What happened to the original question?
In any case, I do not think it is likely that the two communities will merge. However, users may want to use both. We will be looking at our writing correction system in the future, and may introduce some changes. We think our system can improve.
To tell the truth, I also use Italki and Lang-8 (in which there are many active members) to correct my writings or to speak with native speakers because I cannot find tutors on LingQ because of time difference. There is another reason why I would like to speak with more people.
However, I don’t use them recently. Sometime I check up corrections. That’s all.
I tried Lang-8, and found that I tended to get the same piece corrected several different ways. I think that would be extremely useful at advanced levels, but at lower intermediate levels it’s too much information.
And what’s wrong with our current writing correction system? I have to say that I love both writing texts and correcting them. Nothing to complain about. The only improvement I can think of is the idea of recording submitions by correctors and putting it in a library (if student agrees to do so), but my Turkish tutor does it anyway… What changes do you have in mind?
I think LingQ’s writing correction system is really good. The only drawback is that it can get quite costly if writing longer texts more regularly.
I’m not sure about how Lang-8 works, but I’ve been told that you have a profile and you should correct texts in your language as well, otherwise people will be reluctant to correct your texts (which is probably why some users have complained in the past about Lang-8 corrections never having been made).
Yes, being costly is the only drawback I can think of and it’s the reason why I don’t write more regularly - and I would love to write more! On the other hand, as a tutor I know that we don’t get that much points for correcting texts, so I’m not in a position to really complain about that…
By the way, it’s so strange… I didn’t like writing in English or German that much when I was at school and I love writing here at LingQ… I wonder why?
I think it might be a good idea to give students a little more direction about level-appropriate writing. I get texts sent to me that are simply too ambitious for the student to attempt. It takes the corrector a long time to correct and the student will probably not understand most of the corrections.
I think it would also be a good idea to tactfully suggest to lower level students that they keep their writing very short. Otherwise they get annoyed about how much it costs to correct a long piece with a discouraging number of complicated corrections.
@peter - I use Lang-8 and the way you describe it is pretty much the basic idea. I’ve never had trouble getting any of my writing corrected and if it is short I normally get it corrected by multiple people immediately after posting it. That said, I participate in correcting other users writings. Also, I think there is an imbalance of Japanese (my target language) and English users on the site with many more Japanese users than English users so I’m at a bit of an advantage because of that. This is probably because the site was started in Japan.
To be honest, I haven’t used the writing correction feature on LingQ because I don’t really know how it works and it sounds like it can be expensive unless I’m willing to spend a disproportionate amount of time correcting writing before I submit one of my own. I could be wrong though… I’ve never tried it on this site.
@cgreen0038 There are many Chinese users, too on Lang-8. That’s why I used it for a certain time in order that they correct my writings. However, I prefer to study imported lessons. And there is neither recording service nor transcription-correction service on the writing correction site, so I just check up messages, not use it seriously any more.
I think that that’s an important point, Vonk. Opening it up to anyone is part of lang-8’s success. It’s certainly an area which could be expanded on greatly.
Also, if improved enough that it could stand on its own, the writing section would be best as a new item on the top tab* (lessons, friends, forum).
*Which could do with some reorganisation - I’ve tried to guide someone with average computer skills through it and it’s a bit tricky for them. Something for another thread…
Vonk’s advice is exactly right. I’d only add that shorter essays are more likely to be corrected than longer ones. When I wrote pieces on Lang-8, I limited them to 3 short paragraphs. They were always reviewed, usually by about 1/2 dozen people. Long pieces are daunting for potential reviewers, and they tend to be ignored. They are too difficult to correct, comfortably.
English speakers would seem to have an advantage on the site, as there are many more people seeking to practice English than, say, Russian, and the pools of potential reviewers are very unequal, weighted in favor of English speakers.
Um, can’t help but notice there is no “United States” in the nation for the sign up for Lang-8. or other variations for my nation. So I’m gonna be from Canada.
Ernie, I don’t think that English speakers have any advantage on the site. Because someone is learning English, it doesn’t mean they would correct texts in their own language. My experience was that English was the more desired language for corrections.
Vonk, I did a few entries in Dutch but I’ve never been much of a writer in other languages. I do quite a bit of text chat online and that is enough for now. I guess I’ll eventually want to write more connected text on a particular topic. I’ll certainly use Lang-8 for that…unless LingQ steps it’s game up on the text correcting side of things (quite a lot, sorry to have to say it - but they do this alone, so it’s understandable that they excel in it.).
Yes,it’s like a chat site,i saw some natives from my country,i totaly agree with lmy at this point
I still prefer to have control over who corrects my writing, though… I wish to have well-written texts, so I choose educated native speakers. And if you don’t want to wait ages for your submition to be corrected, just choose a tutor who has 5 golden stars. I’ve never had that kind of problems, I just don’t choose correctors that are not active on LingQ website 
If someone prefers Lang-8, nothing forces them to send submitions on LingQ, but I prefer the LingQ way and hope it won’t change at all.