r/ProlificAc

Don’t give up! I’m back after a denied appeal and a "permanent" hold.

I wanted to share some hope for anyone who thinks their Prolific journey is over.

I was only able to use this lovely site for a couple of days before my account was suddenly put on hold, and I was devastated. Like many of you, I feel this is one of the few platforms that actually treats participants like people and pays what we deserve. I’m currently not working due to mental health reasons, and with student loans and cost-of-living expenses piling up, this site has been a vital lifeline for me—until it suddenly wasn't!

I filed an official appeal, but Prolific support actually denied it. I honestly thought I was completely done for and felt so discouraged.

My hold was triggered by too many rejections. As a newbie, I was still learning the ropes, but I have been so careful to read every instruction thoroughly. Even so, I ended up with 3 rejections against 80 approvals, which I know isn't great (and I still feel some were unfair). Even though I thought my account was gone forever, I thankfully messaged the researchers immediately before my account was put on hold—which was lucky, because the message tab disappears once you are on hold. I sent a very polite message to all of them, explaining it was an honest mistake and asking if they’d let me Return the study instead.

I didn't hear back for 20 days until one researcher finally saw my message and flipped the rejection to a 'Return.' Literally right after that happened, my account hold was lifted! I wasn't even aware until I started getting emails from Prolific again! Even though Support said no to my appeal, it seems that getting my approval rate back up fixed whatever was triggering the system hold.

I’m currently in a bit of a slow patch with studies while the system refreshes my status, but I’m just so grateful to be back.

Moral of the story: Always be kind to researchers. That one polite message literally saved my account! Has anyone else experienced a 'slow start' right after a hold was lifted? How long did it take for your dashboard to get busy again?

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u/angelflowwer — 5 hours ago

Anyone getting a 404 error on the Studies page right now?

Happened since about 11 ET - did a ton of studies and then suddenly had it happen. Can't get anything back, but can still access messages, submissions, balance, etc.

reddit.com
u/runbmb — 3 hours ago

Plz help

Hey there. I haven't had any studies show up in 4 days now. As long as I've had my account this has never happened. A human at Prolific help says my account is fine and to only be worried if this weirdness goes on for 2 months. I'm at my desktop constantly all day so I'm not missing any. HAS THIS OCCURED WITH ANYONE ELSE PLEASE?

u/Recent-Still-4422 — 13 hours ago

Has Anyone seen this yet

Insurance ad came up. I closed it thinking I clicked on something. But no, it’s an ad. I reported it.

u/No-Reserve-4247 — 6 hours ago

Quick submission problem

For the 3rd time in 2 days I am on a 1 hour cooldown due to finishing too quickly.

Have these researchers considered that some people can read quickly, and don’t need to spend 2 minutes reading 5 questions that mean the exact same thing but are worded differently?

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u/ToeSuckingFiend — 9 hours ago
🔥 Hot ▲ 53 r/ProlificAc

$16K Club! Next goal 20K. This coming August will mark two years of being a participant on Prolific.

u/imabadgu3 — 17 hours ago
🔥 Hot ▲ 183 r/ProlificAc

Reported: Daniel Ribeiro Researcher Requiring Healthcare Providers to Break HIPAA Law

I'm a mental health therapist. I've come across a couple of very concerning studies today. Researcher asks healthcare providers (therapists and psychologists,another one for legal people such as lawyers and judges, and another for doctors and nurses) to provide and discuss case information. Wants actual cases and in some cases asking for real documentation files and images stating to redact the client/patient's personal information. Asks for spreadsheets and documents for proof! Hello HIPAA anyone??

As healthcare providers we are ethically and legally obligated to protect the confidentiality of our clients/patients. We cannot discuss any part of any real case without the client/patient's permission to do so. This requires a signed release. And we certainly cannot upload any portion of any client/patient files to this platform (or any other) whether their personal information is redacted or not. We can lose our licenses to practice.

I highly recommend that Prolific be very careful with stuff like this and address this problem at the earliest convenience. I've reported these studies.

reddit.com

My experience with a study with a bad reputation

> ⚠️ Just to be clear: I’m not here to dismiss all the bad experiences other people in this subreddit have had. I just want my post to be a record of hope for those who are thinking about giving it a chance.

I saw a lot of negative posts here about Shalu Punjabi and the study titled "Keyword Collection." However, $10.50 is a lot of money in my country, and I didn’t want to waste the opportunity. I completed the study at the beginning of the month and waited for the right moment to share my final thoughts. Today, I woke up to the notification that the study had been approved and the payment had been credited to my Prolific account, so I’d like to give some honest opinions and tips based on my experience:

##Is this a scam?

Well, I never say with 100% certainty whether something online is or isn’t a scam. I prefer to check the available information, see if a company is legitimate, and decide for myself whether it’s worth it or not.

That being said, Shalu Punjabi is a real person. The company behind this study (Shaip) is also real. If you search on Google, you’ll understand how the company uses voice data for AI training. You can also find the researcher’s LinkedIn profile connected to the company, which shows that they really work there.

