文プロ(Bunpro) : Update 1/15 - N4 Grammar Writeups - Japanese Grammar SRS Study Site

Japanese Language Grammar
#1809

In light of the continued criticism, I want to continue saying thank you for this website! Personally, I would be completely fine with paying a reasonable $5 (which is what I pay currently for WaniKani) for continued use of the site, because it has become a critical tool for me to both brush up on old grammar and learn new points. I agree that the links are helpful but, in the event of copyright issues when the model moves to a paid one, they’re not necessary. I’m sure many of the linked sites would be fine with their material being included if asked (fingers crossed for Tae Kim).

勉強するのは手伝ってくれてありがとう！

8 Likes
#1810

I pay 4.5$ a month for WaniKani, which provides much more than Bunpro, so I cant justify 5 USD monthly. 5 or 10 bucks as a one time payment, like for app, sure, sounds fair. Monthly, when I use it 2 times a week? Nope.

4 Likes
#1812

Actually, it’s the KanjiVG that he uses that’s under CC. You have to dig deeper to see:

“The Complete Guide is currently NOT licensed under a creative commons or any other license. I might consider some kind of license when I finish the first draft.”

2 Likes
#1813

Oh thanks for that! I hadn’t seen that.

1 Like
#1814

I’m still new at learning grammar, so was very excited to see how cool Bunpro was in giving me some tools to help me along. But I had to learn everything off the site anyway, so I decided to stick with what was working for me in terms of grammar, which I already pay over $10 a month for. But that site I already pay for actually teaches me grammar/kanji and quizzes me on it as well as many other things, so it’s very worth it for me.

I knew all along Bunpro would be moving to a paid service, but when I got the email they were doing it so quickly, I was quite bummed. For me, it doesn’t give me $5 a month worth, it is neat, and I would pay something for it, but not $60/year.

It doesn’t bother me that it links to other sites, even textbooks do that sometimes. I’d think it would be fair for them to provide an affiliate link to the other texts and sites that teach the grammar. Like an Amazon affiliate link for Genki and using affiliate links for the other sites they might link to that aren’t free. I did notice a lot of the sites were free, which further rubs salt into the wound that they are asking for $5/month.

For some people, that is worth it for them. For me, having to go to other sites to learn grammar, and not really needing Bunpro, it is just too much for me (and I spend a lot of money on Japanese learning). This is what I think would be fair, using a combination of the following ideas.

  • Providing N5 for free. Charging $10 per every level, so $40 total if you make it all the way to N1.
  • One-time lifetime fee of $60, or a per year of $30.
  • Giving WaniKani members a discount code for helping them work out the bugs. Maybe a smaller Reddit discount… It also helps to know where users are coming from.
  • Using affiliate links to make 10% or so from the other services.
  • Having a donation button (I would definitely donate if I used it.)

Anyway, keep up the good work, I like the site, it’s just not worth $5/month for me (at beginner level grammar), but I would definitely contribute financially if I did use the site.

3 Likes
#1815

OMG! I’ve not looked at this thread for months and it’s turned into a right old ding dong.

For those of you complaining about the links to external resources being put behind a paywall, there’s nothing to stop you creating a kick-ass wiki page here that does the same thing.

  1. Take the first grammar site from The Ultimate Additional Japanese Resources List and chuck each section into the relevant grammar point.
  2. Go on to the next site.
  3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until you reach the end.
3 Likes
#1816

Bunpro Subscription Update

Thank you to everyone who has provided us with valuable feedback, support, and criticism.

The subscription system will begin May 10th. To allow users to test the full version of the site, we will offer all new and existing users a free one month trial. This means Bunpro will continue to be free to you for the next two months.

We will offer a “lite” version of Bunpro that will allow access to each grammar point’s meaning and structure, a limited number of example sentences and all of the reference links and textbook page numbers. This version will be free.

The full version of the site will be available to subscribers and includes:

・All of our example sentences.

・Our SRS system to review those sentences.

・The ability to add your own notes and study questions.

・Upcoming features such as review data visualization and more.

