CrowdSource Insanity

[Rikki]

I write for CrowdSource through MTurk. I really used to love it, but lately it's just crazy. The rules change at the drop of a hat with no notice. Editing is inconsistent. They segregated us into Beta Top Tier and Top Tier writers, with only BTT writers getting the good jobs. I made Beta Top Tier, but honestly, I don't know if I can take the madness anymore.

Does anyone else have problems with CS, or is it just in my own head?

[JennWith2Ns]

They are reminding me of DS - and yes, that is an insult.

[lenamaewrites]

I was hired in as an editor, but I haven't been able to do any work because they messed up the preset qualifications on my account or something. They kept emailing me about taking tests, but I wasn't eligible to take any of them. It has been 2 days and they are still trying to find and fix the problem.

[jwinter]

I'm about to enter the insanity today. I took a long break from them for maternity "leave" at the same time they took a hiatus from offering articles so they could clear the queue. I wrote one article last week and it went through fine with no real hitches or bumps. My goal today is to handle 6 articles and see how they do. Hopefully the insanity level won't be too high.

[anng]

I'm a top tier editor and it's just as crazy. I was doing some editing this weekend and a note popped up about a change in the guidelines that didn't look like it was in place when the article was written, so that meant leaving negative feedback for something that really didn't even appear to be the writer's fault.

And emailing them about issues, don't hope for an answer. In between writing assignments, I loved going in and answering some of the customer questions/product questions that don't pay a lot, but with many of them, I could do 5 a minute, so 50 cents a minute breaks down to $30 an hour. About six weeks ago, the system started saying I wasn't qualified to work on them. I meet the qualifications they list and had nothing but excellent feedback. If I go in and narrow MTurk work by clicking the box for "only jobs for which I'm qualified" it comes up in that list, but the minute I try to click on an assignment, it tells me I'm not qualified. I got one response two weeks after I sent it asking me to give the job number. I can't even get into the job to get a job number, so I sent another email and now four weeks later, I haven't had any more response to any of the messages I send.

[lenamaewrites]

Well what a crock! I got an email back about the problem I was having. Apparently, I was sent a hiring email by mistake and they have no record of me taking any assessment, even though I know I did. Too much trouble for what it's worth.

[christent04]

Originally Posted by JennWith2Ns

They are reminding me of DS - and yes, that is an insult.

DS is awful

[Rikki]

I used to love doing callouts, but now they are so freaking strange! Used to be, it just had to relate to the title, but now if it doesn't "contribute to the flow" of the article, it's rejected. I've had two rejected that were completely on topic and replaced with ones that weren't on topic, but they said they were o.k. anyway. So I lose the money and some editor gets my $2 by writing something that isn't even related to the topic!

They had a bunch of bad titles lately, but that was all they had that I could write, so Suzanne said to write them if you could make them salvageable. If they reject even one of those, I'm out of there for good.

I found this article on Bubblews that pretty much says it all. I think any of us could have written it.

Do Crowdsourcing Companies Care About Their Workers? Evidently One Does Not - News - Bubblews

[Rikki]

Originally Posted by lenamaewrites

Well what a crock! I got an email back about the problem I was having. Apparently, I was sent a hiring email by mistake and they have no record of me taking any assessment, even though I know I did. Too much trouble for what it's worth.

That is absurd! Did you apply through Write.com?

[Rikki]

Originally Posted by JennWith2Ns

They are reminding me of DS - and yes, that is an insult.

Someone said the same thing on one of the other forums the other day. They said it looked like CS had hired all the out-of-work DS CE's as editors. It really does feel that way.

I'm getting almost entire articles rewritten! I don't even want to look anymore.