rscoggin writes "Amazon.com has a new program that wants you to 'Complete simple tasks that people do better than computers. And, get paid for it.' (example: 'Is there a pizza parlour in this photograph?'). For each task you complete you get a small payment, usually ranging from a few cents to a little under a dollar. It's named the Amazon Mechanical Turk after a famous hoax from the 19th century. Kill time and get paid in tiny increments to boot!" Similar to Google Answers, there seems to be a reliability ratings system and some incentives.
Actually, yes. The whole motivation from this came from the same person who invented the CAPTCHA, and was explained in his thesis defense on Wednesday. Abstract for those who care:
Subject: Thesis Oral - Luis von Ahn
November 2, 2005 Luis von Ahn 12:00 PM, 3305 Newell-Simon Hall Thesis Oral Title: Human Computation
Abstract:
Tasks like image recognition are trivial for humans, but continue to challenge even the most sophisticated computer programs. This thesis introduces a paradigm for utilizing human processing power to solve problems that computers cannot yet solve. Traditional approaches to solving such problems focus on improving software. I advocate a novel approach: constructively channel human brainpower using computer games. For example, the ESP Game, introduced in this thesis, is an enjoyable online game -- many people play over 40 hours a week -- and when people play, they help label images on the Web with descriptive keywords. These keywords can be used to significantly improve the accuracy of image search. People play the game not because they want to help, but because they enjoy it.
I introduce three other examples of games with a purpose: Peekaboom, which helps determine the location of objects in images, Phetch, which collects paragraph descriptions of arbitrary images to help accessibility of the Web, and Verbosity, which collects common-sense knowledge. I also show that, in principle, every problem that could be solved by a computer, today or in the future, could be solved using enjoyable computer games.
In addition, I introduce CAPTCHAs, automated tests that humans can pass but computer programs cannot. CAPTCHAs take advantage of human processing power in order to differentiate humans from computers, an ability that has important applications in practice.
The results of this thesis are currently in use by hundreds of Web sites and companies around the world, and some of the games presented here have been played by over 100,000 people. Practical applications of this work include improvements in problems such as: image search, adult-content filtering, spam, common-sense reasoning, computer vision, accessibility, and security in general.
Thesis Committee: Manuel Blum, Chair Takeo Kanade Michael Reiter Josh Benaloh, Microsoft Research Jitendra Malik, University of California, Berkeley
by Anonymous Coward
on Friday November 04 2005, @08:54AM (#13949415)
- can you see boobs in the picture ? - Is there a donkey in the picture ? - Can you see the can of whipped cream ? - is there chocolate paint involved..
Advanced indexing of Pr0n, humanity is moving forward, no doubt.
Pepsi pays Amazon 3 cents for product placement. You are shown an image of a Pepsi can. "What kind of soda is this?" "pepsi", you answer. You get paid 2 cents.
Even better would be if there were pictures of people enjoying pepsi with the same question and answer as you gave and then they also had ugly people drinking coke and cringing, etc. with the same question, but new answer, "coke."
According to this earlier Slashdot report [slashdot.org], the spam industry has been doing this for awhile with free porn.
I'm curious to know if Amazon is going to use the cumulative results to try to "train" computers, or if it really is just for the money. The requirements include being over 18, so you can't pimp your kids to click through this stuff for cash (though I'm sure it will happen).
Maybe it's just me, but it seems that it's not really worth it. Consider the following task, for example:
Your task is to create a new product description for a product in the Amazon.com Automotive catalogue. The Product Description provides an additional opportunity to tell the customer about the product. This HIT will require some product research to complete. Approval depends on following the instructions and the quality of your submission, determined by a manual review.
Guess how much you get paid for that. 2 dollars? 3? That wouldn't be unreasonable, I think, considering that you're supposed to write an entire product description from scratch for which additional "research" is required. The actual amount paid is only 65 cents, though.
Maybe it's just me, but if I check to see how much I need to work in my regular job to make 65 cents, then it does not make any sense to invest more than a few minutes into a task like this, and it seems that it would take more than that to actually complete it. The fact that there's a review required afterwards doesn't exactly make things better, either - if what you did gets rejected, then you've essentially worked for nothing (I wonder if there's anything that keeps amazon from still using your description in this case, too...).
In other words, the whole thing seems like a good idea in theory, but it won't really take off until they're willing to actually pay you a reasonable amount.
