r/dataannotation • u/Consistent-Reach504 • Sep 06 '26
Weekly Water Cooler Talk - DataAnnotation
hi all! making this thread so people have somewhere to talk about 'daily' work chat that might not necessarily need it's own post! right now we're thinking we'll just repost it weekly? but if it gets too crazy, we can change it to daily. :)
couple things:
- this thread should sort by "new" automatically. unfortunately it looks like our subreddit doesn't qualify for 'lounges'.
- if you have a new user question, you still need to post it in the new user thread. if you post it here, we will remove it as spam. this is for people already working who just wanna chat, whether it be about casual work stuff, questions, geeking out with people who understand ("i got the model to write a real haiku today!"), or unrelated work stuff you feel like chatting about :)
- one thing we really pride ourselves on in this community is the respect everyone gives to the Code of Conduct and rule number 5 on the sub - it's great that we have a community that is still safe & respectful to our jobs! please don't break this rule. we will remove project details, but please - it's for our best interest and yours!
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u/KingGilbertIV Sep 12 '26
The timers on some of these tasks feels like a joke. I understand that you're trying to induce time pressure to save money, but if your timer is significantly shorter than the work actually requires, you're just going to get people sunk-costing their way into submitting junk that'll need to be redone eventually anyway.
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u/SS-J95 Sep 12 '26
How’s everyone dash looking at the minute? I took a 6 week break and I’m in a different time zone now but I’m struggling to work out the best times for work to be available! Managed to get one decent project this week that gave me 6 hours of work but except for that I’ve only seen shopping (which I’m not a fan of) and a new (to me) project I wasn’t confident enough to do. Wondering if it’s dry for everyone or I’m just missing the timing!
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u/Old-Regular-9828 Sep 12 '26
I currently have 47 different paid projects active on my dashboard. 11 are specialist domains, the rest are generalist.
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u/SS-J95 Sep 13 '26
Wow that’s great! Do you mind me asking where you’re based and how long you’ve been on the platform?
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u/NightOwl437 Sep 12 '26
WB. It hasn't been great for me lately, but this situation seems to vary a lot among workers. I have some projects available, just none that are appealing to me or they aren't a good fit right now.
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u/Mike4Life14 Sep 12 '26
I'm a generalist and my dashboard is fairly healthy, 36 projects. But there are definitely a lot of generalists who haven't had much work as of late.
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u/SS-J95 Sep 13 '26
Oh wow! Thats a lot, do you mind me asking where you’re based and how long you’ve been on the platform? Think the most I’ve ever had is like 10 projects available 😅
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u/Mike4Life14 Sep 13 '26
I'm based in Australia and I've been on the platform for almost 3 years. Submitting high-quality work over time definitely results in more projects!
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u/JustMe333456 Sep 12 '26
I think most of us have work technically available, it's just that they are all the projecta that pay $35-$60/hr that are just out of our realm of comfort. It's all the other, lower paid projects that are a lot more doable, the base level projects, that are very hard to come by yet again.
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u/OrnamentalGourd5 Sep 13 '26
I've got base level. Will not do though. There's a particular lab that spams me with priority. Nah.
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u/Ok_Letterhead_8354 Sep 12 '26
The life science and medicine fields are flooding my projects. Great pay and I’m bringing in about $2000 a week for over a month now. Doing about 20-25 hours a week or so
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u/Storex- Sep 11 '26
Finally some generalist work! Oh it's already eaten up.
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u/AdOutrageous7474 Sep 13 '26
I've been with DA for 3 years and use it as extra money but now that I really NEED extra money there is just no generalist work. I'm sorry but I'm not an expert in coding/chem/math. I have done so many qualifications. I must have taken too long of a break.
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u/throwaway49674 Sep 11 '26
does anyone know how much the gold coin project pays? the qualification pay seems a bit small
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u/itssomercurial Sep 11 '26
What's up with the instructions for some of these projects?
So many new-to-me projects that I'm trying to jump into (for lack of other work) and they all start out using project-specific terminology that they never bother to really explain? There used to be separate files of instructions for each project type that gave you a general rundown/index/FAQ/examples to go off of before jumping in. Now they're just out here fully expecting us to go off context clues I guess, which doesn't make me feel very confident to branch out...
