So the way the HITs work is that you are connected with an "assistant" that is an undergraduate student at Yale who, I believe, is responding to multiple chat windows at once. I find that they can get impatient and will just disconnect. So try to do the following to avoid getting disconnected:
- Respond promptly (within 1-2 minutes) once you are connected with an assistant and each time they respond to you.
- Ask relatively simple questions. For instance, "Can you provide me with a list of all of the first names of teachers in this database?" or "Can you tell me the total number of different cities?"
- Be very clear. If they can't understand your question's wording, then they will disconnect. Again, that's why it's best to keep the 3 questions fairly simple.
For each question you ask in plain English, the student subsequently needs to convert that into SQL commands (Structured Query Language) to pull the information you've requested from the database. Therefore, if your question is confusing or unclear they will get frustrated and just leave. From what I can gather, there are a handful of different students working at the same time, and some are way more quick to disconnect than others.
Basically, these HIT are an SQL coding exercise for the students. These HITS are not some cognitive science experiment looking at how strangers communicate over the internet.