Forum Guidelines and Moderation Discussion Thread

[aveline]

I think the complaint is the people who post LITERALLY everything that comes up on their TM/HS. Everything.

As long as you self-filter enough to say "Alright, there's really no one who would want to do this hit, it pays 3 dollars an hour and requires you to write the entire text of the Communist Manifesto without any e's", it's much less of an issue. At least for me.

Yeah, I don't really get that, either. But I don't think it's really all that common. Maybe a couple people have a tendency to do that? I guess it's still better than spamming random no-context gifs or videos, though.

 

[El Pablo]

There are several reasons, actually.

One of our main goals as a forum is to attract new turkers so we can continue to grow. New turkers often aren't all that confident with finding their own HITs, so they tend to go where they can find HITs that have been vetted by others. It doesn't necessarily mean that they need to be given a completion time for everything, but just being told that "hey, this looks good" can be a big help.

Also, having a lot of HITs posted in the daily thread tends to keep us on topic. When people stop posting HITs, or aren't posting as many, they tend to start talking about other things. That's fine for a bit, but it can often go on for very long periods of time. That looks terrible to anyone that may be trying to decide whether or not they'd like to join the forum. We often start spamming HITs to try to get people back on topic when there's been a major thread derailment and it works. It gets people talking about work, again.

Another thing is that it helps to advertise our forum. We've had new members join in the past that said they just came here because they saw that most of the HITs that were showing up on HIT Grabber had been coming from here.

Of course, all of the reasons that I listed have to do with bringing in people that are newer turkers. More experienced people may look at the HIT spam in the threads and consider it unnecessary, but there are plenty of people that do appreciate it. And, in time, we hope that those people will become more comfortable with finding their own HITs and start contributing some of their own. It's just a great way for us to continue to grow as a forum, I think. It also cuts down on the "this forum sucks, where are the HITs?" posts that tend to pop up on reddit from time to time.

I hate to break it to you, but your forum is established. The growth of an mTurk forum is not infinite, there are only so many Turkers. If you really feel like spamming bad HITs will help bring in more people then all we are doing is teaching people wrong.

If we are not here to help and teach people then I apologize and will crawl back in my hole.

If there aren't good HITs up you can't save a derailed "work thread" by spamming bad ones. You also can't save it by paying someone for doing as much.

 

[aveline]

I hate to break it to you, but your forum is established. The growth of an mTurk forum is not infinite, there are only so many Turkers. If you really feel like spamming bad HITs will help bring in more people then all we are doing is teaching people wrong.

If we are not here to help and teach people then I apologize and will crawl back in my hole.

If there aren't good HITs up you can't save a derailed "work thread" by spamming bad ones. You also can't save it by paying someone for doing as much.

People don't stick around on mturk forever. We need to constantly attract new members to keep our membership from dwindling over time. There are now four major mturk forums for new turkers to choose from. We would be complacent in thinking that we don't have to do anything else to attract those people.

And I'm sorry, maybe I misunderstood the intent of your original post. When you said every HIT on HIT Scraper, I wasn't sure if you were being literal or if you were exaggerating. I've seen many people make that accusation in the past and they were always exaggerations, so I'm sorry if I misinterpreted. I can only think of one person, honestly (I won't name names), that just spams everything, good or bad. I don't know what to say about that, though. Yeah, it sucks for anyone new that might not know better, but I don't want to tell someone to stop trying to contribute because they're contributions aren't up to standards or something. At least they're trying. That's more than most people do, and I appreciate that.

I'm all for helping people and teaching them to be self-sufficient, but that takes time. Mturk can be very overwhelming to someone just starting out. Probably much more overwhelming than it was when you and I started because there are so many new tools and ways that you have to be competitive. I think it's okay to hold their hand for a bit while they get acclimated.

 

[Cara]

mturk is a cycle! people will sign up, do it for a few months, then forget about it, get burnt out, or maybe life gets in the way.
some might come back later, like i did. here's always an ebb and flow with work at home stuff.
it's a good idea to keep trying to attract new people
but i agree that posting EVERY hit isn't the way to do it. you can only see crowdsurf hits so many times before you're like "ugh, no"

 

[hyway]

There are several reasons, actually.

One of our main goals as a forum is to attract new turkers so we can continue to grow. New turkers often aren't all that confident with finding their own HITs, so they tend to go where they can find HITs that have been vetted by others. It doesn't necessarily mean that they need to be given a completion time for everything, but just being told that "hey, this looks good" can be a big help.

