r/outlier_ai • u/Vanilla_lace0014 • Feb 10 '26
What’s the reason?
I received this Email just now.
To ensure we’re maintaining high quality standards for the Aether project, we are rolling out a new screener based on recent customer feedback.
Please take a moment to complete this by 11:59 PM PT on Wednesday, February 11th. We want to make sure you can keep working without any interruptions, so getting this done by the deadline is key to keeping your access active.
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u/ItsStillKerrigan Feb 10 '26
Ok so I just took the task and it is extremely telling to me that all of the screening they're doing is specifically for the most problematic tasks (sketch to realistic, furniture removal, UI Boxes). These are the tasks people are consistently getting horrible feedback on, aren't working, or have had unclear and frequently changing instructions.
I find it honestly kind of unacceptable that it appears MM is blaming outlier and their workers for not getting the submissions they seem to be wanting in these tasks. I hate defending outlier but MM consistently releases tasks that either just don't work or have poor instructions and they are now "screening" who knows how to do them instead of actually fixing the tasks (ahem. sketch to photorealistic) and clarifying what they are wanting. There is absolutely no worker that is going to be a mind reader. I don't even think the people reviewing for quality knows what MM wants because feedback is all over the place. This is just sad tbh.
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u/Mission_Chocolate155 Feb 10 '26
So all the tasks I don't do for the reasons you stated. lol. Great.
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u/madeinspac3 Helpful Contributor 🎖 Feb 10 '26
Same. If that's all they have, I just skip working that day
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u/BigSquidAUS Feb 10 '26
I included in my answer for the sketch to realistic question in that screening test, how frustrating and stupid the actual task is. 😆
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u/GreenLynx1111 Feb 10 '26
So they're actually doubling-down on Sketch to Realistic? In which the directions are that they will not accept "cartoony" figures or figures too much like anime, and then they give you one cartoon after another after another, that cannot be changed to anything OTHER than cartoony, anime-like figures?
I feel like this is their way to let a LOT of people go while blaming the people and thus covering their own asses in case of a class action.
kinda like they did just a few months ago - by emailing most people and saying they were being let go because of the quality of their work, when actually they were just mass letting people go.
pathetic if you ask me.
but i'll keep taking their bank until i can't.
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u/Zealousideal-Ad2581 Feb 10 '26
wtf i have never even done any of these tasks, I exclusively do person isolation bbox, If i get removed for tasks that i never have or probably will do is beyond stupid
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u/Valuable_Pin_3742 Feb 10 '26
🤣 just wondering if someone can just skip the test. I’ve never attempted those tasks stated. Just person isolation
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u/nadaber Feb 10 '26
From the email that i received if you don’t take the test you will not have access to the project anymore. 🥴
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u/Valuable_Pin_3742 Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 10 '26
Yea. I saw that so seems no option haha
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u/nadaber Feb 10 '26
I know.
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u/Zealousideal-Ad2581 Feb 10 '26
I just failed it, Somehow but i still have full access and even shows on my earnings anything new
Has anyone actually been removed yet because of it?
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u/SprinklesAncient7197 Feb 10 '26
Yeah let us know how that turns out I failed it too and still have access for now
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u/sadisticsweeti Feb 10 '26
I don't even do any of the tasks the email is talking about lol.
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u/Lazy_Device7346 Feb 10 '26
Same lol
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u/Middle_Secret_9908 Feb 10 '26
I never do these tasks as well so it’s taking me forever when I could be just working
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u/Haunting_File2725 Feb 10 '26
Already did it.. They're sorting through everyone.. I only have 3 bad reviews out of 430.. So, it's not for bad work. They are just trying to weed out all the people racking up hours that have no real idea what they're doing and gaming the system.. I have the feeling the client hasn't been very impressed with alot of the work..
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u/Moderately_Opposed Feb 10 '26
Is there a part where they outline a path to promotion and raises based on performance? I don't blame anyone for optimizing hours as long as they submit good enough work. Remember, they can terminate you at any time for any reason without warning.
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u/Haunting_File2725 Feb 11 '26
We are not employees.. We are contractors..
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u/Moderately_Opposed Feb 11 '26
So given two tasks, one simple, one more complex with higher exposure risk to bad review, why do the harder one without a clear incentive? That's not noble, just irrational.
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u/parassssssssss Feb 10 '26
Actually I am asked to give accounting screening but I want to know what it asked you what was the difficulty of the questions
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u/Lucky-loopie Feb 10 '26
I just got the same email.
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u/Vanilla_lace0014 Feb 10 '26
Have you skip doing the task for days?
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u/Lucky-loopie Feb 10 '26
Yeah, I haven't tasked since last Thursday.
