Hey, CrowdFlower!  Wake up and smell the coffee cheaters!


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the names have been changed to protect the cheaters

It's obvious by now that CF doesn't care about closing any holes - or maybe they are that incompetent that they don't know how

Rainforest:  they make changes to benefit and help the workers

CrowdFlower:  they make changes to the detriment of the workers while speaking with a forked tongue

I've said it before and I'll say it again: For the love of all that is holy, will SOMEONE please tell Mr. Look At Advertisements to fix his danged test questions?!  And make sure the right answer is actually a freakin' option!!

Am I the ONLY one that actually cares about good data??

Now I have to get a new desk - this one broke when I was banging my head against it

A tearful farewell today from a CF peep

Wonder if she got flagged...if she did, then she wouldn't be able to work for any other employer.  ever.  Or until the flag got removed.  In six years.

Can you say "karma"

To the clown that got the very helpful Rainforest thread closed on ClixSense - you are a piece of work.  And then you have the gall to start your own Rainforest thread, threatening to report anyone that is rude towards anybody??  After you posted that the Rainforest engineers could go to hell?  And you posted a whole lot more rude remarks regarding the Rainforest team. I'm not going to quote them here, but I'm sure there are many screenshots.

I hope each and every reader of my blog reports this chucklehead and his remarks to Rainforest as they do NOT tolerate that kind of rudeness towards their staff.  You all have screenshots.  I know you do.

****

Yeah, I edited my above post a bit.  I shouldn't have lowered myself to that chucklehead's level.  In my anger I called him something that I shouldn't have, and I apologize.  In this blog and all of my prior blogs I have always made an effort to avoid using inappropriate language.

Now, some of you peeps may be wondering why I am so defensive of Rainforest, but not of Crowdflower.

It's simple - Rainforest asks for our opinion and seems to genuinely make an effort to improve, though they may not always succeed.  But they do try.

Crowdflower asks for our opinion with zero intention of making things better for the workers.  They.Just.Don't.Care. Period.

Lots of sour grapes coming from the cheaters who were banned

Really, dudes, you cheated, you got caught, you got banned.  Quit trying to deflect the blame.  The blame - 100% of it - is on YOU, and noone else.

Frankly, with the magnitude of this cheating that happened, you should all be banned from every GPT site you completed tasks on.

If you were cheating on CF to THAT degree, what else are you cheating on?

I'm just gobsmacked.

Another round of bans is happening today.  I think I know why, and I say good stuff!

I quite often have a bone to pick with TAs and some of them need to be smacked upside the head (not really.  or maybe yes really) but that one I feel bad for.  All those tasks and all that data is gone out the window.

I just hope that the good peeps like myself don't end up paying the price again a la QuizModeGate

If CF is supposedly so serious about cheaters, why don't they take a look at those that do 11,000+ tasks in a month - that's one task every 3.638 minutes 24 hours a day for 30 days straight.  STRAIGHT.  NON STOP.

Those that share the test answers should be the LEAST of CF's worries.

I put forth that CF doesn't care one bit about cheaters.  What they care about is creating the illusion that they DO care.



And they create this illusion on the backs of the honest workers.

Trust and safety my arse.

Oh, did I already say that?

Well this just proves one of the points I made in my previous post.  A little looky loo at the forums and there is ONE lonely "broken task" thread.  Not too long ago there were times when the whole front page of the forum was nothing but "broken task" threads.

And the response to this one?  "file a ticket"

Which probably goes straight to the circular file.

CF's workload just decreased immensely by preventing the workers from reporting broken tasks.

CF's new motto:  Hide Hide Hide

What CF's motto SHOULD be:  We Provide Quality Jobs for Quality Workers

but providing quality jobs involves actual work on the part of CF AND the TAs

yeah, I know. what am I thinking!

another vote against QuizCrap:

how would contributor know now about fair and unfair correction

they won't know.  that's the whole reason behind this.  CF is getting tired of all the "broken task" threads in the forums, and all of the "broken task" tickets, and rather than get firm with the TAs, they decided just to hide everything from the workers.

cheating can still happen - if  a cheater gets 100% in quiz mode then they'll know they had all the right answers, and those questions and correct answers can be passed along to their co-cheaters

next on CF's agenda - removing the score from the prying eyes of the workers

they don't need to know how well they're doing - all the workers need to know is if they're still in the game.

mark my words, this will happen.

trust and safety my arse

The negative reaction to CF's latest jab at the contributors continues.  I'm not sure where CF gets this "mixed feelings" bit.  Unless they mean that feelings are mixed in that some are disgusted and some are pissed.

