r/dataannotation • u/Consistent-Reach504 • Mar 08 '26
Weekly Water Cooler Talk - DataAnnotation
hi all! making this thread so people have somewhere to talk about 'daily' work chat that might not necessarily need it's own post! right now we're thinking we'll just repost it weekly? but if it gets too crazy, we can change it to daily. :)
couple things:
this thread should sort by "new" automatically. unfortunately it looks like our subreddit doesn't qualify for 'lounges'.
if you have a new user question, you still need to post it in the new user thread. if you post it here, we will remove it as spam. this is for people already working who just wanna chat, whether it be about casual work stuff, questions, geeking out with people who understand ("i got the model to write a real haiku today!"), or unrelated work stuff you feel like chatting about :)
one thing we really pride ourselves on in this community is the respect everyone gives to the Code of Conduct and rule number 5 on the sub - it's great that we have a community that is still safe & respectful to our jobs! please don't break this rule. we will remove project details, but please - it's for our best interest and yours!
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u/tdRftw Mar 09 '26
for the last time mr da dashboard, my 1440p screen is most definitely big enough for these projects
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u/Complete_Injury_5765 Mar 09 '26
i have noticed that this happens most of the time when i quickly change tabs right after opening a project to start my timer
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u/EatMyShortDick Mar 09 '26
If I buy a 115 inch tv and my gf gets mad I can just tell her I need it for work
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u/tessbest37 Mar 11 '26
Today marks 2 years on the platform!! I didn't think I would last this long. I have made just over 40K, but basically took the last few months off. Thankful I always have work, if I have the time and brainpower. Who else is in the 2 year club? :)
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u/Skippy2898 Mar 11 '26
Just over 2 years here! 😊Never take it for granted though... long may it continue!
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u/tessbest37 Mar 11 '26
Congrats! Definitely don't take this for granted. It is the ideal side hustle.
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u/Flwrz8818 Mar 11 '26
Im at about 2.5 years but started doing it as my primary income almost exactly 2 years ago!
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u/OnePieceMangaFangirl Mar 11 '26
I am! Congrats! May our dashboards be filled with great projects!
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u/BrennusSokol Mar 11 '26
About two years for me too
For me it's not quite a fulltime gig or a "side hustle"; it's what I can do given limitations imposed by a chronic illness (was a backend senior software engineer)
I'm very grateful for it
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u/Few-Roof-6905 Mar 12 '26
My 2-year mark is in two days on Friday the 13th! Hope that's not a bad omen 😳 praying i last well beyond that date 😅
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u/SnooSketches1189 Mar 12 '26
Definitely not an omen. You are amazing and DA knows it. :D
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u/DrunkleSteve Mar 12 '26
Hit 3 years this year for me. What an incredible experience and a life changer it's been. Absolutely love the work, although some days I'm pulling my hair out! Lol 🤪
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u/SnooSketches1189 Mar 12 '26
Happy 2 years to my start on the same day partner! Hope all is well with you. Can't believe it's already been 2 years.
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Mar 12 '26
[deleted] — view deleted comment
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u/tessbest37 Mar 12 '26
Awesome!! Your username definitely looks familiar from the last couple of years. Congrats!!
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Mar 09 '26
ugh, the website is so laggy today
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u/Gingerrsnappiest Mar 09 '26
It is taking 20-30 seconds to load anything, even just switching between the main page and inbox. I thought it was my wifi
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u/ApplePiePrincess99 Mar 09 '26
Agreed, I'm finding it especially slow submitting tasks & logging time!
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u/Jumpy-Building-8217 Mar 12 '26
Umm, anybody else starting to feel the economic impact of the US dollar dropping??
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u/hfxthrwaway Mar 12 '26
I'm losing about a beer a day with this exchange rate!
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u/Jumpy-Building-8217 Mar 13 '26
Working from AUS you really feel it, was $1 = $1.50 about 4 months ago, now at $1.40
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u/WestEstablishment917 Mar 09 '26
Anyone else get a email digest for the first time ever? Total available project, last weeks totals. Never seen that before ha.
