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Frequently Asked Questions

Info

If you do not find your question in this section, please send it to us directly to info AT scifabric DOT com. We will try to help you and add your question to the FAQ.

Users

Do I need to create an account to participate in the project?

It depends. The owners of the projects can disable anonymous contributions (usually due to privacy issues with the data), forcing you to create an account if you want to contribute to that specific project.

Projects

How can I create a project?

You can create a project using web forms, or if you prefer it using the API. We recommend you to read the user/overview and user/tutorial sections.

Can I disable anonymous contributions?

Yes, you can. Check your project settings and toggle the drop down menu: Allow Anonymous Contributors from Yes to No. Check the project-details for further information.

Can I create golden tasks?

Yes, you can. PYBOSSA has a field for every Task named: calibration that will identify the task as a golden task or as we call them as a calibration task. Calibration tasks can be used to weight the answers of the volunteers (authenticated and anonymous) as you know the answer for those given tasks. For example, if a user has answered all the calibration tasks correctly you can give a weight of 1 point to all his/her answers, while if the user only answered 50% of them correctly, the answers for the rest of the tasks could be given a weight of 0.5 points.

Can I delete my project and all the task and task runs?

Yes, you can. If you are the owner of the project you can delete the project, and automatically all the task and associated task runs will be deleted (note: this cannot be undone!). Check the project-delete section for further details.

If I’ve installed the server, can I run a script to reset a project?

Yes, you can. You will have to access the server, and then run the command

   python cli.py clean_project ProjectID SkipTasks

.. note: By default, if you run this command it will return all the tasks, task_runs, results and reset all the statistics for that project. BE CAREFUL.

Pass ProjectID to delete everything, or tell the command to skip deleting the tasks, so you can keep them, and update the stats accordingly.

Do you provide any statistics about the users for my project?

Yes, every project has its own statistics page that shows information about the distribution of answers per type of user, an estimation about how long it will take to complete all your tasks, the top 5 authenticated and anonymous users, etc. Check the Statistics link in the left local sidebar of your project.

Featured projects are managed by the administrators of the site. Contact them about this issue, and they will decide about your project.

I have all my data in a CSV file, can I import it?

Yes, you can. PYBOSSA supports the CSV format, so all you have to do is upload your file to a file server like DropBox, copy the public link and paste it in the importer section. PYBOSSA also supports Google Drive Spreadsheets, see csv-import section for further details.

My data is in a Google Doc Spreadsheet, can I import the data into my project?

Yes, you can. PYBOSSA supports the Google Drive Spreadsheets, so make it public, copy the link and use that link to import it the Google Drive importer section. See csv-import section for further details.

All my tasks have been completed, how do I download the results to analyze them?

You can export all the data of your project whenever you want. The data can be exported directly from the Tasks section (check the Tasks link in the left sidebar of your project and click in the export box). PYBOSSA can export your tasks and task runs (or answers) to a CSV file, JSON format or to a CKAN server. See the export-results section for further details.

What is a Task Run?

A Task Run is a submitted answer sent by one user (authenticated or anonymous) to one of the tasks of your project. In other words, it is the work done by one volunteer for one task.

What is the Task Presenter?

The task presenter is the web project that will load the tasks of your project and present them to the user. It is an HTML + JavaScript project. See the task-presenter section for further details.

PYBOSSA

Does PYBOSSA have an API?

Yes, it does. PYBOSSA has a api that allows you to create projects, download results, import tasks, etc. Please see the api section for more details and the user/tutorial for a full example about how you can use it.

Is PYBOSSA open-source?

Yes, it is. PYBOSSA is licensed under the GNU Affero general public license version 3.0.

Do you provide project templates or examples projects?

Yes, we do. You can find several open source project examples that can be re-used for image/sound pattern recognition problems, geo-coding, PDF transcription, etc. Check the official Git repository for all the available projects.

Did you get inspired by BOSSA?

PYBOSSA derives from the original BOSSA implementation. The following are some useful references to that original implementation:

Support

PYBOSSA is free and open source, that means that anyone can create a project and benefit from the endless features that PYBOSSA has to offer, so that you can reach your ultimate goal. And the best part? That it is free of charge!

As well as the FAQs and all the available documentation to help you create and develop your PYBOSSA project, we will be happy to answer your questions related to the running of PYBOSSA in general.

Scifabric offers different options for support. Check them and use the one that fits your needs: http://pybossa.com/support/