the more I wok with the new version, the more I am feeling disagreeable. Here I will give you an example:
I begin with a new part of 25 -
in #15 I have to add or correct - after that I begin of new
in #22 the same
in +25 the same
I worked long time and every time I have to begin of new (and the system cannot remeber, what I worked).
Moreover after changing or addition the card don’t show me that. I have to close the flashcards and open again.
One thing i cannot understand is why do you need to change those lingqs so often? You put a phrase and a hint when creating a lingq and that’s all, or isn’t?
I do not think it is necessary to change the hint every time you find a new detail about the word, i believe you would recall it by simply reading the hint next time. Of course this is not always the case, but personally i do not edit them much. Maybe i would if i had the possibility to do it right on the flash card, but it is definitely not a must-be for me as i already got used to take my time to think of a good hint at the moment i create a new linq.
The one is, that I have no hint and/or no phrase - of cause… I don’t know exactly (mistakes by working)
The next is, that I have not a good example that helps me and want to bring another or one additional. At first when I am despairing for not remember again and again (you have to know, I have a little an older brain
The next can be there are mistakes in writing - and so on.
I seldom change LingQs during the flashcard sessions, but when I do (due to mistakes, addition of tags et.c.) I find it annoying that I have to go through the whole deck again.
I believe that Mark and I have said on several occasions that the way the Editing of Flash Cards works now is not ideal and will, eventually, be changed. We do not consider this a priority and I will explain why.
You have the alternative of editing LingQs in the Vocabulary section. It is fast (which was not the case before), and you see the results immediately and do not lose your place. You can choose to arrange the words in alphabetical order, in order of importance,order of status, or by creation date. You can search for any words you are looking for. You can easily see from the list those words without Hints, or with less than ideal phrases. If you clean up your LingQs in the Vocabulary page you should then just use Flasch Cards for review until we fix the problem.
Every programming change or fix to the system is like a surgical operation. Mike thinks it will take half a day to improve the editing of Flash Cards. It may turn out to be longer. Every time we make a change there can be complications.
We have a long list of things to do.
a) Mike is working on improving the dictionary now…the range of dictionaries we access, and the possibility of automatically filling in an initial hint, leaving the user to add additional hint as needed.
b) Henry is continuing to improve the Events area, including the ability to invite friends, members and non-member guests, to discussions. We also need to improve the Forum to improve member interaction, as this is essential to the eventual success of LingQ.
c) Eugene is working on a program to automatically find bugs whenever we make a change so that we do not take so long to put up new versions and can avoid problems.
In addition we want to get the Pronunciation page going again, we want to make it possible for Tutors to record members writing. We have an idea for a new format for discussions that will make it easer for tutors to help members learn new words. We want to put sound on the LingQ widget. We want to enable tagging from a list, and make the Tags editable. We want to separate Status 4 words, and allow diferent sorts in the Vocabulary section. I think Ana’s idea of searching the Vocab list by Hints is a good one too.
We want to improve navigation in the Store and WorkDesk, and the other places we are aware of where our navigation is not ideal.
We still have to improve the ability of search engines to find our LingQ and The Linguist websites in order to attract more visitors. We do not yet have all the administrative information we need for a variety of purposes that would help in our marketing.
I am just scratching the surface of things that our programmers need to do.
So that is why the Editing of Flash Cards is probably not going to change very soon. I would like to hear about other areas that need improvement, and other good ideas.
I am also interested in hearing about ideas that will help to encourage more people to find us and join LingQ,and to become paying members, join discussion, submit writing etc…
I’d love to read if your tutors could write some easy to understand general explanations of the grammar, pronunciation, etc. for various languages. I guess this would be very useful for most of your current members, while creating more content to google (i can say from my own experience with search engines, that #1 thing to do to attract more visitors is to constantly offer new content on the site).
Don’t take it for granted, but i believe you should focus more on non english speakers who are looking to learn other non english languages. At least for the moment while you are not so big. I’m saying this because i truly believe it will be much more easier to get good rankings in non localized google sites than it would be in the google.com.
