Hi, I'm new to this. I have been youtubing information about scripts. All of the videos I have seen have showed how to add them but I am not sure how they actually work. Can anyone give me any resources on how these scripts work?
Scripts are like mini computer programs that you add to your browser to streamline working on mturk. There are a few that do different things. To install scrips you'll need a script management extension. Tampermonkey is the most popular. https://tampermonkey.net/ You add scripts to tampermonkey and can turn them on/off and edit them as needed from there. There are a few basic categories of scripts. Hit Catching: These auto refresh a link to a hit so that you can try to catch hits that you may have missed initially or catch multiple hits in a batch before that batch disappears. See this link for more info > Panda PandaCrazy is by far the most popular stand alone hit catching script https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/19168-jr-mturk-panda-crazy If you use PandaCrazy you'll also want this helper script https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/20380-jr-mturk-panda-crazy-helper There's a help page here that explains more about PandaCrazy http://pandacrazy.allbyjohn.com/ Scrapers: These search mturk on a timer to make it easier to find hits to do. The best standalone scraper right now is Hit Forker https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/36368-hit-forker You can set a timer and search filters and it will display what it finds as well as refresh on the timer. You can add requesters that you like working for to the built in Include List and it will alert you when it finds a hit by that requester. Assorted Other Scripts: Other types of scripts are usually for something specific. People have created scripts to speed up working on certain types of hits by creating hotkeys or simplifying the page layout of a hit that's designed poorly. There are too many of these to really summarize them here, since they are often specific to a particular hit. ___ One convenient way to get started is the chrome extension Mturk Suite: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mturk-suite/iglbakfobmoijpbigmlfklckogbefnlf?hl=en-US MTS combines several useful scripts together. It has its own scraper, Hit Finder, and its own hit catching script, Hit Catcher, built in.
This was very good information indeed. I am not sure if I should make a new subject for this, but I read that scripts are against Mturk's TOS. I know that everyone uses them, but I have been weary about getting them in "fear" of getting my account taken away. So, are scripts ok for the most part?
Scripts in general are okay. They are not okay if they completely automate a hit; as in doing it for you with no need for any input from you. There is also debate on if auto-submit scripts are against TOS. There is usually a toggle you have to turn on in scripts that offer that feature.
Gotcha, that is what I thought. if I were to get a script to only notify me when a specific requester posts a hit then that should be ok?
yeah, a lot of us already have this on board in the form of pushbullet interacting with something like hitfinder
I know this post is a few years old but I'm basically new to Turkerview and I havnt been here in a while and I opened an account here a few years ago. Not much activity since I opened it. I really just wanted to say that I was wondering this same question. Has anything new changed since 2018? Just if anyone sees this no biggie. Thanks for all the help here. You guys are awesome. I've been a turker since 2020.
Great explanations here, I'm seeing some questions regarding if they are allowed, so may I present: https://www.mturk.com/acceptable-use-policy My interpretation: as long as you use scripts to *find* HITs, not *complete* HITs, you're ok. You can even use tools like Queuebicle or Guru to auto-accept HITs, which I highly recommend BTW.