Not to mention that this is the type of thing a copywriter at a marketing firm gets big bucks to do, so essentially you are doing their job for free for Amazon.
That job would never be worth 65 cents to me, but if I were a mechanic and the additional research could be labelled as my common knowledge, and I was IM'ing with my girlfriend at midnight and she was a slow typer...
Let me translate... If it were write a product description for the pictured computer parts and you were waiting for your kernel to compile while twiddling your thumbs, why not make 65 cents?
So basically, if it takes you 5 minutes to write a brief product description, and you churn through them all day, you're making $7.80, which is better than minimum wage. Not a good proprosition if you're clueless about auto parts and have to research everything as described, but I don't think that's the intended optimal target for completing the task (although it someone's dumb enough to spend half an hour or more per description for a crappy hourly wage, they're more than welcome). The optimal target to take up that task is someone who already knows a lot about car parts. Chances are if you're an Autozone (auto parts store chain) employee, you could get most of the descriptions done in under 5 minutes with little to no side research, because you already have the domain-specific knowledge. That's the guy who will be drawn to answer that question.
So the key to making effective money at this scheme is to skip tasks that you don't think you're "better than average" at - kinda like the job marketplace in real life.
If you notice most are "find the best picture" for $0.03. Of course the site rules really slow right now so its not worth your time, but if it ran faster it would be something to do if you could crank through a hundred an hour.
So, you've just busted your ass to crank through one image every 36 seconds for a solid hour, and you have three dollars to show for it. There are definitely parts of the world where that would be a fantastic income, but my home country isn't one of them.
Contract work is not subject to minimum wage laws because it is not paid on an hourly basis. If you as a contractor feel that the pay is not substantial, you have the right not to sign.
I did nine 3-cent HITs in about 5 or 6 minutes, so that's about 3.25/hour. The lag for me was in waiting for the images to download and clicking on the "Accept HIT" button repeatedly.
There is an API, maybe if someone made a page that just displays the images and sends in the result when you click on the image instead of having to click twice for each HIT, you could go faster and make much more money.
I'm a bit too paranoid to type my Amazon user name and password into a site that isn't on the main amazon.com domain....I can't find it mentioned anywhere on amazon's main site. Can somebody a little bit less of a wuss tell me if it is legit?
I'm a bit too paranoid to type my Amazon user name and password into a site that isn't on the main amazon.com domain
The whois info looks a bit dodgy. I would have expected Amazon knew how to properly register domains...
Registrant:
MTAI, Inc.
P.O. Box 80626
Seattle, Washington 98108
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com
Domain Name: MTURK.COM
Created on: 22-Oct-01
Expires on: 22-Oct-06
Last Updated on: 11-Oct-05
Administrative Contact:
Hostmaster, MTAI mechturk1@hotmail.com
MTAI, Inc.
P.O. Box 80626
Seattle, Washington 98108
United States
2065794562 Fax --
Technical Contact:
Hostmaster, MTAI mechturk1@hotmail.com
MTAI, Inc.
P.O. Box 80626
Seattle, Washington 98108
United States
2065794562 Fax --
But in case this is some kind of phishing, they at least manipulated some reverse records too:)
traceroute to www.mturk.com (207.171.166.182), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets [...] 11 amazon-above.mpr1.iad5.us.mfnx.net.175.185.208.in- addr.arpa (208.185.175.66) 96.801 ms 97.656 ms 97.633 ms 12 72.21.201.27 97.109 ms 97.347 ms 98.164 ms 13 166-182.amazon.com (207.171.166.182) 98.107 ms 97.069 ms 97.510 ms
After a quick review of the available tasks, I must say this looks like a huge scam. Most of the tasks are marketing oriented (e.g. copywriting, photo manipulation), for which experienced contractors get paid $30 to $50 per hour.
Only 75 cents to research and write a complete automotive product description? Are they kidding? Sure, they say I can copy the description from the manufacturer's Web site, but my time is still worth more than that. Besides, I think it's the responsibility of the manufacturer to make sure their Amazon listing is correct. That's how they do it on IMDB.
I can only hope the program will make more sense as they add more requesters and more tasks.
So, don't do it. Most of the ones I saw were trivial tasks. Even the auto description was edit the auto description until it was human readable. Since they are trivial, people get bored doing them. The common solution has been to over-pay someone to do them, and have the pay offset their boredom. This interface provides a new idea: let people do them until they get bored, and pay them by the piece.