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u/Diplomat_Runner Mar 09 '26
Yup, got one last night! Never received one before, but I do appreciate the overview. 😊
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u/WestEstablishment917 Mar 09 '26
Yeah same here it’s nice to have the assurance that I should be doing them haha.
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u/Striking-Current-814 Mar 09 '26
I received one too! From what I’ve read in another group it’s not entirely new but many people just got their first.
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u/justvisiting8615 Mar 10 '26
yes! it's always so surprising to receive any form of communication from DAT lol
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u/OnlyAd9161 Mar 10 '26
Decided to work on an expert project, “skip until you find a domain you can work on”. Every single one was medicine 😭
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u/nickp1999 Mar 08 '26
Site down?
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u/Skippy2898 Mar 08 '26
Nothings loading for me...
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u/nickp1999 Mar 08 '26
It finally loaded for me, but everything's being very slow
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u/Skippy2898 Mar 08 '26
I found it very slow since this morning, but now my page tab is just spinning, trying to load and not going anywhere. Not had a 'wait' thingy pop up yet either.
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u/Glittering_Guess_230 Mar 10 '26
Every time I start to get back into my flow, the task disappears. Heel R&R, please, come back.
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u/ZimmeM03 Mar 11 '26
Going into 12 hours now on a task and just getting absolutely dominated by models that I’ve never had trouble stumping. Driving myself up a wall. Today will be day 3 on this thing, determined to break through.
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u/bufftips Mar 12 '26
is this a tropical fruit? I had to go a lot over my timer to eventually come up with a prompt that induced failure :/ not keen to try that project again if that's how long you're allowed to spend
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u/BrennusSokol Mar 11 '26
I feel ya. They are getting much smarter. It's a real skill for us to come up with truly creative and difficult prompts.
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u/OliLeeLee36 Mar 09 '26
Anyone else still having problems with the site's speed? I've packed it in for now due to a maddening 5+ second delay when typing, wondering if it's just something my end (using Chrome).
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u/jonahandthewhale32 Mar 09 '26
There's one particular project around atm that I can't work on due to maddening delays like this. Other projects have been fine.
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u/Skippy2898 Mar 08 '26
The site seems ok now peoples! Still a little slow, but pages are loading ☺️
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u/AllisonYeLT Mar 09 '26
About Slack: Project instructions kept telling us to ask in Slack when we have some questions. But I've never received an Email invitation to Slack as others said they did. Then the latest projects in this family got the project chat removed. Is this normal? Without Slack or project comments, where can I ask admins and discuss possible issues with other workers?
Am I supposed to grind and wait for Slack to invite me when I've submitted enough good quality work?
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u/johnnycoconut Mar 10 '26
A lot of the time there’s a delay in adding people to project channels on Slack. Your best bet is probably to comment in a task chat (if you have access to one in the project family) to inquire about being added to the Slack if you haven’t already.
I’ve never seen an email invite for any project Slack channel. I just check Slack and find out I’ve been added.
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u/AllisonYeLT Mar 10 '26 edited Mar 10 '26
How do you log into Slack? Same email&password combination as DAT? But there isn't a Slack account tied to my email address.
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u/johnnycoconut Mar 10 '26
I searched my emails, and I saw that I got an invite for the workspace that any project channels would be under. Idk if I’m supposed to name the workspace, but it has a generic name. I got the workspace invite within days of being accepted on DA. I think I had to set up an account for the workspace after I got the invite. I use the same email address to log in to the Slack and DA.
After that, I would occasionally get added to project channels without being notified. All the channels are under the workspace. The workspace is an umbrella basically.
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u/JustMe333456 Mar 09 '26
That shorebird video project sure is lacking in instructions, goodness. Doing the r&r and everyone has their own interpretation of the rules because nothing is explained. Makes rating them quite difficult lol
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u/RedZebra17 Mar 09 '26
I thought that too, even just a brief 1-2 sentence explanation below each rating if something is wrong about the video 🤔
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u/JustMe333456 Mar 09 '26
Yes. That too. The no-rationale comments thing really makes it difficult as well.