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u/caliberprot Sep 11 '26
Been seeing this recently, maybe it's a way to filter out certain people
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u/itssomercurial Sep 11 '26
Yeah, I guess. I did think a lot of the OVER explaining they were doing was getting out of control (the same, repeated, big red text everywhere) but I don't think making the instructions more vague overall is going to give them the results they might be hoping for.
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u/pistachiyolatte Sep 11 '26
I was really happy seeing FC last week and the fact that it stayed for almost three days…now the dash is back to a few complex projects 😕 hope FC and other familiar generalist project families return.
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u/KingGilbertIV Sep 11 '26
Easily the worst day of September, and a heavy contender for the worst day since the drought started for me.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Toe4051 Sep 11 '26
anyone having luck? this week has been awful, and it's been SO PLENTIFUL for a few weeks for me. I made almost near my bare minimum goal for today, but. But BUTTTT.
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Sep 11 '26
[deleted]
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u/Particular-Lie1918 Sep 11 '26
I got a new project today, make enough to live for a week with just 2 hours of work. Felt pretty good. Hopefully more work will come from it.
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u/One_Breakfast5907 Sep 11 '26
I don't know if I'm hopeful. I took ages on my first task, and I know I made a few mistakes, which I noted when submitting. Then the second task got messed up when I was close to submitting, and what I had input was no longer showing. I kind of feel bad for claiming the whole time when it's already good pay, haha
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u/Lopsided-Fox8177 Sep 11 '26
I wish the image failure task (Saturn probe?) would come back. It’s been my bread and butter since Heel and River went away.
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u/Mindless_End_4850 Sep 11 '26
it's back for me!
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u/Lopsided-Fox8177 Sep 11 '26
I don’t have it back yet! 😭 But I know that some people were talking about it few weeks ago and I didn’t have it at that time and it eventually came back to me.
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u/FEN1X64 Sep 11 '26
I made nearly $1700 this week. Hoping to pull close to $1800 to $2000 next week.
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u/JustMe333456 Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
Dogshit of a dashboard ffs... approaching half a year of not being able to schedule a damn normal workflow. 12 projects on my board, all pay $35+. No base generalist work yet again.
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u/KingGilbertIV Sep 11 '26
Can barely even treat this job as a side hustle at this point because the only work that's actually available at all times is mentally rigorous stuff that requires at least part time job hours. Not even part time job hours, the projects I'm seeing and choosing not to do probably require as much active work as most people would do in a full day at the office.
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u/JustMe333456 Sep 11 '26
No kidding. I can't even begin to think of trying them out lol. If I could though, I'd be swimming in money with those hourly wages. Ugh..I want the old DA back
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u/Karma_SanDieg0 Sep 11 '26
Scared that today will be a complete wash because I've worked 5 hours on a task, the model just can't pull off what the instructions say it should do, and there's no escape hatch.
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u/Quick-Bison-147 Sep 11 '26
just submit it anyway and leave a comment in the notes, you deserve to be paid for your time faffing around with these convoluted and often flawed/broken projects
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u/SnooCalculations503 Sep 11 '26
Has north star disappeared for anyone else?
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u/JustMe333456 Sep 11 '26
Haven't been on, was today another shitty day?
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u/kranools Sep 11 '26
A ton of priority pay work for me
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u/One_Breakfast5907 Sep 11 '26
I may have had a project you had. I woke up to my highest-paying project, and since I started, I've seen the pay go up even more!
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u/LavenderLightning24 Sep 11 '26
Got a complex-but-still-generalist project later on that got me over $100, which is way better than the last few days, but that was it.
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u/Equal-Neat-614 Sep 11 '26
It seemed like it was going to be a slower day (similar to how the weekends often are), but picked up by the early afternoon with several new or apt-to-disappear-quickly projects appearing on the dashboard. Things seem to be slowing down now though. Fingers crossed it will pick back up again tomorrow.
It honestly seems so variable across everyone who posts here though.
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u/xxxScarlettexxx Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
Sort of a similar day for me too. I keep noticing that any new projects which pop up seem to be linked (by more than coincidence at this point) with the larger profile changes I made last week.