Create multilingual index pages, make it espanol.lingq.com, russkiy.lingq.com, etc. Of course, use google webmasters tools to add those domains as geography targeted. That alone could bring you a few times more visitors than you are receiving for the moment.
Well, i’ll post more if i think of anything else i believe is worth for you to consider.
Steve
thanks a lot for the lengthily explanation that give me the feeling “we are here a family and work together”
It is good to know those points, then the waiting is not so hard :-)!
For searching new members, I think each member who has improved here, make advertisement. Often I hear the following arguments:
“I need the face to face for learning - I have not enough discipline to learn alone - I need books and grammar - I have to know the grammar structure” and so on…
In the moment I have no better idea for a good way then advertising from mouth to mouth and sending the lingQ to all friends.
We have been localizing both t he LingQ site and The Linguist site in order to attract more visitors. This all takes time to take effect. Thanks for the suggestion.
I might add that anything you can do to talk up LingQ on any sites or Forums that you visit, would be appreciated.
Also, we will eventually add more languages, or make it easer for people to start languages. I am sure there are people who want to learn Lithuanian, whether because they live there, or are married to a Lithuanian, or have relatives who are Lithuanian, or are simply interested. At that time we look forward to getting content from you.
Your idea about grammar summary content is a good one Tjanktus, and I will deal with it in a separate thread.
Meanwhile, one more bit of advice; do not try to nail things down, nor to jump to conclusions about the language at the beginning. It will be a little fuzzy and only gradually start to get clearer. Your impression of the language will change. What seems difficult now will start to seem natural and easy, and new difficulties will appear. You may master the conditional but have trouble remembering the days of the week or how to ask the time.
Steve, I can help you with lithuanian content if you need it. Just make it more clear for what exactly would you need. I do also think you should provide the ability to learn languages you already have in more native environments. That is, it would pretty easy to do more translations for the site itself, before adding additional languages. Don’t forget there are a lot of people learning english as their second language, so using a site, let’s say, in lithuanian to learn english/russian should be pretty tempting for those learning their first foreign language here.
And the best part of it is that people learning foreign languages here are the ones who would be willing to pay if they found the site actually helps them, as they are probably learning that language to directly influence their next paycheck
It would also be nice if you considered adding more payment methods, there are a lot of people like me who are paranoid about making online payments using cc. You should add paypal and moneybookers at least, I think.
If you’d like to talk more about lithuanian content write me an email to spam[]holdem[]lt (the first [] = @ and the second [] = dot :-)).
By the way, as for the dictionaries, there are online EN-LT-EN ones even under GNU Free Documentation Licence. I guess this is the case for most languages, as babylon is not the only dictionary on the net
I’d love to be able to add multiple phrases for lingqs, so the system could chose one randomly when generating a flashcard. People could add additional phrases whenever they meet an already highlighted word in their new content (they would take the new phrase from that content).
This would be great because when learning, especially small amounts of words like those 25 priority lingqs, i often find myself remembering the phrase i have attached to that word, so i cannot be sure if already know the word or is it just because i can remember the phrase. Changing phrases at random would make it a more natural learning as one would always be exposed to a different situation (phrase) the word was used in.
We could eventually add interfaces in other languages. It is just a matter of the time needed to do it, and finding someone to translate. Right now our interface has been translated by our members. Eventually, if you or some other Lithuanian speaker translates our interface we can put it up.
I am not sure of what programming limitations there are.
We would like to have more Lithuanian users, that is for sure.
Re adding phrases, I meant that from the LingQ widget you can add new phrases by copying from Examples.
With regard to Lithuanian content, we are still a few months away from adding more languages, but I will certainly take you up on your kind offer at that time. We will need to have “The Power of the Linguist” and other beginner material translated and recorded. We will be looking for Podcasts in Lithuanian where we could provide transcription, assuming we find a good transcribe, and any other sources of Lithuanian content, including you recording yourself talking to your friend about the latest rock concert or political events or the weather in Vilnius.
(mistakes by working)