Do not do Speechink Home Inspection Transcription Review HITs

Discussion in 'Requesters' started by chuck_h, Oct 3, 2012.

  1. chuck_h

    chuck_h User

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    Speechink has changed how they're presenting their home inspection HITs for Imfuna and there's a problem with how they batch their home inspection transcription review HITs.

    Whatever method they use to create a batch of transcriptions for review does not take into account the the transcriber information. This can result in a worker receiving a group of transcriptions that includes a clip they transcribed.

    What happens is that a transcriber can do several reviews as part of the HIT, then is confronted with the error message "You cannot review this HIT because you transcribed it." There is no option to skip the clip, and the only recourse for a reviewer is to return the HIT.

    I have sent an E-mail to Speechink about this problem, and will not be reviewing their home inspection HITs until they've fixed it.
     
  2. abrahamrohithroy

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    The review HITs is also not getting paid when they changed their API. Earlier, it used to get approved instantly, at the most within 5 minutes. But for today's batch, it's been 2 hours and it's still pending approval. I'll post an update when it's processed.
     
    #2 abrahamrohithroy, Oct 3, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 3, 2012
  3. chuck_h

    chuck_h User

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    I should clarify that doing their home inspection transcription HITs seems to work fine; it's just the review HITs that are broken. Additionally, this problem will only affect you if you both transcribe and review; if you only do reviews you will not encounter the problem.

    There are also several other minor technical annoyances with the new format of the HITs, and of course the fact that they're now batched means we'll get paid less for doing the same amount of work. However, the only show-stopper is the problem with the review HITs.
     
    #3 chuck_h, Oct 3, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 3, 2012
  4. wcybercat

    wcybercat Member

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    I have not had any problems with the hits today, but not sure I am enjoying how they batch several together, seems to take longer which means less pay. But I am worried that nothing I have done today has been approved, when in the past they approved really fast.
     
  5. abrahamrohithroy

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    All the hits just got approved.. It took about 5 hours though.
     
  6. chuck_h

    chuck_h User

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    I agree that the HITs seem to take longer now that they're all batched together. In the past the home inspection HITs were one of my favorite recurring HITs, but now they're a grind (and the technical glitches and problems don't help), and I know that I'm going to make a lot less money with them like they are. I figure I'll make, at best, about $2.40 an hour doing them, and more likely around $1.20 - $1.80. Oh, well.
     
  7. hanalee80

    hanalee80 User

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    Looks like they're back to the short version. I did some of the grouped ones yesterday and I liked them, I can do them quicker than the single listed ones, but I don't think they are included in the bonus program. They also still haven't shown up in my list of rated transcriptions on the speechink page. The short ones they just reverted back to don't say anything about the bonus program in the HIT listing like they did 2 days ago either. Hopefully they get it all sorted out.
     
  8. chuck_h

    chuck_h User

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    I noticed they went back to the singles, too. I wonder if it was the problems I reported, if they were having other problems on the back-end, or if this was just a trial run to see how well the new formatting works in a live setting?

    I'm pretty sure the batched versions are the wave of the future, which kind of sucks because I can't do them as fast as the singles yet, which means less money for me.
     
  9. naturegirl

    naturegirl User

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    Hm, this is too bad. These were really the only SI jobs I would even occasionally do anymore.

    Although it wasn't mentioned in the HIT listing for the home review transcriptions previously, they paid a 10% bonus for good scores. Do you mean that they also started bonusing for review jobs in these batches?
     
  10. Turkalicious

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    I haven't had any problems with the HITs lately but I have NO freakin' idea what is going on with the reviewers now. I am seriously considering not even bothering with these anymore. I have received several clearly erroneous scores on some HITs and every email I have sent has gone unanswered. I mean these are blatant errors on the reviewers part and REALLY simple stuff like changing a transcription that says 'Door, door frame' to read '2 doors' when there's no mention at all of there being 2 doors. -smh- I never had a problem with them answering emails but I've sent 3 now with no response.
     
  11. naturegirl

    naturegirl User

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    Been hearing a lot lately about this trend at SpeechInk (lack of response, as well as delays in approving and paying certain transcripts). Wonder what's going on with them. Seems like it's gone on long enough that something must be up.

    As far as the crap reviewing with their home inspection transcripts, has that actually gotten worse? It was bad enough to put me off of doing the home inspection transcribing some time ago. (I have a 100 qual with those and like it that way.)
     
  12. Turkalicious

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    It has gotten a lot worse in my opinion. Before I could have maybe 1 review that I thought was complete garbage, like they would change '1' to 'one' and simple stuff like that. Now it seems like I have 2 or 3 out of every batch of 20 I do and it's to the point where it's just pissing me off.

