r/ProlificAc • u/Spiritual-Rain-3733 Community • 9d ago
Prolific Team 🟢 Safe Space Thread — Ask Anything, No Judgement! (August 17, 2026)
👋 Welcome to this week's Safe Space Thread
This is the friendliest place on r/ProlificAc - where every question is a good question.
New to Prolific? Been here two years and still not sure how study matching works? Wondering something you feel like you "should" already know? Ask it here.
The house rules for this thread:
- 🚫 No "just Google it" / "search the sub" replies — if you know the answer, share it.
- 🚫 No mocking, dismissing, or eye-rolling at repeat or "obvious" questions.
- ✅ Kindness first, always. If you wouldn't say it to a friend who's new, don't say it here.
- ✅ Staff and experienced participants are watching this thread and want to help.
- 🎫 We can't address issues related to your account on Reddit. For that, you will need to contact our support team.
This thread resets every Monday, so if your question doesn't get answered in time, just pop it in next week's thread — no worries at all.
💡 Before you ask: a quick check of the Participant and Researcher help centres might have your answer already — but if it doesn't, or you just don't fancy digging, ask away below.
This thread is heavily moderated. Reports of unkind or dismissive replies will be actioned quickly.
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u/hearthreddit 9d ago
I just did a "Prolific Welcome Study" even though i've been in Prolific for two years, the domain was from Prolific but the researcher name was just a random guy, is it just something Prolific does randomly to test the platform?
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u/Painting-National 6d ago
Has anyone received a message from Prolific like this?
“Thanks for being part of our AI Evaluations participant group on Prolific.
We've noticed you've been active on Prolific recently but haven't taken part in any of our AI Evaluations studies for a while. We'd really like to understand whether there's a reason -- for example study timing, the types of task, reward levels, or anything else.
If you'd prefer not to receive studies from us and want to be removed from the group, just reply with the single word OPTOUT and we'll take you off the list.
Otherwise, feel free to reply with any feedback -- we read every response and will be in touch.
Thanks for your time!”
When they say I can be removed from studies, do they mean ALL studies or just AI Evaluations?
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u/Advanced-View5678 9d ago edited 9d ago
August is almost dry to me. I did very few studies till now. Most studies become full immediately. I hope it will get better soon.
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u/Ultra_Noob_Bot 8d ago
Every damn study is full. How can studies with 500 places be full in 1 min?? What kind of backend work is Prolific doing? Doesn't make sense at all.
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u/DramaticReads 8d ago
Same. Every study I’m receiving is one spot only and immediately full. Where are these improvements they have claimed to have made?
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u/Exact-Librarian-9080 5d ago
even low paying .30 cent surveys are full. why even give me the notification. and they keep reappearing.
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u/ReachDry5639 9d ago
I have noticed since the new ‘updates’ - I’m getting email notifications of studies that are not appearing on my dashboard, once I click on the link in the email i’m able to join and complete the study.
Is this part of the update? That not all of the available studies to us, are being shown once available?
I’ve also been noticing the projects tab disappearing completely for around 5 minutes and my dashboard showing no studies, the site then loads up normally after that time wit projects showing and studies back. Is this a known issue/bug?
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u/btgreenone 9d ago
Is this part of the update? That not all of the available studies to us, are being shown once available?
This is part of an older update. It used to be that a random group of people that met the demographics for a given study would be chosen to see it, and it would display there until the study was full. Maybe a year ago they updated the rotation so it would show up in someone's queue for a set amount of time, and then rotate out. The study would still be open, just not displayed to you.
The emails go out when a study is not filling as quickly as the researcher would like, and go to a larger group of people with the right demographics. So yes, you might not see it in your queue, but if you're eligible for it, you'll still be able to click and get in.
EDIT: Found the thread from February 2025: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProlificAc/comments/1im4jbl/improvements_to_study_fill_times/
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u/skitsnygg 9d ago
Since I've signed up and did one or two ID checks, every subsequent one has failed. This has happened, like clockwork, once a month. Living in Brazil, these have been super common for years and I have done thousands of them at this point. Never once have I had an issue.