If your time is truly worth more, don't do them. But there are people who will find it an interesting diver
They are asking you to rewrite product descriptions and will pay you 60 cents?
Not only will the work most likely be shoddy, but it seems like they are trying to replace someone else's job by using this cheap online service.
Yes, for some it may provide rewards but if you calculate the amount of time spent on each item VS. the payment reward (usually a few pennies) it is just not worth someone's free time.
Why don't they just hire a staff of people to work on these 'HITS'?
I'm interested to know if those living overseas can participate. If so, they would drive down the labor costs so much that only truly desperate Americans would participate in this piecework scheme.
Since this is all web-services driven, it seems to me you could create an interesting cycle with a simple program:
1) Use the API to find a HIT, and sign up to complete it. 2) Create a new HIT that basically asks someone to complete the first HIT,
only for $0.01 less than the original HIT was offering. 3) Do this for every existing HIT. 4) Profit?
Rather than think about how much you could make per hour on this, think about how much your time is worth. Are you worth $65,000 per year? Maybe you're worth more or you value your time more? In any case, at $65,000 per year, you make about $0.52 per minute.
So to accomplish the 3 cent task and make your time worth it, you should spend no more than about 2 and a half seconds from the second you begin to the second you finish and get approval.
On some of the higher paying ones, oh, say $0.40 for writing a full product review, you could devote almost a full minute!
The reminds me of the Philip K. Dick novel in which the main character thinks he lives an ordinary life, and who solves the daily puzzle in the newspaper every day for cheap entertainment. In reality, though, the whole town he lives in is a front, and the fun puzzles he's solving in the newspaper are actually cleverly disguised military strategy problems of some sort.
Quick -- someone patent that storyline and sue Amazon for infringement!
So if it looks like,acts like,runs like (amazon gigantic server farm slashdotted?) a regular phishing site, it is. Even if it made to Slashdot. I'd say pull the story until Amazon comes up with an explanation. Before any harm done.
It could be even a more "elite" hack including subdomain/DNS hacking. I am a spamcop mail customer and I see amazing things everyday.
In risk of looking very funny if it is not anything above, happily posting it.
It is indeed in Amazon netblock but registering it through godaddy.com with a hotmail address... Gee, I wish I could show like 40 phishing mails I received with the same pattern.
Sadly there are many victims of phishing sites, and they get slashdotted because the database software can't handle that many requests.
I have never seen such a unserious whois from a big company like amazon. There are many registr
To verify the legitimacy of the site, manually type "amazon.com" into your browser's location bar, and hover over the "See all 32 Product Categories" tab. When it pops up the list, click "Web Services" and read the first item listed on that page, which is a press release announcing Amazon Mechanical Turk.
For extra points, do this only a machine which has been booted from a liveCD with DNS utilities and hosts file that you have personally audited.
Or just, you know, look at the fact that the Turk will, by
For the image ones, couldn't you create 5 bots each with a different account and each one picks a different image and one picks None of these? One of them would be approved and you'd get paid, right?
Also if they are having humans approve your image selection before you get paid, isn't that as much effort as you making your original choice?
While this Amazon thing might be a genuine attempt to farm out real work to people for chump-change, with the site Slashdotted, I can only sit here and wonder. . .
It reminds me of a little semi-scam some company had going in my town a few years back. . .
"You are invited to participate in a screen test of a new television series!"
People would go down and be a test-audience for a television pilot, and then fill out a questionnaire at the end. People, loving their TV culture, were tickled pink to be asked to do this. --Heck, they were even paid something like $15 for their participation!
So, a buddy of mine went to see what it was all about. . .
Basically, some marketing research firm had acquired the rights to an old pilot which never made it to air. They played this for people, and also played a bunch of adverts during the commercial breaks. The questionnaire asked a few boring questions about the pilot, but it also asked a curiously high number of questions about the ad spots. Stuff like, "Which of the two detergent packages in the ad did you find more appealing? The Blue or the Red?"
--Obviously the whole contrivance was designed to test market, uh, marketing.
Either way, by friend was amazed that nobody else seemed to catch on, took his fifteen bucks, and left shaking his head.
We're grateful to have been Slashdotted! Our beta site, mturk.amazon.com, is experiencing the Slashdot effect. You can still read about Amazon Mechanical Turk and its web services APIs at www.amazon.com/webservices. Also, send a blank email to aws@amazon.com if you want us to email you when page load times recover.
