Prolific Academic Survey Alerts

Lummoxley

olliebean said:

Fill in captchas codes correctly and win a bonus that can be used to bet on a roulette game (desktop only)

By Philip Newall

14 places

£2.50 • £23.32/hr

6 mins

Best one I've had for a while, probably ever: fill in a page of captchas (took a couple of minutes), then it gave me a £5 bonus which I was free to gamble on an online roulette game for as long as I wanted or until it ran out. I just quit the game immediately and took the £5. £7.50 for less than 4 minutes, that's over £100/hour

I actually did a couple of spins and doubled the £5 before stopping, just been paid £12.50. 

olliebean

I just had a message from a researcher, asking me to return my submission because I hadn't followed the instructions properly, and otherwise they would have to reject it. But I had already returned this study without completing it, because I didn't fully understand the task it was asking me to do. I've messaged back telling them this. I presume they're not able to reject a submission that has already been returned.

[Deleted User]

olliebean said:

I just had a message from a researcher, asking me to return my submission because I hadn't followed the instructions properly, and otherwise they would have to reject it. But I had already returned this study without completing it, because I didn't fully understand the task it was asking me to do. I've messaged back telling them this. I presume they're not able to reject a submission that has already been returned.

I can check, olliebean, but it sounds like one started then was asked to return by the Researcher or be Rejected:  ? Something about Delegation to Autonomous Agents. 

I definitely did not want it to be rejected.  I was approximately 15 minutes into the study before I was asked to return it.  I did return it on request.

I can't imagine your study being rejected when you had already returned it.

Crimson

DontBringBertie

I completed the below study twice, I assumed it was a follow up. 

Evaluating the asymmetric effect of service attributes on tourist satisfaction with all-inclusive holidays

Completed study at 18:52.
18:59 message from researcher “please return your submission”
18:59 second message from researcher “you completed my study twice”
19:01 third message “if you still don’t return I will contact prolific”
19:02 fourth message “I contacted prolific with a screenshot of your ID on the data twice”

I just messaged back (19:12)

“Alright calm down pal. Give me more than 2 minutes to return it. Next time maybe don't post your study twice then blame other people, yeah?”

Probably going to report him too.

[Deleted User]

That's disappointing, DontBringBertie.  I had notification of a 'Gorilla Platform' study although I did not know this when I clicked to reserve a place.  I then clicked to start and, since the notice said the Study was full I was asked to Return it.  I Returned the study then approximately 20 minutes later the same study became available with 10 places and was soon followed by a Follow-Up for the earlier Study with 9 places.  Since I had Returned the first one I ignored the two notifications. 

Strangely the first Study number of places increased and the number of places on the follow-up Study also increased and several times my desktop 'pinged' New Study Available on Prolific.  It was the same two studies.  Eventually I ticked 'Not Interested' but it was at least another half hour before the notification of 'places available' for the same two Studies eventually disappeared.  I'm not sure what the problem is because, with previous similar problems regarding Gorilla Platform Studies I had notified both Prolific and the Researchers - but the problem still continues.

On a positive note I had a £7 Study (not a Gorilla Platform one) this morning and it was approved within an hour or so - really pleased.

Crimson

cloudylemonade13

Has anyone every had any feedback after reporting the YT Wang studies? Have just had my first taste of one - over 20 minutes of repetitive questions (and excruciatingly dull to boot) about co-workers for a measly 43p! The whole structure of the survey felt like a hot mess too.

Could honestly kick myself for not checking it first before starting. 

yupiteru

UK Residents: Please answer our 15-minute survey

By uchicago.edu

425 places

£1.87 • £7.90/hr

14 mins

Up at 6 o clock as usual and this was waiting for me.  Just your standard tick box survey with a few one line free text boxes to fill in, so all in all a good start to the day.

Biggest problem though was as soon as I tried to start the study I got the dreaded 'PEC-SUB-0002' error message, suggesting I had a dodgy ip address so was unable to secure a place.

As usual I darted into the living room, switched the router off then back on and this generated an ip address that was accepted and luckily there were still places available once everything was back up and running.

All very odd as I was using the the very same 'rejected' EE ip address yesterday and completed a study with no problem, so I am a bit curious what has changed overnight at Prolific's end to give me this error?

yupiteru

cloudylemonade13 said:

Has anyone every had any feedback after reporting the YT Wang studies? Have just had my first taste of one - over 20 minutes of repetitive questions (and excruciatingly dull to boot) about co-workers for a measly 43p! The whole structure of the survey felt like a hot mess too.

Could honestly kick myself for not checking it first before starting. 

I have reported a few but heard nothing back. I have been caught out on a number of occasions by clicking to secure a place and only then realising it was the researcher from hell and immediately returned and reported the study.

Why, YT Wang, why?  More importantly why does Prolific keep entertaining this researcher?

ElefantEd

yupiteru said:

Why, YT Wang, why?  More importantly why does Prolific keep entertaining this researcher?

Maybe it's a meta-study by PA themselves to see how far they can go before a researcher annoys people so much and becomes so notorious that too few people are prepared to complete the study to fill it up!

olliebean

Does Prolific at least eventually top up the payments of the underpaying YT Wang studies, so people who've suffered through them at least get paid fairly for their time?

Although, having said that, I suspect an awful lot of participants simply give up in despair before the end of the study, so end up getting paid nothing.