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PandaUI Options

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John Ramirez edited this page Jan 3, 2021 · 11 revisions

PandaUI - Options

  • There are 3 options in the options sub menu at the top of the page. General options deal with basic functions of the script. Timer options deal with the timer that grabs the MTURK pages looking for HITs. Alarm Options deal with what alarms are being sounded and when they sound. You can read about the options set for panda jobs too here.

Option Details: [General Options] [Timer Options] [Alarms Options] [Panda Job Options]







[General Options]

These options deal with how the extension operates and looks on this page.

  • [Show Help Tooltips] - Shows helpful tooltips for most buttons, stats and important data. Set this to FALSE if you don't need the help from tooltips anymore. There will be some tooltips which will always show for data info to help the user.
  • [Disable Queue Watch Color Alert] - Set this to TRUE if you do not want the background color to change in the queue alert when a HIT is close to expiring.
  • [Disable Queue Watch Alarm] - Set this to TRUE if you do not want the alarm to sound when a HIT is close to expiring.
  • [Disable Desktop Notifications] - Set this to TRUE if you do not want to have notifications shown on your desktop when important events happen in the extension.
  • [Show Fetch Highlighter on Group ID] - Set this to FALSE if you do not like the highlighter on the group ID of each job that gets fetched. This was added so users can see how the extension fetches each job individually but some may not like the blinking highlighting.
  • [Search Job Buttons Create Search Triggers] - Set this to TRUE if you rather have search triggers created when external search buttons are clicked instead of a search job.
  • [Disable Captcha Alert] - Set this to TRUE if you don't get captcha's anymore or if you don't need an alert for it anymore.
  • [Show Captcha Counter Text] - Set this to FALSE if you don't need to see the captcha count in the bottom tab area because you don't get captcha's or just don't need it.
  • [Captcha Shown After #HITs] - Set the number of HITs that you normally will see a captcha so you can predict your next captcha. This is only useful if you have the captcha counter text shown.







[Timer Options]

These options change the way the timer works when fetching panda links from MTURK.

  • [Main Timer] - This timer is used as the main time duration for fetching panda URLs. The default value is set at 1000 milliseconds which is about 1 second. Every 1 second it will go to a panda URL of one of the jobs being collected. Each panda job takes turns with the timer so all jobs will be checked. The more jobs you have collecting the longer each job will have a chance to fetch a panda URL and less of a chance of accepting a HIT. If you see the PRE value at the top rising quickly then you might have another script running at the same time. Try to find the right timer value for each script so the PRE will stay at 0. The minimum value is 750ms but that will cause more PRE's.
  • [Timer #2] - This second timer is used when you click on the 2 button in the top menu area. This is so you can quickly change the timer when you are having more PRE's. The default value is set at 1400 milliseconds but can be set to anything else above 750ms. It's best to set this higher than the main timer.
  • [Timer #3] - This third timer is used when you click on the 3 button in the top menu area. This is so you can quickly change the timer when you are having more PRE's. The default value is set at 2100 milliseconds but can be set to anything else above 750ms. It's best to set this higher than the second timer.
  • [GoHam Timer] - This is the timer which will be used when the extension goes into GoHam mode for a panda job. When a panda job goes into GoHam mode it will disable all other jobs and then set the main timer used to this value. MTURK has a small time frame that can be used for panda links which won't cause more PRE's. The default value is set at 900ms which seems to work fine for a short time. I wouldn't recommend to lower this value too much but the minimum is limited to 750ms.
  • [Default GoHam Timer Delay (seconds)] - This is the amount of seconds used for any new panda jobs when going into GoHam mode automatically for GoHam delayed mode. This shouldn't be set for too long so it doesn't cause PRE problems. The default is set to 6 seconds but can be changed if needed.
  • [Search Timer] - This is the timer value that search jobs and search triggers will use when checking the MTURK search page. It will check the MTURK search page every time this timer is elapsed. Search PRE's are shared with any other script that uses the MTURK search page as well. So if you are using other scripts then be sure to set this value higher or you might get a lot of PRE's. The more PRE's you get the less chance at grabbing a HIT as quickly as you like. Making this value too low could cause problems with MTURK not liking their servers to be bombarded so fast. The minimum limit is set at 750ms.
  • [Check Queue Every] - This value is the timer value for checking the queue on MTURK. This is used for the Queue Watch on the bottom which helps with any limits you placed on your panda jobs. The default is set at 2000 milliseconds which is about 2 seconds. This seems to be good enough time to keep up with all the HITs you will need to keep track of. The extension tries to detect when you accept, submit or return any HITs so it keeps your queue fresh in memory without having to check it very often. You may change this value higher or lower according to your experience.
  • [Timer Increase By] - This value is the amount of milliseconds you want added to the timer when you click on the increase by button in the timer submenu. This helps when you are receiving many PRE's at once. You may never use this because using the 3 timer buttons at the top menu is a lot better but is kept from when things were very different on MTURK.
  • [Timer Decrease By] - This value is the amount of milliseconds you want removed from the timer when you click on the decrease by button in the timer submenu. This helps when you were receiving many PRE's at once but are not anymore. You may never use this because using the 3 timer buttons at the top menu is a lot better or using the Reset Timer button but is kept from when things were very different on MTURK.
  • [Timer Add Timer By] - This value is the amount of milliseconds you want added from the timer when you click on the Add ms to timer button in the timer submenu. This helps when you are receiving many PRE's at once and need a big boost. You may never use this because using the 3 timer buttons at the top menu is a lot better or using the Reset Timer button but is kept from when things were very different on MTURK.
  • [Default Search Panda Durations] - This value is the default duration for a GID search job to check for any HITs available using a panda link before it starts to use the MTURK search page. This is only used for search jobs right now but may be used for search triggers in a future update. This will allow the extension to catch a HIT if it was dropped awhile ago and is not on the MTURK search page anymore. By default it is set at 12 seconds to give enough time to check for any HITs available but may be changed.







