Here you can find answers to questions about how the board works. Use the links or search box below to find your way around.
People work for Mechanical Turk for a variety of reasons; the goal of this forum is to make it the best experience for as many workers as possible. Staff members are not responsible for how Mechanical Turk runs their business. We are all here to help each other figure out as much as we can about working effectively with Mechanical Turk and the Requesters who post here.
Moderators can alter posts as necessary to fit within the rules. These edits will not be marked as such and no notification will necessarily be made.
Copyright to forum posts and other information become the property of the forum when you register for this forum. Posts can be removed from public viewing, but not deleted. Accounts can be closed, but not deleted. Your information is safe here and will never be sold, given or traded to a third party.
1. Do not complain about the rules or how the forum is run. Anyone who does will face action by the staff, which can include anything from being placed in a member group which will prevent you from ever accessing the hidden forums to suspension from the forum itself if you persist.
Remember - this forum is run by volunteers. We're not paid to deal with the garbage we put up with on a daily basis here, therefore we make rules to try to keep things clean. If you don't like the rules, ask a staff member to close your account.
A. Do not post about moderation on the forum, which includes asking why you were banned from chat, excluded from the whole forum, given a warning or infraction, etc.2. Harassing other users is not permitted, and includes but is not limited to:
A. Bigotry is not permitted.3. PROFANITY IS PERMITTED! Vulgarity is not. Racist, sexist, etc. terms are covered under the "no bigotry" rule.
B. Using profanity TOWARDS another user, like "Go fuck yourself!", is not permitted.
C. Name calling is not permitted. You are not allowed to directly attack any member baselessly. This means you CAN say "Your HITs pay too little therefore you're cheap!" but you cannot say, "You're an idiot!" Just try to play as nicely as possible.
D. Any perceived abuse towards another member will be judged by the staff who have the final say on the situation.
A. Asking how to break, promoting or telling how to break the MTurk's Terms of Service, (including but not limited to telling people to create multiple accounts or how to make an auto-submitting script that takes the human out of Human Intelligence Task) See Workers' Conditions of Use.5. You are only permitted to have ONE account on this forum at a time. Any subsequent accounts made will be deleted, and if you continue to break this rule you will be banned from the forum entirely.
B. Telling how to post HITs breaking Mturk's Terms of Service for requesters. See Requesters' Policies.
C. Discussing answers to qualification tests IN ANY WAY (even ambiguously) - the intent is for you to know the answers, and therefore have the knowledge to complete the HITs. You will get one warning and then, if you break this rule again, you're banned.
D. Discussing answers to surveys or similar HITs IN ANY WAY (even ambiguously) where the options you choose affect the outcome of the HIT itself. You will get one warning and then, if you break this rule again, you're banned.
E. Admitting to cheating on mTurk HITs - you're not welcome to our information if you're screwing requesters! You'll be banned immediately from Turker Nation for this offense.
F. Posting answers to HITs submitted on mTurk unless YOU are the requester. That information is the property of the requester and you DO NOT have the right to repost it anywhere else, as the mTurk TOS states.
To further clarify:
"If it discusses a specific brand, it's a yes."
"If it discusses a specific brand, is it a yes?"
Perfectly fine. This is just clarifying the instructions on the HIT itself.
"If it says Smurfs, I answer that one yes."
"If it says Smurfs, do I answer that one yes?"
Is not allowed as it's directly mentioning an answer to a specific question.
"For the question "Don goes to the store on Seinfeld." I answer no."
Is not allowed, either, as it actually cuts and pastes HIT content.
Discussing answers based on the instructions with NO identifiable HIT content is fine.
A. New members are approved once a day in the morning. DO NOT PM any staff member to approve a new member - telling us to hurry up because your impatient will just get the new member DENIED.7. Hijacking threads/forums: Please do not go into someone else's thread and post about your problem/issue/etc. For example:
B. If you would like a post or thread removed you are free to PM Spamgirl and ask, but unless it breaks one of these rules, it's unlikely to be removed. You may ask ONCE, if you persist to the point of annoyance you may be banned from the forum.
C. DO NOT PM any staff member for any issues that don't involve mTurk, like having your Amazon Seller account suspended. You will be banned from Turker Nation for stupidity.
D. Do not PM any staff member asking for help with a suspension on mTurk.
E. Any perceived abuse towards staff members will be judged by the staff who have the final say on the situation.
A. Posting in the Hall of Fame/Shame must be restricted to reviews or, if the requester does not have a thread already, an initial post asking for reviews. Non-review posts will be removed at the discretion of the staff, and repeat offenders will receive infractions. If you're not sure if your post can be considered a review, ask a staff member for clarification. If you want to discuss a requester or their work, that is to be done in Everyone Else. If you don't have access yet, be patient and wait until you do.9. You are not permitted to post spam anywhere on the forum, which includes but is not limited to:
A. A post about any other money making website or opportunity, including but not limited to ChaCha, Leapforce, Gigwalk, eLance, oDesk, etc., is not allowed. You MAY post about survey opportunities, though, even if they pay.10. Do not PM a staff member asking for access to the whole forum unless you are a requester. If you do, you will be put into a member group which disallows you from ever accessing the whole forum. Just be patient.
B. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO POST REFERRAL LINKS! If you do your post will be deleted and you will be warned. Do it twice and you will be banned. This includes your signature!
C. A call for volunteers, posting a job, etc. also will not be tolerated. That is NOT what Turker Nation is for. You may PM Spamgirl and ask permission on a one-time basis, though.
D. Posting any content which infringes upon someone's copyright, including but not limited to graphics, videos, copy, links to video streaming websites, torrents, etc.
E. Posting garbage on the forum just to reach the minimum post count for access.
F. Posting links to ANY other websites in your signature.
G. Posting links to websites you use to make money through sales or service offerings. This includes storefronts like Etsy or catalog sales like Avon.
H. Attempting to sell anything, including items on Amazon bought with your gift certificates and then shipped to the buyer. You may not solicit in a post or through private message.
