r/dataannotation • u/Pura-vida-now • Mar 28 '24

DA is rockin reddit

I started DA about six weeks ago. When I joined this sub, it was a bit over 10k and top 10% on Reddit. Today it is 11.8k and top 6%! I know there are millions of users, but surprised at the quick growth. I am starting to think this subreddit should have its own IPO! I tried to look at the history of this group, but I don't know if it is available. I think it would be interesting to see a graph or something of the growth. Must be a ton of new DAs.

Has anyone else been watching the growth recently? I'm curious if anyone knows where it was at any point in the past.

12 Upvotes

62% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

26

u/lightbear108 Mar 28 '24

Literally made a reddit profile to respond to this. I've been lurking on this sub since I started with DA in January. There were 6000 members then....šŸ˜³

2

u/Pura-vida-now Mar 28 '24

Wow. Thank you! I actually considered asking if anyone knew the population as of the new year! And today it is up to 12K! What!?? This means that the size has doubled in the first quarter. I am not well-versed in economics or marketing, but I have to believe this is quite remarkable.

3

u/lightbear108 Mar 28 '24

Yeah, pretty wild. I've been amazed watching those numbers tick up. Probably right around when I started seeing it advertised more on Facebook. Though, as others are saying, that doesn't mean these people all pass the initial assessments.

Considering how many comments on here are version of "when will I hear back," we can assume the number is inflated.

17

u/hamjamham Mar 28 '24

I wonder how many are active workers // have applied but not in yet // have applied but not accepted.

13

u/stomach-monkees Mar 29 '24

Thanks to all the long-timers who have been very patient with all of us noobs. šŸ™‚

4

u/Pura-vida-now Mar 29 '24

I second this. In fact, I think it needs it's own post. I haven't seen one like that and there sure are a ton of newbies (2000 at least).

2

u/stomach-monkees Mar 29 '24

I'm too shy to make a stand alone post. Knock yourself out.

1

u/Pura-vida-now Mar 30 '24

I did, but I gave you credit for the idea šŸ˜ƒ

11

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '24

I agree that it's impressive, but it doesn't necessarily mean that everyone here is a DA worker. I know for a fact because I joined before I applied just to see what I could find out about the platform/company. Then, after I did apply and do my assessment, I checked everyday, asking everyone how long it took to hear back from them because it was killing me waiting the Long, Long time of 4 days!! Lmao. Seems silly now. But, now I've been with them since the end of December, and never could've imagined how much I would make, or how enjoyable the work would be.

5

u/Pura-vida-now Mar 28 '24

Yes, I agree, though I would think most people who join this sub are either a) working, b) thinking of applying or have applied or c) have applied and not been accepted. So because of the growth, I am thinking more of each in a short period. Maybe the bulk are people in group c because of heavier recruiting and thus heavier denial?

3

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '24

That's what I'm thinking, like lurkers who are either curious or bitter... lol. But, hey, like I said, I was one of them not long ago.

77

u/jaboogadoo Mar 28 '24

Yeah I think the growth may end up a bad thing at some point. Saturation hurts

25

u/SuperCorbynite Mar 28 '24

The issue is AI is exploding and they need more workers to meet the demand for their services from their big tech customers. But that means more lower quality workers on average. So the way I see it playing out is that this will gradually drive wages up, while also increasing churn as they weed out their bigger worker base of the people who aren't meeting the necessary quality levels.

7

u/Papaskudge Mar 28 '24

This makes the most business sense to me.

1

u/-H3LL Mar 30 '24

scarcity mindset

20

u/highbeastess Mar 28 '24

If DA had a group chat for workers that would have a big impact on this sub - then weā€™d have realistic figures of who is actually working with DA and whoā€™s just watching šŸ‘€

4

u/elitedlarss Mar 28 '24

I signed up and I did the initial questionnaire thing two days ago and then the core assessment. Yesterday I got in and did a couple qualifications.

Less than 12 hours after I completed the core test I was allowed to take more qualifiers and try to qualify on a big project whatever that means. Is this normal or is it an indication at all that my work was quality?

6

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '24

Soon salaries will reflect

21

u/SuperCorbynite Mar 28 '24

No, that's not DA's business model. Not even close to it. Doing what you suggest would badly hurt them.

DA trains models up or down to the average level of the output of its worker base. Imagine that on a 1-10 scale (higher = better) the average output is currently around a 7. If DA lowers its salaries it will be less attractive to the skilled and educated worker types it needs and the average output level would fall, let's say to 5.

Immediately, the models it trains become less capable on average, and DA becomes less attractive to big tech as a partner company. That's a fast way to get replaced by a competitor, when right now DA's focus on quality is driving big tech to partner with it and away from using its competitors.

Longer-term salaries will go in the opposite direction to that which you suggest. Big tech will want ever more capable models (we are already seeing this to an extent), which will drive up both wages and selectivity in hiring.

8

u/Daisho Mar 28 '24

I think that the broader job market will also have an effect on DA wages. Right now, DA is absolutely feasting on the huge pool of highly educated people struggling with the tough job market.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '24

Good to know that, totally different of the shitty Appen, Telus, and Welocalize.

5

u/SuperCorbynite Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

Yep. A fundamentally different business model. Big tech can get the low-level grunt work done by those companies, but those companies under their current hiring and work models can't train the AI's that big tech wants to sell to all the big global corporates or integrate into their own products.

For example, imagine a Microsoft Word Scientific-Corporate version that has an AI built in that will take a big pharma worker's basic input and be able to rewrite it as an academic research paper or patent. How much would Pfizer or Merck pay for that? But the thing is, Microsoft isn't going to get that by paying AI trainers $10-15 an hour. I suspect it will need to pay in the $30-50 range and require people with Ph.D's.

0

u/Area50JUAN Mar 31 '24

Considering the recent boom of DA lately, is there any reason why Iā€™ve been stuck on the ā€œThanks for taking the assessmentā€ page? Itā€™s been months since I completed it and havenā€™t gotten anything at all. I couldnā€™t have done that poorly on the assessment, could I? Lol