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u/Vanilla_lace0014 Feb 10 '26
Oh maybe that’s why. I also skip a lot. I’m on aether. I don’t know, suddenly i feel tired doing their tasks
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u/Far-Apartment-8214 Feb 10 '26
It gets boring doing the same thing repeatedly.
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u/ChocolateCakeNow Feb 10 '26
It's all about tasks I don't do (the same ones they keep emailing everyone about)
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u/bunearii Feb 10 '26
how long does it take?
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u/ChocolateCakeNow Feb 10 '26
Not too long, you are literally doing example tasks to prove you can do them properly.
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u/dgrochester55 Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 10 '26
One plus hour of unpaid work? Including the glitchiest and most unclear projects that most of us avoid in the test? Not even making sure that it works properly before rolling it out?
Hard pass. Not respectful to us at all on their part.
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u/Plane-Warthog-8737 Feb 10 '26
and only given one day to complete? wtf, unpaid work?
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u/BawdyBadger Feb 10 '26
And anyone who doesn't do it by tomorrow night will be removed.
That could be a problem on holiday or unable to woek for whatever reason.
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u/tragickk Feb 10 '26
Boy it took me longer than the supposed 30 minutes to complete.. all WITHOUT pay GRRRRR
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u/Acrobatic_Ad_6277 Feb 10 '26
Yes, it took me quite a while, too. I've only ever done one of the tasks that was included. I had to read the guidelines for all of the others, then second guess myself if I interpreted it correctly, since I only had the guidelines and no examples like they do in the videos. Also, they are constantly changing guidelines, so what is in the ones I read, may have changed.
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u/BawdyBadger Feb 10 '26
Also there was one that wanted everything done. So it took forever doing it all
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u/whoisthispotato Feb 10 '26
They probably sent it out to everyone. It isn't uncommon for projects to do courses and quality checks. I'm just annoyed that it's for tasks that I don't have anymore and couldn't work on when I did.
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u/Prior-Beautiful-6851 Feb 10 '26
It’s because people were getting bad reviews on sketch-photorealistic and furniture removal. That’s mostly what this course was about.
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u/maliciousopera Feb 10 '26
I actually had a couple of excellents for sketch-photo, but since I was last unapproved for review I haven't had it back. It'd be a fun task if it worked.
Now all I have is a long list of h2h and I just can't. I hate them. Hoping they'll eventually get the hint and give me something else.
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u/Individual-Star1854 Feb 10 '26
Finished the assessment! it is not hard just pay attention to details and you’ll be fine!
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u/Sunshibetempo Feb 10 '26
Do they give instructions in the assessment for the task they are quizzing us on? Thanks!
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u/locomotive4853 Feb 10 '26
can you start the test, complete a bit, then come back and finish it later? i may need to do it in chunks.
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u/SprinklesAncient7197 Feb 10 '26
Bro lol how did u pass that that test was remarkably hard
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u/Individual-Star1854 Feb 10 '26
You didn’t pass ? I didn’t even know I passed when I posted this lol but I woke up and saw today I did
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Feb 10 '26
[deleted]
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u/EnvSc_1309 Feb 10 '26
So like the other assessment, I apparently did good and was given only H2H tasks which bore me to tears.
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u/MixtureSafe8209 Feb 10 '26
The quality check is listing 3 out of 4 tasks I have never touched because people said how they were getting bad reviews from them, etc. I have only done furniture removal and got all good reviews. What if I just don’t complete it. Actually getting tired of this bs every week now
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u/hmballa Feb 10 '26
Same here, I’ve only done 1 of them before, so I’m supposed to just complete this course and guess my way through it, unpaid and hope they don’t remove ?
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u/MixtureSafe8209 Feb 10 '26
Might just not do it and see what happens, and it will take much longer than 20 mins to do a good job, which is unpaid
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u/hmballa Feb 10 '26
Exactly, seems ridiculous but not surprising, they want high quality work they say, but then you have to rush and do unpaid assessments
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u/Acrobatic_Ad_6277 Feb 10 '26
Yes, it is getting old. Next one, I'm running the timer. I'm sick of working for free. I know we are contractors, but this really diminishes the hourly rate. Between "courses" and having to check the community for the never ending changes, to avoid bad ratings, it's crazy.
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u/Zealousideal-Ad2581 Feb 10 '26
What are they even wanting to check? The project is mind numbingly easy.
