If your employee exit interviews looked like this, what would you do?

• This is getting to be ridiculous.  Random rejections,random blocks and suspensions,no turker or requester support(just check out the official requester forums)... It's obvious that Amazon treats Mturk like a bastard child it never wanted. Suspensions and blocks hurt only the legitimate workers.Any blocked scammer will just create another account and start scamming again. It's not true that turkers can't do anything to change the current situation,boycotting mturk and leaving hits in the hands of "less capable" turkers for a couple of days as well as a little bit of media coverage should do wonders ... link 

• They created something that has essentially become one of the largest and most diverse staffing agencies on the globe, and now it seems like they are ill-equipped to handle the enormous responsibility that comes with that.  link

• I agree;but since I started turking in 2008. the whole thing just seems to be heading downhill,and Amazon isn't doing a thing to stop it.  link

• When I got banned, I had just two blocks on my record, PED and Calliston-Burch. At least it looks like they are responding to you. They didn't respond to my inquiries for eight days, and then just wrote back and said that your account has been reinstated.  link

• It's quite possible we're not getting all emails about blocks - I know a good portion of my mTurk emails never arrive.  link

• This is not a requester problem. This is a problem caused by Amazon itself. They want us to believe it's a scattered issue. IT ISN'T, Amazon has the sole power to fix this, they just don't want to dedicate the time and money to govern MTurk the way it deserves.  link

What's it like to work for Amazon?

There is something very demeaning in being warned and told to do high quality work when you know that is what you have been doing, even when you are getting paid a cent or two for that work.

We might be working for cheap, but most of us take pride in doing good work and once we accept a hit, we try to do our best and give the requester more value than what we are paid for.

The worse is not being able to defend yourself or to see the work history you build mean a thing. link

A weekend with Mechanical Turk

I hope these stories don't feel repetitive; the truth is, they are repetitive.  On any given morning, even the most experienced, trustworthy Turker can wake up to this:

Just out of the blue my account was suspended. I cant figure out what could be the reason.

I had 200 Hits pending with chris who confirmed that he has not blocked me.

I had 4 hits with intellius but they are in pedning status in amazon payments which means they are approved.

I had 4-5 hits with classify it, may be he has blocked me but i doubt that they would cause i have done only few of them.

please help me guys what do i do, i have message spamgirl any other advice?

PS: I am one of the victim of PED research block!  link

 One or two bad requesters can ruin an entire account.

Check your spam email folder. Mturk emails you when a requester has blocked you. However, the email may not arrive until 1 or 2 days after the block.

Amazon Requester recently blocked many workers, reason unknown. It does not matter that the worker had not done work for them in recent days or weeks. It also did not matter that they had paid for completed hits. Based on my experience with them, I would say that payment or pending payment does not guarantee that requester has not or will not block you.  link

Again, this is happening to the better Turkers, not the slew of scammers and drive-by workers.  And they notice:

I have checked spam folder and nothing is there. Seriously it is so humiliating for a worker to be treated like this.  link

What can you do?

A blog full of good content doesn't do any good if no one can find it.  How can you help?

* Visit, read, and comment regularly
* Link to this blog from yours (Turking related exchanges welcome)
* Post comments about this blog on other sites that mention Mechanical Turk
* Contact Amazon.com's customer service department (logged in or anonymously)
* Contact Mechanical Turk's customer service (link) and politely tell them about this blog
* Let me know how you found this blog and what you think about it

Amazon is not there to protect you

This Turker at MTurkforums.com came to the harsh realization that, though Mechanical Turk will be there to suspend you, they won't step in to defend you:

Turk will not protect its workers?!

---

I woke up to find that 65 HITs were rejected simultaneously for the same reason, by the same requester. The reason they gave was absolutely impossible due to the nature of the assignment, and they copied and pasted this reason into every single rejected HIT.

I have a done couple hundred HITs for the same requester in the past, all of which were accepted. In fact, out of thousands of HITs, I have had only one rejection, ever. It seemed to me that the requester decided to take my work, and not pay for it.

The problem is, besides losing time and money, it has severely hurt my score, and Turk is threatening my account. I wrote to Turk, and they informed me that they do not have a policy to investigate or protect their workers, but that they would take it into suggestion.

I am shocked. They claim that they do not get involved, but yet they threaten my account on behalf of a requester, and they will not look at the issue. Their suggestion to me: go talk about it on the forum. Seriously? A company like Amazon does not protect its workers, especially that we have to go on faith that we will ever be reimbursed?

Has anything similar to this ever happened to anyone else? Because I'm about to walk away from the site entirely.  link

One Turker offered this cynical but realistic response:

Its because in the end it all comes over money.

It would cut into their profits if they had to hire people to check peoples work. Since there are hundreds of thousands of HITs done each day and a good chunk are rejected and people complain, it would be impossible to go through them all. You might have a case since you have done the same work in the past for the same guy and all of a sudden hes rejecting everything.

I once had someone do the same thing, it tanked my account and I had to start a new one and do over some of the requirements. I did about 140 HITs for this one guy that seemed to love me cause he would write me at the end of each run. Then one day he flipped. I dont know why except when I wrote him, he said that he was tired of being ripped off by everyone cause I guess someone scripted a bot and screwed him for 300 bucks. Since they auto approved at the time, he had little recourse since they did auto approve. So he went a bit nuts and went on a rejecting spree, I understand his anger but I always did good work. So it happens sometimes.  link

These kinds of things are common but not acceptable.  It's one thing to deal with requesters who occasionally go off the deep end, but it's another for Amazon to not make any attempt to distinguish between a good worker and a bad worker, a good block and a bad block.  In sum, all the risk is on the Turker and if you get tripped up for any reason, don't expect Amazon to lend a hand.  In fact, they'll probably cancel your account.

This is fully within Amazon/Mechanical Turk's purview.  Nothing is stopping them from raising their requirements for suspensions or using a probationary model which allows Turkers to challenge their blocks before they turn into suspensions.  Is that so much to ask?

TOS Trial and Error: Learning the hard way

You might recall our recent post where we reprinted the Mechanical Turk Terms of Service (they call it a 'Participation Agreement').  If you were looking closely, you might have seen a few thousand words which didn't actually lay out the do's and don't of using the site.  So, you probably did like this guy, and learned where the walls were by crashing your car right into them:

Really Sad about account suspension

---

Hi all, I just started turking this week. I think it's fun, I love data entry, been doing it in one form another for years.

Anyhow, I was just working along and BAM! Account suspended. I've emailed Amazon, no reply (except the auto reply).

Is there any hope? I LOVE Amazon. Been a customer for YEARS. I'm honest, not a robot, live in the USA, etc. I know, you've all heard that before. I've earned around $47 so far (still in my account, not able to transfer it). Not a fortune, but yes, a lot of time put into it.

All of my stats looked fine. I did get blocked by one requester (elki media I think it was) because it was my second day and I put my answer in the comments section and not the text area by the photo.

I really enjoy this type of work. I'm so sad and disappointed I got suspended! Is there hope to get unblocked? So sad they would do this, you'd think they could easily check my Amazon account to see I'm a real person who's been a good customer for years. Happiness is receiving an Amazon box in the mail!  link 

Hi all, here is an update.

mTurk un-suspended me w/a note that says they suggest I reread their rules. Which I did. (more below)

However, when my mTurk account was suspended, my Amazon payments account was suspended. I only knew this because when I logged into mTurk it told me so. I could log into my payments account with no problems and saw no errors or reasons why it was suspended. It took payments 1-2 days to unsuspended that account. Amazon payments did not tell me why my account was suspended.

Neither mTurk or payments informed me via email that my accounts were suspended. I only learned this by the sudden suspended screen as I was doing hits.

