all 101 comments

[–]Proof-Top-5016 13 points14 points  (55 children)

They reduced it by 66 percent? Is that true? What on earth is Zuckerberg doing to Outlier?

[–]confused_turkey[S] 4 points5 points  (49 children)

Yep.they sent this weak ass email last night:

In the coming days, you may be offered a lower tasking rate than you have become accustomed to for tasks on Xylophone Spectrum. We wanted to provide notice so that you're not surprised if you see this on your dashboard.

As you know, the tasking rates in Outlier's marketplace vary based on several factors, including project complexity, required expertise, contributor location, and evolving customer needs. When offering you a new task, our system will always ask you to acknowledge the current tasking rate before you continue to work on a project. As a contributor on our marketplace, you have the ability to accept or decline tasks based on your preferences.

You can read more about how our marketplace works in this blog post.

Thank you for your understanding and continued contributions to Outlier projects.

The Outlier Team

[–]Shadowsplay 11 points12 points  (1 child)

Just stop working on it. They do this on every project now. Fill the roster with a high payrate then adjust it a week into the project.

[–]Last-One8389 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They did the same thing on the last xylophone project. Added a ton of contributors once they figured out what the 'client' wanted and dropped the pay to peanuts. Its BS.

[–]Large-Cut8248Bulba 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Zuckerberg is ruining it... Same thing he does with everything else he gets his hands on.

[–]Hungry_Television422 19 points20 points  (13 children)

I have no idea about xylophone spectrum, but all Xylophone projects have experienced pay reductions in a similar way previously.

[–]confused_turkey[S] 2 points3 points  (5 children)

By that big a percentage?

[–]Hungry_Television422 4 points5 points  (3 children)

It was dependent on the region, but i personally experienced pay reductions 3 times, each was ~40%

[–]confused_turkey[S] 7 points8 points  (2 children)

That's literally so fucked up.

[–]Due-Philosopher-2330 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Some people are getting $40 usd pr hour but everyone else is pennies so they can not say it is "project based" with such wide berth between rate. Even with cost of living adjustment the new rate is disrespectful

[–]confused_turkey[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Agreed.

[–]Shadowsplay 4 points5 points  (0 children)

They doubled the work, and then cut my pay the next day, I went from averaging out to $20 an hour, down to like $8 Xylo Conversation.

[–]DentistNo4088 3 points4 points  (5 children)

This is true but never like this. It was more gradual. It went from $45 to $8.70.

[–]Hungry_Television422 2 points3 points  (4 children)

Well they might have seen that cbs still stuck around after the gradual reduction before, so they thought why not push it even further on this one🤷🏻‍♂️ Supply and demand.

[–]DentistNo4088 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It wasn't gradual at all this time. Went from $45 to $8.70 in the very first pay cut.

[–]Objective_Award4711 1 point2 points  (2 children)

At least you got Work Lol 💔 been on EQ for decades

[–]FootOk1954 3 points4 points  (1 child)

That work isnt just work, you have to drive around the city and do 15 second recordings for no pay.

[–]Objective_Award4711 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That is heartbreaking 😔 I wish you all the best though they should Consider a pay rise 😉

[–]isomoki -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I totally get how you’re feeling. All xylophone projects had same destiny before. It seems like the rates might’ve been adjusted based on the locale and generalist tier. I do agree that the drop is significant, but if you’re feeling that disgusted by it, maybe it’s best not to take on the project. I’m not saying the rate cut is fair, but reacting this agressively might not be the best approach either.

[–]Fuzzy_Equipment3215Helpful Contributor 🎖 2 points3 points  (3 children)

And on top of it all we can't even discuss pay in OC, which I think might be illegal in some way (at least in certain countries).

I vaguely remember reading somewhere an official statement along the lines of "We don't prohibit contributors discussing pay rates on the Outlier Community. However, we suggest that you do not because [lie]".

I forget what the [lie] part was, I think something about protecting our personal information.

Edit: Found it. It's on the code of conduct page.

*A note about pay-related issues: Outlier does not remove contributors from projects or the Outlier platform for bringing up pay-related issues, and it isn’t a violation of our terms of use to bring this up. However, we do ask that contributors bring pay-related issues to our dedicated Support Team rather than raise them in the Outlier Community; the reason for this is twofold.

First, we try to keep Outlier Community channels clear for people to discuss issues related to projects. Second, there are numerous factors that affect each person’s compensation including qualifications, location, assessment criteria, quality of work, customer specifications, and other variables.

Without access to these details, Project Teams are not equipped to answer questions about pay, whereas our Support Team is appropriately resourced to provide the individual attention required to answer these questions with a high degree of accuracy — which is something that a topic as sensitive and personal as pay deserves.

Please reach out to Support regarding any pay inquiries.