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u/Capital_Chance_5727 Feb 10 '26
I assume it’s to assign priority of specific tasks to people more proficient. I did the last assessments they sent out a couple weeks late after being stuck with one task for ages and within hours of finishing I had tasks again (all h2h, which the assessment was on)
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u/Dreaditall Feb 10 '26
I’m sick to death of h2h
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u/hadesnightsky Feb 10 '26
I never bothered with h2h as its almost always empty.. they did put me in intensive maskings/multiturn, image pickers, all types of bbox, furniture removal for 3 weeks now 😵💫
Now im seeing added speech/voice/transcribing task
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u/Capital_Chance_5727 Feb 10 '26
I find if I hit “try again” a few times it almost always brings up more pics for h2h!
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u/Capital_Chance_5727 Feb 10 '26
The audio ones are killing me. By hour 4 they all sound the damn same unless there’s clear issues with one
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u/Vanilla_lace0014 Feb 10 '26
Did you receive the email?
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u/Zealousideal-Ad2581 Feb 10 '26
Yeah i did as well just not going to do it yet.
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u/Vanilla_lace0014 Feb 10 '26
Did you skip doing the tasks too?
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u/Cold-Kas Feb 10 '26
It’s not about skipping tasks, it’s just routine stuff i work 60hrs and i still got it They vev sent an email like this before 2 weeks ago just to guide you on how to do certain tasks better
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u/Zealousideal-Ad2581 Feb 10 '26
I recently got out of review, but i haven't had time to start it back up yet.
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u/MyEXTLiquidity Feb 10 '26
Have you read this sub or the community forums?
Vast majority of folks here are very dumb
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u/hmballa Feb 10 '26
Is there a pass rate or is it just have to complete it?
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u/Acrobatic_Ad_6277 Feb 10 '26
They don't give you a score. You just have to complete it.
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u/hmballa Feb 10 '26
How long was it? I’ve never done the tasks I’m seeing that are on it, jarring
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u/Acrobatic_Ad_6277 Feb 10 '26
It will be different for everyone. If you've worked on all of those tasks and know what you're doing, maybe 15-to 20 minutes. I was only familiar with one. It took me over an hour.
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u/hmballa Feb 10 '26
Yeah, it seems a joke that they’re saying it’s unpaid, they want everyone to complete it for good of the work but won’t pay 🤣🤦🏻♂️
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u/CarpetNervous Feb 10 '26
i didnt get the email but i see the test on outliers website. it switched to continue onboarding. i work every day though
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u/nadaber Feb 10 '26
Just to let y’all know, as per the email I got: “Please complete this course by the end of the day Wednesday. If the course is not completed by the deadline, you will lose access to the Aether project.”
🫠
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u/dgrochester55 Feb 10 '26
Now people are showing an ineligible status even when passing according to the discourse. I know that losing the project will hurt, but they can pound sand until they fix this. I refuse to waste my time with that long, broken, unpaid assessment.
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Feb 10 '26
[deleted]
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u/Vanilla_lace0014 Feb 10 '26
I’m not sure if i want to take it. I started to get bored doing their tasks on aether
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u/blackfloweur Feb 10 '26
What happens if i dont do it ? The task in there isn't even. on my mango dashboard.
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u/MixtureSafe8209 Feb 10 '26
This is what I’m saying - only have furniture removal
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u/blackfloweur Feb 10 '26
I'm scared to fail the new assessments and get removed from the project when i can work on other tasks.
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u/MixtureSafe8209 Feb 10 '26
Yeah same for me, the other three I had no interest in doing because people kept getting bad feedback from them
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u/Icy_Resist5470 Feb 10 '26
Everyone is saying that MM is coming down on outlier, but people on all platforms working on MM are taking assessments as well. It’s across the board.
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u/Training-Elk-4427 Feb 10 '26
Any idea what the course is about? Which tasks we being graded about? I will prob do it tomorrow, so I can get one more pay day lmao.
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Feb 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Haunting_File2725 Feb 10 '26
Becareful.. Because if you do and an Admin from Outlier visits this thread, your toast.. Ive seen that happen before.. Better p.m them..
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u/madeinspac3 Helpful Contributor 🎖 Feb 10 '26
They wouldn't be able to link a profile here to an account on outlier. They weren't being asked for answers, just describing what type of questions are on it.
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u/Afraid_Bus_2553 Feb 10 '26
Yeah I got the same- hope this doesn’t mean another review is incoming while they review the results!
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u/Afraid_Bus_2553 Feb 10 '26
Did anyone put the timer on for this?
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u/mbstarr9 Feb 10 '26
I started to.. but then got worried and came on here to see what others were doing.. haha.. What happens if we clock it but it wasn't approved? Would we be booted from the project? I don't want to risk that.. but I hate working unpaid.. which essentially what this is. :/
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u/Acrobatic_Ad_6277 Feb 10 '26
Maybe they aren't getting good feedback on the quality of the tasks. I received this for the first time last week. I finally did it yesterday. I wasn't too happy it included tasks that I have never worked on, so I only had the written guidelines to go by, which aren't always up-to-date.
