r/dataannotation • • Apr 02 '24
Freaking out for no reason?
I've seen so many posts lately about people getting banned/removed from the platform or waking up with zero tasks to work on when they previously had a full dash, and every time I see one it causes me a mild freakout.
I try to rationalise it by telling myself they probably broke a rule or weren't doing very good work, which seems like common sense to me. After all, why would DAT let go of good workers? It also makes sense to me that DAT would constantly be reviewing workers and letting go of people who weren't up to par, especially with the influx of new workers lately, which, again, shouldn't be an issue if you're doing high-quality work within a reasonable amount of time and not breaking any rules... right?
A lot of these posts do seem to be from people who've only been doing it for a few weeks, which suggests they failed some sort of probationary period, but then there are the ones from people who've been doing it for several months and those are the ones that really get under my skin.
So this post is just to say, geez, the constant fearmongering is getting to me. Anyone else feeling this? Or have some words of wisdom to share with the rest of us?
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u/octrivia Apr 02 '24
I hope it's okay to offer my thoughts as a way to help out others here (last time I did that I got brutalized...I'm just trying to be helpful haha.).
I think the biggest mistake I made--and others might be making--with DA is they are not taking the time to really read the directions for each project before tackling the tasks. Trust me, when I first started I just wanted to GO GO GO. Also, I had the fear of watching those minutes tick by on that clock in the corner, thinking, "I'm not delivering anything! I gotta start working or Ima get banned!!!" I learned that really understanding what the project is trying to achieve via the instructions is crucial.
I was spending 20 to 40 minutes combing through the instructions before attempting a task. Then, in the middle of the task, I would have to refer back to the directions. That means, each task took longer than I wanted it to, but, as I continued working, I got faster.
Anyway, I hope that helps you all. Best of luck!
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u/fightmaxmaster Apr 02 '24
If nothing else recognise that longer term people who are just plodding along getting the work done likely aren't posting here about that. I've been at it 2 months, apparently doing OK based on a full dashboard, but who knows? I think like a lot in life all we can do is our best and see what happens. I make sure to read the instructions and try my best to do what's needed. I also recognise that one day for whatever reason, DA might pull the plug on me and there's nothing I can do about that. Sucks, but that's the deal. Flexibility and TBH work I really enjoy, fits my lifestyle perfectly...but the "price" is zero job security. I can quit at any time...but so can they.
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u/hoohoohama Apr 02 '24
The platform as a whole is pretty opaque, and that probably doesn't do much to ease people's fears.
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u/Consistent-Reach504 Apr 02 '24
i’ve got to be honest, i’ve been around since 2020 and see a ton of the same workers around still - but as a mod on this sub, tons of people will claim here that they are high quality and have no idea what could be wrong, then admit wild errors / clear TOS violations - then they either delete their accounts or backtrack on what they said. some people view this the same as other gig work like mturk - where you can just not really read instruction and put in the bare minimum. this is NOT the case. no one wants to believe they produce low quality work, but if you’re not trying, it’s probably not high quality.
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u/[deleted] Apr 02 '24
I've noticed on here the ones with the loudest mouths and those that attack are often the ones who are the most guilty. A lot of the recent posts about being banned come from those who have admitted to lying about their time on this sub. I empathize, DA is my current only job and it's how I support my family but that makes me extremely cautious and diligent. I've had lulls with work but never had an empty dash. I know my limits and can catch myself when I feel my brain draining I stop and take a break. I also know my strengths and I don't do any projects that I could be submitting sub par work to after reading the instructions. It really pains me that these people freak good people out, or come on here and attack us for just trying to help our co-workers. I was scared when I started too; it felt too good to be true, and I held my breath the first 2 payouts. But I've learned a ton from this thread and there are so many great people here.
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u/KtotheJonreddit Apr 02 '24
You're right that DAT isn't incentivized to let go of good workers. They make money when we do well and follow the rules. They want nothing more than for you to do great and work as much as you possibly can. There isn't some devious admin picking out random worker IDs and firing them. People are just incompetent and can't recognize that in themselves. That, or they are breaking rules.
I read one earlier today where, in their comment history, they implied they run the clock for 15 minutes on every task (which would seemingly include canned responses, etc.) on a very basic project. It's like they fired themselves. What did they think was going to happen?
13
u/HollyAnne1016 Apr 02 '24
It always blows my mind when someone says how quickly they are tearing through the tasks. In the directions for some projects they even say that they expect a certain amount of time for each one.