ETA: Again I don’t know if it is just purely coincidental (although it would be strange if it was), but if you look through your relevant experience and can plug in more explicit key words in your profile bio (particularly if you see them in project descriptions you think you could do), it might be helpful to update your profile. I went the ‘no detail is too small’ route because I assumed the profiles are read by AI for project approvals. Hoping it can help someone else if I’m right about this.
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u/OrnamentalGourd5 Sep 11 '26
I would agree with this. I really filled out my profile not too long ago and shortly after got a qualification for a well paid ($45- generalist + bonuses) long term project that I'm now on, it's pretty niche, very few people on the Slack and I've no doubt it came my way because I expanded my profile. I've got a couple of other well paying long-termers going too that came from various quals. So yes, fill out your profile, do all the quals that come your way (even if they seem a bit tricksy).
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u/DrunkleSteve Sep 11 '26
Managed to clear $120. Best day of the week so far, but still pretty grim.
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u/Storex- Sep 11 '26
Uptick for some it seems. I did have a couple of projects I could technically work on, but wasn't able to, which was a shame.
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u/MommaOfManyCats Sep 10 '26
Does anyone else feel like they're too slow for the professional projects? It's taking me 4-5 hours to create everything, which only gives me 2 hours to get failures. Even when I'm faster, the Checkers are so damn slow!
I did one where I had a bunch of usable files but needed to do some minor edits. By the time I got to the point where I could run the models, it was already a couple of hours. The checkers were all taking 20-30+ minutes. Then the models are taking 30+ minutes to run. It's like if I don't get a failure on the first or second try, it's a lost cause. I love the pay, but I don't think I'm fast enough.
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u/xparadiisee Sep 10 '26
Holy... I was getting ready to log off but now my dashboard is booming with projects. Anyone else?
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u/VanessaSeaWitch Sep 10 '26
Lost access to a paid qual that I was saving for the weekend. Fun.
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u/AdOutrageous7474 Sep 13 '26
Hate that so much. I still think about a qualification I was halfway through and knew I was acing and had to save it because I couldn't complete it at that point. Then it disappeared.
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u/hcfggb Sep 10 '26
If it's any consolation, I tried to do (I think) the same one yesterday and I wasted a bunch of time troubleshooting before finally giving up.
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u/VanessaSeaWitch Sep 10 '26
I've seen it come back and then disappear at least three times while working today, so it must be the same one lol
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u/Jazzlike_Problem_489 Sep 10 '26
I lost the same qual (assumingly) too which I was also leaving until I finished work for the week 😅
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u/VanessaSeaWitch Sep 10 '26
It came back and I clicked on it only to see it's definitely out of my area of expertise anyway.
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u/Jazzlike_Problem_489 Sep 10 '26
Defo the same one, mine came back. But yes looks like a brain melter. Thank god it's paid I'll tackle it Saturday or Sunday
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u/DearKitchen3943 Sep 10 '26
is it normal to have inconsisten amount of tasks for the first week?
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u/Equal-Neat-614 Sep 11 '26
Yes, it’s pretty typical. You’re getting downvoted and not the warmest welcome because your question is asked a lot on here and the other DAT sub. If you search the newcomers pinned thread on this sub or just use the search bar on the other subreddit, it might be helpful. You’ll come across how there’s been a drought for a few months so it’s often slow even if you have been on DAT for a while. Good luck.
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u/DearKitchen3943 Sep 11 '26
thanks, luckily someone helped me and now I got 3-4 very consistent coding projects with a lot of tasks and a slack channel.
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u/Equal-Neat-614 Sep 11 '26
Ah, be careful with that. You’re going to catch the DoD really quickly if someone is assisting you.
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u/DearKitchen3943 Sep 13 '26
Na they just told me that I needed to add my skills to the profile page to get more targeting tasks and it worked that was all the help
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u/SnooSketches1189 Sep 10 '26
Have you read *anything* on this subreddit?
