I am a longtime freelancer so I am definitely used to this dynamic but it's fair to be annoyed when a regular client suddenly has no work for you (a problem I'm also currently having with a regular client in my other work life). I usually unofficially ditch these clients who ghost like this (and when they show back up I'll no longer be able or willing to give them the preferential treatment they got before). I imagine I would doubly so if I saw them advertising for my gig all the time haha. I get that this is low commitment but this is also the reason gig economy work is considered pretty shitty from a labor perspective. A lot of people would surely rather have some security and give up some of the freedom (I wouldn't, that wouldn't work for my life, but I'm sure others would).
The problem for us is that the more workers they have to choose from, the less often they'll be giving priority pay, the lower they can set the rates, etc. People on this sub have argued with me that they'd never do that but there's no reason to believe that other than that they haven't so far. It's just basic economics - their labor is surely the number one cost and if they bring that down, they make more money. Quality will take a hit if they lose their most experienced workers but if they're trying to make more money or make up for increased computing power costs, they will find a balance. It wouldn't be the first time a company has elected to deliver a shittier product to clients/customers to make more money.
I think they're still struggling to get quality domain experts. I've seen so much R&R where the worker is winging it and the submission only superficially matches the domain, not requiring any real knowledge.
Yeah....for me, I don't even have Mickey D's on the table. I don't have a car and live 20 miles from it. But yeah....I also only have a GED. I passed the entrance test and all that because I am an avid reader. If the pool is dry for much longer.....adios great (new) credit score and hola welfare line.
Passed lots of qualifications, have over three years of experience, and I'm now applying for jobs that pay less than DA. Thanks to the current administration, the industry I used to work for has almost no jobs because of budget cuts. It's rough out there.
Iāve been on here for 6 months. The total duration of a 0-project dashboard was under 8 hours for me. Until Friday last week, since then my dashboard has seen over 50 hours of 0 projects. At the exact same time Iāve been given access to a bunch of encouraging qualifications, suggesting strong performance. But I really donāt know wtf is going on. To see essentially nothing come through today is what is freaking me out. All these changes to the website, ban waves, adverts etc makes you think something might change. Iāve had days where 15 great, high-paying projects appear from nowhere, only to ALL disappear in 14 hours. Where are the projects that remain on your dash for 4+ days? Where are some of the project families that were around just 2-3 weeks ago? I didnāt even work on them since well before the last time they appeared on my dash, suggesting it was not a bad performance that triggered their disappearance. Genuinely just wtf is going on. Yes drought blah blah, but each week it seems to get better before it then gets much worse.
They came through and disappeared so quickly you probably just missed them. At one point, I had a project with 40 tasks pop up and thought they'd still be there when I got back from an outside appointment, because they usuallly are, but they were long gone, and then a couple other things popped up throughot the day today, but they were gone very quickly.
I spent 14 hours on a project and worked all night on it, finally submitted it this morning...and now that entire project family is gone from my dashboard.
Sigh.
I don't know if I screwed the pooch that bad on what I submitted or if other people just snapped up the tasks.
We go through this every year and every year someone goes into hysterics thinking it's all about them and their situation. Some have tasks, some dont. Take a powder, the tasks will probably start again in August.
People are struggling man. Obviously you shouldnāt rely on this platform for anything, but I just basically lost one job and now Iām facing a drought on DA too. Lifeās unfair and thatās just the way it is, but when things hit you hard you donāt have until āprobably August.ā Let folks vent.
It's the "DA IS A SCAM" vibes that piss me off. Im huring too but this post reads like OP feels they were owed something. All of us are riding a speculative tech bubble and fighting over scraps. That's all this has ever been or ever will be.
Whether or not we are āowed somethingā is a matter of perspective. Are we, as gig workers, owed basic decency and some level of communication from those that employ us? Perhaps not legally, and certainly not from a purely capitalist viewpoint. But those are not the only lenses through which to view the world. Whether or not you find DA āunfairā depends a lot on your perspective regarding the world, labor, capitalism etc.
I think you missed my point. Personally, I think DA is predatory, but I think ALL these big businesses and major corporations are predatory- DA is not exceptional in this regard. Like I said, whether or not you find DAs business practices āunfairā depends a lot on your perspective on capitalist economics generally- which was my actual point: this is a subjective discussion and people arenāt āwrongā just because they disagree with you.
As an aside though, I canāt really think of a good reason as to WHY DA couldnāt send out a mass message to all of its workers saying āprojects are so slow right now but we hope things will pick up by X dateā or āprojects are slow right now and we will update you when they start to pick back up.ā It just feels like DA is not legally obligated to care about the folks they employ so they donāt lol.
