Docs/Deployment

Crowdsourcing Integration

Integrate with Prolific, MTurk, and other crowdsourcing platforms.

Crowdsourcing Integration

Potato integrates seamlessly with crowdsourcing platforms like Prolific and Amazon Mechanical Turk for large-scale annotation tasks.

Prolific Integration

Basic Setup

crowdsourcing:
  platform: prolific
  enabled: true
  completion_code: "POTATO2024"  # Code shown on completion

URL Parameters

Prolific passes participant info via URL parameters:

crowdsourcing:
  platform: prolific
  url_params:
    - PROLIFIC_PID    # Participant ID
    - STUDY_ID        # Study ID
    - SESSION_ID      # Session ID

Workers access via:

https://your-server.com/?PROLIFIC_PID=xxx&STUDY_ID=xxx&SESSION_ID=xxx

Prolific Configuration

In your Prolific study settings:

Set Study URL to your Potato server
Add URL parameters: ?PROLIFIC_PID={{%PROLIFIC_PID%}}&STUDY_ID={{%STUDY_ID%}}&SESSION_ID={{%SESSION_ID%}}
Set Completion code to match your config

Validation

Verify Prolific participants:

crowdsourcing:
  platform: prolific
  validate_participant: true
  completion_code: "POTATO2024"

Amazon MTurk Integration

Basic Setup

crowdsourcing:
  platform: mturk
  enabled: true

HIT Configuration

Create an External Question HIT pointing to your server:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ExternalQuestion xmlns="http://mechanicalturk.amazonaws.com/AWSMechanicalTurkDataSchemas/2006-07-14/ExternalQuestion.xsd">
  <ExternalURL>https://your-server.com/?workerId=${workerId}&amp;assignmentId=${assignmentId}&amp;hitId=${hitId}</ExternalURL>
  <FrameHeight>800</FrameHeight>
</ExternalQuestion>

URL Parameters

crowdsourcing:
  platform: mturk
  url_params:
    - workerId
    - assignmentId
    - hitId

Sandbox Testing

Test with MTurk Sandbox first:

crowdsourcing:
  platform: mturk
  sandbox: true  # Use sandbox environment

Worker Management

Track Workers

crowdsourcing:
  track_workers: true
  worker_id_field: worker_id

Limit Instances Per Worker

instances_per_annotator: 50

Block Returning Workers

Prevent workers from retaking the task:

crowdsourcing:
  prevent_retakes: true

Quality Control

Attention Checks

Insert test questions:

attention_checks:
  enabled: true
  frequency: 10  # Every 10 instances
  fail_threshold: 2
  action: warn  # or 'block'

Gold Standard Questions

{
  "id": "gold_1",
  "text": "The sky is typically blue during a clear day.",
  "gold_label": "True",
  "is_gold": true
}

quality_control:
  gold_questions: true
  gold_percentage: 10  # 10% of instances
  min_gold_accuracy: 70

Time Limits

crowdsourcing:
  min_time_per_instance: 5  # seconds
  max_time_total: 3600  # 1 hour

Reject Low-Quality Work

quality_control:
  auto_reject:
    enabled: true
    conditions:
      - gold_accuracy_below: 50
      - completion_time_under: 300  # seconds

Completion Handling

Show Completion Code

completion:
  show_code: true
  code: "POTATO2024"
  message: "Thank you! Your completion code is: {code}"

Redirect on Completion

completion:
  redirect: true
  redirect_url: "https://prolific.co/submissions/complete?cc={code}"

Custom Completion Page

completion:
  custom_template: templates/completion.html

Payment Tiers

Based on Quality

payment:
  tiers:
    - name: bonus
      condition:
        gold_accuracy_above: 90
      amount: 0.50
    - name: standard
      condition:
        gold_accuracy_above: 70
      amount: 0.00
    - name: reject
      condition:
        gold_accuracy_below: 50

Full Example: Prolific Study

task_name: "Sentiment Analysis Study"
 
# Crowdsourcing settings
crowdsourcing:
  platform: prolific
  enabled: true
  completion_code: "SENT2024"
  url_params:
    - PROLIFIC_PID
    - STUDY_ID
    - SESSION_ID
  prevent_retakes: true
 
# Open access for crowdworkers
allow_all_users: true
 
# Task assignment
instances_per_annotator: 50
annotation_per_instance: 3
 
# Quality control
attention_checks:
  enabled: true
  frequency: 10
  fail_threshold: 2
 
quality_control:
  gold_questions: true
  gold_percentage: 5
  min_gold_accuracy: 70
 
# Data
data_files:
  - path: data/main.json
    text_field: text
 
# Annotation scheme
annotation_schemes:
  - annotation_type: radio
    name: sentiment
    description: "What is the sentiment?"
    labels:
      - Positive
      - Negative
      - Neutral
    keyboard_shortcuts:
      Positive: "1"
      Negative: "2"
      Neutral: "3"
 
# Completion
completion:
  show_code: true
  code: "SENT2024"
  message: |
    ## Thank you for participating!
 
    Your completion code is: **{code}**
 
    Please return to Prolific and enter this code to receive payment.

Full Example: MTurk HIT

task_name: "Image Classification HIT"
 
crowdsourcing:
  platform: mturk
  enabled: true
  url_params:
    - workerId
    - assignmentId
    - hitId
 
allow_all_users: true
instances_per_annotator: 20
 
# Time constraints
crowdsourcing:
  min_time_per_instance: 3
  max_time_total: 1800
 
# MTurk form submission
completion:
  mturk_submit: true
  submit_url: "https://www.mturk.com/mturk/externalSubmit"
 
annotation_schemes:
  - annotation_type: radio
    name: category
    description: "What is shown in this image?"
    labels:
      - Cat
      - Dog
      - Bird
      - Other

Monitoring Workers

Admin Dashboard

admin_users:
  - researcher@university.edu
 
admin_dashboard:
  enabled: true
  show_worker_stats: true

View at /admin to see:

Worker completion rates
Average time per instance
Gold accuracy scores
Attention check results

Export Worker Data

potato export-workers config.yaml --output workers.csv

Best Practices

Test thoroughly - Run pilot with small group first
Set fair pay - Calculate estimated time and pay fairly
Clear instructions - Include examples and edge cases
Use attention checks - Catch random clicking
Include gold questions - Verify understanding
Monitor in real-time - Watch for issues early
Plan for rejection - Set clear quality criteria upfront
Communicate issues - Contact workers about problems
Iterate on feedback - Improve based on worker comments
Export data regularly - Don't wait until the end

PreviousProduction Setup