I tested out Mechanical Turk back in 2008. I think I was trying to get a YouTube video promoted on some site.
I still have some credits on the system.
I am not even sure if I could come up with a good use. For those with current usage experience, could I create in theory a task where people would look up the best sights to see in the top 10 travel destinations?
Would this be a valid use case, and how would you deal with duplicates?
If you have the credits, survey how popular it is to drink and turk. I have coworkers who think its funny and claim its popular in their younger peer group. That anecdote is not actual data. I don't know if its popular or almost unheard of. I don't know if amazon allows meta-gaming like this. Amazon does not tolerate outright identity theft (send me your SS number to verify your accuracy) but a simple question like "how many alcohol drinks have you had today" is probably anonymous enough. Amazon spends a lot on advertising, so you can see why editors would not cover this story assuming it were true (which it might not be)
Drink and Turk is a drinking game where you try to turk enough to pay for your alcohol. I've seen some non-cooperative behavior of trying to find the funniest turk so the group laughs or give the most ridiculous answer still providing payment. Most turking is pretty boring but you'd be surprised what alcohol and youth and a slightly warped mind can do. There is supposedly a weed variation on this game, you can guess its obvious single rule.
Want to cofound a bar? You get a tablet at each table, and have to earn enough credits to get the next drink. No need to pay cash, drinks will be paid right out of your turk balance.
Want another opinion on something you're thinking about?
Make a task asking people to write in their opinion.
Ask people for domain name ideas. Take two pictures of yourself, ask people which outfit looks better.
Having trouble writing something? Feeling uncreative? Ask people to come up with 3 ideas on some topic. Ask people to re-word a paragraph for you.
On thing to keep in mind is that you can ask for the same task to be done 10 times by 10 different people, and you should reward people when they put in at least a good faith effort. It's a good idea to get redundancy intentionally if the task is somewhat open-ended, as you may not get exactly what you want and want the best of the effort of a variety of people.
I still have some credits on the system.
I am not even sure if I could come up with a good use. For those with current usage experience, could I create in theory a task where people would look up the best sights to see in the top 10 travel destinations?
Would this be a valid use case, and how would you deal with duplicates?