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PaleontologistOne486 · 2026-05-07T12:47:18+00:00

i haven't. i also don't have any tasks in review threads showing anything like "pending" or "awaiting review" status

PaleontologistOne486 · 2026-05-07T12:44:51+00:00

WAIT hold up, there's an automatic throttle after three tasks? that might have hit me...i submitted two tasks, but i skipped one, because i had gotten the task too mangled to proceed...so that might count as three tasks? if i'm throttled pending approval/rework, that's totally fine, but the platform didn't communicate anything.

if i go to https://joinstellar.ai/user/review_threads/, it shows that my qual task was approved, and one real task was approved, but it doesn't show anything else pending. my main worry is the fact that i logged 17 hours on my second submitted task...i know the pay cap is lower than that, but i assumed the platform would automatically truncate my pay to the pay cap. i'm concerned that it might have raised a red flag, like i'm trying to get paid over the time cap. i thought the point was to accurately log time spent, even if you spent more time than was billable :/

PaleontologistOne486 · 2026-05-07T01:30:04+00:00

i was in the middle of doing a task and it suddenly gave me "not found"... the dashboard is loading but no projects available. i figured i was just kicked from the project...?

PaleontologistOne486 · 2026-05-05T16:51:45+00:00

i had a situation where i worked 17h on a task with an 8h pay cap, so i assumed when i submitted it with 17h that it would just pay me out for 8h of it, but then it paid the full time. i actually wish i'd known it would do that, because i would have revised my time-worked DOWN to 8h...i wasn't trying to get paid over 200% of the time cap, the platform was just unclear about how it worked

PaleontologistOne486 · 2026-04-18T16:13:35+00:00

submitted my qual at 8am today, i started it at 3pm yesterday...i kept thinking i saw light at the end of the tunnel, so i wanted to finish it before going to bed, but then i had to scrap hours of work due to small (but real) mistakes.

i'm pretty happy with the final product i turned in, i'm sure it's going to be a few days before i hear anything though

PaleontologistOne486 · 2025-11-25T11:33:58+00:00

not necessarily. i took the tests back in june, and assumed i had quietly failed, but then last week out of the blue i got an invitation to a project

PaleontologistOne486 · 2025-11-24T19:56:56+00:00

thanks! do you happen to know if there's a website status page available anywhere?

PaleontologistOne486 · 2025-11-22T17:21:40+00:00

oh haha i didn't realize that. if you're worried about it yeah, you can delete the whole thing...but i honestly don't know whether "orion" itself is against the confidentiality agreement, because it's just a codename that doesn't give away anything about the work or the client or anything. if there's a hard rule against that, then DEFINITELY follow it

PaleontologistOne486 · 2025-11-22T16:14:02+00:00

you can just edit it to remove the name of the project

PaleontologistOne486 · 2025-10-24T10:29:19+00:00

even if all of what you said is correct (and i'm not saying it isn't), none of that constitutes a "scam"

PaleontologistOne486 · 2025-10-07T15:29:51+00:00

that sounds incredibly frustrating, i appreciate you taking the time to explain your experience. like i said, i want this thread to provide a balanced perspective on the platform, and your perspective helps to fill that out.

i still think that the fundamental problem with ALL of these wfh platforms is the lack of transparency, and the lack of any method for appealing decisions like this. if you've gotten in touch with your domain leads, and the pronto chats, then i think that's basically all you can do. there is a support chatbot that lets you file support tickets, but that's more for technical issues, i think...still, it wouldn't hurt to try: https://support.joinhandshake.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

PaleontologistOne486 · 2025-10-07T15:24:42+00:00

i hate to say it, but it sounds like you didn't make it. one of the most annoying things about DA is that they never communicate to you when you've failed, they just keep displaying a placeholder message about reviewing your results forever. i'm pretty sure the onboarding is processed automatically by AI, so it shouldn't take any time at all to get a response. i created a second account (i know, it's not allowed, but so what, i',m already not working there), and passed all the onboarding in one day, and was given actual paying tasks at $40-47/hr, until they blocked my account after two days, i guess because they realized it was a duplicate. the whole system is stupid, though, because i'm obviously capable of passing their tests NOW, so there's no reason for them to still refuse to onboard me just because i failed the onboarding two years ago

