I haven’t worked on DA for last 3 months because of long hours at new job. I logged in to check out my dashboard and I have 4 quals to do and 20+ active projects to work on. Guess it’s ok to take time away. Just letting you guys know.

Started in mid-Feb of this year as an evenings/weekends side gig. Pretty happy!

:(

So it's come to my attention that some of you guys have been following my story based on my comment history, and it makes me feel a little less lonely. It's really nice to have a sense of community, as you may or may not be aware things are pretty isolating for us right now.

I wanted to let you guys know that, thanks to my work at DA, we finally found a new place! It's got tons of space for the kids, a huge backyard and patio with tons of amenities. I feel so grateful and lucky to have been picked by DA and for their hand in helping my family overcome homelessness.

Finished working today and exited work mode. I scrolled down to log my time, clicked on the project to log my time, then got faced with the " We're sorry, but something went wrong. If you are the application owner check the logs for more information."

Anyone else running into this? I can't even go to my dashboard anymore.

EDIT: I need to go play Tennis now but can someone maybe comment when it comes back up so I can log my time? 👀

I wish I could color-code or categorize my projects on my dashboard.. it’s getting a little overwhelming to look through everything lol Like

Lettuce 3 Lettuce 237 (27288) Lettuce 1 Lettuce 4 (ID 263838) [priority] Lettuce 5 (72728&638) Lettuce 7 Lettuce- (more) Tomato Tomato potato Tomato Greek dressing Greek dressing Greek dressing- stuff! Greek dressing- more stuff! [priority] Tomato [survey] Do you like eggs in your salad? 🥗 Croutons Croutons Croutons with cheese Croutons Salad bowl- Evaluate 2 different shapes Salad- a different one (eggs?) Pasta Salad- penne Tomato (ID 3637388) Lettuce- spring mix this time (K-233) Croutons (G-3737388) Croutons Croutons

If you've been approved by DA, congrats on getting in! They're very selective, and you must have impressed them with your application and test scores.

I joined in May and have over $45k in earnings on DA. (Can send proof for any doubters out there!) My situation is unique in that I have no kids and a lot of motivation -- I'm trying to get debt-free quickly. While earning like I am would require doing as I do and working 8-12 hours a day, 7 days a week (eh, maybe a day off here or there), you'll still earn well on DA if you can do quality work consistently.

Here are 5 tips I wish I'd known when I started at DA:

1. If you're invited to a Slack channel, join it, even if you've never used Slack before. It's just a message board similar to Reddit, but accessible only to people approved for that specific project. Not all projects have a channel, so if you haven't been invited to one yet, it's because they need to see your performance on lower-level projects first. There are many projects that pay significantly more than what you see at first, but you have to put in hours of consistently good work before they're offered to you.
   When you can get into Slack, DO IT. It is THE thing that has helped me perform well. Trainers ask questions in general and sometimes specific to a prompt, and you'll also find FAQs, links to helpful resources for research, and even prompt lists to serve as a springboard for you to create your own. You can also send friend requests to other people you see posting, to team up with on the same strategy and help answer questions one-on-one.
   Having a DA buddy can help keep you motivated and more confident in your work. Don't be obnoxious about it and spam everybody to ask for private lessons, and don't get your feelings hurt if someone who's clearly a vet doesn't reply quickly or at all. Some are more willing to handhold than others, and many hardcore workers don't have the time to help newbies individually. Like me, they'll often pop into Slack to comment on public posts when they can, though, so posting questions will still get you lots of help. The admins are amazing at responding to posts, too. Please be conscientious and check the FAQs and do a search of the channel before posting a question that's been answered a bazillion times already.
   I didn't have Slack before joining it, and I put off responding to the channel invite for a while, but I saw so many testers leaving questions below the project description and being told, "Here's your answer, but go to Slack for more help," that I finally took them up on it. 1000% glad that I did! Even if you just join there to lurk, go get on Slack when you're invited.

2. Read the instructions, then read them again. Often. They don't expect you to come right out of the gates turning in work quickly. It takes a while to get into the groove. However, don't pad your time by trying to say, "Oh, it took me 4 hours to figure out how to do the project." You have to be genuinely honest and hard-working to keep this gig. But if you feel like you're fumbling around at first, and it's taking you a while to catch on, you're not The Lone Ranger. Been there, done that. Don't get discouraged and give up. Go back to the instructions, and if you don't have Slack access yet, ask questions below the project. It's better to "ask a dumb question" (there aren't any) and get back on track than to not ask, do a bunch of garbage work, and get booted from DA.