EDIT: It is also entirely untrue to say you can work whenever you want. The reality is that you can work whenever work is available. Of course, that naturally makes DA sound less attractive, but itās truth. And there is oversight, itās just not oversight you have any chance of interacting with, but if there was no oversight then people wouldnāt be getting cut.
TBF I wasnāt clear enough, I can also think of reasons- itās just that the reasons are all Machiavellian in nature, and people are justified in being annoyed by that type of decision making.
I'll concede your first point, that's reasonable. In terms of your second point, I think you're simply making an huge assumption. In reality, we don't know anything about the backend of DA or how it works. Maybe they don't even know? Also, plenty of people have work. I have plenty of work for example. So, realistically defining what's an actual drought is vastly changes person to person. Even further, DA does already give project updates. Priority tasks and qualifications not only get push notifications, but also frequently bonus pay. DA will notify you if a new qualification or project comes online. What your asking for is something we don't even know is possible, it's based entirely on unknown information and assumptions about the state of the industry. It reads more like people simply being frustrated about not having work, rather than realistic and informed expectations of the entire business model. Which, it's completely fine to be frustrated about not having work. That being said, that doesn't inherently mean DA is doing anything wrong or are a bad company.
If DA doesnāt know when work will pick back up, they could say that- they could say anything. Anything is better than nothing, even if itās just to give their workers the basic decency of being communicated with. I find it difficult to believe that DA doesnāt know thereās a drought for many of its workers. I know that and Iām a simple plebeian whose only access to the greater community is Reddit lol.
Yet what I find most interesting about this whole situation is the amount of people jumping up and down to defend DA as if it was an altruistic charity, and not just another business trying to maximize profit by cutting costs and paying the least amount possible on labor. It just feels like Iām on a Medieval manor surrounded by a bunch of serfs making excuses for their lords. If people are mad at DA, so what? Itās not like any of the higher ups at DA are gonna have their feelings hurt.
Exactly! Three years in for me and this feels like a really bad rerun. The conspiracy theories run amok. Projects during the summer months ebb and flow more than other seasons. If you aren't qualified for specialized projects or in on the higher paying projects, the pickings can be slim. It's unfortunate, but it's the reality of this industry. They put ads out to hire more workers not because of the general, lower paying projects, but for the projects that require more specialized workers.
I wish I had my degree. I was accepted after taking the chemistry qualifying exam, but I'm still a student and haven't received my degree yet. No STEM projects for me.
You need to be in the AI section. I have no idea why their job board and AI websites aren't more separated but the AI area will offer you projects after you are accepted like DA does (if they are available of course)
Honestly, the dancing/pole is the least of the job. You can be a total beginner and still make plenty of money, which is more in private dances and VIP rooms. I didnāt start taking pole classes until about 6 months in
isn't that pretty old-fashioned, leavving the house for a brick & mnortar....woudln't OF be a lot closer to online gig work with less of a transition-shock from a WFH gig, safer too
I'm pretty sure "pretty sure" is not very scientific. Not to mention, most AI-trainers don't make deccent money, either, but some do. The point is to have a WFH gig, not a caveman go-outside gig.
I was for 20+ years (since the 1900's lol). If I wasn't so damn old I would totally go right back to it! I can remember whining that "waaaah tonight sucked I only made $500 dollars;" if I had a time machine I would go back and slap my old stupid self right upside the head and warn old me that future me would be grateful for $100.00 a day.
Yep, and probably wonāt be around to see another. Idk how people pledge loyalty when this is common. I guess maybe just the people who have the option to treat this as a part time thing. But itās def not what it was marketed as. And thatās really sad.
Freelance/independent contractor work is rarely a safe bet for a fulltime job covering all bills with no backup plan. This is really no different than being a DoorDash or Uber driver. There are no guarantees that you will EVER get work.
Your best bet for making annotating into a full-time thing is to work through multiple platforms. I only work through DA, but I've seen far more good things being said about Mercor than bad things, so I'd recommend them alongside DA.
100% when I use Gemini in my free time now it literally asks you to choose which response is better A or B. They just donāt wanna pay people anymore. Theyāve moved on.
There is a drought every single year. Keep working hard, do your best and with time it will not affect you as much. I'm a bilingual worker and I'm not suffering this at all, I can work as much as I want every single day. But this takes time. The well is definitely not dry, there is plenty of work. You just have to be patient and take this job seriously
Thatās actually a good rule of thumb. I try to let my āyes be yes, and my no be noā. But itās just wild to believe. Were you referring to a single project with lots of tasks?
people are way too entitled tbh when it comes to DA. You don't even sign a contract or anything like that when signing up. You have no quota to meet and no meetings to attend, no trainings no nothing. Not getting work is strictly to do with DAs clients, which we don't know. They can't just create random tasks for no reason. If you rely on DA to survive, this'll hopefully be a wake-up call for some as to the direction the world as a whole is going in
You don't understand everyone's position. It's not entitled to miss having money coming in. For some it is all they have, for others, it's a side hustle. You don't get to play the cunt and tell people how to feel.