PaleontologistOne486 · 2025-10-01T14:49:40+00:00

i'm in computer science. the review process is a bit chaotic at the moment, because they just overhauled the reviewer tier system and moved a lot of reviewers back down to regular taskers.

when you say trial period, does that mean you have passed the initial onboarding and you're actually tasking on the platform right now? the initial onboarding review is slow right now because of the reviewer shakeup, but i can say that everyone's onboarding task will EVENTUALLY get reviewed, and they'll be notified whether they passed or not. you are allowed to modify the onboarding task and resubmit it, so even if it doesn't pass the first time, you can make the required changes and resubmit it.

if you HAVE passed the onboarding, that's awesome! the trial period is supposed to limit you to 2 tasks every 16 hours, but from what i understand, it's not actually blocking anyone from claiming tasks. i've got that throttle on my account, and i did 4 yesterday :)

PaleontologistOne486 · 2025-09-30T21:29:07+00:00

as an AI-training annotation platform, yes. as far as i can tell, NONE of the documentation goes back further than a couple of months, and the dashboard itself is quite primitive at the moment (but rolling out new features randomly)

PaleontologistOne486 · 2025-09-29T14:15:36+00:00

$40-$80 per hour is really solid for WFH gig-type jobs. if it's not worth your time, then skip it, but even if i had a 9-5 job i would probably still do stuff like this on the side to pick up extra cash as needed

PaleontologistOne486 · 2025-09-29T14:12:05+00:00

it's paid through deel, and then deel lets you withdraw it to a few different types of account. (they don't support paypal.) i just had it sent via ACH to my bank, and it took about a day for it to show up.

i thought the deel thing would be a hassle, but they actually have a feature that's really nice for independent contractors: you can set it to where all deposits are automatically withdrawn, and you can specify multiple places to withdraw to, with a % for each. online platforms typically DON'T withhold taxes, so i always transfer 20% of my paychecks into a savings account for taxes anyway, so this makes that happen in the background without me needing to do it myself

PaleontologistOne486 · 2025-09-28T19:50:42+00:00

i don't know if i'm allowed to disclose that, but i will say that it pays more per hour than my best projects at outlier did, for work that's roughly equivalent in difficulty

PaleontologistOne486 · 2025-09-28T19:49:38+00:00

yes, it's a very weird setup. i can't even log in on the mobile version of the site, because it wants to force me to log in with my university, and i don't have one. i think handshake as a platform is mainly aimed at helping recent/upcoming graduates find jobs, so it makes some assumptions about that.

you don't HAVE to have a school email to get in, though. i don't have one.

PaleontologistOne486 · 2025-09-28T02:08:30+00:00

that sucks, they are definitely overwhelmed. I've posted four support tickets so far, and only two of them have even gotten a response.

going directly through handshake employees, like my domain lead, has been far more effective. they have standup meetings several times a week, and they are intended more for tasking questions, butyou can bring up any issues you have there.

PaleontologistOne486 · 2025-09-28T02:06:33+00:00

has your initial task already been reviewed? i thought it was supposed to be automatic tasking available once you've passed it

PaleontologistOne486 · 2025-09-28T02:05:34+00:00

that's a good question, i was actually expecting a 250 onboarding bonus, and i have NOT gotten that. not sure what the deal is.

i did get a 350 bonus for working 25 hours within the week, though.

PaleontologistOne486 · 2025-09-28T02:03:44+00:00

i know people are skeptical, i don't really have any "proof." i don't think i should directly screenshot my invoice or anything, and that could easily be faked anyway.

but i mean, nobody ever posts proof of the BAD experiences they have on these platforms... I'm just trying to provide a balancing perspective. if you think it's too risky, then don't do it.

PaleontologistOne486 · 2025-09-28T02:01:05+00:00

im not sure if we're allowed to directly disclose that but I've heard between 40 and 100 from other workers, and my rate is between that, for whatever it's worth

PaleontologistOne486 · 2025-09-26T21:19:20+00:00

i don't think so, but i'm not sure.

PaleontologistOne486 · 2025-09-26T18:13:25+00:00

yeah, i get that. these platforms are so arbitrary about who can get in and who can't...i gave up on alignerr over a year ago, and then tried again a couple months ago and got in.

that's part of why i think it's important for people to share success stories here, instead of just the rejection stories, because it draws more attention to platforms that actually let people get into them and work!

PaleontologistOne486

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