I did reread the mturk rules to see if I had violated them in any way. I couldn't see anything obvious, but here is a possibility. I have both a laptop and a desktop. I move back and forth between them on a regular basis. Could it possibly be that Amazon thought I was two people working on hits at the same time on the same account? I'll be logging out on the computers when I leave mTurk and use a different computer from now on. Although one could see that no hits were submitted at the same time, simultaneously, or within seconds, of each other. That was all I could think of.

I'm happy to be turking again and hopefully there won't be any problems in the future.  link

Moral of the story:  read the terms of service?  Really?  This is the antithesis of user-interface best practices, letting people walk into the mines to figure out where not to step.  Amazon, you wouldn't stand for this on any of your other sites.  Why here?  Jeff....????

If only we had read the directions... (eye roll)

All of this complaining is just sour grapes, right?  I mean, after all, there are policies and if you don't follow them you should be booted.  Oh, naive one. 

Here are the policies.  Since Amazon is a customer-service organization, I'll just reprint the Terms of Service in full, since it's nice and easy to read and geared toward user friendliness.  Right.  See you after the fold:

Amazon Mechanical Turk Participation Agreement

Last updated: April 29, 2009

Welcome to the Amazon Mechanical Turk services platform.
BY REGISTERING FOR AND USING THE SITE, YOU CERTIFY THAT (1) YOU ARE AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD; (2) YOU HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO ENTER INTO THIS AGREEMENT AND BIND YOURSELF OR THE COMPANY YOU REPRESENT; (3) YOU AUTHORIZE THE ELECTRONIC TRANSFER OF FUNDS TO YOUR BANK ACCOUNT IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION 4 OF THIS PARTICIPATION AGREEMENT; AND (4) YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ALL TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT, INCLUDING THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE PAYMENT SERVICE DESCRIBED IN SECTION 4 AND ALL APPLICABLE POLICIES, PROCEDURES AND GUIDELINES. This Participation Agreement (the "Agreement") is between you and Amazon Mechanical Turk (as defined below) and governs your and Amazon Mechanical Turk's respective rights and obligations with respect to your offering for sale, selling, requesting, purchasing, and/or providing Services (defined below) on or through the Site (as defined below).
For purposes of this Agreement, (a) "Amazon Mechanical Turk", "we", "us" or "our" means Amazon Mechanical Turk, Inc. a Delaware Corporation, (b) "Site" means the Amazon Mechanical Turk web site located at mturk.amazon.com, requester.mturk.com, www.mturk.com and any successor website thereto, including all services provided by us to you through the service platform on the Site, (c) "Services" means any service that you sell, offer to sell, request, purchase, and/or provide on or through the Site, (d) "Affiliate" means any entity controlled by, in control of, or under common control with Amazon Mechanical Turk, (e) "Requester" means you, if you use the Site to request that a Provider perform Services, (f) "Provider" means you, if you use the Site to perform Services for a Requester, (g) "Amazon Account" means any customer account that you have established with a website owned or controlled by Amazon or its Affiliates, or operated by Amazon or its Affiliates on behalf of third parties, including without limitation those websites currently located at http://www.amazon.com, http://www.amazon.co.uk, http://www.amazon.de, http://www.amazon.fr, http://www.amazon.ca, http://www.amazon.co.jp and http://www.joyo.com, and any successor or replacement websites.
This Agreement consists of the terms and conditions set forth in this document together with all applicable policies, procedures and/or guidelines that appear on the Site from time to time (collectively, the "Policies" which are hereby incorporated by this reference into, and made part of, this Agreement). Amazon Mechanical Turk reserves the right to change any of the terms and conditions contained in this Agreement and/or any Policies governing the Site, at any time, in its sole discretion. Any changes will be effective upon posting of the Agreement or Policies on the Site and may be made without any other notice of any kind. You are at all times responsible for reading and understanding each version of this Agreement and the Policies. YOUR CONTINUED USE OF THE SITE FOLLOWING AMAZON MECHANICAL TURK'S POSTING OF ANY CHANGES WILL CONSTITUTE YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF SUCH CHANGES. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ANY CHANGES TO THIS AGREEMENT (INCLUDING TO ANY OF THE POLICIES INCORPORATED HEREIN), DO NOT CONTINUE TO USE THE SITE.
1.         Registration.
a.         Registration. When you register with the Site, you will be asked to provide us with, at a minimum, your name, a valid email address, your phone number, and your physical address. Providers may also be asked to provide certain tax information at registration or afterwards You agree to provide us with true and accurate information, and to update that information to the extent it changes in any way. When registering or updating your information, you will not impersonate any person or use a name that you are not legally authorized to use.
You may register with the Site either by (i) using your existing Amazon Account or (ii) creating a new Amazon Account. If you do not have an existing Amazon Account at the time you register with the Site, an Amazon Account on the Amazon.com website located at http://www.amazon.com (hereinafter, "Amazon.com") will be automatically and concurrently established in your name with the same e-mail address and password you provide to us. Amazon Accounts used in conjunction with the Site are governed by the Conditions of Use and Privacy Notice applicable to Amazon.com, as well as the Amazon Mechanical Turk Privacy Notice. You may not use multiple Amazon Accounts to register with Mechanical Turk.Your Amazon Account username must not suggest affiliation with Amazon, Amazon Mechanical Turk, or any third party unless that third party specifically gave you permission to do so.
b.         Passwords and Account Use. You are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy and security of your password. You may not disclose your password to any third party (other than third parties authorized by you to use your account) and are solely responsible for any use of or action taken under your password on the Site. If your password is compromised, you must change your password. You may not permit any other person to perform Services as Provider using your Amazon Account. Additionally, if you are using the Site as a Provider, you may not use different Amazon Accounts to perform Services.
2.         Amazon Mechanical Turk's Role. Amazon Mechanical Turk provides a venue for third-party Requesters and third-party Providers to enter into and complete transactions. Amazon Mechanical Turk and its Affiliates are not involved in the transactions between Requesters and Providers. As a result, we have no control over the quality, safety or legality of the Services, the ability of Providers to provide the Services to Requesters' satisfaction, or the ability of Requesters to pay for Services. We are not responsible for the actions of any Requester or Provider. We do not conduct any screening or other verification with respect to Requesters or Providers, nor do we provide any recommendations. As a Requester or a Provider, you use the Site at your own risk.
3.         Your Use of the Site.
a.         Requesters in General. Upon completion of Services to Requesters' reasonable satisfaction, Requesters must pay Providers for their Services. As a Requester, you agree that upon your approval of the Services performed by a Provider, payment will be remitted to the Provider automatically (as described in Section 4 below). After you have approved the applicable Services, you are not entitled to any refund of your payment for such Services. If a Requester is not reasonably satisfied with the Services, the Requester may reject the Services. As a Requester, you will be charged a fee for your use of Amazon Mechanical Turk in connection with each request for Services. Please review the applicable Amazon Mechanical Turk Fees contained in the Policies for all applicable fees associated with your use of the Site pursuant to this Agreement. All fees are in U.S. dollars unless stated otherwise. The Amazon Mechanical Turk Fees may vary in the future. You agree to pay the amounts set forth in the Amazon Mechanical Turk Fees from time to time on the terms set forth herein and therein, and to check the fees and terms each time you use the Site. You acknowledge that, while Providers are agreeing to perform Services for you as independent contractors and not employees, repeated and frequent performance of Services by the same Provider on your behalf could result in reclassification of that employment status. If you have any questions about your obligations to comply with local laws and regulations pursuant to Section 6, you should seek independent legal advice. To the extent you receive any contact or personal information regarding any Provider who has performed Services for you, such information may only be used as necessary for you to comply with applicable laws and for no other purpose whatsoever. Further, you agree that you will only accept work product from Providers that has been submitted through the Site.