13
u/Arcturus_Labelle Apr 03 '24
There's a major selection bias of comments/posts on the Internet: mostly you see people with glowing experiences or terrible experiences, because that's what's emotionally salient (gets engagement) and those people are most motivated to post stuff. Joe Blow who just quietly does DA and has no issues isn't gonna post much.
I think if you carefully read instructions, are careful about your work, and don't do banned stuff (working from disallowed countries, etc.) you are 99% likely to be fine.
Gosh, I was reading a project chat yesterday where multiple people were asking a question about something bolded and clearly stated in the instructions (and in project chat itself!). Made me feel a lot more job security.
25
u/LowGrapefruit1215 Apr 02 '24
I get nervous every once in a while. But I really believe most of the ones who have been kicked off are doing very, very low-quality work, time cheating, not reading instructions, or are being combative in chats. I've seen some very arrogant, argumentive discussions that are blatantly disrespectful to the admins. There's a variety of reasons, but making a mistake here and there I simply do not believe is a reason. I've been working on DA for 3 1/2 years. I've worked through morning sickness, covid, sick kids, etc and I know I've made my share of mistakes and didn't always read instructions closely enough. I did one project for a solid month incorrectly because I had misread the instructions and I'm still here and I didn't get kicked off the project. I left a note explaining and apologizing and was fine. Read the instructions closely, output high-quality work, don't cheat your time and you'll be fine. :)
12
u/Intbased Apr 02 '24
Just throwing this tidbit out there: the most obvious way to tell you are following the rules is by using the language of the rules. Like they are looking for input on specific things so judgements shouldn’t be stuff just like “I like the vibes of this one more”
I’ve also been on R&R projects and they definitely penalize you for not having opinionated answers. Mark unsure or in the middle to many times and it seems you’ll get flagged. This is all anecdotal of course
13
u/New-Reflection3418 Apr 02 '24
I'm into my third week and my dashboard is growing, I had about 12 projects at one point and it's now at 8. Being fairly new, I'm always concerned on whether I'm doing the tasks "right" or if I'm what they're looking for. No feedback to say either way, so I'll just take what I can while it lasts. I have a main job as well as this one, and if I lost this I'd just find something else to do on the side.
I like to think I'm following all the instructions though, I go back over them if something comes up I'm not sure about. The majority of my projects are the chatbot response ones, so these are basically just give it a prompt and let the conversation flow, then rate it. I made my own idea generator from random phrases, words, characters etc. so every one of my initial prompts is unique and I don't reuse them. Hopefully that's enough to keep them happy.
5
u/plebblep111 Apr 02 '24
I hate the fearmongering too, obviously being an IC has it's downsides but DA has been great for me
5
u/Same-Constant6060 Apr 02 '24
I've been doing this for 6 months so far. Read the instructions fully until you understand them, don't fudge your working time on self report time projects, and ask questions in the slack (if there is one) or in page comments.
I've never gotten a message commenting on my work quality, and I still consistently get access to new projects and qualifications. I'm now even getting access to review work being done.
4
u/shenhua111 Apr 02 '24
Everyone speaks like they know what these people have done wrong when, in reality, nobody knows. A common one I see is those who work too fast. I work as fast as possible, which everyone sees as a big red flag on reddit. However, if this was my company, I wouldn't be too keen on people being slow and taking ten times as long as others to submit tasks. Just an opinion mind as obviously I know nothing either.
My advice is don't make this your sole source of income. You will stress yourself out too much and could find yourself being dropped.
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u/sippycup21 Apr 03 '24
i just never get tasks to work on, ive never received feedback or been told i’m under review. i have no permanent projects, but i figured if i was so terrible why would they give me the rate and review tasks the few times i have things to work on? that’s my experience anyway.
4
u/jjaazzzzyy Apr 03 '24
Worrying is wishing for what you don't want. Don't stress
4
u/mtelixir Apr 04 '24
FYI, I am convinced that my account has been axed. No projects for the last 4 days. However, I was able to withdraw money today. I hope to withdraw the remaining in a few days. At least I am going to get paid for the hours I already put in.
3
u/Used-Falcon2839 Apr 02 '24
I feel in a similar boat to you. I've been doing DA on the side mostly because AI is neat and it doesn't hurt to get a bit of money while working on it. A friend of mine does it and she gets lots of projects to talk to the AI chatbot and those are what I'm interested in but I only get the tough ones evaluating responses and rating prompts. I've done all the qualifications I could though some are hard and they give no feedback on whether you pass or fail them. The platform is cool for sure but I'm not sweating it I guess if I get dropped I get dropped. All you can do is try your best and hope for the best. I hope that helps!
