Hi,
I am on the free program for now, and my Lingq total has been reduced from 300 to 100. I thought that was only going to happen for new members and not pre-existing ones. What gives?
Thanks
Hi KisukeUrahara,
That is a change that affects everyone. It was never intended to only affect new members. We have decided to lower the limit to encourage more users to upgrade. A number of changes were made to our membership structure.
- The LingQs limit was reduced to 100
- There is now a limit on Imported content for Free members of 5 imported lessons
- Free members may no longer upload audio with their Imported lessons or share their Imported lessons
- The batch delete function is no longer available to Free members
- The new import/export list function is only available to paying members
Obviously, we are trying to provide more incentive for members to upgrade. These are necessary changes for the future of LingQ. We hope you understand.
a question I ve been asking myself for a few days now is ‘batch delete of what?’
Ah. I was making a fuss because there was a blog post stating that it was only going to affect members who registered after Feb. 17th.
@ nia
You are right, its not exactly a selling feature…
@ nia_O - On the Vocabulary page you are able to select up to 100 LingQs at a time and perform different functions on all LingQs at the same time. Increasing or decreasing status, moving to Known or, for paying members, deleting them. Otherwise, you can do all these actions for individual words from the LingQ widget when you open each LingQ.
I’m looking forward to deleting each linq manually, for 179 linqs.
Hi Steve and Mark,
I want to share my opinion about this action.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I think this may lessen the quantity of active members. Perhaps 10 bucks are less than price of one lunch, but the problem is, I guess the people don’t think so. They think that it is a lot of money. Otherwise all of them would buy at least basic account 
I want to encourage you to watch very carefully how this action will affect the quantity of active members, especially new ones.
If it will work bad, you may need to cancel some of the changes and lingq’s limit in particular.
I want to give you my crazy idea. Of course you don’t need to look at this very seriously. It’s just a crazy idea. Let’s look at this as if I’m practicing my writing
I’ll speak as if I am a LingQ partner.
So, first of all I think we must to give people the trial with full functionality. Probably for six month. No limits at all. Why for six month? Well, I think six month is enough to get used to the system and, what is very important, to see real results.
But the most important thing is that six month is pretty long period of time. If people will get some results, if they will create 2000 lingq’s or so, I think very few will leave LingQ. Perhaps they will realize that even 100 bucks is a very little amount of money for such product and they will pay 10 bucks and will be very happy. People are getting no results at the language schools, but they are paying a lot of money nevertheless.
Then, after six months, we can add some serious limits. Or maybe to close free membership. I think the better idea is to close free membership. We can say: “We give you six months in order to learn English completely free. Then you can continue with us as a paid member or you can change your language learning system. That’s for you to decide. In any case we guarantee you a good time with the LingQ.”
I think if we say this, it will be just.
So, that’s it. I love LingQ and I’ll stay in any case. Good luck!
P.s. Of course this idea was very serious. People need to feel taste of LingQ. They don’t believe they do not need a grammar and drills.
“If you tell a lie a thousand times, it becomes the truth!”
Perhaps learners was taught 10000 times and for 10 years about “the basics” of English which is of course grammar, grammar and grammar.
There is a great video from Tony Robins. He said if people really believe they can get real results, they will do this.
Here’s a link: http://tonyrobbinstraining.com/320/interview-with-frank-kern-and-john-reese/
Certainly it is a very nice idea. In my mind, and it is really my personal opinion and should not decide our discussion, if I want to see a film in our cinema I get the possibility of a short trailer during one of the last visits or in TV. Unfortunately it is not possible saying: "oh, I would like to have a glance at a film, let me say 30 minutes, and then I shall decide whether I want to see the film or not. If yes, I will pay the fee, if not I will leave the cinema. In Germany a cinema visit costs around 10 bucks (buck for dollar is funny). I know that this comparision is flawed. But I think, like our cinema, Lingq system costs money and you can decide to become a basic member and after a month, or after 10 bucks (its furthermore funny for my ears - but I have learned a new word - thanks and vice versa you can decide to quit your membership after one, two or three months or so. I am happy about this learning stage.
Gintaras,
I watched the video. It persuaded me that we are doing the right thing by limiting the number of LingQs to 100m, 5 imported items etc. However only time will tell.
Here are the notes that I took from the video.