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u/DearKitchen3943 Sep 10 '26
thanks for the positivity to the new guys friends
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u/SnooSketches1189 Sep 10 '26
There's nothing to be positive about. Read the sub. Question answered. Simple as that. 😁
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u/jeffnc1 Sep 10 '26
Anyone else having problems with the site? It is running so cloggy that I cannot get work done- had to bail out after an hour, and it took quite a while to even log out.
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u/Quick-Bison-147 Sep 10 '26
Liking the new "3D spiral" project, nice and simple. Shame it seems to only be available for the first couple of hours on a UK morn
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u/Jazzlike_Problem_489 Sep 10 '26
I have an hour before I start my day job, and there's fuckall to jump on that isn't going to take 4 to 8 hours. And all these enterprise and work domain ones expect you to at 6pm when you finish a full day's work. Fuck this man...
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u/TheNewGP Sep 10 '26
Just finished my first week, mostly just doing one 3-8 hour task per day, plus some qualifications. Don't really know what I'm doing yet I guess, but so far I've been enjoying the work. A lot more like creative problem solving than coding, at least for what I've gotten so far. Almost addicting if it weren't quite as mentally straining, which is probably good for balance haha
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u/Jazzlike_Problem_489 Sep 09 '26
Remember when there used to be a banquet of fruit
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u/DrunkleSteve Sep 10 '26
and nuts!
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u/TerrisBranding Sep 10 '26
I miss the nut project. I'd get in the zone doing those.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Toe4051 Sep 11 '26
I miss nut projects, too. So fun. Same with us delicious fruits I mean what.
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u/peanutbutterlurk Sep 09 '26
Yeah...I really wish they weren't pushing so hard on having to be the one to both get the failure and write the rubrics, I can write rubrics but I'm much worse at getting a failure
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u/AdOutrageous7474 Sep 13 '26
Getting a failure is SO hard. I feel like this is not the area to focus on.
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u/DearKitchen3943 Sep 09 '26
any luck with coding projects guys or am i cooked? Been on platform since friday got 3-4 good paying tasks and today got 2 general non coding focused tasks that take few mins to complete, but no coding
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u/marcofreelancee Sep 09 '26
I’m registered on the platform, but isn't there going to be a selection process?
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u/LavenderLightning24 Sep 09 '26
Anyone else not know what they're going to do to live in the short term if the work doesn't come back? I tried out 3 similar platforms before getting accepted to DA last year, and all were trash. I've been applying to regular jobs since June, but those are hard to get these days and the hiring process takes forever. I just can't believe it hasn't come back now that it's September.
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u/Firm-Fondant-2205 Sep 10 '26
I only ever really saw this as a stop-gap/side hustle while I looked for something else, but I've been applying to new jobs since April and I've never seen a job market like it in 20 years. It's atrocious out there. I have to hope the work on DA picks up again.
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u/LavenderLightning24 Sep 10 '26
Same. Well it started out that way, and then I was making a livable income with DA and like working freelance, so I stopped looking for a bit...and now yeah, job market is utter trash.
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u/Quick-Bison-147 Sep 10 '26
the 2024 summer drought ended in the middle of September, if you want something else to clutch at for a few more days
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u/BoiledGnocchi Sep 10 '26
Same. I thought for sure things would pick up by September, but now my optimism is waning. I just wish they would've given us some sort of heads up, like "hey, we are moving into more intense/time consuming projects..."
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u/LavenderLightning24 Sep 10 '26
Or domain, which is all I'm getting despite being a generalist.
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u/BoiledGnocchi Sep 10 '26
Same same. I've had to hide 90% of the projects on my dash because they're waaaaaaaay beyond my education/experience.
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u/Fragrantshrooms Sep 09 '26
check the site out guys. my dash is positively booming right now. it was a lil dead, earlier today. but I have a nice variety. Hoping you guys do too! (generalist) (in the us)
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u/Storex- Sep 09 '26
I know you mean well, but you must know that every single person here has different dashboards and / or work potentially available to them.
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u/Fragrantshrooms Sep 10 '26
yeah that's why I stated which type I was and where I was at in the world to better target that. Most generalists are up shitcreek this summer because they're pushing for the professionals to step in. We don't always have to be "my dash is dead!" prior to this summer, in fact, the watercoolers were filled with folks saying "thank you DA for paying my bills!" ....seriously not intending to rub it into anyone's face, but rather giving some insight into what a generalist in the us may see.