b.         Providers in General. You may only register once with Mechanical Turk as a Provider. Providers may perform Services for any Requester in accordance with the specifications submitted by the Requester. However, if the Services do not meet the Requester's reasonable satisfaction, the Requester may reject the Services and repost the specific request. As a Provider, the Requester for whom you provide Services is your client, and as such, you agree that the work product of any Services you perform is deemed a "work made for hire" for the benefit of the Requester, and all ownership rights, including worldwide intellectual property rights, will vest with the Requester immediately upon your performance of the Service. To the extent any such rights do not vest in Requester under applicable law, you hereby assign or exclusively grant (without the right to any compensation) all right, title and interest, including all intellectual property rights, to such work product to Requester. As a Provider you are performing Services for a Requester in your personal capacity as an independent contractor and not as an employee of the Requester. You specifically acknowledge and agree to the following: (i) you will not use robots, scripts or other automated methods to complete the Services; (ii) you will submit all work product through the Site only, and not directly to a Requester; (iii) you will provide Requesters for whom you perform Services with any information reasonably requested by them in connection your performance of such Services; (iv) you are responsible for, and have and will, comply with all applicable laws and registration requirements, including those applicable to independent contractors and maximum working hours regulations; (v) this Agreement does not create an association, joint venture, partnership or franchise, employer/employee relationship between Providers and Requesters, or Providers and Amazon Mechanical Turk; (vi) you will not represent yourself as an employee or agent of a Requester or Amazon Mechanical Turk; (vii) you will not be entitled to any of the benefits that a Requester or Amazon Mechanical Turk may make available to its employees, such as vacation pay, sick leave, insurance programs, including group health insurance or retirement benefits; and (viii) you are not eligible to recover worker's compensation benefits in the event of injury. If you have any questions about your obligations to comply with local laws and regulations pursuant to Section 5, you should seek independent legal advice.
c.         Listing and Promotions Generally. As a Requester or Provider, you may not sell, offer for sale, request, purchase, or provide any Service that violates applicable law or is prohibited by the Policies. Notwithstanding any provision of this Agreement, Amazon Mechanical Turk will have the right, in its sole discretion, to determine the content, appearance, design, functionality and all other aspects of the Site (including the right to re-design, modify, remove and alter the content, appearance, design, navigation, functionality, and other aspects of the Site and/or any page thereof and any element, aspect, portion or feature thereof, from time to time).
d.         Information and Feedback. You must supply accurate and complete information for all Services in accordance with our data requirements, as may be designated by us from time to time, including in the Policies. You recognize and agree that Amazon Mechanical Turk will implement mechanisms allowing us and others to track your requests for, or your performance of, Services and rate your performance as a Requester or Provider, and Amazon Mechanical Turk reserves the right to collect feedback regarding your performance and to post such feedback on the Site. You may not take any actions that may undermine the integrity of the feedback system. You agree that submission of any information, feedback, content, data or other materials (collectively, "Materials") is at your own risk, and that none of Amazon Mechanical Turk, its Affiliates, Requesters or Providers has any obligations (including without limitation obligations of confidentiality) with respect to such Materials. You represent and warrant that you have all rights necessary to submit the Materials. You hereby grant to Amazon Mechanical Turk and its Affiliates a royalty-free, non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use, reproduce, perform, display, distribute, adapt, modify, re-format, create derivative works of, and otherwise commercially or non-commercially exploit in any manner, any and all Materials, and to sublicense the foregoing rights, in connection with the operation and maintenance of the Site. For avoidance of doubt, if you are a Requester, if you create any tests, specifications, criteria lists or other programs for use on the Site to evaluate or otherwise select Providers they will be considered Materials for purposes of this Agreement and may be used and/or referenced by us or other Requesters and Providers pursuant to the license granted above.
e.         Customer Service. Amazon Mechanical Turk will be responsible for and will have sole discretion regarding all customer service issues relating to use of the Site and its features.
f.         Disputes between Requesters and Providers. Your use of the Site is at your own risk. Because Amazon Mechanical Turk is not involved in the actual transaction between Providers and Requesters, Amazon Mechanical Turk will not be involved in resolving any disputes between participants related to or arising out of the Services or any transaction.
4.         Payment Service. Amazon Mechanical Turk or its Affiliates will process all payments made by Requesters to Providers (the "Payment Service"). Requester payments made through the Payment Service are received by Amazon Mechanical Turk or its Affiliates on behalf of Providers, and may be disbursed only in accordance with the terms outlined below.
a.         Prepaid HITs. Each Requester must prepay for work they intend on acquiring through the Services by purchasing Mechanical Turk Prepaid HITs ("Prepaid HITs") from Amazon Payments, Inc. Prepaid HITs are subject to the Mechanical Turk Prepaid HITs Terms and Conditions. Prepaid HITs are maintained in a single Prepaid HIT account for you solely for use of the Services. The amount of Prepaid HITs purchased must be at least equal to the total amount that will be owed to Providers upon completion and acceptance of the Services and any amounts payable to Amazon Mechanical Turk in connection with Requester's use of the Site. If the Prepaid HITs are purchased with proceeds from a bank account, the Prepaid HITs may not be available for use for up to four (4) days before such funds are available for disbursement to a Provider's Payment Account (defined below). After Requester's acceptance of the Services, the Payment Service will debit the amount owed to each Provider from the Requester's Payment Account, and credit each Provider's Payment Account that amount.
b.         Disbursement of Funds to Providers. When Providers register with the Site, a payment account ("Payment Account") will automatically be established in conjunction with their registration. Providers may disburse funds from their Payment Account by the following methods, at their option: (i) to an ACH-Enabled Bank Account in U.S. dollars; (ii) or by converting such funds to a credit that is held for the benefit of Provider in an Amazon.com gift certificate account. For select countries, Amazon Mechanical Turk may enable Providers to request disbursements through physical checks in U.S. or local currency. Check disbursements may be subject to additional fees, registration and documentary requirements. See our FAQs for more information. Funds will only be disbursed in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including without limitation the United States Patriot Act and the regulations of the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Providers may not share a bank account. We reserve the right to cancel your Payment Account for any reason.
c.         Authorizations for ACH-Enabled Bank Account. If you are a Provider, you hereby authorize Amazon Mechanical Turk and its Affiliates, and any third party service providers or agents acting on their behalf, to debit or credit your ACH-Enabled Bank Account (including by creating a paper draft or an electronic funds transfer) and/or your Payment Account, as applicable, (i) to transfer, disburse or process other payment transactions associated with the Services; and (ii) to settle payment for any fees that may be charged under this Agreement. In the event there is an error in the processing of any transaction described above, you authorize us to initiate debit or credit entries to your ACH-Enabled Bank Account or your Payment Account, as applicable, to correct such error, provided that any such correction is made in accordance with applicable laws and regulations, and to make any inquiries we consider necessary to validate the error, which may include ordering a credit report, performing credit checks, or verifying the information you provide against third party databases. If we are unable to debit any ACH-Enabled Bank Account you select for any reason, you authorize us to resubmit the debit, plus any applicable fees, to any other ACH-Enabled Bank Account you have on file with us (or, in the case of any fees that are owed under this Agreement, to deduct such amounts from the funds in your Payment Account). Your authorizations will remain in full force and effect until we receive written notification from you of any termination. Any termination will become effective as soon as we have had a reasonable amount of time to act on it, but in any event not later than thirty (30) days after written notice of termination is received by us in accordance with Section 12(e).
d.         Restrictions and Limitations. We reserve the right to terminate or suspend any Payment Account, or to delay the availability of any Prepaid HITs, transfer or disbursement of any amounts, in each case for any reason in our sole discretion, including, without limitation, if we believe that a Requester or Provider is in violation of this Agreement. As a security measure, we reserve the right to restrict the transfer to Providers of any amounts held in a Requester's Prepaid HIT account for up to three (3) Business Days (as defined below) following any purchase. Other than a credit to a Provider's Payment Account for Services rendered by such Provider, amounts held in Payment Accounts cannot be transferred to other Requesters or Providers. If Amazon Mechanical Turk terminates this Agreement because you have violated the Policies then (i) any Services that have been completed by Providers but not yet accepted by you will be deemed accepted and the applicable payments will be remitted to the Providers and deducted from your Prepaid HITS balance and (ii) your remaining Prepaid HITS balance (if any) will become the property of Amazon Mechanical Turk.
e.         Our Liability. We (and our Affiliates) act only in the capacity of a payment processor in facilitating the transactions between Requesters and Providers, and are not otherwise involved in the actual transactions. We will only be responsible for initiating purchases of Prepaid HITs and the transfers or disbursements at the direction of Requesters and Providers. We will be entitled to rely on the instructions of Requesters and Providers without any further inquiry or liability whatsoever. We will not be liable if we are not able to complete a transaction for any reason, including, but not limited to,