The Amazon Mechanical Turk Team
Great... (Score:5, Funny)
GOOD JOB AMAZON
Re:Great... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Micropayment mercenary (Score:3, Funny)
CAPTCHAs (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:CAPTCHAs (Score:5, Informative)
Subject: Thesis Oral - Luis von Ahn
November 2, 2005
Luis von Ahn
12:00 PM, 3305 Newell-Simon Hall
Thesis Oral
Title: Human Computation
Abstract:
Tasks like image recognition are trivial for humans, but continue to
challenge even the most sophisticated computer programs. This thesis
introduces a paradigm for utilizing human processing power to solve
problems that computers cannot yet solve. Traditional approaches to
solving such problems focus on improving software. I advocate a novel
approach: constructively channel human brainpower using computer games.
For example, the ESP Game, introduced in this thesis, is an enjoyable
online game -- many people play over 40 hours a week -- and when people
play, they help label images on the Web with descriptive keywords. These
keywords can be used to significantly improve the accuracy of image
search. People play the game not because they want to help, but because
they enjoy it.
I introduce three other examples of games with a purpose: Peekaboom,
which helps determine the location of objects in images, Phetch, which
collects paragraph descriptions of arbitrary images to help
accessibility of the Web, and Verbosity, which collects common-sense
knowledge. I also show that, in principle, every problem that could be
solved by a computer, today or in the future, could be solved using
enjoyable computer games.
In addition, I introduce CAPTCHAs, automated tests that humans can pass
but computer programs cannot. CAPTCHAs take advantage of human
processing power in order to differentiate humans from computers, an
ability that has important applications in practice.
The results of this thesis are currently in use by hundreds of Web sites
and companies around the world, and some of the games presented here
have been played by over 100,000 people. Practical applications of this
work include improvements in problems such as: image search,
adult-content filtering, spam, common-sense reasoning, computer vision,
accessibility, and security in general.
Thesis Committee:
Manuel Blum, Chair
Takeo Kanade
Michael Reiter
Josh Benaloh, Microsoft Research
Jitendra Malik, University of California, Berkeley
Parent
i can see it already... (Score:5, Funny)
- Is there a donkey in the picture ?
- Can you see the can of whipped cream ?
- is there chocolate paint involved..
Advanced indexing of Pr0n, humanity is moving forward, no doubt.
This could be brilliant. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This could be brilliant. (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
So this is going mainstream now... (Score:5, Informative)
According to this earlier Slashdot report [slashdot.org], the spam industry has been doing this for awhile with free porn.
I'm curious to know if Amazon is going to use the cumulative results to try to "train" computers, or if it really is just for the money. The requirements include being over 18, so you can't pimp your kids to click through this stuff for cash (though I'm sure it will happen).
Doesn't pay enough (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe it's just me, but it seems that it's not really worth it. Consider the following task, for example:
Guess how much you get paid for that. 2 dollars? 3? That wouldn't be unreasonable, I think, considering that you're supposed to write an entire product description from scratch for which additional "research" is required. The actual amount paid is only 65 cents, though.
Maybe it's just me, but if I check to see how much I need to work in my regular job to make 65 cents, then it does not make any sense to invest more than a few minutes into a task like this, and it seems that it would take more than that to actually complete it. The fact that there's a review required afterwards doesn't exactly make things better, either - if what you did gets rejected, then you've essentially worked for nothing (I wonder if there's anything that keeps amazon from still using your description in this case, too...).
In other words, the whole thing seems like a good idea in theory, but it won't really take off until they're willing to actually pay you a reasonable amount.
Re:Doesn't pay enough (Score:3, Insightful)
Elbonia (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Doesn't pay enough (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Doesn't pay enough (Score:3, Insightful)
Let me translate... If it were write a product description for the pictured computer parts and you were waiting for your kernel to compile while twiddling your thumbs, why not make 65 cents?
Re:Doesn't pay enough (Score:4, Informative)
So basically, if it takes you 5 minutes to write a brief product description, and you churn through them all day, you're making $7.80, which is better than minimum wage. Not a good proprosition if you're clueless about auto parts and have to research everything as described, but I don't think that's the intended optimal target for completing the task (although it someone's dumb enough to spend half an hour or more per description for a crappy hourly wage, they're more than welcome). The optimal target to take up that task is someone who already knows a lot about car parts. Chances are if you're an Autozone (auto parts store chain) employee, you could get most of the descriptions done in under 5 minutes with little to no side research, because you already have the domain-specific knowledge. That's the guy who will be drawn to answer that question.
