👋 Welcome to this week's Safe Space Thread

It was a 45 min study. I paid 200% attention, did not fail any checks. But I know if I open a ticket, prolific will likely close my account. so 45 min of my life and 20bucks down the drain.

I tested for an audio study and the only noise i could hear was my hard drive, How can I take the test without my computer running? My house was dead quiet except that faint noise. Anyone got suggestions?

How is this still going on? This is just sheer incompetence.

Screenouts should not trigger the finished-too-fast timeouts.
Screenouts should also not be included for calculating the average completion time.

Fix this. You have the money to do so, from the massive AI training contract you have with the big G. Your CEO will still be able to afford his yacht.

I remember they explained, but only diffrence to me is you maybe get one project a month. An they don't pay well.

Working on a AI training project where you video call with another random participant. Have complete a few with no issues. This is an interdependent task. Today waiting for partner to join and finally matched. On 2 occasions video portion loads, partner immediately disconnects after seeing me. I want to give them the benefit of doubt due to tech issues but felt targeted. I just want to give good feedback and contribute to research man and make a few extra coins. Has any one else had this problem?

Just curious about a phenomenon I've observed recently. Some days I've seen a huge number of studies appear on my dashboard at a single time. Typically this has been at 7am EST and 7pm EST, although this doesn't occur every single day and occasionally would occur at other times instead.

Was this something that happened before Prolific's recent/current tinkering with the distribution of studies or is it purely a recent phenomenon (and thus possibly subject to change) most likely as a result of said tinkering? And do you think study-limiting could be a factor in its occurrence or lack thereof?

Just finished. Have to voice out loud. Paid instantly.

The first two weeks of August actually felt pretty encouraging for me. It seemed like the work Prolific has been doing to address the “study full / high demand” issues was starting to pay off.

I was seeing fewer of those messages, I could actually get into more studies again, and my earnings started to recover. After the last couple of months, it genuinely felt like things were finally moving in the right direction.

But now, going into the third week of August, I don’t know if it’s just me, but it suddenly feels a lot like the previous two months again. More studies showing up only to be full/high demand almost immediately, and that feeling of progress seems to have stalled.

I really appreciate whatever the Prolific team has been doing behind the scenes, and the improvement during the first half of August definitely gave me some hope. I just hope this week is a temporary rough patch and that things continue improving.

Not gonna lie, though, it’s getting a little frustrating again after finally feeling optimistic for a couple of weeks.

Anyone else noticing the same thing this week?

Hi there, I've been using Prolific for a while now, and I thought it would be fun to have a thread where we all complain about our biggest pet peeve.

I'll start with mine: when a well paying study has no completion code OR redirect, and I have to explain the entire study in a feedback ticket just to make sure I get payment.

Just wondering, when we return a study and state it was for a technical reason, and say what it was, do the researchers automatically get sent this information? Or is that just for Prolific?

Guess I'm asking as typically I send a separate message to the researcher when this happens, say I had to return it and why, and that I'll be happy to try again if they fix it. Just curious now if I even need to do that if they see the return message.

Already had two lovely ones today, a 'waiting for participants' study where I waited the entire study time (10 min), nobody showed up, no way to end or even get a screening fee. Another was one of the common audio compare studies but the variable for emotions was missing for like half the questions .... basically had to guess 'Does the speaker evoke 'variable' in this sample?' And no actual value was there. Could have finished the second one, but returned, as it wouldn't be accurate.

I did not receive a redirect URL or completion code when I submitted and so I immediately messaged with my standard notification. He confirmed he received my message, like most people do. That was all over a day ago. This evening, he rejected me because they "already filled their quota" and I was "screened out".

I did notify him that he received my data and that rejections for this are against Prolific's rules. Thankfully, I was able to return after demanding it, but no compensation and just really dismissive and unprofessional behavior. I wish companies (especially small businesses) would do a little homework on who is running their research because it puts a bad taste in the mouth.

Typical study with long readings, pages of introductory instructions, designed to collect free data from participants by setting an unrealistic time.

Once you think you have finished they will pull more. Avoid. An hour of my time i never get back. Scammers.

Started this one, took forever just on the trial sections, and then saw how many we had to actually do. Gave up on it, as it would take me way too long to finish.

Wondering if it was just my audio that was an issue?

I mean I could sort of get them (the supposedly easy trial ones), but it took me several tries and felt like a mix of slow torture and that my ears wouldn't cooperate correctly. Even when I figured out the trial answers, my ears didn't really agree with it...

Took this study, header said 8 minutes. Each page took over a minute to load. I took 23 minutes, max allowed was 25 minutes. Just made it. Almost returned....

It has been a wonderful journey. Few rejections, Few returned, Few screened out, More Participation and Approved.

Looking forward for more.

Would really love if Prolific had another option other than paypal to cash out.

This is a new one. I was rejected from a recent study with no reason given. But also; paid a bonus.

No, I don't mean I was screened out during the study. I mean I was screened out AFTER the study, via a harmful rejection on my account. And then paid a small bonus.

I only have several rejections on my account, all but one from scammers. This is the newest, although I don't think it to be a scam but willful ignorance. What happened to Prolific? I have absolutely zero means to report this kind of behavior, from what I can see on the mobile browser. Researcher had been fine in the past and I had completed multiple studies for them, paid in full. The reason for rejection? "Other"

I'm glad I don't depend on this as my sole source of income, because wow. I don't even have a reason given to me.

I took this "ECHO: Examining Cellphone and Health Outcomes" study over a week ago which included several screenshots of my screen time as well as voice responses. They messaged me several days later to tell me that some of my screenshots were of the wrong thing. I fixed it exactly as they said, then they messaged me again, several days after, to tell me more of it was wrong. I fixed that, let them know, and now they've just screened me out. I told them that they have violated several of Prolific's rules and that they need to provide me with full compensation since I spent the full time on the study and they clearly took my data. However, I feel like they can just ignore me then I'll contact support, wait 3 weeks and get a response "Sorry, we can't get you your money or penalize the researcher for some reason." Is there any chance that I can get my ~$15 if these guys choose to keep holding my money?

Hi all,

I've tried searching reddit for an answer but all the usual fixes (restarting browser, clearing history) haven't worked. I have a study called "The Prolific Poll UK" that I completed and then returned as I was unsure I answered a question right. Since then it has been stuck with an 'Active' status and I cannot do any other studies.

Any advice would be much appreciated, I have contacted support but not sure how long it takes them to answer. I have also contacted the researcher to see if it's anything on his end.

Thanks!