##Providing data

This study asks for a LOT of sensitive information and biometric data. If you’re uncomfortable sharing your exact location while using their app and using your voice to record the requested phrases, then this study probably isn’t for you.

That said, you don’t have to provide 100% of your real data. The form itself tells you not to use your real email address. I used the email addresses provided by Prolific and by the study itself in some of the registration fields inside the app.

##Unclear instructions about pronunciation and accent

I’m from Brazil, which is an extremely large country with many very distinct regional accents. The study only said they wanted native speakers living in Brazil, so I gave it a try, even though I wasn’t sure my accent was what they wanted.

During the study, they made it clear that “singing” the phrases was forbidden. That made me nervous, because I have an accent that’s known for “sounding like the person is singing". It’s hard to explain, but it really can sound melodic to non-native speakers. Anyway, I submitted my recordings and hoped for the best.

To my surprise, they accepted my naturally “melodic” way of speaking, but they rejected the way I pronounced “Hey.” Honestly, I’ve never met a Brazilian who naturally says “Hey” the same way a native English speaker would. In Portuguese, the letter H is completely silent when it appears at the beginning of words. I really wish they had made it clear from the start how they wanted that interjection pronounced, because rerecording so many audios is frustrating and a huge waste of time.

##App login credentials

Please, SAVE YOUR LOGIN CREDENTIALS!

As soon as you fill the form, a unique login and password are generated for you to use in the app you need to download. These credentials appear on the study page inside Prolific.

Obviously, the researcher doesn’t have time to review the audios before the study timer on Prolific expires, so you’re forced to mark the study as completed and hope for approval.

The problem is that the email and password created for your app access disappear as soon as you confirm the study is complete. So make sure to take a screenshot, copy them somewhere, do anything necessary so you don’t lose them. You won’t stay logged into the app forever, so if you lose the login info, r.i.p.

##How do I know if my submission was approved?

As I said before, you need to save your app login details. Inside the study’s app itself, you’ll receive notifications if your submission was accepted. If it was rejected, you can check each rejected recording individually and see the reason why. You don’t need to rerecord everything again, only the rejected audios. You can rerecord as many times as needed until all your audios are 100% accepted. Just be careful not to miss the resubmission deadline (if I remember correctly, you get up to 2 days to rerecord each rejected job after receiving the rejection notice).

They usually respond fairly quickly (around 1–2 days), so check the app daily if you’re not receiving approval or rejection notifications.

I didn’t receive a notification when my recordings were finally 100% approved, I had to check myself, so I’m not exactly sure when that happened. I only know it still took several more days to get paid even after approval.

##My conclusion

It’s a legitimate study that really does pay, but there are a lot of “gotchas,” so I’d recommend doing it carefully and cautiously to avoid frustration (and wasting a lot of time rerecording audios like I did).

u/LusterFlower — 13 hours ago

STAY AWAY FROM THIS

Says 1 min more like 10, with all the writings required. Started study thinking quick $0.5 but no that researcher will milk you. Done studies by this researcher in the past, but blocked him now.

u/Low_Entertainer4751 — 17 hours ago

Rejection

Hi everyone. I got my very first rejection back in January from researcher Carlos Cueva. I have messaged him asking if I can return the study in order to get the rejection off of my account. I got no response back in January. I recently reached out again hoping I can get this rejection off of my account and get it back in good standing. There are so many random researchers giving out unwarranted rejections and one more will place my account on hold. I know it’s been months, but is it still possible to get this rejection overturned? Does anyone have the contact information from this study or this researcher so I can further report this issue? Thanks in advance for your help!

u/MudNo528 — 1 day ago

Apparently you can get study notifications on your phone (and I don’t get why this isn’t part of the official Prolific extension??)

So yesterday on this subreddit I found a thread about an extension that sends study notifications to your phone.

Honestly, it’s been a total game changer for me and I don’t really get why it still isn’t part of the official assistant ??

Also, the extension has built-in study timer which is another thing that the official one is missing...

Grateful..and I’m just getting started

I have been a member of prolific for just a tad over a week now and this is what I’ve done so far. And most of this is just from doing the surveys that are usually only between a few minutes to 20 minutes.

I’m currently waiting on my laptop to come in the mail to do the bigger paying AI studies and such. I couldn’t be more grateful. This has paid my phone bill and like 70% of my electric bill. I’ve read a lot of good and bad things about this site but so far it’s all been pretty decent for me. The weekend was super slow, I only got maybe a small handful of surveys but that’s to be expected.

I just wanted to share and maybe motivate people that are debating on whether to join the platform or not. It could certainly be worth it.

u/prospermode — 1 day ago

Another “Finished study too fast” researcher to avoid

Name: Linnea Aandahl

Rejected for “finishing too quickly” on a 2 minute study. DM ignored

My 12th rejection in 9k submissions. Congrats to her

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u/Tmovee — 1 day ago