A monthly subscription will be available for $5 and a yearly subscription for $50. At the request of many users, we will also offer a $150 lifetime membership.

We understand that the site is still being developed and as a way of saying thank you for supporting us early on, we will offer a discount to make the price match the progress of the site. Since only 60% of the site (three JLPT levels out of five) is done, the monthly, yearly, and lifetime options will be available for 60% of the full price. This means that a monthly subscription will be $3, a yearly subscription will be $30, and a lifetime membership will be just $90. As we add more content we will adjust the price accordingly.

For those that have already supported us, any amount that you have donated will be available as a credit toward your subscription and will be deducted from whichever plan you choose should you choose to subscribe.

We are tremendously humbled by the outpouring of support, ideas, and feedback that all of you have provided us. This has been a valuable learning experience for us and we intend to utilize the knowledge that we have gained as we continue to make changes to Bunpro. Everything that has been said has influenced and will continue to influence how we move forward with Bunpro. Thank you again for all of your feedback, kind words, patience and understanding.

Cheers!

Full Announcement ・ Subscription FAQ

46 Likes
#1817

That’s a much better plan!

3 Likes
#1818

Love this, smiled reading the whole email. :slight_smile: Can’t wait to see how things progress for ya’ll :smiley:

3 Likes
#1819

Brilliant! Nice one! Sounds great!
I wish you the best with it @pushindawood!

3 Likes
#1820

Where that other email had felt really… sudden and unsettling, this past email was definitely nice! I think the suggestions you guys are deciding to implement will really help settle the unrest caused by the email before.

8 Likes
#1821

Overall I think this new approach sounds much better than what you previously announced. However does this mean that you’ve decided not to allow “lite” users to have full access to the first (or first few) lesson groups of each JLPT level like you previously mentioned? I suppose this was replaced with the one month free trial, right?

3 Likes
#1822

I think this is a good solution and some nice updates. It’ll be great to see how Bunpro progresses :slight_smile:

4 Likes
#1823

Sold! I love the lifetime subscription option, I wish this were more of a thing these days. Cheers guys!

5 Likes
#1824

I have a little idea (not mine originally but I can’t remember who suggested this sue me): Buying access to individual JLPT portions. Life time is $150, divided into 5 for the 5 JLPT portions would be $30, what should be a fair price. Though n2 has more than double n5’s material so maybe some adjustment is necessary…

5 Likes
#1825

Such a “why didn’t I think of that” moment, lol

3 Likes
#1826

These sound like reasonable adjustments!

Just curious, was this ever addressed/fixed?
post
post 2

I still don’t believe that halving and rounding is an effective way of managing SRS downranks, nor is continuing to modify the SRS rank for subsequent answers within the same session (after answering incorrectly).

4 Likes
#1827

This is sooo much better!
I’ll definitely buy lifetime subscription ^^

3 Likes
#1828

Much better =)
And I like how all the links are outside the paywall =^_^=

So the monthly and yearly subscription will start in May. But lifetime being forever, how about opening it early? I’d like to have it in before improvements make the price go up, as I honestly feel 100 is what I’m maximum willing to pay for it ^^; (even with all levels done)

6 Likes
#1829

@Subversity I haven’t paid close enough attention to see if this was ever changed. Hopefully it was fixed. I think explaining the formula in the FAQ (and not letting it get outdated like WaniKani :sweat_smile:) would be nice. :slight_smile:

@pushindawood, some additional thoughts and questions:

The mobile version of the site could still use a lot of improvements. I just logged on using my phone yesterday and I was already logged off again. And at least as of a couple weeks ago I know there was still a lot of issues with text wrapping on top of other content.

Like @durtle, I’m definitely still interested in buying individual JLPT levels if it’s priced reasonably. I hope you’ll consider that option in the future. :slight_smile:

Finally, when you guys finish N2 will you have a grace period between announcing the update and raising the price? It could be very jarring if the price of all subscription options just suddenly jumps with no notice.

EDIT
You might want to consider sooner rather than later how to handle upgrading subscriptions. WaniKani handles them by prorating your current subscription period which is nice.

5 Likes