[Please Help!] Requester "Likes Rus"

Discussion in 'Help & Guides' started by The Atheist, Nov 12, 2020.

  1. The Atheist

    The Atheist New Turker

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    Maybe someone has had experience with this requester...

    I did a HIT for this requester back on 9/23 and it was rejected on 10/14 with the reason "Your submissions were declined as there were multiple submissions that have the identical latitude/longitude coordinate in location. Only one submission per worker is permitted as we declared in the instruction." This means that the requester is using geolocation data based on Workers' IP addresses to determine multiple participation, and thus whether to accept or reject a HIT. This requester has been doing this for the past 2 years or so according to their reviews on TO: https://turkopticon.ucsd.edu/A30GS97Z2I7R8G

    When I received the rejection I looked it up in the HIT tracker, and this is the only HIT for them. Opening the archived HIT I saw in large red lettering the warning about rejection for multiple participation. When I clicked on the survey link, the survey had been deleted so there's no info about IRB, who to contact, etc., but there's a Penn State banner. I messaged "Likes Rus" using TV's bridge, but they never responded.

    After about 2 weeks I contacted Penn State's IRB, but after several emails, they were unable to locate any info or study from this "Likes Rus" person. I messaged "Likes Rus" again without the bridge, telling them I had contacted the IRB and that I would be contacting others at Penn State unless they responded. They responded to that message as well as read the message on TV's bridge and asked me, "May I ask you in which place did you complete your answer with which device?"

    So I explained how geolocation is unreliable, provided screenshots showing how unreliable it is (whatismyipaddress.com had coordinates 3.3 miles from my home), told them about my computer setup (OS and browser), and said I live alone, only have 1 MT account, and that Vegas is a large city and that it's highly likely there's another Worker somewhere around. They responded with, "Thank you for your clarification. We approved your submission again. Please check it and let us know if you have any questions." I don't know what they meant by "again"...

    So that was on 10/25 and the HIT is still rejected. I've messaged "Likes Rus" twice now, but no answer -- 2nd message was just yesterday.

    I get the sense that this person only told me what I wanted to hear and had no intention of overturning the rejection. Or it could be they are really busy. I don't know. But using an alias and a Gmail account (rather than a psu.edu address) also gives me a sense of deception.

    Other than avoiding and blocking the requester (which I've already done) does anyone have any suggestions?
     
    • WOW WOW x 1
  2. billy

    billy Active Turker

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    Sounds like an unfair rejection. Technically recording your IP address is a violation of Mturk TOS but almost every survey platform does it.
    That being said, I don't understand why you would put that much effort into it. Seems like a lot of wasted time. Sometimes you just have to move on. I have around 350 rejects since 2007. If I put that much effort into each one, I would not make any money.
    I had someone reject me on an IAT test about 5 weeks ago, the ones where you press E and I with racial categories. Totally subjective but rejected. If they rejected 100 hits, maybe get that deep, but for one hit, I would let it go.
    Good luck in getting a resolution.
     
  3. The Atheist

    The Atheist New Turker

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    Thanks for the advice. I typically fret over little things, even to the point of OCD, it's just something in my nature. I feel that if other Requesters catch wind of using geolocation to try to curb repeat submitters and think it's a good idea to employ, then we'll be seeing a lot more unfair rejections.

    Since you have several years under your belt, then perhaps you might have an answer to this, but it's open to anyone. I received a response from "Likes Rus" and they said, "We did it [the reversal] when you requested but have no idea why it is not reversed. We've checked several times again today but it seems not working well even though we uploaded with updated approvals." So Amazon's system isn't reversing the rejection after they've uploaded the updated CSV file. Is there a time limit for reversing a rejection? Maybe there's something wrong they are doing?
     
  4. billy

    billy Active Turker

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    They might not have any money in their account? If there is no money available when they upload the file, it will not reverse.
     
  5. The Atheist

    The Atheist New Turker

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    Found out that there's a 30-day time limit that not even Amazon can reverse.
     
  6. BlueShadow

    BlueShadow Turker

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    My HIT also been rejected from same requester and same reason for a while ago. I emailed and explained that I never completed the HIT more than once but I couldn't get any response. So It doesn't look to me that person is in good intent.
     
  7. BlueShadow

    BlueShadow Turker

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    I realized another requester named "ruslike" today. I checked and both requesters -Likes Rus & ruslike- have same req number. Be aware!