• If any system or equipment was not working properly and you knew or had been advised about the breakdown before you initiated the transaction;
• If you do not have enough available funds in your Prepaid HIT account or in your Payment Account to complete the applicable transaction, or if the transfer would cause you to exceed any applicable transfer limit with respect to your ACH-Enabled Bank Account;
• If circumstances beyond our control (such as, but not limited to, power outages, fire, flood, mechanical or systems failure) prevent the proper execution of the transaction, despite reasonable precautions we have taken;
• If your transaction is intercepted by legal process or other encumbrances restricting transfer, or your participation in the Site has been terminated or suspended for security purposes;
• If we are unable to confirm your identity or have reason to believe that the transfer requested is unauthorized; or
• If you have not provided us with correct, current and complete payment information.

f.         Statements and Account Balances. We will send an e-mail confirmation to you after you purchase any Prepaid HITs, make payments to a Provider or other payment transaction occurs with respect to a Payment Account. In addition, you may access your transaction information (your "Activity History") online in the "Your Account," and "View Transaction History" (or equivalent) areas of the Site. You may access this feature only with a browser that is compatible with the Service, including any security features that are part of the Service. Interest will not be paid on Prepaid HITs or any amounts held in Payment Accounts. If no transfer, disbursement or other payment transaction occurs with respect to your Payment Account for at least two (2) years and six (6) months, consecutively, the balance in your Payment Account will be automatically converted into an Amazon.com gift certificate and sent electronically to your then-current e-mail address associated with your Payment Account.
g.         Transaction Errors. If you believe that any payment transaction initiated by us (or our agent) is erroneous, or if you need more information about any such transaction, you should contact us as soon as possible.
5.         Compliance with Laws.
a.         Taxes. You agree that it is your responsibility to determine any and all taxes and duties, including without limitation, sales, use, transfer, value added, withholding and other taxes and/or duties assessed, incurred or required to be collected, paid or withheld for any reason in connection with any request for, or performance of Services, or your use of the Site, or otherwise in connection with any action, inaction or omission of you or any of affiliate of yours, or any of your or their respective employees, agents, contractors or representatives ("Taxes") and to collect, withhold, report, and remit correct taxes to the appropriate tax authority, and to otherwise be responsible for the collection and payment of any and all Taxes. YOU ALSO AGREE THAT AMAZON MECHANICAL TURK AND ITS AFFILIATES ARE NOT OBLIGATED TO DETERMINE WHETHER TAXES APPLY AND ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE TO COLLECT, REPORT, OR REMIT ANY TAXES ARISING FROM ANY TRANSACTION.
b.         Registrations. You agree that is your responsibility to determine whether and to what extent any permits, registrations, authorization or filings (including without limitation with respect to the transfer of technology) are required by any governmental agency in any jurisdiction in which you have requested or are performing Services ("Permits"). YOU ALSO AGREE THAT AMAZON MECHANICAL TURK AND ITS AFFILIATES ARE NOT OBLIGATED TO DETERMINE WHETHER ANY SUCH PERMITS APPLY TO ANY TRANSACTION.
c.         Compliance with Laws; The Site may be used only for lawful purposes and in a lawful manner. You may not use the Site in any manner that violates any applicable law or governmental regulation. In addition to your obligations with respect to Taxes and Permits above, you agree to comply with all applicable laws, statutes, and regulations of any jurisdiction in which you request or perform Services.
d.         Investigation. Amazon Mechanical Turk has the right, but not the obligation, to monitor any activity, content and Materials associated with the Site. Amazon Mechanical Turk may investigate any reported violation of its Policies or complaints and take any action that it deems appropriate.
6.         Disclosure of Information; Confidentiality; Privacy.
a.         Our Use of Data and Communications. Our Privacy Notice and this Agreement describe our collection, use, and disclosure of information associated with the Site, including how we handle personal information. In addition to the disclosures described in our Privacy Notice, we will disclose to Requesters your name, address, data on HITs you have completed, and Provider Tax Information. "Provider Tax Information" means tax identification information of Providers, such as a Social Security Number or Employer Identification Number. Requesters use Provider Tax Information to fill out an IRS Form 1099 and send it to Providers. If you are a Requester and want Provider Tax Information from us to complete IRS Form 1099s for Providers you have paid, you must provide us with your company name and employer identification number ("Requester Tax Information"). You hereby consent to disclosure of Provider Tax Information, Requester Tax Information, and other data as described in this Section 6 and our Privacy Notice.
b.         Your Use of Data and Communications. You may use information or other data acquired from your use of the Site solely to the extent necessary for you to use the Site and for no other purpose, including but not limited to, for purposes of solicitation, advertising, marketing, unsolicited e-mail or spamming, harassment, invasion of privacy, or otherwise objectionable conduct. Requesters may use Provider Tax Information solely to the extent necessary to comply with IRS reporting obligations.
c.         Press Releases and Public Disclosures. You may generally publicize your use of the Site, however you may not issue any press release with respect to Amazon Mechanical Turk or the Site, without Amazon Mechanical Turk's express prior written consent.
7.         No Warranties. THE SITE, THE PAYMENT SERVICE AND THE SITE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, AMAZON MECHANICAL TURK MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION:
a.        ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT;
b.        THAT THE SITE, THE PAYMENT SERVICE OR THE SITE SERVICES WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, WILL ALWAYS BE AVAILABLE, ACCESSIBLE, UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OPERATE WITHOUT ERROR, OR WILL CONTAIN ANY PARTICULAR FEATURES OR FUNCTIONALITY;
c.        THAT THE INFORMATION, CONTENT, OR MATERIALS INCLUDED ON THE SITE WILL BE AS REPRESENTED BY REQUESTERS OR PROVIDERS, THAT THE SERVICES ARE LAWFUL, OR THAT REQUESTERS OR PROVIDERS WILL PERFORM AS PROMISED; OR
d.        ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE.
8.         General Release. BECAUSE AMAZON MECHANICAL TURK IS NOT INVOLVED IN TRANSACTIONS BETWEEN REQUESTERS AND PROVIDERS OR OTHER PARTICIPANT DEALINGS, YOU HEREBY RELEASE AMAZON MECHANICAL TURK AND ITS AFFILIATES (AND THEIR RESPECTIVE EMPLOYEES, DIRECTORS, AGENTS AND REPRESENTATIVES) FROM ANY AND ALL CLAIMS, DEMANDS, AND DAMAGES (ACTUAL, CONSEQUENTIAL AND OTHERWISE) OF EVERY KIND AND NATURE, KNOWN AND UNKNOWN, SUSPECTED AND UNSUSPECTED, DISCLOSED AND UNDISCLOSED, ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH ANY DISPUTE BETWEEN ONE OR MORE REQUESTERS, PROVIDERS, OR OTHER USERS OF THE SITE.
9.         Indemnity; Limitation of Liability.
a.         Indemnity and Defense. You will indemnify and hold harmless Amazon Mechanical Turk and its Affiliates (and their respective employees, directors, agents and representatives) from and against any and all claims, costs, losses, damages, judgments, penalties, interest and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of any claim, action, audit, investigation, inquiry or other proceeding instituted by a person or entity ("Claim") that arises out of or relates to: (i) any actual or alleged breach of your representations, warranties, or obligations set forth in this Agreement; (ii) your Services and any Materials, including any actual or alleged infringement of any intellectual property or proprietary rights by any of your Services or Materials; and/or (iii) your failure to comply with any applicable laws and regulations in connection with your use of the Site.
b.         Limitation of Liability. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, AMAZON MECHANICAL TURK AND ITS AFFILIATES WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THIS AGREEMENT, THE SITE, THE PAYMENT SERVICE, THE SITE SERVICES, THE INABILITY TO USE THE SITE SERVICES, OR ANY SERVICES PURCHASED OR OBTAINED OR MESSAGES RECEIVED OR TRANSACTIONS ENTERED INTO THROUGH THE SITE. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL AMAZON MECHANICAL TURK'S OR ITS AFFILIATES' AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THIS AGREEMENT OR THE TRANSACTIONS CONTEMPLATED HEREBY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE, PRODUCT LIABILITY OR OTHER THEORY), WARRANTY OR OTHERWISE, EXCEED THE AMOUNT OF FEES EARNED BY AMAZON MECHANICAL TURK IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR REQUEST FOR, OR YOUR PERFORMANCE OF, SERVICES DURING THE TWELVE (12) MONTH PERIOD IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM FOR LIABILITY.
10.         Applicable Law; Arbitration. The Site is arranged, sponsored, and managed by Amazon Mechanical Turk in the state of Washington, USA. The laws of the state of Washington govern this Agreement and all of its terms and conditions, without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of laws. You agree that any action at law or in equity arising out of or relating to these terms and conditions shall be submitted to confidential arbitration in Seattle, Washington, except that, to the extent you have in any manner violated or threatened to violate Amazon Mechanical Turk's intellectual property rights, Amazon Mechanical Turk may seek injunctive or other appropriate relief in any state or federal court in the state of Washington, and you consent to exclusive jurisdiction and venue in such courts. Arbitration under this agreement shall be conducted under the rules then prevailing of the American Arbitration Association. The arbitrator's award shall be binding and may be entered as a judgment in any court of competent jurisdiction. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, no arbitration under this Agreement shall be joined to an arbitration involving any other party subject to this Agreement, whether through class arbitration proceedings or otherwise.
11.         Termination. You may at any time elect to stop using the Site, provided that in discontinuing any Site activities, you must use Amazon Mechanical Turk's standard functionality and further must abide by all applicable Amazon Mechanical Turk Policies, Procedures and Guidelines. Amazon Mechanical Turk, in its sole discretion, may terminate this Agreement, suspend access to the Site, or remove any Service listings immediately without notice for any reason.
12.         General Provisions
a.         Entire Agreement. This Agreement and the general terms and conditions of the Site, including the Policies, constitute the entire agreement of the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof, and supersede and cancel all prior and contemporaneous agreements, claims, representations, and understandings of the parties in connection with the subject matter hereof.
b.         Assignment. You may not assign this Agreement without our prior written consent. We may assign this Agreement at any time, without notice. Subject to the foregoing, this Agreement will be binding on each party's successors and permitted assigns.
c.         Severability. If any provision of this Agreement shall be deemed unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from these terms and conditions and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
d.         No Waiver. We will not be considered to have waived any of our rights or remedies, or portion thereof, unless the waiver is in writing and signed by us. Amazon Mechanical Turk's failure to enforce the strict performance of any provision of this Agreement will not constitute a waiver of Amazon Mechanical Turk's right to subsequently enforce such provision or any other provisions of this Agreement.
e.         Notices. All notices relating to this Agreement (including the Payment Service) will be sent by e-mail or will be posted on the Site. We will send notices to you at the e-mail address maintained in our records for you. You must send notices to us at our current e-mail address published on the Site. E-mail notices are deemed written notices for all purposes for which written notices may be required. E-mail notices are deemed received the business day after transmission if properly addressed to the intended recipient.  link