We all have potential, but we are held back because we do not believe in ourselves, and are afraid of failure. The only way out of that is to get fed up with our present state, and visualize ourselves achieving our goals, and then take action, one step at a time, now, right away. We need to decide that we want to acquire a new skill and the freedom that comes with that skill. We need to focus, one step at a time, this will condition ourselves to continue.
We need to have hunger and to surround ourselves with people who have hunger. We need new standards, new daily rituals, in order to create momentum. We need to have certainty that these new actions will lead to results. There is a virtuous or vicious cycle of four stages…potential-action-results-belief. If we do not expect positive results, we do not have belief,we do not unlock our potential and do not take action. If we can see the results, we will have the belief that we can succeed. This unlocks our potential and gets us to take action. The first man to run the 4 minute mile did so in his head first and then did if physically. Performance begins in the mind.
It takes courage to believe. It is mere weakness and cowardice to be cynical, skeptical and critical. It is the fear of failure that prevents us from taking action. If you want to change your life, you need to do it now, in one week, not in 6 months.
The video talks about making millions of dollars, like the guys in the videos. To make millions of dollars requires a lot of luck, and is only possible for a very few. Learning one more new languages depends on the learner and is possible for many people.
We need to convince our new members make a commitment. For most people, if they make the commitment, and only if they make a commitment, are they going to change their lives and acquire a new skill.
Thanks for telling me about the video. I am going to use these ideas. I believe that what the video says about making money is far more true about language learning.
I believe that LingQ is a community of language learners with hunger. We need to encourage more people to join our community so they can also feel the hunger. We need to encourage them to believe in themselves, and in LingQ, and to take action now. We need to encourage them focus on their learning. Knowing that they have a short period of time to use the system and then need to commit, may be better, for most people, than letting them explore on their own for 6 months. Most people, if they signed up for a free class in languages, would gradually stop going. I know LingQ is not a school, but some of the same applies.
At any rate we will see.
I noticed that those people who pay, mostly have better chances to do well. I bought a lessons and I do them. Because I paid for them. What we obtain for free we tend to put a cheap value to.
People who want to “learn English for free” are looking for “the best language learning system” for years. I noticed this recently in some forums. They are writing in the forums and they are looking for comments of losers. It’s very interesting because they’re not looking for successful people’s opinions. They don’t trust them. Maybe they feel rapport with those who are unsuccessful. I found only one success story here in Lithuanian Internet. Only one, and it was at the blog not at the forum. Of course there are a lot of Lithuanians who live in Britain and Ireland and who speak English well, even here in Lithuania are lot of such people, but there are no success stories at the Lithuanian Internet. People are looking for “the best system” and the others are going to the language schools. They are writing like this: “This is a very good school. I’m learning English for many years there and I’m happy - my English is better now”.
I found a pure gold in one of the forums: “Recently I was in the US. Of course their English isn’t right…”
I like these: “of course” and “isn’t right” 
Steve, thank you very much for the explanation of this video. It was too difficult to me and I guess I could understand about 50 percent or less because of a lot of idioms and Tony’s quick speech Now I got the better idea.
“The first man to run the 4 minute mile did so in his head first and then did if physically”
That’s exactly how you wrote about Paul Kariya
When I wrote about six months, I meant to encourage people to get in a habit learning at LingQ. Like smoking or so. Now I guess I understand better your idea.
What is the point of getting rid of the batch delete function? Make using Lingq tedious and annoying? Making people upgrade out of annoyance at individually clicking on 100 Lingqs and deleting them isn’t a very noble strategy.
Osaieh,
I think LingQ is a noble idea and a noble learning community. There is a lot of free learning content at LingQ and a vibrant community which anyone can take part in, free of charge.
The functions that we have, and are developing and maintaining, need to be paid for so that we can pay our developers. Yes the purpose in limiting the batch delete function to paying members is to make it less convenient to be a free user of our functionality, and to increase the benefits of joining, in other words to make the monthly expenditure more worth it.
There will be more services only available to paying members. However, there is still a lot of benefit for those who do not use the fee based functions.
ahnt.
I’m not sure why you wouldn’t try increasing the value of the product some more before trying to shrink your current customer base…but whatever.
