I was the wrong person to create this blog. Others are coming up with much better ways to express the frustration
_____
You know what? As someone posted on a message forum today,"It’s clear by now that the Task Authors don’t really understand the impact of a flag on contributor profile"
And I agree.
I'm reminded of some situations on mTurk where a requester would "block" a worker to prevent them from completing a survey more than once. They didn't realize the impact of a block. Fortunately, on mTurk a worker can contact a requester. And it took the workers to let the requesters know the effect of blocks, and that the correct way to prevent a worker from doing a survey more than once was to give a qualification, and then only allow workers who did NOT have the qualification to do the survey.
Unfortunately, Crowdflower does not give the workers the right to contact the TAs. And I have zero confidence that Crowdflower has made clear the impact of a flag, just as mTurk does not make it clear to the requesters the impact of a block.
One additional note - Microworkers just added a function that allows the workers to add an employer to an "ignore" list so we can eliminate his jobs from the list. Also, a "dissatisfied" rating from an employer will lower a worker's percentage rate, but the bad rating will disappear in around 30 days, allowing the percentage rating to increase. It's not a life sentence as it is on Crowdflower.
Why is it that in some ways, Microworkers and mTurk are light years ahead of CF? And why is CF so danged stubborn?
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