Oh, none of that made any sense and wasn't helpful at all?  Good luck!

Tale of the forfeited earnings: part deux

Earlier I mentioned that suspended workers not only lose access to the site but also lose the earnings they haven't withdrawn.  It sucks:

Suspended Account

---

I am working in Mturk from March 2010 onwards.
However my account got suspended few days back.
During this period I completed around 9000 Hit with 97% acceptance.
I made around $500 during this period.
I received only $200 out of these.
Rest of the money has been forfeited by them.
Can someone please help me in reopening the suspension?
Thanks.
location:-India  link

A requester apologizes

Sometime in October, a number of very experienced Turkers started getting blocks out of nowhere.  Some of them found their accounts suddenly closed.  They had no idea why.  Here's why:

We want to let everyone know that we are extremely sorry about the mass blocking - we did not realize that blocking you had permanent effects on your records as workers, and we are very sorry if we caused problems to your account.

We have unblocked everybody, and we have contacted Amazon asking that the blocking incident be removed from your records. We will do everything we can to make sure this is done and that your accounts will not be in danger due to our blocking.

We will never use blocks in the future, and again only did so now because we did not realize the negative effects. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do...  link

This kind of thing happens all the time on Mechanical Turk.  Sometimes the problem is figured out.  Sometimes the requester fixes it.  Sometimes they don't.  When things fall through the crack, it land on Turkers, and it's not money that lands on their heads.

Say What?

This site has collected a variety of small tragedies and injustices, but at least the people got to walk away with half of their dignity and their money, right?  Right...?

I had been working at mTurk since Jan 2009 and within a month had built up an impression that at last have got a genuine site to work for earning some money.

However, they according to me are the biggest scamsters, even worse than the PPC site owners. mTurk can suspend your account any moment and forfeit all your money without even bothering to give proper justification. Simply, they will state that due to violation of their TOS, the account is suspended and all earnings are forfeited. If you claim the money earned prior to suspension, they will say that they can’t do any more business with people whose accounts are suspended.  link

That's right.  If you are suspended for a violation of the terms of service, you can not only be permanently banned from the site, but you forfeit all of your earnings.  Yes.  No, I'm not kidding.  Yeah, even the ones you earned fairly.  Uh-huh.  Those.  The pending HITs too?  Yep.  And the bonuses for my great work?  All of it.  

And who decides when the TOS has been violated?  Oh, Amazon does.  And will they tell you what your violation was?  Nope.  Proprietary, company secrets, can't reveal the goods.  "Thank you for trying Amazon's Mechanical Turk."

Um, you're not welcome...?

Confusion + Intolerance - Transparency = Mechanical Turk?