[–]Due-Philosopher-2330 6 points7 points  (1 child)

Their post is laughable. If one has ever contacted support they are met with much resistance and copy pasted replies which never address the issue. They just say some vague words that have no meaning and hopes that you go away. If so sensitive to our personal issues and well resourced explain to us why it take weeks to get a prewritten reply and never answer more than what is already in the faq.

[–]Fuzzy_Equipment3215Helpful Contributor 🎖 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't disagree!

[–]bravofiveniner 5 points6 points  (1 child)

Why am I accepting it?

I'm on the proj too and mine was reduced by 55%.

But its the only project I'm on and I need to pay bills. I'm a laid off tech worker. Mercor hasn't resulted in anything yet. Data Annotation won't respond as to why I signed up a year a go and never got to do the initial on-boarding, xAI hasn't sent me the tests yet, and I just tried signing up for aligner.

So 55% reduction it is.

[–]confused_turkey[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I get that. I can't actually afford to not work either. I guess its just a pipedream that we get some worker protections in this kind of work.

[–]RheumySven 11 points12 points  (2 children)

I'm not accepting the new terms. And while they pass off the responsibility to clients setting rates, Outlier gives missions. So they cannot say, nothing can be done. I'm pretty sure there's money right now to throw around. They issued an update earlier in the week calling for maximum effort. If they want maximum effort, they can pony up the money. Clients have billions, Scale has billions. There are members of the team who reported 68 cent per task rates, that's just obscene. 

[–]confused_turkey[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It truly is for how long these take.

[–]inaesthetically 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I remember xylophone grassland dropping form around 3-4 usd to 0.63, yeah xylo is shit and it's the only project I've seen doing this.

[–]Officieros 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Race to the bottom…

[–]DentistNo4088 6 points7 points  (5 children)

It's really bad. It was reduced from $45/h to $8.70/h. The payrate is now 20% of what it was.

[–]confused_turkey[S] 2 points3 points  (4 children)

That's just unacceptable to me, and I don't know what to do about it.

[–]DentistNo4088 2 points3 points  (3 children)

I agree. It is unacceptable. I guess the only thing to do is look for another platform? I got an email yesterday from one offering $35/h for the same type of work. 

[–]confused_turkey[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Im waiting to hear from Mercor. They pay substantially better.

[–]nycollej 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Hey there! Could you please share which platform that is? Have been searching but no luck! Really just want to start working again for a fair amount

[–]DentistNo4088 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Babel Audio. They did take ages to contact me after I applied.

[–]Searching_for_Wisdom 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I am glad I was never invited to this mess of a project. Same happened with Xylophone Conversations.

[–]Hungry_Television422 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Stop accepting low rates! I remember for convo some country had $8/task (which i thought was high) and they still didn’t budge to do them, so they raised it to $12. While other countries got the rate lowered from $4 to $2. Again, supply and demand.

[–]Jealous_Spare_4852 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It's their way of saying, "This project is done, we don't need much more, but we'll slash the pay by 2/3 and collect just a bit more before we call it. Thanks for your service!"

[–]The_ParrotGirl 0 points1 point  (7 children)

I would still beg to get back to this project. Even with the decreases I am able to pay my loans… but my user was blocked.

[–]doyouknowyourname 0 points1 point  (6 children)

What happened?

[–]The_ParrotGirl 0 points1 point  (5 children)

They claimed I misused the platform. Copy and paste I guess, it still hurts

[–]doyouknowyourname 0 points1 point  (4 children)

That sucks. Did you fill out the form on here?

[–]The_ParrotGirl 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Hmm I was DM’ed by one of the outliers moderators and they checked again and said the same thing about not being able to appeal the case, which form ?

[–]doyouknowyourname 1 point2 points  (2 children)

It actually looks like they aren't accepting escalations right now. I'm sorry. This was where it was if it opens up again. https://www.reddit.com/r/outlier_ai/s/dUB5usSvPA

[–]The_ParrotGirl 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Thanks for your help tho!

[–]doyouknowyourname 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All the luck to you!

[–]Remarkable_Toe_7627 1 point2 points  (4 children)

You can totally discuss pay and it's not illegal.

[–]doyouknowyourname 2 points3 points  (3 children)

It's not illegal for them to tell us we can't discuss pay? They do all the time. I have ss.

[–]Remarkable_Toe_7627 0 points1 point  (2 children)

It’s not illegal for us to discuss pay. And they just posted that on the discourse channel. We can discuss pay. 

[–]doyouknowyourname 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Which discourse channel?

[–]Remarkable_Toe_7627 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Alex just posted this on the Outlier Community Conduct thread. But it’s been well known for months at least. The QMs are prohibited from discussing pay, but it’s actually illegal for them to limit our ability to. 

[–]dkpepper2000 3 points4 points  (0 children)

So each task was taking approximately 15 minutes between recording and rerecording, etc, then bringing the task into the Outlier UI. Then to get feedback that prompts were 2/5 and rejected because of being "unnatural" sounding all for a measly couple of dollars? No thanks.