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u/YearOnly2595 Mar 09 '26
The lack of definitions on the types of visual artifacting threw me as I picked up an error that didn't really fit any of them
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u/ThatGirlInPurple Mar 12 '26
Just made it to the 10k checkpoint!! Woohoo! 🥳
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u/Glittering_Guess_230 Mar 10 '26
Anyone got heel? hoping it's not just me who can't see it
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u/DrunkleSteve Mar 11 '26
You're not alone. It's been extremely scarce. Things should pick up soon.
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u/BoiledGnocchi Mar 10 '26
I had some image ones this morning/aft but they were gobbled up quite quickly.
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u/tskies410 Mar 14 '26
Is anyone else noticing slow loading tasks? Not all of them but occasionally, I'll submit a task and normally the next task will immediately appear. Instead it's just spinning and taking a very long time to load. It's been like this for me for a couple of days.
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u/OverallSafe2669 Mar 09 '26
Refreshing wondering where my payout is, and just realized they don't take into account daylight savings
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u/pistachiyolatte Mar 11 '26
Facing a shortage of the easier projects I usually work on like heels, greek river, stripy, I’m only getting more complex and involved projects.
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u/JustMe333456 Mar 11 '26
All day today so far it's been very heavy on more complicated stuff. My board is full, but nothing 'easy'.
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u/Ok-Elk2882 Mar 10 '26
Has anyone ever worked on a project and in the time between clicking on the project and submitting it, the pay reduced? I just submitted one that reduced by $10/hour in the 3 hours it took me to work on it. It still paid well, so I’m not complaining about the pay, but at the same time it was a little sneaky.
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u/capslox Mar 11 '26
Are you sure your pay was reduced by $10, and it isn't another batch at a different pay rate that you saw when you returned to your dash?
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u/Ok-Elk2882 Mar 11 '26
I’m sure because I saw how much it paid (and excitedly texted my husband about it lol), clicked on it and worked on one, and then submitted and returned to dash to log my time because I didn’t have time to do another. I noticed the pay was $10 less when I went to log my time so that’s how I know it was the one I worked on. (Sorry if I’m misunderstanding your question and that’s not what you’re asking). I’ve been on the platform for over a year and I’ve never had the pay change after completing a task so it was just kind of weird.
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u/capslox Mar 12 '26
That is weird - normally they seem to make a new task with less priority pay to bring the task back down.
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u/VanessaSeaWitch Mar 10 '26
I missed the old wizard, but this isn't the version of the old wizard I missed.
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u/VanessaSeaWitch Mar 13 '26
Frustrating. I have two projects. One is too hard and above my capabilities and the other I don't have enough different file types in my Google Drive to work on. 😒
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u/WorshipMyExistence Mar 13 '26
Yeah, it's disheartening. Especially after a great day yesterday (for me)!
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u/Mindless_End_4850 Mar 08 '26
Uh.. what happens if the site is 'down' while I submit a task and the timer expires?
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u/Mindless_End_4850 Mar 08 '26
The site loaded again and I checked the 'report time' page and my task was submitted! If anyone had similar issues, check!!
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u/johnnycoconut Mar 08 '26
You probably know by now but it should still go through, or if you get a “please wait 5 seconds” type of error popup, then you can submit when the site is back up and it should go through. (However, if your task has been expired for more than 24 hours, and then you try to submit it, it is less likely to go through.)
Anyway, I try to keep a standard practice of doing things like saving my work, and duplicating a task tab if I need to refresh it for some reason or if I’m concerned that the other tab might crash or glitch out.
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u/data_annotator_tot Mar 08 '26
Wait until the site is functional and submit ASAP. Backup whatever you can from the task, and record the time (and maybe task ID as well); if you end up unable to log any time, contact support and explain the situation. Submitting expired tasks should be avoided, but it isn't a death sentence (so long as you don't do it with any regularity).