Something I've wanted to emphasize is that while very few of MTurk's problems are deal breakers in and of themselves, as a whole they make for an unruly and un-user-friendly mix. Here's why:

• You start out and don't quite know the ropes.  You make a few mistakes.  BAM, one block.
• You're not told when you get blocked, so you keep going thinking everything's ok.  BAM two blocks.
• Now you've wised up some and learned to communicate with requesters.  You contact the past block and get it removed.  Kinda.  It's still on your record, but it's not supposed to count.
• You inadvertently run into a scammer who blocks the whole batch.  Three blocks.  Account suspended.  
• You email Amazon.  They tell you it's between you and the requesters.
• You explain that you don't have 3 blocks.  They say, oh, ok, one of your blocks was corrected.  
• Three days later, you can get back into your account.  You still have three blocks.
• Next weekend you are feeling focused and do 800 HITs from three different requesters.  You pay attention and do good work.  But Monday morning your account is blocked, suspended, closed, permanently.
• This time Amazon wants letters directly from the requesters.  But you don't know who blocked you.  You email each one.  Turns out, one had a computer glitch, the other didn't want you to do any more of his HITs but had nothing against your work, and the last one isn't returning emails and apparently blocked a whole group of people for no apparent reason.  Guess what?  Bye-bye Mechanical Turk.
• Ok, so your account is finished, all of your reputation rating vanishes, your qualifying HITs and permissions vanish.  At least you can start over and try again, right?
• Wrong!  One account per Turker, forever!!  In a system as confusing, muddled, frustrating, bone-headed, irreconcilable, maddening, not-user-friendly, un-Amazon, un-customer-service, you get ONE SHOT, and then you're gone for good.

It's not quite death by a thousand cuts but it's close.  Jeff?  You said you wanted to be the flagship customer service company in the world.  We are the consumers of your brand, your technology, your policies, and your support services.  This is not living up to your mission.

I feel like I've heard this before...

This post to MTurkforum.com sounded oddly familiar:

I've been diligently working on tasks the past week and have successfully completed over 1000 hits, and today while I was writing an article, I went to click submit and it said my account has been suspended? To my knowledge I've done nothing wrong and done every hit I've submitted properly... can anyone tell me possibly why and how to go about getting it un-suspended?  link

Fears of a Turker

In reference to one of the horror stories, a Turker left these worried thoughts on TurkerNation.com:

I really don't know what to say. Your current nightmare is one I might be experiencing soon given the recent hard block Amazon Requester placed on me out of nowhere.

With the economy what it is, I know that many of us have been reduced to working for a quarter or a third of minimum wage. These random blockings and suspensions are kicks in the gut of people already down. Do they realize they might be taking away one of the few remaining source of income for some workers? We are not asking for pity, just basic fairness. If you are going to take away someone's right to work, you should tell them why and give them opportunity to defend that right.

I don't know if it will help but maybe if you contact other requesters who liked your work and asked them to contact Amazon on your behalf, that might help.

Many of these recent blocks came from requesters with no or little bad history so workers had no reason to avoid them.

Good luck to you.  link

Methinks thou doth profit too much?

Of all the reasons to get canned, hyperproductivity seems the most cruel.  From MTurkforum.com:

I'm a new turker, but knew something about it because my daughter is a turker.I did about 2,000 hits in a week, 99% approval rating, they suspended me without ANY contact from them, I've written them 3 times. Only answer is automated email. After reading this forum, i'm thinking that my number of hits led them to believe that i was using a robot or something. What a ripoff, with no way to resolve, complain or have any recourse. Worse than a slave. Hope you have better luck, but beware.  link

Beware the block (Part 3)

This is the last and most tragic in a 3-part series from MTurkforums.com.  You know what's going to happen, but you can't stop yourself from looking anyway:

Yep. Apparently if you get blocked twice, Amazon may remove your account. While in most cases, the accounts being blocked are cheaters and bots, there's always a possibility you could be blocked by mistake. And if you don't get your first block removed, and get blocked again, then Amazon may ban you from Mechanical Turk completely. If you don't appeal, or they ignore you, then any money in your account will be gone.

...even honest workers are afraid to work for requesters who have a history of blocking. And, unfortunately, they should be until Amazon decides to take worker concerns more seriously.

And the end of the essay is so on point I'm just going to let him say it all (emphasis mine):

If you've gotten this far, you deserve a medal for your patience and stamina. You've also shown yourself to be someone who cares about worker rights. Even if you haven't been personally affected by the blocking system (yet), I encourage you to send Feedback to Amazon and let them know you are concerned about issues like these which have the potential to hurt honest people -- not only workers, but even the requesters whose money makes MTurk possible. Feel free to send Amazon a link to this series if you'd like.

You can also make a difference by joining in the global conversation about MTurk in fine places like this. You don't have to write long-winded treatises like I do, because even a small note here has the potential to help many others. Perhaps the words we write now will influence for the better the way Amazon chooses to operate in the future. MTurk is still a diamond in the rough, but with some refinement has the potential to be truly great.

Beware the block (Part 2)

Here's the second installment from the great MTurkforum.com post.  I'm jumping in mid way through because the first half are full of real screen shots from the requester interface.  Worth checking out.  Here's the advice he gives:

So what do I do if I feel I've been blocked unfairly or by mistake?

First, contact the requester as soon as you realize you can't do their HITs anymore. Don't waste any time, because the longer you delay the more chance they'll forget the reason. They could keep a copy of the reason in their records, but they don't have to.

Be polite. Explain that you were surprised at being rejected and blocked after submitting what you thought was good work. Ask them to please tell you why the work was rejected, and if it was your mistake then tell them you're sorry and you'd like to do better. Ask them if they would please consider unblocking you and giving you a chance to prove yourself again.

If it turns out they blocked you by mistake, whether a careless error or whatever reason, ask them to please remove the block so that you can continue submitting the good work you've always enjoyed giving them.

But what if they don't respond?

In that case, you should contact Amazon. But be aware that Amazon may at first tell you that they can't get involved because it's a matter between you and the requester. They don't consider it their job to judge whether your block was fair. If they take that attitude, contact them again and ask for a supervisor to review your account and assess the true situation.

If that still doesn't get you anywhere, then please write about your experience here. I am willing to contact the requester and Amazon on your behalf if you can't get anywhere on your own. I don't have any special influence with Amazon at all, and I've never been blocked as far as I know, but I'm willing to go to bat for workers regarding the issue of having more rights.

In part 3, he explains what happens when bad blocks linger.  I'll give you a hint... BAM!

Beware the block (Part 1)

I'm ripping this straight from MTurkforum.com.  It's an awesome 3 part description of what happens on the requester side which makes the blocking policy so unfair for Turkers, asymmetrical, if you will.

Beware the Block

Let me start by saying that I believe that most people who get blocked by a requester probably deserve it. In many cases, people submit poor work, receive a rejection with a note explaining why the work was rejected, then go on to submit more poor work. I can't blame a requester for putting a block on a worker who does that.

However, I've also learned recently that sometimes people are blocked who don't deserve to be. Sometimes despite submitting good work consistently over a period of time, a worker gets blocked suddenly and without explanation. As I'll show in this series, the blocking system is deeply flawed and stacked against the worker, and has the potential to harm even the honest among us. Please review with me some excerpts from the instructions Amazon provides to requesters about processing HITs.

He goes on to explain some shocking facts:

•  Requesters can block up to 100,000 people
• They don't have to give a reason
• You don't get an email when it happens
• They can block all of your work in a batch after looking at only one HIT

...and there's more you must check out yourself here.

