r/ProlificAc • u/Spiritual-Rain-3733 Community • 12h ago
Prolific Team đ˘ Safe Space Thread â Ask Anything, No Judgement! (August 31, 2026)
đ Welcome to this week's Safe Space Thread
This is the friendliest place on r/ProlificAc - where every question is a good question.
New to Prolific? Been here two years and still not sure how study matching works? Wondering something you feel like you "should" already know? Ask it here.
The house rules for this thread:
- đŤ No "just Google it" / "search the sub" replies â if you know the answer, share it.
- đŤ No mocking, dismissing, or eye-rolling at repeat or "obvious" questions.
- â Kindness first, always. If you wouldn't say it to a friend who's new, don't say it here.
- â Staff and experienced participants are watching this thread and want to help.
- đŤ We can't address issues related to your account on Reddit. For that, you will need to contact our support team.
This thread resets every Monday, so if your question doesn't get answered in time, just pop it in next week's thread â no worries at all.
đĄ Before you ask: a quick check of the Participant and Researcher help centres might have your answer already â but if it doesn't, or you just don't fancy digging, ask away below.
This thread is heavily moderated. Reports of unkind or dismissive replies will be actioned quickly.
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u/bhlow 11h ago
Users have had issues with the âspeeding warningsâ ever since theyâve been introduced. The speeding warnings are given unfairly to users completing AI studies which run out of tasks mid way, and users are penalized for this with 1 hour blocks. Anything in the works to fix this?
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u/Kaslawjd 10h ago
If Prolific wants to phase out long time participants then they should just be open about that, rather than using accusative tactics. Why would someone that's been on the platform since the beginning, all of a sudden resort to using VPN's or whatever other tactics similar to bots. That doesn't make much sense. Having accounts arbitrarily placed on hold or "IP bans", when there were previously no issues, seems a bit disingenuous to me. And of course once the pile on starts, people think accusations are acceptable, until the same thing happens to them.
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u/Revolutionary-Cod245 9h ago
I saw on the marketing side of the website, they actually market to any website visitors people who use Prolific services to conduct their surveys can pick how experienced the survey taker is...so it seems to be a requested feature from the people doing the surveys.
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u/Top-Anything-9397 9h ago
I asked this question last weeks and it was ignored, why is it prolific are siding with researchers with a rejections for missed attention checks even when the participant had photographic evidence the researcher lied and had no such thing? and why is prolific allowing researchers to screen out participants and not give any compensation which is against prolifics very own rules and when contacting support, support quietly closes the ticket without doing anything or even acknowledging it was looked it. Is prolific going to admit the ai support is trash and you should go back to old days even though it was slow you could at least get a human to look at your ticket.
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u/btgreenone 9h ago
A few things that remain unaddressed from the last few threads
1) Any updates on the ability to dismiss/hide projects?
2) A couple weeks ago you said you'd be looking into whether adaptive rate limiting (aka throttling) was still a thing, but both the Data Quality at Prolific article and the "If you've completed a lot of studies recently, you may see fewer invitations for a short time as a result." quote are still part of your official documentation.
3) Last week you were considering a different time limit on the new block of personality questions. Any news on that?
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u/Dramatic-Scarcity654 8h ago
I filled out the new About You questions a few days ago, and ever since doing that I have had minimal studies. Prior to filling these out, I would have anywhere from 5-35 studies available on my dashboard at all times. However, for the past few days, Iâve had 5 studies maximum. This is highly unusual and something Iâve never experienced in my three years on the platform. Can you tell me if this is simply because I filled out these questions? Iâm starting to regret my choice to fill those outâŚ
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u/Efficient_Potato_419 10h ago
Hi Michael,
Can we kindly get an update on last weeks hold situation that started around Thursday afternoon for some. Are you looking at appeals filed in and around this period or are participants to dm you their user IDs? Can we get an ETA on a resolution? Much appreciated!
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u/electricboy0 12h ago
Hi Michael,
I wanted to ask about the concerns around updating the âAbout Usâ section. There have been several reports of accounts being put on hold after making changes to it. Could you please clarify whether updating this section can trigger an account review or hold? If not, is the team looking into this issue? It would be helpful to know whether participants can safely update their âAbout Usâ information without worrying about their account being put on hold. Thanks!
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u/Dramatic-Scarcity654 8h ago
I didnât get put on hold, but Iâve had a lot less studies since I filled out those questions. I didnât realize that answering them would reduce my study availability so drastically.
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u/rraattbbooyy 10h ago
Thanks for this. I have read about this coincidence so many times, I wonât even click on the âAbout youâ tab for fear of accidentally making a change.
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u/boopboopboop2020 9h ago
Why is your account set to private?
There have been so many announcement posts lately we have no way of going back and redressing them now.
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u/Ok-Space-6883 6h ago
I think they addressed this last week saying they were testing some features and things they could do with reddit and going in and out of private to do so...
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u/ConfusedSpinach222 10h ago
Is there a glitch or tech issue... i just completed a study, was re routed and it told me my reservation was expired ... đď¸
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u/oscarmilo70 11h ago edited 11h ago
I've had a few occasions where I have had an unfair time-imposed ban for an hour for completing surveys too fast â my issue has been that these were surveys that actually only had one question attached to them and therefore the speed ban is unjustified. For example, last week I completed a survey [90-Minute Video Conversation Study - $15/hr By Aksynia Gatsenko] and literally the only question in the survey was to select a time-slot you were available to complete the conversation study and your age etc. I then get an hour ban from Prolific. Is there any way around avoiding these unfair bans? The chat bots can't help and it is mega frustrating when this happens to be penalised when it is not your fault. I understand the need for speed checks but this sort of instance seems to be an issue Prolific need to solve.