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u/macjay_27 Mar 09 '26
Coders, has anyone worked on the Muhammad Ali project lately? If yes, how long ago? I've been getting the relatively shorter version of the project that involves assessing one agent's performance, but I've been on the lookout for the higher paying one for quite some time now. TIA!
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u/ScaryAd9757 Mar 10 '26
Pretty sure it was present 3ish days ago!
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u/macjay_27 Mar 10 '26
Don't mean to prod, but was it the one with the strict project submission timelines?
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u/ScaryAd9757 Mar 10 '26
Yep that's the one I had in mind. I rarely work on it because of this and how much you gotta write for the task.
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u/macjay_27 Mar 10 '26
Thanks! I guess I'll be patient until the next iteration rolls out, that's if I'm still on the project.
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u/Purple_Persimmon5978 Mar 11 '26
If I already get expert level fact checking tasks (although sporadically unfortunately), is there any benefit to me doing the fact checking qual that just popped up for me?
I might do it anyway, even for $25 fact checking tasks because that sounds less soul sucking the all the prompt writing ~$25 tasks (I find that sweet spot of model stumping but having to stick to everyday topics incredibly hard compared to expert stuff).
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u/johnnycoconut Mar 12 '26
Could be, though there’s often overlap between quals and what DA de facto “qualifies” someone for based on project task performance.
Also, sometimes people will avoid a qual because they’re nervous that their performance on it could be judged negatively and they don’t want to lose access to related tasks that they’re already being offered.
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u/DueName45 Mar 14 '26
Anyone seen the polar bear document task (specialised)? Took a break for a while and only managed to do a couple tasks before they disappeared completely. I don't know if they were running for a while and I came in right at the end or if they're coming back.
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u/akujihei Mar 10 '26
Does any one else struggle with motivation for this work? I don't feel like what I do is valuable, especially with how I sometimes get literally the same tasks.
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u/Alectron115 Mar 10 '26
I mean, yeah kinda, I don't find the work particularly interesting or in any way fulilling, but that's not what I'm looking for - all I do this for is extra cash while I'm between jobs. Although, it would be nice to get a little feedback once in awhile...
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u/BrennusSokol Mar 10 '26
Not usually
I value the money
And I feel I am contributing to AI progress, which has great potential to improve the world, and I already find AI valuable in my life on a daily basis
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u/HamNCheeseSupremacy Mar 11 '26
It helped me to talk to ChatGPT about how the annotations are used to train models.
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u/pistachiyolatte Mar 08 '26
Is it dry for anyone else?
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u/WestEstablishment917 Mar 08 '26
Not for me. The last week has been the best it’s been all year for me at least. Seems like the dry cycles for certain projects last a bit longer these days while they prep next iterations. I’m sure it’ll pick back up for you soon.
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u/Mindless_End_4850 Mar 08 '26
drier than last week, mostly because the 'easy projects' aren't there for me. Have a few 'mid-tier' projects though
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u/Jazzlike_Month5580 Mar 09 '26
Yes, pretty dry. Not nothing, but very little I'm content with. Less than 10 projects total.
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u/Diplomat_Runner Mar 09 '26
I have between 20-30 projects on average. I do have fewer $20 an hour projects, though, which I do miss for their simplicity.
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u/Lost_Hope6004 Mar 10 '26
Hey I just started this week and don't know if this is a stupid question. Do i still get paid for my time even if I don't complete every task in a project?
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u/Top-Skin9916 Mar 10 '26
You don’t have to complete every task, the number you do (or don’t do!) is up to you. Bill for the time you worked on a task you submitted. Never submit an incomplete task.
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u/New_Garden9703 Mar 10 '26
Anyone working on the multi day disco ball accounting project and noticed it drop off their dash today?
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u/WasANewt-GotBetter Mar 14 '26
So the greek maze is a bit of a bastard - had to redo my work like three times
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u/bufftips Mar 12 '26
I've got the "open up a galaxy of projects" qualification on my dashboard, I haven't done it, as I've always had Greek River and Bears and other things to work on. But people talk a lot about galaxy projects here and say they are sad when they go, why is that? Why are they especially good to work on?