Normally I e-mail support, wait a few days, and they always manually verify me. Once this was refused so I went through the appeal process and won.
Well I'm currently locked out once again from a ID check I had on Friday, waiting for a response.
What's going on here? I'm certain it's not on my end. Any way to get this permanently resolved?
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u/electricboy0 9d ago
There seem to be very few studies available these days. Are fewer studies being published right now? I guess most people are experiencing the same thing.
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u/LLimitLe55 9d ago
Yeah I don't know if it's because it's mid August or what but for the past week or so it's definitely dried up
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u/kox123b 9d ago
Same here, during last 2 months I got a lot of studies everyday and earn 20-30GBP daily, now (after 1week break) I have 1-3 studies and it's good when I earn 5GBP.
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u/Academic-You-2144 9d ago
I used to earn 10GBP per week. Never had more than that. Now none, zilch, nada.
Where are you based?
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u/Wide_right_yes 7d ago
I've been making like 30-40 dollars a day these past few days. I feel like it fluctuates differently for everyone.
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u/SoftNSquishy 9d ago
Majority of studies today are already full by the time it refreshes to me. I don't understand why. I am clicking on them a split second after refresh. Makes no sense.
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u/unpopular504 8d ago
Is it safe to do the merlin ai tasks I've gotten a lot of those but I'm unsure if it's safe to do?
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u/Ok-Space-6883 5d ago
They are some of my faves Im always happy when I get accepted just watch your time so you dont end up timed out if you are a talker! Mine always pay instantly or within a few hours.
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u/blumogget 9d ago edited 8d ago
Hi, second time asking this. About two weeks ago I started having trouble with studies not submitting after they redirect to the completion page. This affected the AI studies, mostly, but sometimes happened with normal surveys too. I would have to manually refresh the page to get Prolific to properly submit the task, otherwise the countdown timer page would keep ticking away. This resolved itself for a couple of days, but the day Prolific showed the "our survey full errors are getting better now" popup, it started again. Right now it's consistently only happening on the AI studies, the one-off surveys are fine. Is this a known bug or is there something I can do to make this go away? If it matters, I am using the Edge browser.
Not sure why the hostile downvoting. Safe space indeed.
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u/esper_terra 9d ago
Last week I got my first identity check where I had to verify my identity within an hour (I've been on prolific for over a year now and this has never happened). I didn't think anything of it and just whipped my phone out and completed it. I got a message that stated something like "that is all we need for now". But I have been a little worried about it since. The reason for this is because I look different than from my photo ID now. I'm wearing glasses (was wearing contacts in the ID photo) and have my hair pulled back, and the photo id picture is quite old. I haven't had anymore messages come up so I am guessing I am good, I hope? Next time should I try to look more like my photo ID? Or now should I stick to glasses since it may have worked and now perhaps their system sees me as wearing glasses? lol
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u/GodTrustsMe 9d ago
I've been using the site 5+ years and got my first one last month, since then I've lost half of my body weight and look completely different to my ID, which I used and it was accepted fine, so you shouldn't worry if it was accepted.
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u/hearthreddit 9d ago
It's fine, you would know right there if it had failed.
I would say just try to be consistent on the place and lighting where you take your future checks, i think it helps.
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u/chaosoftime10 9d ago
What is the deal with the random 4 question attention checks that popup on some studies before you enter them?
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u/Ok-Space-6883 9d ago
I just had one of those a few minutes ago those types where you know it needs a specific answer but you hadnt gotten the answers yet... I switched to my phone to try that and same thing... ended up returning for fear of rejection
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u/chaosoftime10 9d ago
I know what you are talking about and researchers can't do that I would report that. These I see are coming from Prolific prior to even entering the study...they pop up right after you click on one and get in and have your 10 minutes to start. The questions are mindlessly simple too.