So the key to making effective money at this scheme is to skip tasks that you don't think you're "better than average" at - kinda like the job marketplace in real life.
Parent
Re:Doesn't pay enough (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:Doesn't pay enough (Score:5, Insightful)
100 images / hour * $0.03 / image == $3.00 / hour.
So, you've just busted your ass to crank through one image every 36 seconds for a solid hour, and you have three dollars to show for it. There are definitely parts of the world where that would be a fantastic income, but my home country isn't one of them.
Parent
Re:What about federal labor laws? (Score:3, Informative)
$/hr (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:$/hr (Score:5, Informative)
There is an API, maybe if someone made a page that just displays the images and sends in the result when you click on the image instead of having to click twice for each HIT, you could go faster and make much more money.
Parent
3 cents for 1 hours work? (Score:5, Funny)
Sounds interesting but.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sounds interesting but.... (Score:5, Informative)
Well, mturk.amazon.com [amazon.com] redirects you to www.mturk.com [mturk.com]... seems to imply something.
Parent
Re:Sounds interesting but.... (Score:5, Informative)
The whois info looks a bit dodgy. I would have expected Amazon knew how to properly register domains...
Registrant:
MTAI, Inc.
P.O. Box 80626
Seattle, Washington 98108
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com
Domain Name: MTURK.COM
Created on: 22-Oct-01
Expires on: 22-Oct-06
Last Updated on: 11-Oct-05
Administrative Contact:
Hostmaster, MTAI mechturk1@hotmail.com
MTAI, Inc.
P.O. Box 80626
Seattle, Washington 98108
United States
2065794562 Fax --
Technical Contact:
Hostmaster, MTAI mechturk1@hotmail.com
MTAI, Inc.
P.O. Box 80626
Seattle, Washington 98108
United States
2065794562 Fax --
Parent
Re:Sounds interesting but.... (Score:4, Informative)
But in case this is some kind of phishing, they at least manipulated some reverse
records too
traceroute to www.mturk.com (207.171.166.182), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
[...]
11 amazon-above.mpr1.iad5.us.mfnx.net.175.185.208.in
12 72.21.201.27 97.109 ms 97.347 ms 98.164 ms
13 166-182.amazon.com (207.171.166.182) 98.107 ms 97.069 ms 97.510 ms
Parent
Re:Sounds interesting but.... (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Sounds interesting but.... (Score:3, Informative)
How long until some sick slashdotter posts the ... (Score:5, Funny)
The Future of Surveillance (Score:3, Insightful)
Crime in your neighborhood?
Get a webcam...
Contracting work worth big bucks (Score:5, Insightful)
After a quick review of the available tasks, I must say this looks like a huge scam. Most of the tasks are marketing oriented (e.g. copywriting, photo manipulation), for which experienced contractors get paid $30 to $50 per hour.
Only 75 cents to research and write a complete automotive product description? Are they kidding? Sure, they say I can copy the description from the manufacturer's Web site, but my time is still worth more than that. Besides, I think it's the responsibility of the manufacturer to make sure their Amazon listing is correct. That's how they do it on IMDB.
I can only hope the program will make more sense as they add more requesters and more tasks.
Re:Contracting work worth big bucks (Score:3, Interesting)
Most of the ones I saw were trivial tasks. Even the auto description was edit the auto description until it was human readable. Since they are trivial, people get bored doing them. The common solution has been to over-pay someone to do them, and have the pay offset their boredom. This interface provides a new idea: let people do them until they get bored, and pay them by the piece.
If your time is truly worth more, don't do them. But there are people who will find it an interesting diver
Good idea but for work required it should pay more (Score:4, Insightful)
Not only will the work most likely be shoddy, but it seems like they are trying to replace someone else's job by using this cheap online service.
Yes, for some it may provide rewards but if you calculate the amount of time spent on each item VS. the payment reward (usually a few pennies) it is just not worth someone's free time.
Why don't they just hire a staff of people to work on these 'HITS'?
Willing to compete with the Indians? (Score:5, Insightful)
Profit? (Score:5, Interesting)
1) Use the API to find a HIT, and sign up to complete it.