    I had one this morning that was basically 'White painted walls, white painted coving, white painted skirting' that I have ALWAYS transcribed using a comma.. my reviewer changed the whole damn thing to replace every comma with ';' which makes no sense.
     
  13. tonic1987

    tonic1987 Active Member

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    I wish they would sort their servers out. I can’t get any of their hits to load today.
     
  14. naturegirl

    naturegirl User

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    Goodness. ITA with you. Actually, when I used to review a lot of those, I had a blurb written up somewhere that explained the correct usage of the semis (basically, that they indicate that the inspector is starting a list, with the subsequent descriptions all applying to the item initially mentioned). I'd cut and paste that into any transcript where the understanding of this seemed iffy.

    It's unworkable to be a transcriber who understands the style guide better than the reviewers, especially when SpeechInk's unresponsiveness appears to give those reviewers the final say over your grades and qual! So bonus or no bonus, it wasn't worth it to me to put up with poorly trained reviewers who wreck good work.

    I think they must need to raise the reviewer minimum qual again. As I recall, those HITs always were snapped up fast anyway, so I doubt they'll suffer by doing so. Even if I'm wrong there, though, their current system clearly isn't best serving the needs of even the inspectors.
     
  15. wcybercat

    wcybercat Member

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    I'm having the same problem with the reviews, I had 100% after today it dropped to 97% from some really bad reviews of them changing UK spellings to US, and changing comas and putting in periods making full sentences on things that are listings of whats in a draw etc. It is getting really frustrating for sure.
     
  16. Turkalicious

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    They don't even have the bonus program anymore so honestly these just aren't worth it for me anymore. I loved them because it's an easy style guide to follow, they're quick and the bonus made it fairly worth it. I'd love to do the longer, higher paying ones but with a 5 year old running around everywhere it's hard to concentrate on them. I'd hate to do a 15 min transcription and have it take me 3 hours LOL
     
    #16 Turkalicious, Oct 15, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 15, 2012
  17. naturegirl

    naturegirl User

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    Changing UK spellings! *shakes head* Not that the rest you mention is any more impressive. This is obviously a broken system they have for reviewing.

    And Turkalicious...I loved that home inspection style guide, too. I'm kind of a style guide nerd, and even reading the full version, it all made sense and was easy to remember. That isn't true of all the style guides among MTurk companies.

    With a three-year-old, maybe you could do...Claritrans? Their clips are tiny, their audio player loops automatically, and they often run HITs that pay well if you calculate per audio minute.
     
  18. Turkalicious

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    5 year old hehe Ahh how I wish she was still 3! Well, sometimes lol

    I do try ClariTrans now and then I'm just.. meh. A lot of times I find it very hard to understand their clips and I hate the ones I always seem to get where 3 people are all talking over each other. I really don't do well with verbatim either it takes me far too long because I overanalyze everything and I'm not ashamed to admit I just can't remember all the shit that goes along with a more involved style guide. That's why I liked SpeechInk's non-verbatim so much it's all so easy to remember.
     
  19. chuck_h

    chuck_h User

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    Claritrans used to be one of my go-to requesters 'cause I enjoyed doing their HITs. However, I got big into SpeechInk's home transcription HITs and their player, which is Flash-based, spoiled me. Claritrans just uses Apple's Quicktime plug in, which is not very transcriber friendly.

    However, I noticed with the new-style batched format that SpeechInk is now using for their home inspection HITs, they broke the player functionality (you can't rewind a hit using just keyboard commands any more). That, coupled with their super-neato* rate of 18 cents per minute of transcription for the home inspection HITs is making me consider doing more Claritrans and less SpeechInk transcription work in the future. Claritrans pays at least 20 cents per minute if you do their 35 second standard pay rate HITs.

    SpeechInk still pays better for their other HITs and many of those are still bonused, but I find them frustrating and time-consuming, especially the verbatim insurance ones.

    *Not really.
     
  20. naturegirl

    naturegirl User

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    Ooh, sorry, Turkalicious! I had actually read your post much earlier in the day yesterday, got distracted before responding, and didn't look at it again before I posted again. Should have!

    Yeah, I'm no fan of ClariTrans, either. Best thing you can say about their player, either, is that it's set to autoloop.

    You're right, though...the home inspection HITs that SI had were probably your Turking transcription option that paid the best as well as the fastest (even if some unjustified damage to your qual score was being done). Especially if you don't want to deal with a more involved style guide, which would come into play for just about every other short-clip work I can think of.:(

    I have heard something about an off-MTurk service, though, that's very flexible. But I think they may only have 6-min audios...you might want to take a look. It's called Scribie. I have not researched them, just heard that a lot of work-at-home moms work for them.

    Chuck, I am with you on the player that SpeechInk has...it's the best among all the MTurk transcription companies. Sorry to hear they broke it with the new version of the home inspection transcribing HITs. Again, not good.
     

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