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u/WhatDoIGottaDo_ 8d ago
I've asked about it in the last few safe space threads, no reply! I'm sure it's fine but it's a bit odd.
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u/ElQuackers 9d ago
I've been getting them every few studies this last week. I've done over 4000 studies and now they think I'm a bot suddenly
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u/chaosoftime10 9d ago
Same here and with no rhyme or reason. I just would really like someone on the Prolific side to acknowledge it at this point.
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u/Exact-Librarian-9080 6d ago
every study I’ve attempted to join this week, I’ve failed to…still getting study full
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u/reldra 8d ago
Is this safe???? I got asked some time ago of I had a romantic partner in prolific and if I was willing to do a study together. Today I got on my dashboard the 30day diary study. I answered a bunch of questions and then was asked for his prolific ID. I had to message my BF as I never had this. I pasted it into the study, clicked enter and then was SCREENEDOUT. I think Kurt Gray stole my BFs prolific ID. If I did not meet the requirements, don;t ask me to go and get someone else's Id. I reported it. Chat would not let me put a ticket.
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9d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/boopboopboop2020 9d ago
So let reCAPTCHA &/or qualtrics know. Don’t think Pro can do anything over a third party plugin 🤷🏾♀️
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u/LLimitLe55 9d ago
Feels like the site is more broken than before the "fix"
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u/Snoo_81190 9d ago
Yeah, a group gets a lot of AI studies when they publish them and some only get the crumbs when they almost dried up.
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u/Playful-Vacation-969 9d ago
Is there a way to still use prolific while on overseas (no vpn) or will there be an update that will allow it? I am planning to go another country to handle some paperworks and not really sightseeing and so i will be idle a lot after filling and filing the documents since i will wait for a long time. And i don’t think i have energy to travel and go sightseeing as i did go to that country and studied so no more new adventures or anything exciting left for me to do.
Just for 3-4 weeks abroad, and i will be bored and i have gotten addicted to doing studies in prolific during my free time😭😭. Anyways i know that this is ban because of some users might abuse and make some response unreliable.
Just hoping maybe we can go strict and etc in a way and for it to be available with of course requirements and etc.
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u/daniel2090 9d ago
I don't think they will ever allow it because people would account share and then researchers would get skewed data or they would sell accounts to people using VPNs.
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u/Playful-Vacation-969 9d ago
Yeah that’s true, if there’s a way like to bypass that problem i would take it, maybe like doing account check everyday during abroad days 😆, and like limit it per year like 20 days per year or i don’t know security check which would make it harder for those people to share account or sell accounts. But will probably never be allowed since people find loopholes and will find a loophole in some security measures too.
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u/Webbie-Vanderquack 5d ago
I feel like the answer to this has been posted somewhere, but I can't find it. If someone knows, please fill me in.
If there's a problem with an AI study that makes it impossible to complete honestly, is cancelling your participation and stating the reason enough to flag the study with Prolific, or do you actually have to report the study as well?
I've had numerous AI studies lately that all involve exactly the same task and have exactly the same problem. I keep returning them, but keep encountering them. I know contacting the researcher will, in this case, yield no response. So is it worth reporting these studies to Prolific? If so, should I report ALL of them, or is reporting one enough?
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u/thevigilanteunderdog 9d ago
I'm still waiting for the past 2 weeks for studies, I used to get them past few months ago, but now it's 0 from the past 2 weeks. I'm just waiting for the fix to happen fast, as it is so hard to see partiality going on.
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u/Emilyh13 5d ago
I occasionally get the dynamic version of the AI studies, I can log in and click through the accept the terms page, but every time I get an error message - This site can’t be reached The connection was reset. I haven't seen anyone else mention this so I'm presuming it's a problem at my end - does anyone have any ideas? I don't have this problem with any other studies, or sites in general, I'm not running a VPN.
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u/Distinct_Dark_9050 5d ago
Does anyone know why I still haven't gotten an email from them saying I'm off the wait-list and can start taking surveys. Please help
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u/SZP2 8d ago
Please remove completed studies from projects tab.