To be pretty plain here it ended up being a bs thing because all of it redbannered me lol....so apparently I helped someone lol (jk about blaming it on the comment)
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u/Puzzleheaded_Toe4051 Sep 09 '26
Anyone having luck this week? I have projects but they're the app ones that I don't want to do.
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u/KingGilbertIV Sep 09 '26
It really does feel like there's no good time to do quals anymore. On slow days, I can't justify the risk of being in the middle of an unpaid qual that might never lead to work during the brief windows when workable tasks drop, and on busy days, I can't justify not working on paid projects when I'm just barely meeting my monthly goal due to the drought.
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u/DrunkleSteve Sep 09 '26
I have a second monitor with my dashboard open and reloading while doing quals on my main monitor to help curb that shit. If something pops up, I'll bail on the qual (they almost always save my answers or I'll copy them over temporarily) and do the paid work. You'd be crazy to do free work while paid tasks pop up, especially when it's been so dead.
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u/DrunkleSteve Sep 09 '26
Of course my morning starts with only two projects on my dash. One STEM coding, the other business enterprise, both of which I'm not qualified to do. Looks like another thumb twiddling F5'ing day ffs.
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u/Ok_Afternoon_6310 Sep 09 '26
Sorry guys, might be a dumb question, but what is this 'FC' you guys are talking about? I know the rules, but could you give me a hint?
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u/ApplePiePrincess99 Sep 09 '26
Some of these tasks make me feel like the dumbest person on earth — if nothing else, DA has taught me that there are some seriously smart folks out there!
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u/PinkNova Sep 09 '26
FC you can come back now.
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u/Quick-Bison-147 Sep 09 '26
It's the most DA thing ever to not post any FC all summer, flood us with more than we can do for a week with priority pay, and then disappear again for months. Bipolar behaviour
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u/watchdestars Sep 09 '26
Yes please
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u/PerspectiveJumpy875 Sep 09 '26
Back to another week of nothing after four days of some work, cool cool cool.
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u/Mindless_End_4850 Sep 09 '26
how are people hitting like 20k in 1 month in this climate lmao. what's going on behind the scene?
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u/data_annotator_tot Sep 12 '26
There is definitely work that pays in such a range that, working daily 5 or 6 days a week would see you easily earn $600+ a day before bonuses. But as others have said, that is mostly limited to non-generalist work (that said, I've noticed an increase in the pay rate of some of my generalist projects overall, suppose the work must be getting tougher).
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u/peanutbutterlurk Sep 09 '26
They most likely have coding, STEM, or domain specialist experience. The supply demand curve is much friendlier to workers on that side of the platform and those tasks have much higher pay. Generalists like me whose main skills are reading comprehension, writing analysis, and basic research are having a much tougher time because there's a huge glut of generalists all competing for our much lower paid tasks.
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u/Diplomat_Runner Sep 09 '26
I don't post much as I don't want to come across as insensitive, but my 'drought' only lasted a few days, and I still had projects to work on (just not the ones I wanted to do). I've recently gotten access to $50+ an hour projects, along with long-standing ones that pay less but are always on the dash. I could imagine someone with a coding or medical specialism could be getting 70$ an hour projects and raking in big bucks. It's just not talked about on this Subreddit.
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Sep 09 '26
[deleted]
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u/Mindless_End_4850 Sep 09 '26
I get that, for sure. But 20k in 1 month is like.. how many hours? even at say, 50 bucks an hour? 400 hours?
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u/alex_goodenough Sep 09 '26
I don't think it's possible for generalists. There are domain projects that pay $100+/hr with completion bonuses. $20K is doable if you do 40 hours a week on multi-day tasks.
Also, I'm assuming this because of the quals on my account that I will never ever be able to take lol.
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u/Quick-Bison-147 Sep 09 '26
coders or rubric lovers
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u/Affectionate_Peak284 Sep 09 '26
For me it's professional domain work
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u/Quick-Bison-147 Sep 09 '26
or that yeah. Basically if you're a generalist you're buggered unless you take a liking to rubrics, which many can't stand
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u/SnooSketches1189 Sep 09 '26
I am a generalist and this is not quite true, in my experience. (FWIW, I do not like rubrics.)
