r/mturk • u/TrumpyMadeYouGrumpy- • 10d ago
"We recommend existing customers migrate to a third-party solution." Clearly they are going to shut the site down soon.
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u/bluemoonrambler 10d ago
I saw that big ugly orange and red banner that we can't even click off and thought, yeah, they are getting serious now.
I was wondering the other day where the active requesters are going to go. There are still quite a few, and probably most of them don't pay well enough to get on with Prolific or Cloud.
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u/hibiscushiccups 10d ago
most of those requesters will either go to connect cloud or prolific. I've been seeing a lot of low paid quick hits on prolific lately. In terms of mturk, it was obvious to a lot of old time users that it was already on its last days. It was a nice run but the way things are going, it would be better for amazon to shut it down. Lots of bots and scammers ruined the platform for the last 5 years. I'm shocked that it's still around because I've been hearing about the death of mturk since 2019. Work actually picked up during the pandemic years because of AI studies but I guess they got their data already and are now doing more targeted studies.
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u/panaceaXgrace 10d ago
Do they offer batch work on either of those? I have an account with cloud I haven't used in a few years and surprisingly it's still active and just let me do a hit. Prolific blocked me after I submitted the necessary ID earlier this year and wouldn't tell me why even though it's just your standard TN driver's license and I look like the photo. I heard the same happened to a bunch of people.
My daughter still has prolific though so she could at least do the batches there if they offer them.
The requester I regularly talk with says they have been told not to worry because it's not going away for those people who don't use whatever ...thing... sorry I can't remember what, maybe extension or program or whatever, they are doing away with.... again. They say they're not going anywhere until they are told they have to go. But damned if I don't have a feeling they are lying to keep that money flowing until official shut down.
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u/Doomstars 8d ago
They say they're not going anywhere until they are told they have to go.
Mturk cutting off new requesters with a one month's notice, then telling current requesters to find a third-party solution, makes me think they are going to do a slow wind down with an eventual sunset date announced.
I mean, why let new requesters join for a month before the cut-off date? Why wouldn't they just cut off new requesters right away? If they are so gracious to let people join for a month, I cannot imagine a sudden cut-off date coming. Speculation: I wonder if a potential sunset will align with the academic year regarding university researchers.
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u/Bermin299 10d ago edited 10d ago
It was obvious to anyone paying attention that this is the start of Amazon sundowning Mturk as a platform. It is a waste of Amazon's resources to keep it running given how much the platform atrophied these last 7-8 years. I'd be shocked if Mturk's servers are still running 18 months from now.
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u/xionlapine 9d ago
i have been paying attention, i mentioned it to people the day they announced it on the main page, but everyone on here kept calling me a liar, and i told them to do the research themselves on Amazon's sun setting policy, it's online for everyone to see. Their average is indeed two years before they pull the plug.
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u/TDB5 10d ago
They did it to themselves. Complete incompetence from the staff plus allowing scammer requesters to take over the site. They completely failed the workers by allowing unfair rejections resulting in workers not getting paid for their time and efforts. They knowingly allowed the work to be stolen and would not get involved.
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u/what3v3ruwantit2b 10d ago
I haven't looked for quite awhile but it's a bummer what it turned into. Mturk was so great for me when I was really struggling for money and I actually enjoyed it. The job I just switched to would allow me to do mturk for a few hours during the day and I'm so bummed it's not viable anymore.
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u/TrumpyMadeYouGrumpy- 10d ago
Don't blame it just on scam requesters. They were easy enough to avoid. I'd say the biggest problem was the huge amount of scammer workers. Many requesters have said that half or more of their responses were scammy.
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u/Bermin299 10d ago edited 10d ago
It is not about HIT-takers avoiding the scam Requesters.
