I am writting from an answer I received from Mark (look in the forum question system.)Since almost each time I go over my points that I received as a Premium member, I mean by that, that I have to pay more than the costwhich is demanded, if I want to write or to participate to adiscussion. It is not too much to ask 35 points to The lingQ forhaving not importing a content which is already done, but for havingcreating a text as an author is doing and furthermore for havingdelivering the audio I have done also. When I was on The LinguistI wrote two beautiful texts in French: one called Marianne andthe other called with my little angels. At that time a friend ofmine, called also Marianne took my text and send it at the library,telling me that she will do this, and that she will put a nice picturewith my creations. My name appeared at no place. I asked her that Iwanted my name to appear, and finally for personal reasons I quittedThe Linguist. Few days ago, I saw these two texts on the Libraryin the Litterature part and the provider was The Linguist, and my namedoesn’t appeared. I felt deceived about that, because I was proud ofmy writings! Even though it seems to be not important for almostnobody to have their name written when it is them who are writingtheir text, for me IT is IMPORTANT. I do not feel cheap in askingmy name to be written on my writings, and a so little 35 points forit, when it costs 500 points for a discussion, and when I cannot go tothis event I lost my 500 points, when it costs 500 for a one and onediscussion of 15 minutes, and so on. This summer I paid around $200.00more than the around 78.00 each month. Furthermore, to write onetext, it tooks 2-3 hours of my time. It is a gift I am doing when Iask only 35 points for that, and I do not receive a simple Thanks! What did I receive? An answer on the forum which makes mefeeling cheap to the eyes of a lot of people who are reading it! Welldone Mark! However, to my eyes, I feel generous and perhaps alittle ninny, for again, a so lack of consideration toward what Ihave done! Imagine, I have to tell you by e-mail that I have sent atext that I wrote, and I have to ask by e-mail each time, if you havesend it in the library, because ALMOST NOBODY is charging for uncontent they shared! Wow! Johanne Regards,
If you are able to edit the text can’t you just write your name on the top of the text or in the text of the introduction area? I think that you could even record your name on the material, if you want to put in audio introduction, just like Steve does where, he says this is a broadcast brought to you by LingQ. I haven’t seen any rules saying that you can’t put your name on something you wrote yourself. Just an idea, maybe I’m not being helpful.
Johanne,
I must say, I’m surprised you are taking my comment that way. I was simply informing you of the reason why we don’t check that often to look for content that must be approved. We almost never get any. This is because very few people are willing to pay for content and you are probably better off sharing it for free and hoping it’s popular, thereby earning points in our monthly points awards for content.
You are absolutely right that 35 points is very little and we thought initially that people would pay for content. But, in general, that doesn’t seem to be the case with so much free content available as well.
Regarding identifying your content, I see that you haven’t created a Provider nor attached it to your content. If you had done so, your content would be identified as coming from you. You could even link to a blog or homepage, if you like. You should probably watch the video and read the help questions for the Import section to understand how to do everything.
As far as your previous content, I didn’t think we had French content on TheLinguist. We only taught English. At any rate, even if it was uploaded on LingQ, we don’t scrutinize every item of content on the site. If you think there is content that should be attached to your account, let us know and we’ll transfer it to your account. Or, we will simply take it down and let you upload it again in your own account. I have no idea how it came to be in the library if you didn’t put it there. If Marianne did it for you, please talk to her.
Tuppence,
Ideally the provider should put all relevant information in the footer. This can include personal information, an invitation to a discussion (if she is a tutor), a URL, whatever. It is best to keep any content in the text itself in the target language, but the provider has full freedom to write and edit whatever he/she wants.
Our LingQ podcasts are a little different since one of the main goals is to attract new members who may find us on iTunes. We want to make sure they know where the content comes from. This is not necessary for ordinary Library content.
I think the issue Johanne has is with content that was transferred over from The Linguist and which may not be identified as hers. I should point out that the vast majority of content in LingQ is in the English section, was provided by LingQ, and is, of course, free to the users. We are hoping that our members will help us build up a similar amount of content in other languages.
It is sort of chicken and egg. With very few users, the reward for creating content is less than it will be with more users. Without lots of good content on different subjects and at different levels, LingQ is not as attractive as it could be, or will be.
Nevertheless, the content is growing and the points “income” for some content providers is already not insignificant.