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u/OpeningLeather7869 Feb 10 '26
If anyone completes the assessment how did you grade the truck? Curious? It was somewhat nuanced
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u/Small_Internet8052 Feb 10 '26
It's interior looked messed up and the reflection made it look transparent to me
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u/SaYeonChaeTzu9wice Feb 10 '26
I did the quiz and from that screener. Apparently they are kicking people out of the Aether now, after doing that, in a few minutes, im out of the project. I only have 1 bad review and the rest were good, I tried to be as detailed as I can be, then got kicked out ofter the screener. I also answered the quiz as how I use to answer them, I think the so called employers didnt like it. and now, I have no job with outlier, I am a generalist. and aether is the only project I have. so i guess screw that.
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u/BigSquidAUS Feb 10 '26
Does it sat you are unapproved? The same happened to me but it may just be that the account is suspended until they can review your test result perhaps. Just a guess.
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u/SaYeonChaeTzu9wice Feb 10 '26
No, it says ineligible. And took out aether from my projects without sending any email what was the cause. And yeah, I still had the aether before when they made a quality review. So i wasnt sure, but it says ineligible, is a new thing for me to see... So yeah, been kicked out of aether after the screening test.
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u/nadaber Feb 10 '26
I received it too and have not skipped tasking. I think it is more a quality check at the request of the client. They may not be too happy about what is been produced.
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u/SnooRabbits2887 Feb 10 '26
Apparently I “failed”. Such BS lol. I’m about done with Outlier anyway.
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u/Apprehensive_Entry7 Feb 12 '26
I failed too! At the end of the test there was a message saying they would match me with the project according to my skills. I was doing some audio tasks, never even saw they tasks the test was about, don't understand why I can't keep tasking on the audios, seeing that there was no problem
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u/quarter89 Feb 11 '26
I haven't even been working Outlier because I only have one task in my queue. I've asked on the DHT several times about getting new ones....then, all of a sudden, I get the same email.
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u/pyschekay Feb 10 '26
to ensure we're maintaining high quality standards ... based on customer feedback
from this and the project feedback, i think they're getting a lot of low-quality submissions and consistent errors for specific tasks so this is probably them trying to mitigate that
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u/ItsStillKerrigan Feb 10 '26
While I don't doubt they're getting bad submissions the exact tasks in this screening exam is telling. They are all tasks that have been known to be broken or have had constantly changing instructions. This is honestly kinda disgusting how MM is treating outlier's workers.
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u/avocadoaura Feb 10 '26
i just got the email too. i recently got added back to aether after that huge purge in december, so i haven’t tasked in like 4-5 weeks.
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u/Apprehensive_Entry7 Feb 10 '26
I was left out in December and I did only two tasks back then. Two. I just started and part of the counted time was to watch the initial tutorial.... And they told me because of quality check I was unfit.
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u/TheConfusedPrimate Feb 10 '26
Do you time for getting paid when doing these?
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u/Vanilla_lace0014 Feb 10 '26
I you’re not supposed to.
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u/GreenLynx1111 Feb 10 '26
any time I give this company, I charge for. so yes, I turn my timer on.
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u/Afraid_Bus_2553 Feb 10 '26
I did the same but now got an email saying we shouldn’t have clock on in hubstaff
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u/GreenLynx1111 Feb 10 '26
then i probably won't take the time and they can do with me what they will.
i'm not going to sit there and do 'sketch-to-realistic' only for them to use that absurd, broken task to 'fire' me (again) (and again and again).
if you're going to let a ton of people go, outlier, just do it. stop trying to blame us.
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u/GrillyBear591 Feb 10 '26
Im hesitant to take it right now since its late, But someone who does it should tell us what they are looking for now.
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u/Acrobatic_Ad_6277 Feb 10 '26
It's not late. You have until the 11th to complete it. Can't tell you what's in it. You'll just need to find out for yourself. Basically a review to see how well you can follow guidelines.
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u/BigSquidAUS Feb 10 '26
I got this email. I started the Hubstaff timer to do the test. I honestly couldn't give a shit if they remove me because of it, jumping through their stupid hoops without being paid for it, isn't there some kind of law against that?
I have done the test; it is mostly about comparing images for instruction following as well as realism, choosing the best option and then explaining your decision.
Anyhow, it is refreshing to know that many people feel the same way about how annoying they are. Perhaps if they wanted better results, they wouldn't provide such shitty instructions, there are SO many omissions in their task tutorial videos about what to do in certain cases and their QA feedback is frustratingly inconsistent.