Prolific Academic Survey Alerts

[Deleted User]

Your health now and in the future - an interview

Hosted by Stefan Lipman.

This morning I reserved a place and chose an interview (Zoom I think) appointment for 10. a.m. today.  The time seemed to be confirmed but (belt and braces) I sent a message to The Researcher confirming my 10 a.m. appointment.  As far as I remember the messege was 'Sent.'

Here is my concern:  Recently I have sent messages to Researchers and they have not appeared in 'All' or in Archives.  It is as if they have never been sent.  I'm concerned and, for the first time, used the "ChatBox" to contact Prolific.  It was a bit of a struggle but, eventually, I managed to send a message.  ChatBox gave me a number and said they would contact me ASAP and within a few days.  My concern is that the appointment with The Researcher is at 10 a.m. today and I have no way of knowing if he received my email.

Has anyone else had problems locating an email after it has been sent to a Researcher?  For me this is quite a recent problem although I don't usually send many messages to Researchers.

Although I did not mention it in the email to The Researcher, a link for the Interview is to be sent to me (they have my Prolific ID) but I really just hoped for confirmation.

Thank you if anyone can reply before my 10 a.m. appointment.

silvercar

How much are they paying for the interview? A normal market research interview should pay at least £30 if not more. I really think interviewing through prolific is undermining the market value of interviews.

In answer to your query on emails on prolific, it may be worth sending a DM to the researcher copying the email, then there will be a record of it being sent.

[Deleted User]

Thanks for replying, silvercar.  It says:  £7.50.  I thought I had sent a message, successfully, to The Researcher but there is no sign of it.  Also - I wonder if the Researcher sends me a link via Prolific email, and I do not receive it, he may think that I have not kept the Zoom appointment.  There is no way that I can see the message I sent.  It seems to have vanished and this has happened before.

Is there a way of sending The Researcher a message other than through the normal Prolific 'Contact Researcher box' because I would send (resend) the message if possible.   Thank you.

silvercar

The contact researcher box should send it as a DM that should be visible in your message list.

yupiteru

There are participants on other Prolific forums stating they are having the same issue with the messaging system when trying to contact researchers.

The last time I saw this issue highlighted recently the participants concerned had notified and received a reply from Prolific support, so in theory they should be aware of the problem.

I have not noticed this myself, the last message I sent to a researcher last week I had a reply back the following day, but maybe that is part of the reason why I sometimes do not get a reply?

[Deleted User]

yupiteru said:

There are participants on other Prolific forums stating they are having the same issue with the messaging system when trying to contact researchers.

The last time I saw this issue highlighted recently the participants concerned had notified and received a reply from Prolific support, so in theory they should be aware of the problem.

I have not noticed this myself, the last message I sent to a researcher last week I had a reply back the following day, but maybe that is part of the reason why I sometimes do not get a reply?

Thanks yupiteru.  That's reassuring because it is a bit confusing.  Weirdly there was part of a message (incoming) just saying:  "...   see you then. ..."  No way of knowing but I wonder if The Researcher did get my message.  Even so - if he sends the Zoom link via my Prolific Email, unfortunately I'm not likely to receive it.

In the circumstances you explain, yupiteru, it makes sense that there are sometimes not replies or, as above, only parts of a reply with nothing to refer to to double check.

Crimson

[Deleted User]

silvercar said:

The contact researcher box should send it as a DM that should be visible in your message list.

That's where I sent the message from, silvercar.  As yupiteru has mentioned, it does sound as if there is an email problem in Prolific.  Unfortunately no reply so far and no link to 10 a.m. Zoom appointment,  It is disappointing (for The Researcher too) but I have done my best to communicate.  Thanks for replying.

[Deleted User]

It is disappointing:  I have just received an email notification: 

You have received a new message on Prolific. 

 "View message"  When I click on the link it is blank and there is no new message.  I copied and pasted the link into my Browser but, again, the link is blank - no message!  I feel for The Researcher because I think he is trying to communicate but, so far, all to no avail.  No word from Prolific yet.

Surprise outcome for me:  Inexplicably at 10 a.m. I connected to Zoom through a link from May 2022.  It worked (although it was a similar but different Study) and this one lasted for 25 minutes.  I answered a number of health related questions and was paid immediately, through Prolific, with:  "No code."

A surprise outcome and really, in the circumstances, very pleased.  I do hope Prolific manage to sort the email problem soon.

yupiteru

Can we make accurate colour similairity judgements using natural scene stimuli?

By tlab tlab

£1.00 • £7.14/hr

8 mins

0 places

Participants will be asked to compare the overall colour similarity of two squares patches from an initial natural scene image. The study will take approximately 10 minutes to complete.

Managed to get a place on this study but on the first page got the following error message:

"tlab/vanessa-similarity-updated is currently in PILOTING mode but the pilot token is missing from the URL.

If you are the experiment designer, you can pilot it by pressing the pilot button on your experiment page.

Otherwise please contact the experiment designer to let him or her know that the experiment status must be changed to RUNNING for participants to be able to run it."

Unfortunately I had to return the study and inform the researcher.  The first error of the week and no doubt many more to come.

ndf9876

yupiteru said:

Can we make accurate colour similairity judgements using natural scene stimuli?

By tlab tlab

£1.00 • £7.14/hr

8 mins

0 places

Participants will be asked to compare the overall colour similarity of two squares patches from an initial natural scene image. The study will take approximately 10 minutes to complete.

Managed to get a place on this study but on the first page got the following error message:

"tlab/vanessa-similarity-updated is currently in PILOTING mode but the pilot token is missing from the URL.

If you are the experiment designer, you can pilot it by pressing the pilot button on your experiment page.

Otherwise please contact the experiment designer to let him or her know that the experiment status must be changed to RUNNING for participants to be able to run it."

Unfortunately I had to return the study and inform the researcher.  The first error of the week and no doubt many more to come.

I had exactly the same experience : for £1 I wasn't really prepared to wait too long for a reply, so I ended up returning it after 10 minutes or so. No response from the researcher, but Prolific messaging hasn't been all that sharp recently, so I can probably forgive that. Oh well - here's hoping it's not the start to a bad week!