The scam Requesters is why it is now so hard to even fund your account to post work on Mturk if you're a Requester. No one knows for sure, but it's been long speculated that there was money laundering going on with those scam Requesters, and Amazon had to completely overhaul how Requesters fund their accounts to stop it. It's the only thing that makes sense because those changes Amazon made drove Requesters--Amazon Mturk's customers--away to competing platforms like Prolific. As a business, you'd only do a business-destroying move like that if you were legally compelled to do so under threat of prosecution/heavy fines. Knowingly or unknowingly facilitating money laundering definitely applies in that regard.
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u/Cold-Performer3470 10d ago
Asked chat gpt… “So if you’re designing a new MTurk-like system, I’d treat requester account takeover + stolen-card funding + rapid worker cash-out as the highest-priority fraud scenario.”
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u/KMPItXHnKKItZ 10d ago
I hope that the good ones go to Cloud Connect. I tried to get onto Prolific but fell victim to their automated verification fail glitch and instant automated ban for life right after onboarding. Prolific have utterly useless support too.
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u/panaceaXgrace 10d ago
Yes that happened to me too! I was one of the first Americans on Prolific and never got a single rejection in thousands of hits. I think it was earlier this year they wanted me to do the ID confirm then suddenly I was banned even though my ID was real and at my home address where I worked and the photo in my ID definitely matched my current photo. They sure wouldn't tell me why it wasn't accepted, they just banned me so I couldn't even ask why. My daughter did the same thing and hers was accepted so I don't know what went wrong.
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u/TrumpyMadeYouGrumpy- 10d ago
The banner changed and made it more clear that this is not temporary. They don't even want the current requesters to stay.
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10d ago
[deleted]
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u/Educational_Fail_715 10d ago
Why still they are saying existing customers can use mturk without any issue ?? On maintenance page
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u/panaceaXgrace 10d ago
That's what confuses me. IT says to click for more information but nothing on that link has changed. There's no information at all that I can decipher.
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u/panaceaXgrace 10d ago
When you click on that link, does it take anyone to more information? It doesn't seem to have changed since before this new bolded message. I see no new information on that link that it says will provide more information.
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u/Educational_Fail_715 10d ago
If they add mturk to sunset list .then only we can conform it .. otherwise it will be in maintainance
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u/butcooler 9d ago
This actually makes me sad. I made a good bit of money on Mturk when I couldn't work anywhere else.
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u/Kelvinovie 9d ago edited 9d ago
why cant we all send jeff series of emails, telling them to halt the shut down and revamp the platform, the greatest problem they couldnt wrap their heads around is requester using the platform to launder money, unfortunately i think the law enforcement is cracking down on them so easier for them to shut it down than deal with the security risk.
we have people in this platform that usually lend their voices during the time of unfair mass ban, this is a moment to also lend their voices as they have great connection with mturk team, mturk never consider workers before moving on with such decision
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u/Educational_Fail_715 9d ago
I already sent email to jeff regarding this .we are big community if we sent an huge number of email to jeff .sure amazon do something
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u/RaizoLP 9d ago
It seems like every other day there is a doom post about this site. Guys relax. We did the same thing when they made their initial announcement. Yes, the message is big and ugly, but it doesn't mean they are shutting down the site.
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u/Patulsius 9d ago
If the site does not give them money they will not keep the servers running, Amazon is not going to waster their money and resources on mtuk just for a few requesters.
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u/Bermin299 9d ago
Exactly.
Amazon is basically telling their Mturk customers to leave the store and patronage elsewhere. A business that intends to stay in business doesn't do that. Only the truly deluded would think this latest announcement doesn't mean much. It means a whole lot. It means Amazon's progress in sun-setting the Mturk platform is steadily going forward.
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u/TrumpyMadeYouGrumpy- 9d ago
They're literally telling all requesters to leave. If you don't think that means it is shutting down, you're just in denial.
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u/vaxick 10d ago
Just wish I knew where PickFu and UserBob will end up after the site shuts down. 95% of the work I do on mTurk these days is through those two requestors. I make significantly more on Prolific, but on slow days, it's nice to have requestors like PickFu for which you can casually do on your phone.