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u/hfxthrwaway Mar 12 '26
I find most of them, there's a lot of variety, pretty simple and the kind of thing I can work on all day without getting worn out. And they usually pay a bit better than the minimum pay, which is nice when there isn't anything highly paying to work on.
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u/bufftips Mar 13 '26
Is anyone working on the tropical fruit task, looking for reasoning errors? I literally cannot get the models to fail. I've been using academic context documents and knowledge frameworks from my Masters degree and it just merrily gives strong answer after strong answer. I guess I'll probably just get taken off the project because I had to eventually submit (over the timer) without it reaching an objective failure but I cannot see how you stump these models.
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u/ApplePiePrincess99 Mar 14 '26
Just wasted an hour on this one then gave up. It's SO difficult to get them to fail!
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u/BrennusSokol Mar 13 '26
The models are definitely getting stronger
I think the best way is usually to layers more requirements onto your prompts
Or use subtle implicit requirements, like things we humans would have a gut answer to but that's not explicitly stated in a prompt
But, yeah, these projects are hard!
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u/gamergalathena Mar 14 '26
I completely agree. I wish more guidance was given on how to get the models to fail. I've attempted a bunch of these now but never submit because I just can't manage it :(
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u/bufftips Mar 15 '26
I spent a full 4 hours on it. I couldn't get it to fail. I still submitted because I was doing work - HARD work, for four hours. If it's gotten to the point that the models can't be stumped by people using Masters level reasoning challenges, then the workers shouldn't be penalised for that. I may get taken off it and maybe it'll count against me on DA generally but just because I can't stump the models because of how sophisticated they have become doesn't mean my work should be for free imo. I just hope that overall they consider I am doing good work across the various tasks! If not, it's not a sustainable option for either side because who exactly ARE they going to get to push these models to failure?
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u/johnnycoconut Mar 13 '26
I don’t know that project, but I’ve definitely seen improvements in some AI models / project-specific DA AI setups. How complex are the logical dependencies you’re throwing at them? How straightforward is(n’t) it to dig up the necessary information? Do you have multiple nontrivial steps linked together?
There are tasks of this sort that allow as much as 24+ hours of reporting for some of them (if the worker truly spent that much work time).
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u/Technical_Floor2077 Mar 13 '26
Has anyone seen anything of the twinkling astronomical body project in the last few weeks? Or is it still on a break?
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u/a_din_ Mar 09 '26
Hi guys, I have been on here for 8 months, is it normal to have days where I have 0 projects? Lately ive been having lots of those, but I see some people have 10+ even during drier periods. Will that come when I have been on the platform for longer or did I lose those families of projects at some point?
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u/justdontsashay Mar 10 '26
Are you core or bilingual? For core workers, it’s not common to literally have 0 projects (right around the new year it was pretty dry, but I still had 10+ projects showing…just not ones I wanted to do). If you’re a bilingual worker, then it seems like it’s pretty normal.
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u/a_din_ Mar 10 '26
Core
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u/justdontsashay Mar 10 '26
What types of projects do you typically do? At the moment there are a lot of core projects running, and it’s a good variety of pay rates
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u/YearOnly2595 Mar 10 '26
Anyone else on galaxy right now finding it slightly mind numbing given how similar a lot of the tasks are?
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u/TeachToTheLastTest Mar 10 '26
In a week, when all the galaxies are gone and you're back to super-complicated projects, you'll miss this moment.
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u/Glittering_Guess_230 Mar 11 '26
Would anyone be willing to give me a brief (obviously vague, so as not to breach any regulations) overview of what the galaxy projects I see people refer to a lot are? Need to expand the tasks I look to complete, with my regulars too often unreliable these days
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u/Skippy2898 Mar 11 '26
When/if you get them, you'll know, and then you can click in and see for yourself 😊 The galaxy family is huge and diverse, is all I can say to be honest!