2) Create a new HIT that basically asks someone to complete the first HIT,
only for $0.01 less than the original HIT was offering.
3) Do this for every existing HIT.
4) Profit?
What is your time worth? (Score:4, Insightful)
So to accomplish the 3 cent task and make your time worth it, you should spend no more than about 2 and a half seconds from the second you begin to the second you finish and get approval.
On some of the higher paying ones, oh, say $0.40 for writing a full product review, you could devote almost a full minute!
Philip K. Dick (Score:5, Interesting)
Quick -- someone patent that storyline and sue Amazon for infringement!
Re:Philip K. Dick (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Japanese manuals? (Score:4, Funny)
Keep them coming, Amazon!
Highly suspectful site. Do NOT give any detail (Score:4, Interesting)
It's registered through Godaddy.com, one of the companies spammers/phishers love to use.
It has hotmail contact addresses in whois. Impossible for a company like Amazon
No clue of such thing on official Amazon press room
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=17606
So if it looks like,acts like,runs like (amazon gigantic server farm slashdotted?) a regular phishing site, it is. Even if it made to Slashdot. I'd say pull the story until Amazon comes up with an explanation. Before any harm done.
It could be even a more "elite" hack including subdomain/DNS hacking. I am a spamcop mail customer and I see amazing things everyday.
In risk of looking very funny if it is not anything above, happily posting it.
Re:Highly suspectful site. Do NOT give any detail (Score:4, Informative)
Anyhow, I tried it. It recognised me and new my address. It's Amazon alright.
Parent
Netcraft confirms it, am I stupid or amazon.com? (Score:3, Insightful)
http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http:/
It is indeed in Amazon netblock but registering it through godaddy.com with a hotmail address... Gee, I wish I could show like 40 phishing mails I received with the same pattern.
Sadly there are many victims of phishing sites, and they get slashdotted because the database software can't handle that many requests.
I have never seen such a unserious whois from a big company like amazon. There are many registr
Re:Highly suspectful site. Do NOT give any detail (Score:3, Informative)
The link ultimately goes to:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/104-7108086-1 879910?node=15879911 [amazon.com]
Which has links back to www.mturk.com
Looks legitimate, unless someone has really managed to pull one over on Amazon (and if so, why put it on its own domain?)
Legit site. Ignore idiots. (Score:3, Informative)
To verify the legitimacy of the site, manually type "amazon.com" into your browser's location bar, and hover over the "See all 32 Product Categories" tab. When it pops up the list, click "Web Services" and read the first item listed on that page, which is a press release announcing Amazon Mechanical Turk.
For extra points, do this only a machine which has been booted from a liveCD with DNS utilities and hosts file that you have personally audited.
Or just, you know, look at the fact that the Turk will, by
Agent Smith, is that you? (Score:5, Funny)
Don't say I didn't warn you.
automating this (Score:5, Interesting)
For the image ones, couldn't you create 5 bots each with a different account and each one picks a different image and one picks None of these? One of them would be approved and you'd get paid, right?
Also if they are having humans approve your image selection before you get paid, isn't that as much effort as you making your original choice?
I think I get it... (Score:3, Funny)
We slashdotted Amazon? (Score:3, Funny)
I wonder if serving web pages counts as such a task. Because their computers sure are doing a crappy job of it at the moment.
Slahdot should use this.. (Score:4, Funny)
Employee or Lab Rat. . ? (Score:3, Interesting)
It reminds me of a little semi-scam some company had going in my town a few years back. . .
"You are invited to participate in a screen test of a new television series!"
People would go down and be a test-audience for a television pilot, and then fill out a questionnaire at the end. People, loving their TV culture, were tickled pink to be asked to do this. --Heck, they were even paid something like $15 for their participation!
So, a buddy of mine went to see what it was all about. . .
Basically, some marketing research firm had acquired the rights to an old pilot which never made it to air. They played this for people, and also played a bunch of adverts during the commercial breaks. The questionnaire asked a few boring questions about the pilot, but it also asked a curiously high number of questions about the ad spots. Stuff like, "Which of the two detergent packages in the ad did you find more appealing? The Blue or the Red?"
--Obviously the whole contrivance was designed to test market, uh, marketing.
Either way, by friend was amazed that nobody else seemed to catch on, took his fifteen bucks, and left shaking his head.
-FL
Message from Amazon Mechanical Turk Team (Score:5, Informative)