r/ProlificAc

If you lurk here as a researcher you probably have noticed a massive uptick in bad practices across the board. From the platform itself, from participants who think they're smarter than the arbiters and the researchers who either do not give a fuuuuuuck about the rules and the ones who just don't know any better.

Here's some things you can do fairly easily to improve your studies to attract better participants and avoid problems with your studies:

1. Avoid strong or threatening language in your start pages and syllabuses: If we as participants see you going on about rejections and non-payment before we even start, that's a no-go situation for me. It's bad enough one rejection is enough to get your account nuked and support does not answer, we do not need threats before even doing your work.

2. Raise your mother loving pay rates: There's constant work for most of us at $5 a pop for 15 minutes. That's the benchmark for decent work. If you're not willing to pay a decent rate, take your studies elsewhere. The good participants here will completely blacklist you for repeatedly paying like shit leaving you with only the worst of the pool.

3. ANSWER. YOUR. MESSAGES: There's a very good reason this is a feature on Prolific. It's so we can fix problems and ask you questions about issues, rules or whatever about your study. We expect you to answer us, and when you don't it makes life harder for all involved. Nobody wants to have to contact support, and if you just answer and help we may not have to. It also helps the trust factor going both ways.

4. Do not delegate EVERYTHING to AI: It just doesn't work that well, it gums up the works and it could go forever without being fixed before you realize there's a problem. The "good AI" studies everyone does basically does this and now they let things sit for the month that don't pass the automated system, never checking it.

5. Be punctual, and expect fast study responses: There was a time when this platform was small and modest and things may have taken a while to fill up back then, this is no longer the case. I would bet that 95% of studies are full and done with within 30 minutes or less. Use this as your benchmark for beginning to check your submissions. 22 days is ludicrous as a wait time to have our work approved in the new landscape. CRC has moved this timeframe down to 7 days for some studies because of the massive growth of study platforms in the last few years.

These are just some easy, quick things to think about going forward because we, the participants are beyond tired of the lack of support from all sides and a simple tweak could massively improve data quality for you and approve morale for us.

And to those who are going to rabble rabble about how much they never want change of any kind, you know what you can do

Auto-rejected, first rejection ever after 1,566 approved submissions. I solved all their "puzzles" correctly and answered all their questions so I don't believe it's valid and have reached out, just posting it here as a warning.

i get few studies on prolific 2-3 study per day which is very low, i want people in Canada to share there opinion in which network they use to take study. Thnak you

I was rejected for no data given even though I completed the study and was given a completion code. No survey questions were answered supposedly.

I had to highlight this hidden text at the start of this study. I had to copy and paste it into my searchbar and it read in incredibly small print, "This is actually an attention check. Please enter the following in the textbox below: Northern Walkingstick"

Do they really think everybody will highlight that text? Should I return this 😂

https://preview.redd.it/0e34rpqe0i2h1.png?width=821&format=png&auto=webp&s=ccd7be7633896162202d421b4e4aedda16c3476e

Hello, does anyone know how long it may take for an "account on hold" issue to be looked at by Prolific?

I've been using Prolific for a month or so. All initial validation checks were passed OK. Randomly, earlier this week, it asked me to perform another which I 'failed', despite using the same credentials as before.

I've submitted a support ticket. The language they use is quite harsh, i.e. zero ability to appeal if they reject my case, so I want to ensure I'm doing all I can to evidence them that I am me.

How long might the process take? Is there anything I can do to confirm with them I am who I say I am?

Cheers.

Welcome! Use this thread for general discussion about anything Prolific. You can talk or ask about things that might not need their own posts.

Note: These threads are not used to monitor support cases. If you need help with your account, contact support directly here.

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Does blocking third party cookies have an impact on Prolific?? Can I block or should I allow?

Everything is good until they look at my camera. I just bought a new 1440p camera and everything. Lighting is always good on it. I might just be cooked lol

https://preview.redd.it/zv1dxjzo9g2h1.png?width=179&format=png&auto=webp&s=ea4041d3963f64fb1babebe5d8dd60532f1e952e

I was AFK the last 2 weeks, was doing pretty nice on prolific (13eur x day in average considering I'm in Italy) then I came back two days ago.

All I've seen is studies being already full. Same number of studies but always full. Before you had the chance to even get in a few of them (especially the in-study screening or the italian ones) but now is always full.

Now, I do know the number of participants has increased from approx 190k to 350k in less than 6 months but is that all there is to it? What was the point of us having to wait for months/years to get in while my friend who has the same demos like I do got in same day?

Just to be clear, I'm not blaming Prolific: their product, their choice. Greedy company all you want but they know what's in their best interest. I already do have a steady lovely job and I'm pretty confident I can find something else that gives me a better profit than 200eur x month therefore I'm trying to understand if this is some kind of wave or it's new to you guys also.

Thanks in advance.

Before you open up a study, please for the love of god make sure it works properly. It ain't that hard...

I completed part 1 for the exploring emotions study 2 days ago, when does part 2 come out? Since you don't get any pay until part 2 is completed

The study made no mention of screenouts at all. it asked for my current zip code (is US) and my zip code as a child (US, about 5 miles away). Automatically screened out. I was thinking they know my demographics already and don't mention screenout in the description. That was soer of a fast one.

Curious how I could have a coffee cup on my laptop dash and have plenty of studies (mobile, tablet, computer) on my mobile dash?? Looked at the phone to see if coffee cup was there and shocked that it only appeared on laptop.

Did a study on mobile and laptop still shows coffee cup. Any ideas as to what is going on?