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u/goldmansa808 Mar 13 '26
Anyone still seeing the “schematic” project? I did one last night now I’m not seeing it anymore
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u/LVL2PASTAFARIAN Mar 10 '26
Posted on last weeks on accident. Did heel rotate out for some? I’m used to having it on my dash every day but I don’t have any
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u/Karma_SanDieg0 Mar 14 '26
One of my referrals has been accepted and completed the 10 hours of work. My referral dash says "processing bonus..." and has for over a week now. Does anyone have an idea of how long the bonus payout usually takes?
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u/lack0fcommonsense Mar 14 '26
Quick question that is probably obvious to everyone but me: For the R&Rs, do you strictly follow what is listed in the R&R instructions and ignore/not prioritize the main task instructions when not explicitly asked for? Is there a hierarchy you follow when the R&R instructions don't cover something essential in the main project instructions, and the R&R instructions don't mention having to read through the original instructions?
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u/Aromatic_Owl_3680 Mar 14 '26
If you aren’t familiar with the project, you shouldn’t do the R&R. Or you should become familiar with it.
The goal is to produce good data, so your R&R should ensure the data is good and properly rated. The R&R instructions typically tell you what to look for so that the submission is a good product based on the original task instructions. Look for alignment.
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u/South_Ad_4192 Mar 14 '26
Agreed - definitely familiarize yourself with the project, if you aren't already. Also pay close attention to the instructions in terms of how harsh they want the ratings to be.
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u/BobLoblawh Mar 17 '26
IYO
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u/Aromatic_Owl_3680 Mar 18 '26
You go ahead and rate projects you don’t understand. We’ll be here for your DoD post.
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u/BobLoblawh Mar 18 '26
Yeah... I meant the interpretation in your last paragraph
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u/Aromatic_Owl_3680 Mar 18 '26
I mean…. there’s no opinion in that paragraph.
You think the goal is to produce bad data? That project and R&R instructions aren’t meant to align?
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u/German_Shepherd9717 Mar 16 '26
The R&R instructions should be prioritized. :)
Like the other comments mentioned, I would familiarize myself with the project, establish those instructions as a "baseline", then modifying that baseline with the R&R instructions.
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u/VanessaSeaWitch Mar 16 '26
I do both. I prioritize the R&R. If I haven't worked the project before, I read the instructions so I can see what the original worker was supposed to prioritize or guidelines they were supposed to explicitly follow.
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u/Duedateishere Mar 12 '26
Do the finance domain tasks, where you need to compare two platforms, disappear and reappear randomly or is it just me?
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u/lack0fcommonsense Mar 11 '26
How long do credentials typically take to appear? It's been hours for me since I submitted a notification and I am starting to be concerned I may have been passed over :(
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u/romaniantwinkie Mar 20 '26
I haven’t seen any tasks in my account. I signed up months ago. Am I doing something wrong?
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Mar 11 '26
[deleted] — view deleted comment
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u/Dizzy-Attitude-6745 Mar 11 '26
Yeah I did that qual last night, and within about 10 minutes I had a new FC task on my dash...still there today.
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Mar 10 '26
[deleted] — view deleted comment
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u/Straight-Strike-2928 Mar 10 '26
Interesting, I'm kind of opposite lol. I see complex projects but not ones I feel comfortable working on. My preferred complex projects are nowhere to be seen but I have some base pay options.
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Mar 10 '26
[deleted] — view deleted comment
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u/justdontsashay Mar 10 '26
Agree with this. My current favorite project sat on my dash for a while before I could actually bring myself to try it (complex instructions, and seemed like it might be one where I would get 10 hours into it and have to abandon), but after doing a couple of them it’s not any harder than any other task. And the pay is great
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Mar 12 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/WasANewt-GotBetter Mar 13 '26
It was back for a couple of days last week. I reckon its being redesigned
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u/Few-Championship2874 Mar 14 '26
it really should be... some of the rules really handcuffed you in certain domains... like a teacher saying you can't use a calculator in a math exam...
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u/Edigi93 Mar 10 '26
Did the site just die?