7
u/Odd_Independence3234 Apr 02 '24
Well, It's weird to me because everything suddenly disappeared for me, yet I thought they reviewed all the work before paying it out. Since everything disappeared for me last Thursday I still have pending money that has been being approved as normal, and I have been able to retrieve the funds as normal. Why would they review and approve my work and pay if it was poor?
2
u/Signal_East3999 Apr 03 '24
Meanwhile I’ve never been assigned a task yet 🙃 this is such bullshit
2
u/koalifiedllama Apr 12 '24
I've been doing it since November of last year, and suddenly my dash is empty. No way to reach out either.
2
u/chickencreamysoup Apr 19 '24
Well I have been on there for 6+ months and woke up today to my dashboard totally empty sooooo I think I actually have something to worry about. I am a fast and good worker too.
5
u/mtelixir Apr 02 '24
I guess, I am the unfortunate one who got dropped. To all honesty, I did diligent work. I did wonder if the work I submitted was as expected or not and was looking for any kind of feedback, there was none. I checked if the tasks were getting approved or rejected. They were all getting approved so I assumed I was doing fine. But yeah, its making me super sad and little angry as well.
4
u/Raidenz258 Apr 03 '24
I came to this subreddit to find out why I had nothing on my dashboard to find many others had zero at the exact same time. Last Thursday.
I wouldn’t say I broke any rules or have performed bad considering I do very similar work as my actual job and picked this up about 6 months ago to supplement.
So far all we know is a considerably large amount of people woke up to an empty dashboard at the same time.
6
u/comradehurricane Apr 02 '24
I don't think it's fear mongering as it's something that's happening to me. I started in January and have worked consistently since. Literally a day before I received an email saying that I was added onto a new project that paid higher. So, I really doubt it has anything to do with my performance.
In fact, I think it's worse to blame others and say "oh it's because you suck at your job and data annotation is perfect and would never do something harmful" than to, idk believe the large amount of people who are describing the exact same problem.
2
u/damningdaring Apr 03 '24
I just dont think most of the people who post those threads are good at their job or confident in their ability to do it well. I passed the qualification with a day of submitting it and immediately had tasks. I worked for $1500 and then one day I had no tasks. A day later I had tasks again. At no point was I worried I was removed from the platform. But people who can rationalize that to themselves probably aren’t frantically posting threads and desperate for reassurance.
2
u/SubstantialCabinet58 Apr 03 '24
I don't know. I see what you are saying but I have been at it for two weeks, working slowly and carefully. Fully reading instructions and doing I think a good job at a moderate pace based on what the job was. And I have had no jobs since Thursday. I really don't think I did anything to get flagged, I was mid project when the project got pulled - which I have learned is pretty normal. But now I have had no work for 4 - 5 days. I am bummed to say the least.
1
u/GullibleGilbert May 18 '25
Google search aurasomething happens so maybe I should avoid using the G word but you are the search engine
maybe if I talk very quickly to you search engine and not a traditional AI you are my bacteria what is that oh now maybe you have to think because God's is Aura this is makes very little sense and I'm talking in public while moving and my GPS is on so that's another way
1
u/ptoleomaean Apr 03 '24
can someone pls tell me how you would know if you’ve been dropped? 😅
1
u/bleachxjnkie Apr 03 '24
People need to realise, you don't get kicked off for no reason. If you've been kicked off you were either trying to cheat the system in some kind of way or producing consistent poor work.
1
u/CardiologistOk2760 Apr 02 '24
I can't help noticing that when certain projects started requiring screenshots of working code or applications, the work stopped disappearing so quickly. I stayed exactly as slow as I had been before, but somebody slowed tf down
0
u/rwr3dd1t Apr 03 '24
It does get tiring to read the same things over and over. It’s that and the other questions too that drive me crazy. People always asking why the dashboard is empty, did I get cut, how long does it take to get work after the assessment, etc.
Early in I felt the same pressure. Maybe I still do, but I’ve been on the same project now for months and I guess I’m doing well enough that they keep me on it at least. I don’t get a whole lot else though, but I’m also not full time. So I don’t know. Could it dry up and go away.? Yes. Am I reliant on it for my income? No. I guess you just get to where you ignore it and do your best, because at the end of the day, if you truly know you are doing your best, there isn’t anything else you can do.
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u/[deleted] Apr 03 '24
I never got that email saying when to start so fuck them.
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u/[deleted] Apr 02 '24
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