Welcome to our 5th Newsletter
Our August 2020 newsletter. We will be sending a newsletter out once a month to keep you up to date with what is going on at Turkopticon. You can see our previous newsletters on our blog here.
We are also now taking on helping suspended accounts be reinstated if they were suspended in error, talking with requesters to improve conditions, and passing all the suggestions from Turkers and requesters on to Amazon to actually make our Turk work better. During this transition we have added a donate page to our website, blog and newsletter. We are in no way saying you have to donate but we are asking that if you want the service remain free and you are able: please donate. We also plan to look for and locate other funding but your donations will be important too! Please help us remain free so we can work to make Turk better for all of us!
See the bottom of the newsletter for how you can submit short articles.
New Pay buckets for Reviews Update
We have been trying the new pay buckets for nearly a month now and it seems that most of you seem to like the new system. We did have a few issues with other scripts that use our data in the 1st 24hrs which we managed to sort out. We really apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We hope you think it was worth while.
The new pay buckets will replace the old generosity rating when the new reviews start to come through for a requester.
The new script is available if you have not already updated script available to display the new feature.
We are still looking for your feedback as to what you think of it and look forward to your comments. We would love to hear feedback via either on our Facebook page, Twitter or by email.
Turkopticon is looking for suggestions!
Do you have suggestions for how to make Turkopticon better and want to share them, please email volunteercoms@turkopticon.net and someone will be in contact to further hear about your suggestions and see how we all can work together to make Turk better for all of us.
Even if you think your ideas are ones we should know please don’t be afraid to send them our way because we listen to all suggestions and want everyone to be heard!
As a moderator on TO,
I spend a lot of time reading reviews from our awesome community. This week, while leaving a review of my own, I started thinking about how I’ve fallen short as a reviewer myself. I am much quicker to leave a negative review for a requester than a positive one. Many of us on TO are this way. I’m speaking to myself more than anyone when I say this. Shouldn’t we want the good requesters to get the recognition they deserve? We want them to find Amazon Mechanical Turk to be the platform they need to get their hits done. We want them to stick around, do more studies and tell their colleagues about it. As a worker I also want to see the good. I want to know about the hits I should be doing, not just the ones to stay away from. So many requesters are falling through the cracks, especially the newer ones that are not being reviewed at all on TO. If you’re like me, you may even try to stay away from the unreviewed requesters. Thinking about my experience though, if I have had trouble with a hit from a new requester, the majority of the time it gets resolved with an email. They have to start somewhere, and as someone who helps represent TO, I should be willing to give them a chance. So this week I’m making a real effort to leave reviews for all levels of requesters, and especially the new ones. Even if it’s just one a week, I encourage you to do the same.
Join Us on Facebook!
The Turkopticon community is growing! Our Facebook page went live on Thursday, June 4th and we would love for you to join us. Participate in the conversations, learn about upcoming projects, and stay up to date on the latest news by giving us a “like.” You can find the page by searching for Turkopticon or visiting https://www.facebook.com/Turkopticon/.
Participation in an Art Film
Hello, I am a visual artist that makes short films.
I am looking for Mturk worker participants for a short art film about the labor conditions of online work. Participants will re-perform moments from a failed utopian labor camp set up by Henry Ford in the 1920s in the Brazilian Amazon. We will re-perform scenes from this real history as if it was happening now. Participants will need to have the ability to shoot footage at their location on their own devices. At a later date, participants will be paid to travel to a specific location for a studio shoot with me and a professional film crew.
This position will be paid, and participants will need to agree to an ongoing involvement in the project from now until the end of the year.
During the Coronovirus pandemic, all work will happen online.
We will meet and shoot in person only when it is entirely safe to do so.
Please contact me if you are interested in participating:
Article submitted
Submitting articles to the Turkopticon newsletter
This newsletter is a space for us at the Turkopticon community to hear from each other. Submit short pieces up to 250 words to newsletter@turkopticon.net with Newsletter submission in the subject line.
Submissions should follow the civility guidelines. Want more than 250 words?
Get in touch and let us know your article idea.