Queuebicle QBC is broken?

Is there any way to change the panda timer in QBC main settings? the default 975 ms is causing mturk to throw out the website temporarily unavailable error page. I confirmed this by turning off QBC and using Mturk suite without any issues. MTS uses 1000ms for scraper and 1250ms for panda.

 

I used to think you could change that parameter in the QBC settings tab, but found out awhile ago that the field does not allow for edits. Maybe in a different version it did, but I can't be for certain.

 

I think Chris might have fixed it in the shadows. No errors right now but the panda is significantly slower.

 

Definitely not fixed, I'm getting as many as before. Some days are bad some days are less bad.

 

This is a major issue right now. 975 is too quick. MTurk changed something a couple of months ago where you get blocked more quickly, especially with anything under 1000. Even 1000 is pushing it at this point. I suggest Chris letting us have some form of control on this number at least, because for me personally I would prefer to set it at 1200-1500. As it stands I can't even sync a week of stuff, because on day 3 amazon will temporarily ban from accessing mturk, for 3-5 minutes because of all the constant requests.

It really needs to be toned down or let us be able to edit it. I do love the tool, but it's making work very difficult right now because when I panda stuff, often I'll get this. In fact I am 100% certain Amazon has made additional changes the last 7 days where it's even more aggressive with ip banning. I think 1100 and slower is probably the "ok" area to avoid all this stuff. Safer may be 1200. I do know at 1000 on other tools I get this too, and 1100 was absolutely fine until the last 7 days, now I get them even with that.

@ChrisTurk -- maybe an update and let us control this value since Amazon are being aggressive with ip banning? Even temporary, 5 minutes of cooldown and unable to do a batch could mean a lot of lost work when it happens 2-3 times an hour.

 

We've been asking him to fix this or let us fix it for many months in the private test forum. He hasn't acknowledged one single post. Many of us have messaged him on arrowchat and in DMs. He's not responding, despite being logged into the forum a few weeks ago. I highly doubt this is going to get fixed at this point. We can all hope, but the problem started for some of us well before summer (spring for me personally) and there haven't been any updates or acknowledged messages. The issue isn't only QBC. Some non-users get the lock out on occasion, but getting it once a day or every few days is a lot different than getting locked out a dozen or more times in a few hours. Some have already cancelled QBC. Others are using an alternative during the day and still using QBC in the evening and on weekends when lockouts are less likely, but they're still happening even then. Would be great if CT decides to finally come along and fix it, but at this point, I don't think that's going to happen, sadly.

 

I just don't understand why we are locked out from changing that value. I think a few people have requested a long time ago about changing that, and he hasn't done so even though there's many updates. I'm not sure if there's a technical reason (rest of the program may not function correctly) or what, but 975 was always considered aggressive even back to when I started turking 10 years ago. Kinda wish he had a shortcut key combo he could give us if we request it so we can change that, but it's simply just locked. For me working on batches is a huge problem since 90% of my work is batches. Right now I am working on a batch with 2,000+ hits and I am 1,200 into it and have received at least 9 temporary bans. I mean don't get me wrong, the tool is amazing and it's my go to, but some options make no sense. Like the 975 panda ms, and the "20" attempts thing. Wish we could just set a timer for pandas when they create auto created that lasts for, say, 60 seconds before turning off automatically. Little QoL things like that.

 

Definitely the question pretty much everyone is asking. We're all paying for a subscription that is essentially hindering our workflow, but could also be compromising our account. I wish we could change that value and I don't understand why this level of customization is not permitted. I am 99.9% batches. I don't do a survey unless someone tells me it's free money, so at this point, QBC is completely unusable Monday-Friday from like 8am to 5pm est, when the lockouts are most prevalent for me.

 

This also has made me nervous since in the mturk terms and conditions, even though they say scripts are OK, they clearly state that botting is not and anything that excessively requests data from their server can lead to account suspension. I'm pretty sure that getting IP banned every 10 mins per hour is requesting the servers excessively, so this is potentially putting our account at risk at this point. I'm not sure why Chris has gone AWOL. Maybe real life issues? But he should post something to let us know. We are paying for a service monthly here and it's kind of important to get the service without our accounts going POOF because of a simple number that could be changed by literally 100-200 ms to make everything safe.

I get this is a protection for newbies and stuff but there should have always been an "expert user" mode where we can set the value ourselves or something. It's a pain to even load it up because when it tries to sync, that's a 100% ip ban.

I'm just not sure anymore. I have a feeling Chris maybe has just given up and abandoned us. He was super involved then July things started going downhill. Now we have a tool we pay for monthly, that at this point is actually "broken" and has been for months, and zero involvement from Chris. I don't think he's dead because he still pops on every now and then, just doesn't engage or say anything anymore.

 

I was wondering why this was happening :/ I thought it was just me.

 

Getting mTurkGrind vibes all over again. Good times!

 

The sad thing is, I know a bit about working with .net applications and I know that he used a ReadOnly tag on the WinForms textblock box. All he has to do is make it = false and not true and the ReadOnly goes away and can be edited. Obviously this is a choice he has made since the beginning to make it so people can't control that aspect. We wouldn't be in this situation if he just did that. Honestly, he could have some real life, major issues or something going on and that'd be understandable, but he should have disabled that ReadOnly part to anticipate a situation like this may develop. The tool is almost bricked right now.

I am looking at the scraper and it is SUPER aggressive with 935-950 ms. With this coupled with pandas and all sorts. Tbh I don't know how it lated this long since even 5 years ago when MTurk was more "relaxed" with lower timers, that was way above the norm. I feel like a broken record here.

Just hoping it's a real life issue and he'll be back, but looking at his activity this has been going on for almost half a year now and the last few months have been radio silence.

 

but I am here. (has nothing to do with QBC though)

Day 22: @ChrisTurk is still deaded.

 

Issues popping up again today. QBC keeps crashing. When it does stay up for a bit, it causes the temporarily unavailable message.

 

There isn't even anything to grab today and I still got throttled with the unavailable message

 

I have only had one today that I know of. 10 is terrible! It's even worse when it causes you to miss submitting a hit

 

OOPS DELETED

 

I am having tremendous QBC problems. Basically it won't load at all or get to the point it's running HITs. It crashes/errors at syncing x day/150. The Watchers tab is forever stuck on SETTING UP. I think I'm gonna stop paying. I even took a couple screenshots that are in the latest daily turking thread.