Also, having a lot of HITs posted in the daily thread tends to keep us on topic. When people stop posting HITs, or aren't posting as many, they tend to start talking about other things. That's fine for a bit, but it can often go on for very long periods of time. That looks terrible to anyone that may be trying to decide whether or not they'd like to join the forum. We often start spamming HITs to try to get people back on topic when there's been a major thread derailment and it works. It gets people talking about work, again.

Another thing is that it helps to advertise our forum. We've had new members join in the past that said they just came here because they saw that most of the HITs that were showing up on HIT Grabber had been coming from here.

Of course, all of the reasons that I listed have to do with bringing in people that are newer turkers. More experienced people may look at the HIT spam in the threads and consider it unnecessary, but there are plenty of people that do appreciate it. And, in time, we hope that those people will become more comfortable with finding their own HITs and start contributing some of their own. It's just a great way for us to continue to grow as a forum, I think. It also cuts down on the "this forum sucks, where are the HITs?" posts that tend to pop up on reddit from time to time.

I agree with everything you said, except about the derailed thread part. I've never noticed us do that so I don't know what you are talking about.

I think what people are talking about is people just posting stuff so that they can get some sort of recognition despite the fact that most of the stuff that's is getting posted probably pays $5 an hour or less. I have seen a lot more of that since the hit poster award stuff has started.

 

[hyway]

Are people spamming those types of HITs?

yes

 

[aveline]

I agree with everything you said, except about the derailed thread part. I've never noticed us do that so I don't know what you are talking about.

Oh, trust me, we do indeed do that. We've always done that. We don't announce when we do it, but some people have caught on and mentioned it when we were trying to get the thread back on track. It's not a cure-all for thread derailments, but it does help.

I think what people are talking about is people just posting stuff so that they can get some sort of recognition despite the fact that most of the stuff that's is getting posted probably pays $5 an hour or less. I have seen a lot more of that since the hit poster award stuff has started.

I haven't seen more of it, personally. I just see the same people posting the same stuff as before. If you think anyone is intentionally spamming bad HITs just for recognition, PM me and let me know. It certainly won't gain them a HIT Poster win. People know who posts decent HITs and who doesn't.

 

[hyway]

Oh, trust me, we do indeed do that. We've always done that. We don't announce when we do it, but some people have caught on and mentioned it when we were trying to get the thread back on track. It's not a cure-all for thread derailments, but it does help.

Oh, I see yall doing that. I was saying that I never notice any derailments.

 

[electrolyte]

Oh, I see yall doing that. I was saying that I never notice any derailments.

Just last night, I was posting HITs to get the thread back on track after being derailed and you said to me:

you're attempts to get this thread rerailed are laughable.

 

[hyway]

Just last night, I was posting HITs to get the thread back on track after being derailed and you said to me:

I was hoisted by my own petard

 

[El Pablo]

There's another good trend we should take notice of. If there is good work up the thread is usually right on track. The shenans come in when the work goes away.

Why do derailments matter anyway? There are plenty of scripts and forum functions for people to block all the banter. As long as the guidelines are followed, what's the harm?

 

[aveline]

There's another good trend we should take notice of. If there is good work up the thread is usually right on track. The shenans come in when the work goes away.

Why do derailments matter anyway? There are plenty of scripts and forum functions for people to block all the banter. As long as the guidelines are followed, what's the harm?

They're not a big deal like they once were for us on MTG. We've relaxed the whole on-topic/off-topic rule quite a bit. In fact, it's not even really something that we enforce anymore, unless things are getting heated. When people start arguing or getting upset, that's what we consider a thread derailment these days. If people are just talking about off-topic stuff, but being cool about it, we'll let it go. If it goes on for a really long time, we may post some HITs to try to steer the topic back towards work, but it's not something that we really just try to shut down anymore.

I think you misunderstood me when i said that we spam HITs to get the thread back on track. That doesn't mean we just post anything and everything that we see. We don't want crap HITs posted any more than you do. I just meant it like we'll dig through scraper to find stuff that's still up, that people may have missed, and we'll post it, hoping that it might grab their attention. That's all. Spamming a bunch of shitty HITs isn't going to get people to stop what they're doing. We wouldn't expect it to.

 

[aveline]

Updated Community Guidelines - 8/17/16

Spoiler

Log in or register now. to view Spoiler content!

