Just got WSJT-X set up for FT8 and noticed the PSK Reporter option in settings. On the reporting tab, there's a checkbox to enable PSK Reporter Spotting - WSJT-X will only report signals that are standard messages containing the sender's callsign and their locator, most often CQ messages or messages of the form 'Call_1 Call_2 grid'.

From what I understand, the data includes PSK spots, JT65 and FT8 - with FT8 being the overwhelming majority at the moment. But I'm confused about how this differs from regular DX cluster spotting. PSK Reporter operates in the background as you're operating whatever digital mode you're using - your station is not dedicated to PSK Reporter and you can make QSOs to your heart's content while optionally providing useful feedback to other operators.

Should new FT8 operators enable this? What are the benefits beyond helping others know their signal is getting out?

Absolutely enable it! Doing this doesn't just benefit other stations who now know their signal is getting out, it can help you too - PSK Reporter can reward you with a map showing results, with markers for stations you received and a shaded radius showing where the lion's share of received stations lie. It's a graphical representation of the current skip zone!

For PSK reporter spots, a quorum of three different spotters must be reached for the same combination of callsign/band/mode until spots are processed - this prevents erroneous alerts due to spotters with a misconfigured band. It's more reliable than single-spotter cluster reports and gives better propagation data.

As a newcomer, I was hesitant to enable reporting at first, thinking I'd flood the system with bad data. But learned that there are typically over 100 active monitors during the day, mostly in North America and Europe, which means your call is likely to be heard. More monitors from other parts of the world would be appreciated. It's actually helping the community by contributing to the global dataset.