[video=youtube;h05POLIQ1rs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h05POLIQ1rs[/video] Time for a late night party. Things could get weird.
Yes, I agree that makes sense. If I were to design something like this I would go this route. Their scoring system could very well be as you describe. I suspect there is some other factors that aren't directly turking-related, such as location. I there's a possibility mTurk views it to be valuable to have workers from a variety of locations. If this is true, then two workers who otherwise have equal stats (or points) won't have the same likelihood of getting the qual. For example, mTurk may want some workers from Nowhere, South Dakota because they don't have many from that general location and so that worker may get the qual over his otherwise equal counterpart who lives in a major metropolitan area (because they already are many other Masters from that area). What I am describing may not be a good example, but I do think there are some factors that are outside of the workers control that mTurk uses to decide who gets the qual and they don't want anyone to know about them. The whining and crying of the unfair criteria would create a big stink. Thousands of posts typing in all caps "THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!"
I agree...especially when you get to race and age. They have to have a good mix of demographics because the surveys need that mix. No question in my mind that those things need to be factored in.
What I find wonder is how would mTurk get such information (race, age, etc)? Are they putting up their own demographic surveys hidden as something else? Surely they aren't getting it from the Requesters.
It's quite common for amazon to put up surveys and whutnot under names of people who don't seem to be related to amazon. And then sometimes you get requesters that are obviously amazon employees.
Title: Writing image descriptions [A] Requester: cslab [A3PBUB3OM54I27] (TO) Description: Writing descriptions of interior images Reward: $1.01 Qualifications: Total approved HITs is not less than 50, HIT approval rate (%) is not less than 95, Location is US Link: https://www.mturk.com/mturk/preview?groupId=260LVCNHMVHV3HUOC7B2F4JCASU021 [size=-2]Powered by non-amazonian script monkeys [/size] 3 minutes
Didn't we have to fill something out to join the work force? It's been a while, but I'm sure we had to.
Finished my last CAT I know it doesn't work for everyone but if you've not tried melatonin for migraines do it. 5mg before bed religiously and I don't get them any more, if I forgot I'd get them again. The funny thing is I just started taking it to sleep a bit better so it wasn't like I was even expecting it to help my migraines at the time but later found I'm not alone in it helping.
I don't remember exactly either, but I am pretty sure I never filled out detailed demographic stuff when I signed up to mTurk. Amazon payments obviously has home address but that's not race, age, etc. Interesting. So if this line of reasoning we are talking about it true for the getting the qual, then it sort of lends some truth to there being a "secret masters HIT". In this case it mTurk would need you to complete the HIT in order to consider you for their demographic criteria. Not saying I believe this to be absolutely true, just considering this as a possibility.