Are the dictionary suggestions for anyone else almost always wrong? I’m learning French and basically every time I add a lingq on the app I have to go back in and re-edit. They are always in the wrong tense for verbs, and often just aren’t the best option. And there’s really no way of reporting things in the app. I just don’t understand why it consistently gives bad suggestions. And in the app there’s no option to see additional items, so you just have to click on something you know is wrong, and then go back in and edit. Very frustrating.
Second, what on earth is happened to the forum? Has it changed for anyone else?
The meanings shown are the meanings that have been selected most often by other users. You can see additional meanings by expanding the popup on the app. You should be able to tap at the top of the popup to expand it or swipe up to expand it. You will then see all available Popular Meanings so you can see what other meanings might be more suitable. You also have the ability to choose to see a Dictionary definition so you can create your own meaning. All meanings shown were created by other members at one time. Many members choose to define the root form of a verb or word rather than that specific variant of the word. That is why it’s best to see all available so you can then choose one that works for you.
Of course, you can edit meanings but, ideally, you can find one you like from the available list.
As for the forum, we just migrated our Forum today to this new format. We are now using a third party forum tool which should provide better functionality and performance moving forward. We are just working out the rough edges. Thanks for your patience!
@mark
Unfortunately, for people like us that use dictionaries a lot and have entered thousands and thousands of correct definitions, it would be very nice to have tools to improve those dictionaries on-the-go. At least for the languages that we open and use all the time.
The point is that those meanings that were selected more often are the oldest, were people didn’t have many options to choose like today. They are not often the best to choose from. When you see those suggestions, we don’t often understand if there are others or not, so we have to click all the time to see if there are other meanings or not. It would be best to at least have a clue about it. Or give to someone of use the ability to star the best definition at least when we use them, so that the system will suggest those first.
Another thing I wanted to add to the questions anyway is the amount of translations or suggestions that are in the wrong language. Before there was the possibility to add private dictionaries but now I don’t think there is anymore this possibility. The result is an increase of translations that are in wrong languages (because people are lazy to choose the right flag when they have chosen another language rather than their own native language). I have many screenshot with this example and if you don’t find a solution, it will clutter more and more the list of definitions with wrong languages. At least give us the possibility to quickly delete them or find a way to clean those dictionaries.
Have you tried to “report” the offending entries? On the web interface it is next to the “Popular Meanings” headline in the sidebar. On iOS you can just swipe left.
“Report” is a bit of a misnomer because it actually removes the entry from public view.
I don’t know if it is actually good that all users have the power to make any definition disappear. A related idea that has been floated on the librarian channel, was to have something like “featured” definitions, that are known good translations which would enjoy a certain level of protection agains vandalism, potentially curated or provided by a librarian.
There are normally additional meaning’s available so you should just expand the pop up to see them. On the web app, if you click Report when looking at a words meanings, you have the ability to Flag bad meanings or change the language of meanings. On mobile you can swipe left on all meanings to do the same. All Premium users should have this ability. Let me know if this isn’t the case.
@bamboozled@mark
I wasn’t actually thinking about all users have this ability but other users that are librarians or that could just do this as a favour step by step their are using the dictionaries. I mean, reliable users.
I don’t use the Flag reports because I consider a “report” as something bad. But the definitions might be correct but they are in the wrong language. Which is annoying. There should be a way to pinpoint the user and send them a message to clean their own dictionaries and use the correct language, otherwise they would just repeat and repeat doing the same error. I can correct one and they can create 10 at the same speed.
In order to change to the correct language is not so easy. I have to select the entry first, then change the national flag, then delete the entry! Then I can finally select mine or enter a correct one.
I haven’t tried to use the “report” option, to see if I can change the national flag quicker.
But another problem is that I don’t recognise all languages, so I don’t have idea which national flag I should use.
Users shouldn’t have this extra problem to deal with. One that will increase more and more. Imho.
The reality is that there are so many word combinations that the more people that can help the better. Librarians will never be able to cover enough words in enough language combinations to make a difference. We do do this a bit for our beginner lessons into English but after that the task becomes impossible for a few people to manage.
It would be nice if users didn’t do this and we have tried different ways to get users to understand the impact. Messaging users who are doing this incorrectly is one way but all solutions require significant time and effort to implement. We are looking for ways to do this better.
As for correcting the language, you should just be able to click the Report button and then click the language beside the meaning you want to change. There is no need to delete anything after that. I’m not sure what you are doing but it sounds like you are just changing it for yourself perhaps. You need to do it from the Report window for it to have an effect. If you don’t recognize the flag, just delete the meaning. Better to have it gone than to have it in the wrong language.
Thanks for your help on this!
@mark Ok, I will start using the report option to see how it works and if it is faster and more effective.
Maybe in the future you will have the possibility to run queries with some sort of AI, so that the latter will be able to recognise all wrong languages and do some sort of clean up, or even messaging directly to the users that don’t realise what they are doing.
I find many, very often.
Hi - it looks like you’ve implemented this which is great!
I think one issue that still existing is that there’s no way on android to look at additional definitions until after you’ve already selected one of the top two - so, without knowing your code, it probably counts that as a “good” definition I selected, even if its wrong. And most of the time, I have to select a wrong or poor definition, then click out, then click back in and select a better one, then delete the old one. It is still a pretty frustrating experience.
Also, the android word list has started doing an annoying thing where you scroll down, and if you touch it again to drag or select, it just goes right back to the top of the list.
To fix this issue, I’ve recommended to LingQ that they integrate with ChatGPT or similar and not just offer dictionary definitions, but provide more grammatical info, explain the usage of the word in context, describe appropriate registers of usage of the word, describe any connotations, offer synonyms and antonyms, and the offer more example sentences using the key vocabulary and ideas of the LingQ lesson’s content.
You don’t have to choose one of the first two. To see all meanings just swipe up on the top of the word popup. This expands to the full popup and shows all possible meanings. Having said that, the way you have been doing it does not add popularity to those meanings. We track actual uses not taps on the meanings.
I’m not sure which word list you are referring to. Can you be more specific?
That’s great, I had no idea you could swipe up! Thank you! Solves that problem. (or, indeed, there was never a problem just I couldn’t use the app ha)
on the scrolling word list thing - its when you’ve already got a definition and you click back into the word to see other “popular meanings”. I think it is because the android typing cursor is active in the “saved meanings” box automatically, so if I swipe down it scrolls but then wants to reset the view to where the cursor is, so jumps back up. Hope that makes sense.