After trying the site out for a couple of weeks, I was on the fence about moving forward. Now I am realizing that it just doesn’t meet my needs yet. I’ll even sum the reasons up for ya Steve 
For reference, I’m learning Japanese. Maybe my reasons don’t apply to other languages:
- Even though you want me to pay for the service, I’m still doing most of the work in making lingqs
- I have to make a new lingq for every single item because other users make them in their own style, or they are wrong, or it has too many homonyms
- There is only one way to set up the flashcards
- I need to have the phrase or sentence be the first thing that shows up, with the word or kanji highlighted in the middle. A random Japanese kanji is meaningless to me
- It doesn’t parse words properly
- It doesn’t parse sentences properly
- It doesn’t count words properly
- Not enough upper beginner to lower mid-range content
- Its too frustrating when things are not in the dictionaries, even though I like listening the native speaker’s colloquial speech
- Its weird hearing audio from my textbooks…
- I don’t want to see non-native speakers being allowed to tutor. Ever.
- I don’t do monthly charges.
(- and no Korean yet )
I’m sure there are other reasons. Maybe I’ll stick around and see if you can sort it out.
KisukeUrahara
I do not study Japanese regularly, but re your points would simply say the following.
-We can continue to improve the site indefinitely, but at some point we have to say “this is the product”, and ask if people are willing to pay for it.
-I have made most my LingQs myself, over the years, while learning Russian, and now that I am advanced, I still make most of them myself. This does not bother me. Creating the LingQs, and I am one of the heaviest LingQers, is the key to my learning.
-We will continue to improve the Flash Cards. We recently enabled exporting lists to other Flash Card systems. More to come.
-We plan to allow the learner to customize the Flash Cards, to decide what shows up first, both at LingQ and in the new iPod touch version that is being developed.
-The Japanese parsing is not perfect, but the few times I have been in the Kanji version it has worked well enough for my needs.
-The Japanese content will grow as we get more members, meanwhile you can import the content of your choice.
-The dictionaries are not ours. We are open to adding new ones.
-You are not obliged to use a non-native tutor. On the other hand some people, for example beginners, may want a session with a non-native speaker. I have hosted some discussions, and have joined others hosted by a non-native speaker and would do so again. As long as people are clear on what the native language of the tutor is, I do not understand why you would “forbid” other people from doing what they want to do.
-If you do not do “do” monthly charges, you will obviously never become a paying member, so that many of your other points are moot.
Hi I am learning Japanese here (on a bit of a break now though). I can only see a few valid points here.
- Even though you want me to pay for the service, I’m still doing most of the work in making lingqs
You are paying to facilitate your learning, LingQ streamlines the flashcard making process and integrates the LingQs with new texts. Having others pre-make the flashcards for you will slow down your learning.
- I have to make a new lingq for every single item because other users make them in their own style, or they are wrong, or it has too many homonyms
see above
- There is only one way to set up the flashcards
You can reverse them
- I need to have the phrase or sentence be the first thing that shows up, with the word or kanji highlighted in the middle. A random Japanese kanji is meaningless to me
Just click "phrase and you have context without the hint. The target word/kanji is in the middle and in large font at the top pf the card
- It doesn’t parse words properly
True. Sometimes.
- It doesn’t parse sentences properly
I am not sure what you mean by this. Are you saying the phrase it grabs should always be a sentence?
- It doesn’t count words properly
True. But word count is close enough as a rough indicator, which is really all it is supposed to be.
- Not enough upper beginner to lower mid-range content
Not sure about that. Could be true.
- Its too frustrating when things are not in the dictionaries, even though I like listening the native speaker’s colloquial speech
How could this be solved in any system? Furthermore you could always ask on the Japanese forum. I have always gotten a good response.
- Its weird hearing audio from my textbooks…
Not sure what you mean
- I don’t want to see non-native speakers being allowed to tutor. Ever.
Not sure what you are so apprehensive about. You can simply ask on tutors wall if they are a native speaker. If they, for some reason, lie about this, I am sure you would be reimbursed
- I don’t do monthly charges.
So what charges DO you do?
(- and no Korean yet )
It’s easy to pick out little imperfections with LingQ, such as the fact that the word count is not entirely accurate, or that it does not always parse words or sentences properly. If you are honest about it, and compare the costs and inconveniences, not to mention the lack of learning benefits of other systems or classes with what LingQ offers, you’ll quickly realise that it’s very cheap. Then again, if LingQ didn’t exist or didn’t allow any free members on the site, many of the free members would find other free ways of learning, I’m sure. But I challenge anyone to find language learning system or course that is better value for money than LingQ.
