A requester approached me directly and wanted me to write some articles fo rhim. Is it ok if you are approached by a requester or shoud you report to MTurk?
If you feel you can trust them and want to work with them, it's okay. But I'd recommend at least at first keeping things in the mTurk system. You can have them set you up with a unique qualification so that you can do private HITs for them, and since they'll have to prepay mTurk to post the HIT for you then you know that at least the money is there. Of course, they could still reject your submission and run away with your work without releasing the funds, but as long as you don't do too much for them until they prove themselves to you then you should be okay.
Should be okay. If he or she likes the content you've created, there's no reason you shouldn't accept the job. Be safe, don't give out your personal info, and make sure you get paid.
Andy's right, it's in the TOS to not work outside of MTurk, but in all reality, it's really up to you, as long as you trust that you will get paid, because you will have to work out a diff. way to get paid for you work. (Paypal for example)
I work for several people directly, with the work commissioned and paid through mTurk. No fees are being avoided by any of them. Even if someone chose to go outside the system, one could hardly consider that "avoiding the fee" -- Amazon's fees are so reasonable that anyone not willing to pay them isn't someone you'd want to work for. The only policies that I can see applying in this situation: unsolicited contacting of users impermissible advertising or marketing activities Everyone I work for closely is either someone I previously contacted for one reason or another to provide feedback or ask a question about a HIT, or who provided feedback to me regarding something I submitted. So the 'unsolicited' policy doesn't apply there, as we had already established a working relationship. Regarding impermissable advertising or marketing activites, I think any reasonable reading of that would be along the lines of "Don't spam people."
I've personally seen hits that are labeled for only one person, and using mturk to do the "dirty money work" is not a bad idea.
might be cool You can do these if the hits are on the site. The best thing would be to set up some qualification that only you can get.
I think it speaks well of a persons work that a requester has asked them specifically to work on a project
never ever do work for any requester if they directly approach you. use only mturk. the safest interface.
I wish someone would offer me a specific job within in the system. Especially if it has a nice bonus!