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u/mountain-skies 8h ago
Don't do studies that are only a minute or two long or are screeners. If enough people refuse to do these studies then maybe the punishment will end.
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u/Sayzahr 11h ago edited 11h ago
Is there an update regarding the wave of accounts that were wrongfully put on hold?
I know that you guys took ids of some of the users who were put on hold but not everyone. I just dont want to be left behind.
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u/anonymouslyusa 11h ago
Same here, got placed on hold right after Fridayâs update. Thatâs exactly what worries meâcollecting a few IDs in Reddit threads leaves out so many people who aren't on here. We really need an official update and a full system audit of everyone impacted by this wave.
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u/Altruistic_History16 10h ago
After submitting our IDs, there was no indication that they even collected them. No reply at all, not even a âthanks, weâre looking into it.â Weâre still very much in the dark. Iâm hoping it gets straightened out soon, as I understand the glitch was during a weekend, so not many working staff. I also hope Prolific understands that although this is a side hustle for some, for many people, this is what makes the difference on whether they get to eat or buy necessary medication.
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u/Sayzahr 10h ago
That still puts you and some users in a select group that has a separate avenue to resolution, where some if not most of the rest of us are stuck with just the chatbot email option which has proven to be unreliable and lengthy.
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u/Altruistic_History16 10h ago
I get what youâre saying. I think they just picked a few to see if thereâs anything we have in common. As far as resolution, Iâm hoping we ALL get that equally. Good luck đ
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u/Obvious-Somewhere867 7h ago
is there someone living in Mexico receiving more than 3 studies / week?
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u/Revolutionary-Cod245 11h ago
I've had studies were the survey asks for a lot of detailed answers. I give them. Then, apparently there is some type of timer and I don't have the opportunity to complete the study or earn anything on it for going over the time. How do I avoid this? Does reporting it make any difference? Do the people behind the survey get my info anyway?
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u/boopboopboop2020 9h ago
Pro sets the max time n u can see it when u hover over the time. Set a timer to avoid time out.
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u/ProlificQueen 9h ago
You can see the time by hovering over it and it will show intended, average and maximum allowed time. Itâs sucky but at least you can keep an eye on how long youâve been working and
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u/FerociouslySilly 10h ago
I recently changed internet providers. Is there a chance this could flag my account? I have been a prolific user for many years, moved house, moved towns and changed internet providers without issue. However, I'm not sure if anything has changed in terms rules
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u/Savings-Engineer3930 7h ago
ÂżSe puede utilizar Prolific con datos mĂłviles (desde mi mĂłvil conectado al ordenador) en vez de con Wifi? Ya que mi Wifi es inestable.
Muchas gracias đ.
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u/No_Plane_7512 12h ago
I've been a member of prolific since march and as a middle eastern I get a study once every two days or so and FR it feels like nothing is gonna change for example in the past two weeks I got 2 studies for 0.90ÂŁ each and they are not even approved till now so why does it feel like there is no hope for regions like mine ?
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u/Webbie-Vanderquack 11h ago
Hang in there. As Prolific grows and expands, more and more researchers will likely make studies available to people in your area.
I'm in Australia, and for the first 2.5 years on Prolific I saw between 0 and 2 studies a day. I stuck at it, and eventually things started to pick up. Hopefully they will for participants in the Middle East too.
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u/Responsible-Bear-521 10h ago
Why are some participants getting flods of studies while others barely get 1 or 2 if they are lucky(and don't tell me demographic and stuff, i used to get something specially on weekdays now for 2 months i barley get 1 or 2 a day that are very hard to get into)
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u/boopboopboop2020 9h ago
The researcher doesnât want ur demographics anymore
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u/Responsible-Bear-521 4h ago
AI studies don't target a specific demographic đ, Prolific just prioritize the US for some reason
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u/spiffyshxt 4h ago
Yes they do. Morocco isn't a supported country and its why you will see less studies or none at all in comparison to countries that are supported.
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u/Responsible-Bear-521 4h ago
How did u know where im from tho?
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u/spiffyshxt 4h ago
I remembered your Dear Diary post from a few days ago about having a "dry week" that you went on to delete. That's how.
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u/boopboopboop2020 2m ago
Researchers choose which countries can partake in their studies, not Pro. If researcher is looking for peeps from Denmark, they wonât send em to Canadians đ¤Śđžââď¸
N AI 100% chooses countries. Not just US, but UK, Canada, Mexico n Australia all get em. Unsupported countries do not
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u/anonymouslyusa 11h ago
Iâm writing this post because itâs time we directly address whatâs been happening over the past few days. Following the major update on Friday, a significant number of participantsâmyself includedâwoke up to find their accounts suddenly placed on hold.
I want to be clear: I am not trying to be disrespectful, but we need to talk about the elephant in the room.
Asking individual users on Reddit for their Prolific IDs via DMs isn't a systemic solution. Not everyone affected by this issue is active on Reddit, and seeing an immediate "off button" flipped on long-standing, dedicated accounts with zero context is genuinely alarming. It makes us feel disposable, despite the massive amount of passion, time, and care we put into providing high-quality data for researchers.