What's the problem with TurkerNation?

Discussion in 'General' started by riddeck, May 22, 2012.

  1. Mayhem

    Mayhem User

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    Freedom!!!! Where's my blue face paint? hahahaha
     
  2. Playa_hamm420

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    Drunk rants are the best arnt they :p
     
  3. JustMaketheMoney

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    That "forum" is a pile of dog crap.

    I got banned for noting that a requester had zero quality control checks.
     
  4. sternly

    sternly New Member

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    Wow, I thought maybe I needed a reality check when I entered turkernation (oops, I mean turdernation- childish I know, but "who are these turds" was my first thought when reading "how many posts needed to see hidden content." But now that I am here, I realize I was right, they are turdtrolls. I read some helpful pages there, and decided to sign up since I kept getting the no permission screens. After a stroll through the new member FAQ and such, I thought to myself that they sounded real unfriendly to newbies. Being an amazon affiliate marketer in the past, I suddenly realized, the rules sounded Amazonish. I found a post by by someone in the mturk forum about the whois for turkernation, owned by Amazon Technologies. Yep, confirmed. It's great that mturkforum provides an alternative for turk newbies like myself. Thank you.
     
  5. Mayhem

    Mayhem User

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    There was a forum that existed prior that closed and was replaced with TurkerNation. I've been working on mTurk and frequenting those forums for about four years now. Their treatment is the same across the board to new and old alike, unlike you join the dark side. Good to see you here. I haven't been around much in a while, but I thought I'd welcome you.
     
  6. Sparrow

    Sparrow Member

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    Good god, I am so relieved to see this thread. Can I just vent for a minute?

    I signed up over there awhile back, and did think it was a pretty unfriendly environment from the get go, but the real straw that broke the camel's back was this week, when I posted a question asking what a job type was, and they just keep deleting it.
    I think one of their rules is no talking about specific jobs- but my thread wasn't about a specific job, just a general, “what is this type of job is this” question. There are tons of HITS from multiple requesters, titled “write/rewrite”, and I wasn't sure what this entailed. I asked it over here too, and googled it and since I hadn't yet gotten a reply here (I did eventually), I asked over there too.

    The HITS are really vague, as are a lot of them, and I didn't know if they were asking me to write my own content, on the same topic, but showing the other article as an example, or if they were asking me to just re-word the article.
    I've been writing SEO/copy content and blogging for years, as a freelancer- and the only time I've ever heard of a job wanting me to spin something is when it's my own work- like write an article about Mturk, and two spinned versions. Since the Mturk HITS were talking about another person's work, and never used the word spin, I wasn't sure. I wouldn't spin another person's work; it's akin to plagiarism. But again, I wasn't sure if they were using the other person's content as an example of tone or topic or what- and since they usually have fair pay, and there's plenty HITS, I figured it's worth finding out. I didn't want to risk a rejection, so I asked people who were experienced with Mturk- you guys, and TurkNation.

    The first time I posted it, the thread went MIA and I thought maybe i was nuts and hadn't fully posted- so i did it again the next day. This morning I had an email notification someone had replied, and was able to read a portion of the reply in my actual email. The person said it was “what we call spinning” and “plagiarism”. The reply was fairly polite, but obviously negative in terms of what the job was.

    When I clicked the link to read the rest on the TurkNation site, and to reply back thanking them, I was told the thread either didn't exist, or was in a sector off limits to me.

    I'm assuming it was removed. If they did move it, it was ridiculous- it's a question people new to Mturk will have, and would serve no purpose in an exclusive forum for experienced turkers, so again, i'm going with removed.

    I am completely baffled why though- as it wasn't about a specific requester/job, or condoning the work- if anything, it seems relatively important and something you think they'd want people to know about.
    I did email them, but I'm not holding my breath. I had already discovered this forum when I posted, and had felt more welcome here, but now that this happened, I started really reading the site over there, just to see why it was removed.
    The more I read, the less I liked them. I get "hidden" threads with highly desirable HIT content being only for regular contributors- but one girl said she had been, and was offline for a while, and they demoted her, which seemed shitty. Another thing I noticed in their mile long rule book is that you have to post every day or they'll delete your account. Who has time to post on their forum EVERY DAY? I don't even talk to my family every day for chrissakes. Nor do I think it's useful to flood forums with pointless tripe just to be sure you're meeting the minimum daily. I don't know- 30 days inactive, maybe. 3 months, okay, fine. One day?!
    But really, the thing that bothered me most was the overall tone is just weird and unfriendly. I'm not a disrespectful person; I don't start rows or break forum rules- I'm pretty damn polite 99.9% of the time. I thank people when they help me, I try to pay it forward. I think the whole concept of a forum like this is based on welcoming people, educating/informing new members, and helping. It works b/c someday, one person who was helped will become the helper. This is the basic model for a site dedicated to Mturk members, no?
    Apparently not. I just can't get over how unwelcome and aggro the mood is over there.

    I really hesitated posting this, b/c I imagine somehow it'll get over there, and i'll be banned for telling people here how I felt but I give up on them. I get that they probably deal with jerks; I admined for a niche social network on NING for several years, and dealt with assholes, but you can't let a few people turn you bitter and rude to everyone. If that's the case, maybe it's time to step down.
    So thank you, for letting me know it wasn't personal, and it wasn't really just me. I feel slightly vindicated :)
    (quietly steps down off her soapbox)....
     
    #26 Sparrow, Jan 14, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 14, 2013
  7. Sparrow

    Sparrow Member

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    And as expected...

    Update:
    And less than 3 hours after posting this, i discovered my TurkNation login info no longer works. My computer also started acting all hinky though, so i initially thought it was just that- but Norton managed to fix whatever was wrong, and when I tried again, i still was told it was an invalid log in. No email, no explanation, and no reason. Since I was never anything but polite to them, I can only assume somehow they caught this thread, since it's the only thing they could possibly have to be upset with me about.
    Wow. Just... wow.
     
  8. ewd76

    ewd76 User

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    After driving everybody off on their own site, it seems they are paranoid about this one.
     
  9. mtnsurf

    mtnsurf User

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    I was on TN for I think 2 years then got banned because I got sick of how some people can say anything they want and others are on thin ice all the time. Total Assholes
     
  10. Sparrow

    Sparrow Member

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    Must be- b/c I never posted anything about this on the actual site there- I emailed the admin to ask her if the post had been deleted, and why, b/c I was sincerely trying to get the info from the reply, but I was nothing but polite and respectful to them, and in the few posts I was brave enough to chime in on prior to that on the board. Talk about croneyism- there's something fundamentally wrong with a site that is supposedly out there to help people, but is policing you for transparency outside it. Because clearly someone was watching, to have found this thread off site and deactivated me that quickly. :behindsofa:

    Strange birds, they are. Meh. Onto better things.
     
  11. j0sh

    j0sh User

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    I wouldn't worry about The Nation. From what I've heard just hanging around the office water cooler, this type of behavior from them isn't new. Like you said, you can't let some internet jerks ruin your day :)
     

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