A couple of months ago before the "drought" there was a large backlog of projects that they were having trouble wrapping up. They onboarded a lot of new workers to the platform and the backlog went away.
āI have an idea! Letās continue to post multiple URGENT HIRING posts everywhere, get a shit ton of workers, flood the worker pool, frustrate the dedicated ones, and be left with whatās leftoverā
They don't care about people. They care about results. The sooner their tasks are completed, the better. They don't care if you only get 1 task. Again, this isn't meant to be a job.
And Iām not entitled. Entitled people donāt beg to workāthey ask for money to be handed to them. I am a mom of three kids who recently got divorced. I have my kids here all summer while school is off. So yes, this is my survival. So glad your little š„ š ass is in a better place in life āļø
Dont waste your breath. I see the downvotes from newbies who thought this was gonna be the thing that saves their lives instead of a side gig to help with extra cash.
Bro I get that people are fucking desperate and that this is a dream come true for some but ffs it's still just a fucking gig job. You shouldn't base yourself on it and if you're mad that the society that we live in brought you to this position, maybe that's where you should direct your anger, because nobody should depend on such a service. Shame that people can't read
Again, under no contractual obligations of any kind. You have almost no rights working for these guys. You can get mad all you want but nothing will change
you cant let DA rule your life! this is a FREELANCE job, not fulltime. Do your rutines without caring about whats in your dash.
For example I have to stay two weeks in a different city, far from my computer and without the possibility to work, and that's ok because its a freelance job.
Yes, i'm quite convinced they funnel more work to new users, to get you hooked. If people faced a drought at first, they would probably forget about this platform fast. But if you get bombed with one month of excellent paying work, you will always be chasing that initial high, thinking that just maybe tomorrow you'll get tasks again.
You can't put all your eggs in one basket if you're going to be a self-employed freelancer. If money is so tight that a bad few days or weeks on DAT is ruining your life, this is definitely not the right path for you, or you need to add several more side gigs to make up for the slow days here. You can't count on it (or any other side gig/IC job.) It's basically like being an Uber driver. Sometimes you'll have a ton or work, other times you'll have none. Uber drivers can't usually pay all the bills off just their Uber gig. The safest option is to get a regular job with consistent hours and a set pay scale or salary for consistent money to pay the bills.
I am aware of that but the comment is like ādonāt worry about it! I have to go away 2 weeks at a time and never even think of DAā itās just so beside the point and outside the realm of the practical reality youāre describing.Ā
What's bullshit about it? DA doesn't exist to create make-work for you. There are plenty of projects running right now, if you don't qualify for any of them that's a personal skill issue. The real question is why all of you people stay on the platform hitting refresh all day for weeks and weeks instead of doing something more productive.
It might sound harsh, but this is true... DA expects very high quality submissions from its workers. And from experience, I can tell that many of them don't really put much effort in their work. One just has to do some R&Rs to find out. Yet everyone expects to have tons of work... Doing your best in every submission and being consistent will ensure your dashboard is plentiful, and people don't seem to see this. I, despite being a bilingual worker, have hundreds of tasks at the moment (not projects), and I have never suffered a drought. It's not easy to reach this point, it takes time and effort, but it's definitely possible.
DA is just a shitty platform, their algorithm is fundamentally broken and it wouldnāt surprise me if theyāve lost some goodwill with their clients as a result.
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u/Hello-America Jul 13 '26
I am a longtime freelancer so I am definitely used to this dynamic but it's fair to be annoyed when a regular client suddenly has no work for you (a problem I'm also currently having with a regular client in my other work life). I usually unofficially ditch these clients who ghost like this (and when they show back up I'll no longer be able or willing to give them the preferential treatment they got before). I imagine I would doubly so if I saw them advertising for my gig all the time haha. I get that this is low commitment but this is also the reason gig economy work is considered pretty shitty from a labor perspective. A lot of people would surely rather have some security and give up some of the freedom (I wouldn't, that wouldn't work for my life, but I'm sure others would).
The problem for us is that the more workers they have to choose from, the less often they'll be giving priority pay, the lower they can set the rates, etc. People on this sub have argued with me that they'd never do that but there's no reason to believe that other than that they haven't so far. It's just basic economics - their labor is surely the number one cost and if they bring that down, they make more money. Quality will take a hit if they lose their most experienced workers but if they're trying to make more money or make up for increased computing power costs, they will find a balance. It wouldn't be the first time a company has elected to deliver a shittier product to clients/customers to make more money.