 

[electrolyte]

I've edited the community guidelines to include a link to a post explaining what "survey content" means.

http://www.mturkcrowd.com/pages/guidelines/
http://www.mturkcrowd.com/threads/what-is-survey-content.1791/

 

[aloxinh]

I'm talking specifically about spam posts. Constant posting of gifs, videos...

 

[electrolyte]

I'm talking specifically about spam posts. Constant posting of gifs, videos...

I'm sorry, I feel like I missed part of a question here. Did you have a question or concern about GIFs?

 

[Squatty]

Hello,

I want to address my feelings about the Chat thread vs. Work Thread.

I personally feel like the chat thread is unnecessary. I like the community feel of the work thread. I feel like it is well balanced between work talk and chit chat.
If people only want to see hits, they could go into grind mode. If I just wanted to see hits posted I could stare at my HF all day.
When there isn't much work up, we do tend to just banter and chat, but it helps us to learn about each other and become friends
I would go insane without the friendly banter I find on the work thread. Sometimes it is the only adult conversation I get to have in a day.
Now you may ask, "Why not just keep both thread open?" Good question. The answer at least for me is screen real estate. I work on a laptop and don't have much room to open a lot of windows or tabs.

I may be the only person who feels this way, and if so please feel free to ignore this. I will just adjust and learn to live with it.

I also want to thank the mods and admins for all of their hard work. They are trying to work and deal with the lives and everything else. This forum is just a project/ labor of love for them. They do it out of the kindness of their hearts and for the enjoyment of it.
I really really appreciate it. I love having this place to come to make my day less boring and to learn. I have learned so many things on this forum and would love to continue to give back!

 

[electrolyte]

Hello,

I want to address my feelings about the Chat thread vs. Work Thread.

I personally feel like the chat thread is unnecessary. I like the community feel of the work thread. I feel like it is well balanced between work talk and chit chat.
If people only want to see hits, they could go into grind mode. If I just wanted to see hits posted I could stare at my HF all day.
When there isn't much work up, we do tend to just banter and chat, but it helps us to learn about each other and become friends
I would go insane without the friendly banter I find on the work thread. Sometimes it is the only adult conversation I get to have in a day.
Now you may ask, "Why not just keep both thread open?" Good question. The answer at least for me is screen real estate. I work on a laptop and don't have much room to open a lot of windows or tabs.

I may be the only person who feels this way, and if so please feel free to ignore this. I will just adjust and learn to live with it.

I also want to thank the mods and admins for all of their hard work. They are trying to work and deal with the lives and everything else. This forum is just a project/ labor of love for them. They do it out of the kindness of their hearts and for the enjoyment of it.
I really really appreciate it. I love having this place to come to make my day less boring and to learn. I have learned so many things on this forum and would love to continue to give back!

Hi. Thanks for your comment. A couple of things: grind mode only shows HITs, and a lot of the value of the forum is in the commentary, sharing times and experiences and other work related information that isn't a HIT. So grind mode or HF does work for people who purely want HITs, but many people come to the forum for other work related content.

Having a chat thread gives people a place to chatter, if they want. It's not an all-or-nothing option. Some chatter and banter is fine in the daily work thread and I think no one really has an issue with that. It becomes a problem when that chatter overwhelms the work related content, especially if and when people try to post work related content and it gets discouraged by the people who are chatting in favor of the off topic content.

People come to MTurk forums for work related content and social content and I think there's space for both. For people who want to use the chat thread to talk, that's great. We also have IRC for that if people prefer that format. Opening a second tab for either one of those (or both) is an option. And there will always be some chatting in the work thread, too. It's just become pretty excessive lately and makes finding the work related content pretty hard at times.

 

[Squatty]

Having a chat thread gives people a place to chatter, if they want. It's not an all-or-nothing option. Some chatter and banter is fine in the daily work thread and I think no one really has an issue with that. It becomes a problem when that chatter overwhelms the work related content, especially if and when people try to post work related content and it gets discouraged by the people who are chatting in favor of the off topic content.

.

Great
I was worried it would be more of a "No chatter at all on the work thread" kind of thing.

Sorry I misunderstood.

 

[kryss]

Echoing what @electrolyte said, we're not saying no OT or no banter, just for all of us to keep it in mind. (I know I'm just as guilty of it as anyone else). We're just asking everyone to be mindful of it, and if we all work together in achieving this we can still have a pretty good flow in the work thread.