How to limit HIT completion to certain times of day?

Gbost

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First time MTurk user (requester) here. Thanks in advance to all you MTurkers out there!

I would like HITs to be completed during certain times of day (e.g., 11AM-5PM Pacific Daylight Saving Time)-- is there some way other than specifying this in the HIT instructions to make sure Workers can only complete the HIT during those times? I don't want to have to reject a bunch of HITs if people try to complete outside those hours because it is not clear.

Thanks!
 

jan

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First time MTurk user (requester) here. Thanks in advance to all you MTurkers out there!

I would like HITs to be completed during certain times of day (e.g., 11AM-5PM Pacific Daylight Saving Time)-- is there some way other than specifying this in the HIT instructions to make sure Workers can only complete the HIT during those times? I don't want to have to reject a bunch of HITs if people try to complete outside those hours because it is not clear.

Thanks!
Can you post it at 11am (for instance)? (That solves the first part)
If you want people to complete it by 5pm and you give them a 1 hour timer, then make certain your HIT expires 1 hour before that time. That way someone won't accept the HIT at, say, 4:30pm and then start it at 5:15pm (too late for your purposes).

You can also specify in the instructions that you want the HIT completed during the hours you specify. But doing BOTH things (give the warning clearly in your instructions) and then post it at the appropriate times - with the appropriate 'expiration'. That should do it :).
 
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electrolyte

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Can you post it at 11am (for instance)? (That solves the first part)
If you want people to complete it by 5pm and you give them a 1 hour timer, then make certain your HIT expires 1 hour before that time. That way someone won't accept the HIT at, say, 4:30pm and then start it at 5:15pm (too late for your purposes).

You can also specify in the instructions that you want the HIT completed during the hours you specify. But doing BOTH things (give the warning clearly in your instructions) and then post it at the appropriate times - with the appropriate 'expiration'. That should do it :).
You'd also need to set it up so that if a HIT gets returned, it is not posted again. If you wanted it to be done by 5:00 and someone returns it at 4:59, someone else could accept it at 5:00 and then it'd be too late for them to do the work. You'd want to set up the HIT so that if it gets returned, it doesn't get automatically reposted to the marketplace.

There are ways you can set HITs to post only at certain times of the day, but not with tools that are built into MTurk. You'd have to set up your own systems with stuff you code yourself to do that and use MTurk's API.
 
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Gbost

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Thank you jan @jan and electrolyte @electrolyte! Both very helpful suggestions.

To clarify, electrolyte @electrolyte, when you say "someone returns it", do you mean that I reject the HIT and it gets released to someone else? I am new to the terminology so how does someone "return" it?

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electrolyte

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Thank you jan @jan and electrolyte @electrolyte! Both very helpful suggestions.

To clarify, electrolyte @electrolyte, when you say "someone returns it", do you mean that I reject the HIT and it gets released to someone else? I am new to the terminology so how does someone "return" it?

Thanks!
I meant in the sense of when a worker accepts the task and decides not to do it or runs out of time, and it's returned to the marketplace for someone else to do. If the worker decides not to do a HIT they've accepted, they can click a button labeled "return" and the HIT is sent back to the marketplace for someone else to pick up. If the worker runs out of time after accepting it (the HIT timer runs out), then it's automatically returned for them (this is called an expired or abandoned HIT).

However, if you reject the HIT, it could also then be returned to the marketplace for someone to do and you'd have to contend with your timeframe limitations in that case, too.
 
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Gbost

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I meant in the sense of when a worker accepts the task and decides not to do it or runs out of time, and it's returned to the marketplace for someone else to do. If the worker decides not to do a HIT they've accepted, they can click a button labeled "return" and the HIT is sent back to the marketplace for someone else to pick up. If the worker runs out of time after accepting it (the HIT timer runs out), then it's automatically returned for them (this is called an expired or abandoned HIT).

However, if you reject the HIT, it could also then be returned to the marketplace for someone to do and you'd have to contend with your timeframe limitations in that case, too.
Ok, this makes sense. Thank you! I didn't know about abandoned HITs. Will take a look at the settings to make sure returned HITs are not released back. Thank you again.