I wasn’t asking anyone to agree with my reasons. I was just stating why it doesn’t work for me personally as a consumer. I am happy that you like the way it is.
- The lingqs have been marketed to me as a convenience feature, and I find it inconvenient. Its a huge time sucker. I guess its personal opinion if its “streamlined” enough for you or not.
- On one of Steve’s video blogs, he stated that we should be listening and learning from native speakers as much as possible. Although people probably don’t want to admit it, unless you are fluent, you probably have no business teaching. Even if you are fluent, people still have their own personal style when speaking that is heavily influenced by their other culture.
- Word count is important when you are submitting things to be checked. Japanese isn’t Chinese.
- There should be a selection of possible start and end points of the sentence or phrase that you find helpful for the lingq you make
- I do do one time payments for a certain number of months. Automatic withdrawals don’t work for me.
- You take the game out if it, if you just press phrase
- Tell me how to reverse the cards please
- I am not a fan of flashcards, especially for single words, in the first place. If making flashcards helps to “facilitate” your language learning, more power to you
Flashcards are reversed (or shuffled) with the “Reverse” button (or “Shuffle”).
KisukeUrahara
I realize that when people put forward opinions, it is not for the purpose of asking people to agree. Usually it elicits comments,and even counter opinions, and a much larger number of people simply read without commenting. They are definitely the audience we wish to reach with our comments, rather than just the first poster.
-I am a massive LIngQer, over 30,000 in Russian alone so I will not apologize for LingQing. I feel the benefits, the word lists, the highlighted yellow links, the flash cards etc. the statistics, all of these things work for me. I would not start another language without LingQ. That is why I would love to have Korean and Czech here, but we simply cannot afford to be distracted for now. Obviously it does not appeal to everyone. You are a good example.
- I don’t understand your obsession about the non-native speaker tutor. If I listen to hundreds of hours of native speakers in Russian, choosing to have a discussion in Russian with someone who is not native, but speaks the language better than me, because we share certain interests, is really not going to hurt me. It is just an enjoyable way to engage with the language.
The bulk of language teachers in the world are non-native speakers. If they are good motivators they can use the content that is available at LingQ and elsewhere on the web to help learners. The choice at LingQ is with the learner. I just do not understand why you seek to discredit the activities of others. You are free to limit yourself to native speakers, or as is most likely, not to use our tutors at all.
I must say I do not understand the rest of your concerns, nor do I understand your insistence on asking for certain services and additional languages, for a system that you are not interested in paying for.
- The lingqs have been marketed to me as a convenience feature, and I find it inconvenient. Its a huge time sucker. I guess its personal opinion if its “streamlined” enough for you or not.
I think you want the LingQs made for you. If so, I am saying creating your own LingQs speeds up your learning so doing it is the opposite of a timesucker. Spending time with your LingQs is and important investment in learning. THe LingQ website just alleviates the mechanics of LingQ-making. (This is my opinion, of course.)
- On one of Steve’s video blogs, he stated that we should be listening and learning from native speakers as much as possible. Although people probably don’t want to admit it, unless you are fluent, you probably have no business teaching. Even if you are fluent, people still have their own personal style when speaking that is heavily influenced by their other culture.
Again, why are you so apprehensive about this, when the chances of this happening are next to nil?
- Word count is important when you are submitting things to be checked. Japanese isn’t Chinese.
At 2.5 cents US a word, it would not be a big deal to 99% people if the word count is even 50 words off, which has never come close to happening in my experience.
- There should be a selection of possible start and end points of the sentence or phrase that you find helpful for the lingq you make
Agree. Though not a big priority with me
- I do do one time payments for a certain number of months. Automatic withdrawals don’t work for me.
You can do that at LingQ
- You take the game out if it, if you just press phrase
How so? You said you wanted to start with the phrase with the target word highlighted but no hint. Essentially that is what pressing phrase gets you.
- I am not a fan of flashcards, especially for single words, in the first place. If making flashcards helps to “facilitate” your language learning, more power to you
Ok so what are you doing at LingQ? It is like you are complaining about all the running and jumping when you voluntarily go to basketball game.