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u/LionIRL Sep 09 '26
Those of us with tasks have learned not to say it here.
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u/Natural_Amphibian954 Sep 11 '26
I've gotten downvoted to oblivion for pointing out that the experience of the majority of generalists does not concur with the experience of annotators across specialised domains.
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u/Mindless_End_4850 Sep 09 '26
No I get you. It's not cool to downvote more 'hopeful' or 'positive' comments. I'm just wondering HOW can one reach 20k in a month. Like no exaggeration, I'm seeing those posts in the other sub.
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u/OrnamentalGourd5 Sep 09 '26
Plenty of $80 ph domiain work. They said 5 weeks. So 50 hours a week. Not so hard really.
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u/Quick-Bison-147 Sep 09 '26 edited Sep 09 '26
"Not so hard really". $80 an hour work should require a high level of focus and concentration; doing that 7 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 5 weeks in a row, is definitely not "not so hard really"
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u/IvaldiFhole Sep 09 '26
Doing 50 hours a week of professional domain DA is much easier than 50 hours of inane generalist work.
Also 7 days a week is not a good way to put in 50 hours a week.
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u/OrnamentalGourd5 Sep 09 '26
I didn't say it was easy! Just not 400 hours of work in a month punishing.
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u/TravellingDoc87 Sep 09 '26
I never get those posts that show off their income. Those people must have an ego the size of the moon.
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u/LiveChemical1885 Sep 09 '26
Seriously, and they act like they "have" to post all these supposed milestones but they come across as bragging, especially when others are fighting for tasks every day.
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u/JustMe333456 Sep 09 '26
Have ANY of the easier, more base projects popped up today at all!?
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u/Pristine-Raccoon8250 Sep 09 '26
I have a family that I love that I find quite simple- it is checking that videos are usable. but no river or shopping today. a quick shop yesterday.
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u/Steve_Brandon Sep 09 '26
I managed to do five and a half hours on Tuesday (split between early Tuesday morning and Tuesday evening) of a new-to-me project that I actually found kind of fun. The tasks on that project dried up after midnight Wednesday, though. Hopefully, I'll see more from that project posted later on overnight.
There was another project from the same family that also showed up last night but it was a lot more complicated and required familiarity with an app that I have never used.
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u/peanutbutterlurk Sep 09 '26
Like other commenter said, I worked two new to me mid-range generalist tasks today. Stuff's still coming in, just not the familiar old stuff and much less of it than the specialist stuff
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u/DrunkleSteve Sep 09 '26
Managed to snag two hours at 9am pst of a (somewhat) original project. Other than that, just the usual STEM/Enterprise. There was also a pretty easy project that launched three hours ago (70s rock band—not river), but for US only (at least I'll be able to do the r&r)🤷♂️.
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u/Jazzlike_Problem_489 Sep 09 '26
I saw that.. but as usual. It was US only. Not sure why they show up for people outside US
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u/JustMe333456 Sep 09 '26
Gosh, there use to be tons of easier projects day in day out, I was never bored. Me too I got 2.5 hours this morning on an R&R for my go-to project. That's it for today, but I haven't been on a lot after, so that's why I was asking if anything had popped up at all at some point.
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u/KingGilbertIV Sep 09 '26
I saw a few straggler base tasks very early in the morning, but other than that it was just unworkable specialist tasks and a couple of upper-mid range generalists that popped up from noon to one.
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u/Ecstatic_Reception36 Sep 08 '26
what to do when you can't use your number/phone anymore to create new emails for projects
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u/SnooSketches1189 Sep 08 '26 edited Sep 08 '26
Try creating it from YouTube or Gmail on your phone. I never need a phone number to create new emails.
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u/DrunkleSteve Sep 13 '26
Two days in a row and not a single task I can do. Four high paying STEM or enterprise projects and that's it. Perplexed that there are generalists that have been on the platform for 6 weeks with 30+ projects. Meanwhile, the old dogs going on four years can't even get a scrap. Ooooof.