[Alarm Options]

Here is where you can change the alarm sounds to a sound that you would more prefer. You can also change when an alarm will play for a specific pay rate or time allocated on a HIT. Mute button will stop the alarm from playing. TTS button will use a computerized voice to speak a default phrase instead of the alarm. The Change button will let you select any sound file on your computer to replace the alarm sound. Click on the Browse button to select the file and if it plays then you can click the Save Audio button. The change button also allows you to change the alarm back to the default sound by clicking on the Default Audio button. You may also change the computerized voice which is used to something else on the bottom.

  • [Hits Paying less than Alarms] - There are three different alarms set to play when a HIT is accepted for various levels of payment. The default prices are at $0.02, $0.05 and $0.15. You may change the pay amounts to different values by clicking on the price. Use the change button to select another sound file on your computer to play.
  • [Hits Paying less than With Short Timer Alarms] - These three different alarms are used for short alloted time HITs. They are used to get your attention so you do those HITs first before they expire. The default times are 2, 5 and 8 minutes. The price should be the same as the alarm above it so they both work as a pair.
  • [Hits Paying MORE than Alarm] - This alarm is used higher paying HITs so it gets your attention and you can get excited for a higher paying HIT. The default price is set at $0.15 but you can change it to a higher value if you would like. I used a longer and exciting sound so I know something good might be waiting for me.
  • [Full Queue Alarm] - When your queue is full this alarm will sound so you know you better start submitting HITs quickly or you might miss other HITs.
  • [Low Timed HITs Alarm] - This plays when a HIT in your queue is very close to being expired. I made this alarm to be weird and annoying to grab your attention. The default time is 4 minutes but you change it to be lower or higher depending on your experience.
  • [Logged out Alarm] - This alarm will sound when the extension detects that you are logged out of MTURK. I made this sound to be loud and annoying so you can log yourself back in and get more HITs. The extension will pause itself when it is logged off so it's doing nothing at that time.
  • [Captcha Alert] - This alarm is for people who get captcha's after a certain amount of HITs. Be sure to fill out the captcha so you can keep on working.







[Panda Job Options]

These are all the options that can be changed for the panda jobs to limit how many HITs it accepts or how long it stays on. You can also change the requester name and title to something else.

  • [Limit # of GroupID in queue] - This option will limit the number of HITs it will accept depending on how many HITs with the group ID are in your queue. Many requesters will post a big batch of HITs with a low time allotted. If the extension allows it to accept 25 HITs to fill up your queue then you might not have time to finish all of them. This option will limit the amount of HITs in your queue so you can finish them accurately or allow other HITs to be accepted which may have a better pay rate. If this is a search job or trigger then any panda job created will have this limit automatically set to this value.
  • [Limit # of total HITs in queue] - This option will limit the number of HITs allowed in your queue before accepting any more HITs from this panda or search job. This option doesn't care about the group ID of any HITs in your queue. This is useful for HITs which may not be the best paying but if your queue has a couple of HITs then a low paying HIT is better than nothing. If this is a search job or trigger then any panda job created will have this limit automatically set to this value.
  • [Accept Only Once] - This option will limit the number of accepted HITs to only one and then stop the job from collecting anymore. If you submit that one HIT and you would like more then just start collecting again and it will accept one more HIT. This is mostly used for surveys where you can only do one HIT. If this is a search job then any panda job created will have this limit automatically set to this value. For search triggers this option is used a bit differently.
  • [Daily Accepted HIT limit] - This option will limit the number of accepted HITs for each day to this value. If you reach the daily limit then it will stop collecting. Once it stops it will not start collecting again until you tell it to on the next day. If you want to collect more on the same day then you must set this value to 0 or set it to a higher value.
  • [Stop Collecting After (minutes)] - This option will stop collecting any more HITs after the specified minutes. This is useful for a HIT that usually drop at a specific time but after so having it collecting all day would be useless. Panda jobs that are created by search jobs or trigger uses this option temporarily so it doesn't use a valuable panda job spot when a search job or trigger is more useful for this HIT.
  • [Stop Collecting After # of Fetches] - This option is new for this extension. Instead of using a set amount of time it will use the number of fetches it has tried before it will stop. If you have 5 panda jobs collecting then in 1 minute this panda job will have fetched 12 times but you might not think that is good enough and want to give a better chance at collecting a HIT. You can set this option to 60 so you can be sure it tried the panda link 60 times no matter how many panda jobs you have collecting.
  • [Force Delayed Ham on Collect] - This option will force a panda job to go into Delayed Ham mode whenever it starts to collect manually or automatically. Delayed Ham mode will go into Ham mode only when it has accepted a HIT and then will stay in that mode until the Delayed Ham duration below is met. If it accepts another HIT then it will reset the time for duration. When it accepts no more HITs for the duration set then it will go back into Delayed Ham mode for the next time it accepts a HIT.
  • [Force Delayed Ham Duration (seconds)] - This duration is the amount of time in seconds for the Delayed Ham mode to use when it finds a HIT. Once there are no more HITs found after this duration it will turn off Ham mode and go back into Delayed Ham mode.
  • [Friendly Requester Name] - This is used for the requester name displayed on the job card. Some requester names don't give you enough information or they are too long so you can enter in your own name to remember what this panda job is for.
  • [Friendly HIT Title] - This is used for the title of the HIT displayed on the job card. Some HITs have titles that don't describe what it does or it's too long so you can enter in your own title to remember what this panda job is for.



















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