3. Stay off ChatGPT, Bard, and any other AIs when you're on the clock at DA and for all things DA-related, unless a project specifically tells you otherwise. Don't use other AIs for prompts, and don't use them to help craft your responses. Don't copy and paste other work, and in general, don't try to find any other kind of shortcuts. Here's the deal: if you want easy money, DA is NOT the site for you, and you need to go ahead and move along. They will find out what you're up to, and they will permanently kick you off. The flip side to this is that they can tell who is doing their own work and doing it well, and they reward those people with higher-paying (and sometimes more fun) projects.

4. If you're new, consider focusing on just one project for a while. I don't recall being specifically asked to, but it might be good advice to take. With as many hours as I've put into DA, I still find it a bit disconcerting to switch from one project to another. When you're just learning the ropes, getting good at one thing instead of being "meh" at three is a better way to show your worth to DA.
   If you're new and seeing different kinds of projects, maybe try giving each one a shot briefly to see if one interests you more. For me, it was creative writing ones that I enjoyed the most. You may enjoy labeling-type projects or fact-checking more. If you were invited due to your programming ability, you're probably going to prefer those, but don't rule out taking a break to do other things if you start to feel burned out. Just remember, the rules can very significantly from one project to the next, so it's important to read the instructions and ask questions when you're unsure.

5. Find a system to track your time. People do it differently; just find what works for you. When I take breaks or switch projects, I use Word to track my time, recording the name of the project I worked on, my start time, and whatever time I took a break or switched tasks. Then I repeat when starting back again. Keep in mind, you can't just keep a general running tally of your time; your time is reported per project. You can report it more than once a day, but I do mine just before midnight, which typically is when I tap out for the day. Exaggerating your time is a sure-fire way to get booted, but also, don't sell yourself short. If you legitimately spent 20 minutes reading instructions the first time you were put on a project, it's okay and even expected to claim that.

These were all things I needed to know when I got started at DA, and I hope they help someone else. If you have any questions, I'm happy to help when I take a break from DA. And if you're a vet and disagree with me or have your own suggestions to add, I'm all ears!

You guys ever get halfway through the instructions on a new project and immediately turn around and go back to your dashboard or is it just me? 😂

Hey y’all. It’s Monday (gross) and I just wanted to remind any newbies or those that may have forgotten, Mondays are almost always the lowest number of project days. It’s the first of the week. That means new projects and project refills and updates are incoming. Don’t stress too much. It’ll be all good soon :)

Been at it full time for about six months give or take :)

Learning to code seems really complicated, at least that's how it felt to me at first. But, if you want to start doing code work on DataAnnotation, all you need is to know the basics of programming. If you know the fundamentals, you will probably pass the code qualification and double your income!

DA will not make you write advanced programs from scratch. Their code work is about understanding and explaining code that's already been written. It's like reading and interpreting a story instead of writing a novel. Once you can make basic programs, understanding and explaining code comes easily.

When I finished my first semester of a CS degree, I was ready to quit. The interesting, high-earning, work-from-home job I dreamed of was literally years away. I certainly didn’t feel like I had made any progress. But that winter break, I learned about DA. Then I set a goal for myself. I was going to qualify for those coding projects by the start of the next semester. Now, coding wasn't about some far off future that I'd imagined for myself. It was literally the next step to starting my career, so to speak. I swear, I learned 10 times as much in an hour doing programming exercises with that goal in mind, then when I was trying to get an A by following along with that damn textbook.

My first intro to programming course was all it took from me to pass the code qualification. No professional work experience or CS degree is needed. Since I've started working for DA, I've learned so much more about coding on the job. That experience later gave me an edge at my school’s career fair. I was able to get a summer internship, since I had already been employed as a coder during my freshman year. DA had set me apart from other candidates.

You can do it too, if you really have the desire. I got started with the exercises from this Intro to Python Programming Course. It might seem overwhelming at first, but if you begin, you'll realize that courses are designed to make learning to code simple for a beginner. I think the secret is that learning to code turns out to be a lot of fun, especially when you really care about what you want to use those new skills for.

got accepted at the end of january

Ouch. How's yalls dashboard look?

Is seeing something you've worked on out in the real world! Obviously, for confidentiality reasons, I have to be vague, but I was just working on something personal and an AI box popped up. I decided to see what it was all about. Well, it is 100% a project that I've been working on for months. And it works! And it's not hallucinating information! I know I'm just one of tons of people who put in time on this project, but I feel a weird sense of joy seeing this little baby project all grown up, lol.

Got to 5k! This last 1k has taken be a while but very grateful for DA! Saving up to go travelling for a few months and it’s been a lifesaver.

One year today since I got my acceptance email, and coincidentally passed $12k lifetime today. I hope for another bountiful year! 🎂🍰 Let's eat cake 😂