Transparency is good for business

This commentary from the MTurk.com forum got right at the point.  Transparency is good for business and anything else is... not:

I wonder why they can't lay out the violations for workers in as much detail? Or is it somewhere written where I haven't looked yet? I have read the participation agreement and apart from "don't use bots or scripts" it doesn't tell me much about what I'm allowed to do and what not. I have been reading here and in the other forum of workers who's account was suspended, apparently for violating the TOS, but they all have no clue what they did to be punished so harshly, just like Nisha here. And MTurk isn't telling them either. It's just a very weird and rude way of dealing with people, not at all fitting for a 21st century business, and it leaves many workers tense and wondering whether they do everything right according to their mysterious terms, or not.  link

It happened in India

Mechanical Turk is not surprisingly used by people all over the world, especially where the exchange rate makes the HIT payments seem relatively rich.  Unfortunately, good workers from anywhere can be banned without explanation,  Don't mind the language differences, it's the same story:

---

Hai Friends,
I came to know about this forum today. I am working for a year and had no problems till March 31. On March 31 while I was working suddenly I got a message that My account was suspended. I asked for explanation. They replied Our system detected activity on your Amazon Mechanical Turk account that we believe violates the Participation Agreement/Conditions of Use, and have terminated your MTurk account . I don't know which one was violated by me and I asked this several times but didn't get any reply. At the time there was about 5000rs in my account and I lost that money. This was a great shock for me because I have a 4 year old child and has hearing problems. He was in treatment. The treatment and our daily life expenses was meeting with the income from mturk. when they suspended the account I am in such a situation how to find money for these. I am not able to go for work because of my son's treatment. Could any one help me in reopening the suspended account.  link

Welcoming the newcomers

A classic.  This guy works in a college admissions office.  He wasn't treated like it:

Hello, I am new to Mturk and have only been working for about a week, I have around 4,000 submitted hits with only 2 rejections which gives me a 99.9% approval rating. I have not been banned from working from any requesters nor have I received any communication as to anything I was doing wrong. However last night Mturk suspended my account, in the email they sent me they stated it was because I have a low approval rating. I sent them an e-mail asking them to explain to me how I have a low approval rating, and they sent me an email back saying they were forced to suspend my account because of a consistently low approval rating, and that I am terminated, and may never open another account again, and that I will not be paid for any hits I had pending... This all seems a little extreme for just two rejected hits. I am a newbie so maybe I misread and everyone is supposed to maintain a 100 percent approval rating all the time or be suspended.. I am just very very confused as to why this happened, and curious as to whether this is normal practice for Mturk. I was also wondering if there is any possible way anyone knows that I could get my account reinstated.  link

It turned out this guy poured a full week's worth of energy into categorizing college courses, right up his alley.  But he happened to stumble upon one of the less reliable requesters on the site and BAM.  Low approval rating = suspended = no reinstatement.  Ever.  On Amazon Turk, one bad batch of HITS can get you banned from the site.  Permanently.  Really?  Really.

When the bell tolls... for you.

This is from TurkerNation.com:

Finally it is happening, after worked for MTurk for two years I am banned for no reason.

This is the reply from the customer support:

Hello,

Our system detected activity on your Amazon Mechanical Turk account that we believe violates the Participation Agreement/Conditions of Use, and we have terminated your Amazon Mechanical Turk account effective immediately.

Additionally, we do not disburse funds for suspended accounts.

And then I fight back, what did I violate? I worked by myself and approval rate is more than 99%, what's wrong?

And here is the second mail:

Hello,

I'm sorry for any concerns but your account was closed due to a violation of our Participation Agreement and cannot be reopened.

Any funds that were remaining on the account are forfeited, and we will not be able to provide any additional insight or action.

You may review the Participation Agreement/Conditions of Use at this URL:

http://www.mturk.com/mturk/conditionsofuse

Thank you for trying Amazon Mechanical Turk.

Well, I think what this guy said is true: http://blog.kyloo.net/2010/05/16/why-mec....how-to-save-it/

MTurk treats workers like s***, and please go on banning ppl for no reason and steal our money, without serious workers, who will work for you?

Suggestions for workers: Transfer every penny you earned.  link

Not good.  Not good.

Why is this necessary?

"If you want help with a mTurk suspension, please PM spamgirl & include your email address or Worker ID & a summary of what happened. THIS DOES NOT GUARANTEE YOU WILL GET YOUR ACCOUNT BACK! If you have done something to DESERVE the suspension, DO NOT PM!"  link

That's what you see at the top of the most popular Mechanical Turk forum website.  Really.  What would it mean if the top of forums.coca-cola.com was a message about getting refunds for bad bottles, or if the top of forums.bmw.com was about returning lemons, or if... you get the idea.  This is a problem so pervasive that it's literally pinned to the top of the message board in flashing, bold, letters.

Amazon, are you paying attention?  Jeff, can you hear us???

A simple idea: reward good workers

One of the problems which immediately comes up in any open system is reputation--trust.  On the one hand, Amazon keeps track of your HIT approval rating, how many tasks you do are accepted vs. rejected.  That lets requesters know if you have a history of good work.  Oddly, sadly, that rating is not considered when Amazon decides to suspend your account.  That means a two-day old Turker who goes on a scamming binge is treated the same way as a multi-year Turker who accidentally accumulates one or two blocks before BAM, account gone, reputation irrelevant.  


Here are some telling comments from the TurkerNation.com forum:

• Yeah they don't consider ratings since those can be scammed by doing work for people who never reject but they should consider the whole account. I also had a lot of exclusive trusted worker type qualifications. So even if a couple requesters did block me and not want me working for them any more there were many that trusted me, liked my work, and wanted me to keep working for them. But they only saw I had blocks and banned me. If that is even the real reason since they changed their reason after a few emails.

• Everyone always lists their approval ratings when they get banned and I bet amazon doesn't consider it. Lets say you have been turking for a year, 99% and over 100,000 approved. You can scam the system and get 50,000 rejected and still be around 75%, which is where some new turkers fall by doing bad hits. Obviously that's a good way to scam the system. So, amazon probably looks at the past 7 days for low quality. If you have 500 rejections and 500 approvals in the past 7 days, thats pretty horrible work. And i bet amazon doesn't consider rotten requesters that will mass reject for no reason. The system is already set up that way that requesters can do no harm, and can create as many accounts as they want, but workers have 3 strikes and they won't tell us a damn thing.

• Lately I've only been doing hits I'm really sure about and I looked carefully at just those two. I only did 2 where the color in the description matched the picture, the size was stated in the description, etc just to be sure. And then I get warned over 2 hits......give me a break. After accumulating over 350,000 approvals with only a little over a hundred and thirty rejections I can't be doing that low of quality work. And about a hundred of those rejections were from produniverse when several posters were having probs with them. Its a shame anyone with a 98 or 99 approval rating could be banned so easily, but it seems like it could happen to anyone at any time. 

•  Really a few blocks shouldn't matter under the current system as iambrendalee said. Unless they send in along with the block something horrible "I want them banned" "Obvious scammer" then it should be treated as it is, a block from just that worker and not the whole site.  My past blocks were very old(over a year) and all misunderstandings but because of Amazon not making it easy for Requesters they didn't know how to lift the block. Even then an older answer from Amazon said even lifted ones do count against you.  If they are going to count so badly against you the least they could do is send a warning email when you are blocked but I never got any. 

• I say, unless someone is clearly abusing the system, then they shouldn't get banned. Requesters block people randomly, their approval / rejection systems go on the fritz and randomly reject, bad requesters reject for no reason at all...those things really shouldn't have an effect on our accounts. In what world should a sleazy (or dumb) requester or two...or three be able to determine whether I can continue working or not?  The thing is, we're disposable to mturk, so it's all moot. It's like they're looking for any excuse to get rid of us...which is just plain weird, considering they need us. 

• On a side note, stories like this are what make me paranoid as a turker. I have done this, on and off, since March of '08. It worries me that even with many thousands of hits completed properly, and an approval rating of over 99%, that a person can just arbitrarily be banned with absolutely no recourse at all. I know MTurk isn't a large priority for Amazon, but have they ever actually come out and explained why there is so little support for their work force? 

• Maybe you should take blocking more seriously. I mean, it only takes three irresponsible requesters blocking you before you are completely banned from mTurk. There isn't room for requesters who block even by mistake. 

