Rolan, don’t worry. Feeling here a little rebel from time to time is a tradition in Lingq 
OscarP, I must say I don’t fully agree with you. Of course it’s good that LingQ has paying members, but I don’t think it’s fair to put the free members off. A lot of those ‘free’ members contribute to LingQ in other ways. They host conversations, correct texts, create content for the library, etc.
Everyone can contribute to LingQ in their own way: by paying or/and by offering services.
Siccow, Yes, I agree that many people contributes on LingQ. My point is that it’s obvious that paying members have to have more “rights” on Lingq. This may make free users to feel not fully satisfied about what they get from Lingq sometimes.
I agree with you that paying members should have more options available, but I just didn’t/don’t (depends on how you feel about it now) support your statement that ‘‘LingQ is excellent thanks to the paying members, not the free members.’’
I guess we’re on the same line now, both free members and paying members can contribute to Lingq. Now let’s hope a lot of those contributing free members become paying members.
I want to pay 10$ a month when I actually obtain an income, hopefully in the form of a job.
Such a bountiful resource such as this deserves funding, so it can not only keep the lights on, but to grow into a mighty internet empire of language learning, and it’s resources ever more plentiful.
Siccow, let me rephrase it: Thanks to the income from the paying members, Lingq can afford the costs of maintaining this website active and improving its features. Therefore all types of members can contribute if they wish to try to become Lingq even better.
id rather it have a few more ads than lose the ability to use the private lesson feature to be honest ;PP but whatever, ill figure out a way to mimick what i do on here outside of the site somehow.
Does the limit includes the lessons that have been imported and then shared? I ask because I intend to import some things here, but if I can import only 5 lessons, instead of sharing not copyrighted material, I will keep this limit to the copyrighted things that I could desire to import…
The limit does not apply to shared lessons. Only your private lessons are restricted.
rolan,
I like to look at what I can enjoy, what I have, rather than at what I don’t have. A free user at LingQ has access to a tremendous range of language learning content in audio and text form, and can participate in a wonderful community of language enthusiasts at our forum. You get all of this for free, from a website that someone else created for you, and you use content that others placed in LingQ’s library.
There are a number of features that are available only to paying members. We hope to continue to accentuate the difference between paying and free members, because we need paying members. Without them LingQ would not exist. I do not see why free members should complain.
I think you are an enthusiastic learner and I hope one day you will also become a paying member.
I do not think that all paying members are wealthy and free members poor. Lithuania is not a rich country. It has the highest number of paying members as a percent of its population of any country at LingQ. I am sure that the number of wealthy people in China and India dwarfs the number of wealthy people in Lithuania. We have hardly any paying members form these two countries. Thank you Gintaras!
Farrago,
We are far from being an empire but we do intend to continue improving the site. To do this we need paying members. The vast majority of free members contribute nothing, but hopefully tell their friends, and hopefully some of those people do eventually choose to become paying members. A small number of free members contribute content etc, but every single paying member contributes towards the survival and development of LingQ.
Osaieh,
Those people who prefer to try to mimic what LingQ offers, or make do without LingQ’s features will not become paying members, and are probably not interested in helping LingQ develop. It is up to each individual to make his or her decision as a consumer of this service. Unfortunately the ads provide very little income.
Zinda, a shared lesson does not count against your imported lesson limit.
@siccow: You wrote "A lot of those ‘free’ members contribute to LingQ in other ways. They host conversations, correct texts, create content for the library, etc. "
If you host conversation and correct texts you earn points. You can use these points to pay for a 6-months membership. That is what I do.
Vera wrote:
“You can use these points to pay for a 6-months membership. That is what I do.”
Yes, when you have 10 000 points (or whatever the amount is). How many free members have the patience to host conversations to reach that level, just to pay for a six month-membership up front?
It’s easy to say that free members haven’t yet used the system enough to appreciate the tools fully. I have used the system a lot, but got tired of it since some features didn’t work satisfactory for me.
@Jeff: You need 6,000 points to buy a 6-month membership, not 10,000 points.
16 conversations are equivalent to 6,000 points. I think 16 conversations in 12 weeks are doable. This is approximately 1 conversation a week and 4 more when you have time.
German is not a major language on LingQ. Sometimes I’ve no conversations in a week but in average I’ve 2 or 3 conversations a week.
A six-month Basic membership costs 6000 points. Please check your accounts page.
There are many features at LingQ. There is always room for improvement. We cannot please everyone.
@Jeff - What you seem to be misunderstanding is that the points system is not there so that members can hoard their points until they have built up enough to buy a 6-month membership or to cash them in. The idea of the points system is to allow members to earn points from tutoring which they can then use to pay for tutoring for themselves. We want our members tutoring and learning from each other. This is a language learning site. If your primary motivation in earning points is not to use them on the site, there is a good chance you will continue to be disappointed.
Can the conversation system be improved? Of course it can, especially in less popular languages. And, unless members are willing to use their points to sign up for conversations, tutors won’t be motivated to offer discussions. If you have suggestions on things we can do to improve the speak section or to increase participation, we are all ears. That goes for everyone of course.
@Mark: As you are asking for improvements on the speak section: I want to be able to find conversations by time. For example I want to have a conversation on Monday between 8pm and 10pm. And then I want to see the offered conversations by tutor.
P.S. I know I’ve asked for this several times 
I also have one question concerning conversations. I’m not really sure about the “Request Conversation” button, because I haven’t got the courage to use it yet, but it seems to me that you can choose only one suitable hour of the conversation and the tutor can agree or not. And how about letting us choose a period of time, for example “I will have some free time between 5 pm and 8 pm and I want the tutor to choose the suitable hour”? Because it’s not really flexible if I say that I want to have a 15-minute conversation at 5.15 pm. If it’s already possible to do this, then forgive me
@customic - We have to specify a time on the request so that the event can be confirmed in the system at a specific time. However, once you submit your request your tutor can suggest an alternate time if that time is not convenient. You can then confirm that alternate time and the event will be created. You are also able to add a comment in which you can indicate the time range in which you are available. Your tutor can then suggest an alternate time from the range you give them in the comments.
Don’t be afraid! Give it a try… Nothing bad can happen…
@Vera - Thanks for the reminder Vera. We will see if we can add that as we are looking at ways of improving that page now.
The “Request Conversation” button is directly associated to the control of nuclear weapons of LingQ, but don’t worry, several layers of security have been devised.
Seriously, I think this feature can add more flexibility when it comes to find specific times for getting a tutor but of course it has to be used.