We are not just looking for more content in languages other than English. Skyblueteapot is on a roll, creating some exciting new content in our English section which has already attracted quite a following. I think she is the next J.K Rawlings.
Thanks Steve,
I hadn’t read her other post to Mark and I didn’t realize what she was trying to do. I though she wanted her name put on it and she couldn’t figure out a way to do it or something like that.
Thanks for contributing Tuppence, and I hope to chat with you in Russian one day at one of our tutor’s discussions.
Speaking of J K Rowling, I’m going through her french audiobook adaptation (probably translated by another talented soul) and it’s very engrossing, albeit a bit of hard work. Each successive chapter is a little easier than the last, so I’m pushing on and using LingQ is great!
Roy,
Where did you get the audio book and where did you get the e-text? Maybe you can share the source for others to import. Thanks.
It’s available on amazon.com i think. If you do a search in google like
l’ecole de sorciers audio book
or something similar you may find a place to get it too.
So, did you also get an e-text or are you just listening? Are you also reading the paperback?
My channels were largely unofficial. A friend’s mother works at a local library who has access to texts. It is, as I have found, very difficult to get these things - esp e-texts.
Just to add… personally I’d rather be reading something else, but I never look a gift horse in the mouth so to speak 
I know what you mean. I was using a Harry Potter audiobook in Japanese for a while and scanning the text from the book itself and then into LingQ. It’s the combination that’s so hard to get. At some point, we have to approach these publishers and get the audio on text on LingQ!
“audio and text”
I’m pretty sure this will only happen when you develop a revenue model for publishers to earn money. I’m talking top tier titles like harry potter, perhaps transcripts from popular TV shows like friends, frasier, radio shows even, songs, top40 ad nauseum… I think it’s only fair though and it will most likely succeed the way iTunes works. Thus LingQ would continue to offer a combination of free and paid for “premium” content which the learner will progress over to after the free content becomes less and less interesting.
After my ordeal with getting things translated myself, paying fees for existing material via a service like LingQ would be much much cheaper. It would probably be something that grows on learners after they have spent a few months on the free stuff. A larger and ever expanding collection of premium paid for content would be great.
After I finish potter I’m not sure what my next course of action would be. Hopefully by then there will be more material at LingQ because my options are growing thin!!! Stuff doesn’t have to be top tier content either - like Le Podcast High Tech. It’s free and it’s good.
“It’s the combination that’s so hard to get”
… ah but therein lies LingQ’s niche market. hence what I see as an “opportunity” for a provider in your position to leverage existing assets and perhaps offer a transcription service to these providers for a small cut in the commission. shrugs the details haven’t been delved but on the surface something looks promising underneath.
if you could convince the providers, tv shows, etc… you are a service like teletext, except your audience are learners and the providers will still get paid for offering their content, I don’t see a reason you’ll fail. Could be a win-win for LingQ and content providers.
We agree and we will go after these content providers. By the way, we should have another four episodes of Le podcast high tech coming soon.
Gosh Steve, thank you for your kind words about “Traces of Dodo”. I will keep producing them until people get bored or my brain melts.
About content: this has been engaging my thoughts for some time. IT is definitely where LingQ outstrips any other language learning method, to my mind. That audio/e-text/dictionary/vocabulary learning combo is unbeatable. All you need, as I said way back, is loads and loads of the stuff you like to listen to in your target language. For me, that’s time travel and dodos.
I got a copy of The Hobbit in Russian from Ruslania in Finland. The audio quality is horrible, it sounds like Uri Gagarin recorded it on his first manned flight. However it was cheap and it has the e-book on the CD. If you fiddle with the graphic equaliser you can listen to it, and it is dead easy to import into LingQ. I’m going to buy their Lord of the Rings mp3 CDs too, and hope that they contain the e-books too. If so, that’s pretty much me sorted for Russian for this year and next!
Which set me thinking, is it possible to learn Russian and German with LingQ using just my favourite authors? Because I have to say, I’m getting a little stale with the library material. Not that there is any shortage of, or problem with quality with, the LingQ library material. There just aren’t many dodos in it, and I can only take so much reality.
For Jules Verne and Mark Twain (two more great fantasy authors) Librivox has a very limited selection of translations, and they provide a link to the e-texts too.
I am prepared to find and even pay for foreign language e-books and the hardbacks, but I didn’t know you could scan printed text and convert the result into e-text. Mark, I would be very grateful for a tutorial please!
Helen,
Let’s take this discussion to another thread in the Open Forum.