I didn't post links to these, but you can just go to the search box and type in 'banned' and you'll see hundreds of posts come up.  Maybe, instead of scaring the pants off of loyal users, Amazon could leverage the reputation data that they have famously developed at Amazon.com and start treating Turkers more the customers and less like the commodities.

Close calls and near misses

There was another trainwreck posted on the boards.  This one was escaped, but barely, and not without the usual panic, confusion, and hand-wringing.

Stage 1:  Surprise... You're Banned!

"Although I’m new to these forums, I have been turking for about 7 months. I used my Mturk account without issue in the morning and when I turned my computer on in the afternoon and tried to log in, instead of my dashboard I had a message stating my account was suspended by the Mturk team.

During my time on Mturk I have had about 7,000 HITs approved (many of these being transcription HITs for both CastingWords and SpeechInk) with only 50 rejections for an approval rate of 99.4%. I had just passed the $1100 mark a few days ago. I have searched through these forums trying to find information by reading posts by other workers who had their accounts suspended, but I still have a few questions I was hoping to get some help with.

Upon trying to log in and noticing that my account was suspended I checked my email account hoping to find an email with some sort of explanation or at least a notification that the account was suspended, but I have not received any type of notification from Mturk. Do they usually send an email as soon as your account is suspended or must you contact them first if you hope to receive any type of explanation as to a reason for the suspension?

...I have used the contact form on the Mturk homepage in hopes of getting some more information on my suspension, but other than that I’m not sure there is anything else I can do."  link

 Stage 2:  Beg, Borrow, and Plead... Thank Spamgirl

"Just checked my email and my account has been reinstated
Thank you to spamgirl for anything she was able to do to get my suspension reviewed.
I still hope that the PED Research block situation is resolved for everyone that had that block put on their account unfairly."  link

This one turned out ok, but was it really necessary?  If this is what can happen to even the best Turkers, what does that say about Amazon's sense of customer loyalty and of rewarding trust?

A Turker horror story

It's almost Halloween, so a good fright tale is in order.  It began one morning on Mechanical Turk.

Greetings from Mechanical Turk.

We regret to inform you that we have suspended your Mechanical Turk account effective immediately. This action was taken because we received repeated complaints from Requesters regarding the quality of your work. In particular, you were blocked by several Requesters.

You may withdraw any remaining balance on your account by logging on to your account on http://payments.amazon.com If you have an Indian worker account your balance has already been automatically remitted via check.

The Mechanical Turk Team  link

That's how the story begins.  Here's the horror part:

This is my only source of income. I've done everything by the f****** book. I'm losing money now because of this. 

Classify It blocked me and refused to respond.
PED Research blocked me cuz they didn't know what to do.
Now I probably got a block from drawing boxes around people. 

Nothing else. I've drawn plenty of boxes around so I don't see how I could get it wrong. Did I miss someone in the distance maybe? Does that merit a block cuz I couldn't see a tiny person somewhere? I don't know. i don't even know if they blocked me since I didn't get another block email.

Now, i have zero income until this gets resolved, if it gets resolved. Being unemployeed is hard enough but at least I had mturk so Iw ouldn't have to borrow money for food or anything. Now I get to go back to being unemployeed until this straightens out.  link

I have some sympathy for Mechanical Turk.  I'm sure they get a lot of bad workers who try and scam the site.  But what about the people who do little to nothing wrong, who have been working for months, doing thousands of successful tasks, only to have a few aberrations result in this.

Is Jeff Bezos listening?  Is this what Amazon.com sounds like?

Silence... Scary.

Spamgirl the superhero

The mark of a mature system, whether in politics or technology, is that it doesn't require special pleading.  It works as designed; you don't have to call your congressman, or start a blog, or go see Spamgirl.  Who is Spamgirl?  Don't be fooled, her name is ironic.  She's the supermoderator at the TurkerNation.com forums and when the ban-monster strikes, she is the only one who can fix it.  Seriously.  Listen to Spamgirl:

• "Listen, I emailed them... it takes days to get a response, they're kind of inundated with this sort of thing. We just have to wait and see."  link

Spamgirl has received so many please-help-me emails that she put instructions on how to deal with it on top of the Turker Nation forum.  Banning complaints happen all of the time and generally, no one cares.  Sure, some of the blocks are warranted.  But I really have to ask about the system that Amazon has set up to handle complaints.  It looks something like this:

1. Do a bunch of hits
2. Get an email notifying you your account has been suspended
3. Email Amazon in a panic
4. Get a canned response that you were blocked too many times
5. Email the requesters who blocked you
6. Find out it was a mistake
7. Go tell Amazon
8. Get canned response that Amazon doesn't interfere between Turkers and Requesters
9. Go ask requester to contact Amazon directly
10. Wait, wait, wait
11. Go get Spamgirl

Seriously, this is what happens daily over at TurkerNation.com.  Does it mean that no one deserves it?  Of course not.  But on a completely anonymous site where thousands of workers are completing thousands of tasks, you would think that Amazon would make it a little easier to deal with these kinds of issues.  After all, it only takes 3 requesters blocking you to be permanently banned from the site.  Much of the time, the blocks are accidents or misunderstandings.  But recourse is slim and next to impossible.  Unless you have superpowers.

Unaffiliated with any blog, site, forum, Turker, poster... as always.

Why does this blog exist?

This blog exists to improve the functioning of Amazon.com's Mechanical Turk.  The site is a crowdsourced, microtask nexus, very web 2.0.  Simply put, it's where piece work lives on the internet.  Pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters... no amount is too small and no task too menial for the site.  That's not a criticism; the availability of a place where companies can find intelligent humans to complete repetitive tasks is an enormous asset.  The problem is that this site is not run anywhere near Amazon.com's reputation for great user interfaces and unparalleled customer service.

The purpose of this blog is to do one thing and one thing only:  Get Amazon to improve Mechanical Turk so that it is up to the quality standards for its users as the rest of their sites.  When that is done, or on track, this blog will go dark.

Here is the main complaint:

Amazon has a well-publicized no-interference policy on Mechanical Turk.  This means that what goes on between a Turker (freelance task-doer) and a Requester (task-poster) is not governed by Amazon.  Aside from fraud or blatant terms-of-service violations, what happens between a Turker and a Requester happens behind closed doors.  Except it doesn't.

If for any reason a requester issues a ban on a particular Turker, which can happen due to mistakes, accidental problems, misunderstandings, or sheer malice (in addition to the legitimate reasons), the ban gets marked down in Amazon's central database.  If enough bans are logged (say, 3), the account of a Turker is permanently banned with no recourse and no consideration for how long they have been 'Turking' or how high their ratings were prior to the ban.

What does that look like?

* A user who had completed 60,000 HITS with an over 99% approval rating was summarily banned because of an admittedly mistaken review from one requester and an otherwise normal weekend of work.

What this is getting at is that Amazon.com is letting its most trusted users of the Mechanical Turk site be tossed with indifference.  When the matters are brought to their attention, the canned response is:  this is between you and the requester; we can't do anything about it; it doesn't matter how long you've been there or how great your work has been; we'll pass this on to our developers.  Well, until the developers fix it, this site will exist to document every banning of a quality user, users who could have been this site's ambassadors but instead are being spurned with bureaucratic dismissal.  Does that sound like a site Jeff Bezos would be proud of?  Does that sound consistent with the mission to be the world's best technology and customer service company?  It doesn't to me.

But this blog is not a hate site or even a protest site.  It is a call for action from one of the greatest companies in the world to live up to its billing and refine its practices.  The sooner this happens, the sooner a black mark from Amazon's noteworthy suite of internet successes will be erased.  This blog welcomes that day...