And CF thinks it's great to see a dialogue between everyone to understand our thoughts?

Translation:  "We know you're mad as hell and we don't give a damn cuz there's plenty more where YOU came from so we'll continue to treat you like scum and there's not a darn thing you can do about it"

Now there's going to be a Webinar Q&A so the contributors can voice their concerns.

Why?

We know it's going to be a sham.

Fool us once, shame on you.

Keep fooling us and your precious TAs are going to look elsewhere for quality work because continuing to destroy the morale of the workers will ensure they don't get that quality work here.

Turns out this new quiz mode crapola was suggested over a year ago and earned itself 7 votes.  Kudos to the person that suggested it if his evil plan was to make CF look even worse than it already does when it comes to trust.  Or the lack thereof.

Another suggestion that had 8 votes was to have an optional practice mode before going into quiz mode, where the worker wouldn't be penalized for incorrect answers, and would be shown their mistakes along with an explanation.

That suggestion was fairly well received by other TAs, and Lukas himself liked it, adding that asking contributors how confident they are in their answers might be interesting as well.

So why is it that CF chose the suggestion that alienates the workers and creates an atmosphere of distrust, rather than the one that would be most beneficial to all involved?

Because CF assumes that ALL workers are cheaters, and would (lazily) rather punish the majority due to the actions of the minority.

Sometimes I like to google things just to see what I can find

I decided to google CF as I was curious if others are starting to question their competence, as I am

Lo and behold what do I find but something said - by a TA, no less:

CrowdFlower have since changed their pricing structure, without warning and without any announcements on their part

That was from a year ago

Since their Trust and Safety Initiative has been a Big Fat Fail, not to mention a sham, maybe they should switch gears and work on communication

Oh, who am I kidding.  I'm sure they'd find a way to screw that up too

Continuing with my googling I found this gem, from a CF employee:

we know there are issues with CrowdFlower tasks, but we really are making strides to improve the Contributor experience. And we certainly do listen to our Contributors and value all the feedback we receive. 

the kicker?  this is from over THREE YEARS AGO!  And they've been doing the EXACT OPPOSITE!

I have no words...none that I can say in a G-rated blog

Soooo...did I really think that CF would do the honorable thing?

Yes, I did.  I'm THAT naive.

I had no idea that they would take this destructive path

I wonder what else they have in their (unethical dishonest) bag of tricks

This sums up the general consensus of CF's latest CrapFest:

I think that blog post is insulting

Trust is a two way street and crowdflower is gradually eroding that with it's taskers.

Yep

The crooked TAs and CF are like 2 peas in a pod

"I want my workers to be browbeaten, mistreated, discouraged and belittled"

said a TA never

Finally They Speak!

So CF finally posted an explanation and an apology for QuizModeGate

Just when I think they can't top themselves in the B.S. Department, they go and prove me wrong.

It is extremely important to us that customers trust CrowdFlower to keep their data safe and contributors feel safe tasking on our platform.

Every freaking thing CF has done totally proves that the last part of that sentence is a bold faced lie!

The contributors feel LESS SAFE now than they ever have been.

Does CF not read and COMPREHEND the complaints in the forums??

Someone at CF needs to give their head a shake

***

For those that don't have hip waders and are therefore unable to get through that CF post, I've condensed it for you:

We at Crowdflower will continue to protect the TAs and screw the contributors.

Still no update on QuizModeGate

Is doing the right thing really such a difficult thing to do?

With CF is sure seems that way.  TAs might want to consider if they are giving their business to the right company.  After all, if the workers can't trust CF to do the right thing for them, how can CF be trusted to do the right thing for the TAs?

"Sure, I lied to HER, but I promise, I won't lie to YOU"

Uh huh.

Holy crap on a cracker, how long does it take CF to address the "No Explanations for Corrections cuz It's a Secret" fiasco?  C'mon, peeps! It's been over a week!  How long does it take to admit an error in judgement?

Or maybe it takes this long to fire the bozo that dreamed up that change?

I'm going to put on my tinfoil hat and suggest that maybe a competing company has a mole inside CF whose job it is to come up with various harebrained schemes to show the extreme ineptness going on and then make a hostile takeover.

If that's what's going on, then it's a job well done.

Ok, this one made me laugh, in regards to the new change of the worker not being told where they went wrong if they're expelled in quiz mode:

I suspect the error is in the formatting ...., the TA wants them in a different format to what the instructions say, but he could have been expecting me to type the names of cheeses for all I know!

Methinks CF needs to go back to the drawing board on this one - clearly it was a knee jerk reaction that wasn't thought through, and now we have to hope they don't let pride stand in the way of doing the right thing.