I've done my time with penny batches, I've done one brelig ever, I'm not sure about the current state of mturk for non masters, I knew things would change when the foreign requester shit happened a while back, I normally only work on masters hits now, or stuff from older requester's that are reliable. Never max out at 38.00 EDIT: Not trying to sound snooty at all, I'm saying unless you can max out in 4 or so hours on a batch, don't max out on penny batches, your time is worth more than that.
The penny batches that I do end up being $10/hour filler that I panda while I'm drinking coffee. I'd literally just be on profootballtalk if I weren't doing them.
new thread http://mturkforum.com/showthread.php?33224-Can-t-Find-Wonderful-Hits-5-16-Salivating-Saturday!
didn't mean to say that you specifically aren't, just that there is a lot of overlap. But if you are op'ing good batches onto a forum with hundreds of readers then yes its an absolute certainty you are earning less than you would otherwise, yourself citing spite as your motivation