It’s hard not to feel a twinge of disappointment lately with the recent changes to our beloved platform, particularly the new 4-hour inactivity logout. While the team touts this as a performance improvement, it seems more like a classic case of “tech debt” rearing its ugly head. It’s almost like watching a beloved antique slowly rust away while its caretakers insist it’s part of its charm.
Moreover, the lack of new features and a clear product direction has left many of us feeling a bit adrift. I’m not one to crunch numbers, but I’m fairly certain WaniKani is enjoying a healthy revenue stream. So, one has to wonder: why are we witnessing this decline in service? Shouldn’t our investment in WaniKani be matched with an equal commitment to maintaining and enhancing the platform?
Perhaps it’s time to consider whether a reduction in our monthly fee is in order, or at the very least, some assurances from the development team that they’re ready to bolster their ranks with fresh engineering talent. After all, it would be lovely to see our money put to good use instead of being hoarded at the expense of our experience.
Here’s to hoping for a brighter, more feature-rich future for WaniKani!
I’m pretty much a vanilla wanikani user anyway so a lot of the supposed missing features are meh at best (for me)
I’m actually happy with at least one change - the “today’s lessons” auto-scheduler
I feel like people are assuming a whole lot of things, like how much developers “care”, sinister motives, how “easy” certain things would be, how much money they’re making, etc.
I’m a lifetime subscriber and over 6 years now. It’s doing what I want adequately for the money I’m paying (which at this point is zero, and even if you factor in that I’ve already paid, I feel like I got my money’s worth by now)
So don’t let me stop the revolution, I guess, but I’m not really into it.
I do think it’s clear Koichi himself isn’t as into this project as he once was, and that’s a little disappointing. It used to be fun (and cost-free for them) when he dropped in the forums, randomly handed out badges, gave advice, that kind of thing. But it’s not like I blame him or think he has an obligation to entertain me for life.
Your hypothesis is that site is in decline, and that this is due to a lack new features and competent staff, and dated technology… yet your proposed solution involves bringing in even less money? How does that help?
Besides, I’m not convinced their revenue stream is all that great, given the relatively cheap holiday lifetime subscription option (which I assume anyone serious about WK has taken advantage of).
Also try to bear in mind that forumgoers represent a small portion of the total user base, and that many of the whiners here no longer use the product anyway.
Hi it’s me, a whiner who no longer uses WK. I finished, I dunno, 2 years ago?
There was a time when I decided I probably wouldn’t recommend WK, or would have to do so with more caveats, and that was like 5 major problems ago. Every time I’m on my way to a book club thread and I happen to see that there is another major reason the site is worse than it was when I used it, well, it’s kinda comical now.
Luckily I cheated on all of my reviews so that I could speedrun, which by the way is the only valid way to use WK. I’m thinking of running it at the next GDQ
This is a very good point, though I think part of the problem is a lack of response from the admin staff regarding recent issues. Granted, they’re not obligated at all to reply to anyone about anything, but staying silent feeds the narrative of “the admin staff don’t care and want to ruin WK so we all leave and the site shuts down”. On the other hand, I don’t blame the admin staff given how hostile some of the responses have been. So it just becomes a cycle.
I’ve only been here a short time so I don’t have an opinion on beloved features that have been removed or the way the forums ‘used to be’, but I can understand the worry some have about the future of WK. I’ve seen many a website/service that I used to love shut down, and the first sign of what was to come was often a sense of apathy from the ones running it. I can understand why people are upset that the thing they paid for is declining in its quality, or are worried that it’ll no longer be a study tool they can use.
But at the same time, that may not be what’s happening at all and we’re just jumping to conclusions. While it could be possible, it’s been a bit alarming to see how aggressive some of the posts aimed at staff the past few days have been. I know I probably wouldn’t want to reply in a thread where I was likely to get metaphorically jumped for trying to justify an unpopular change. But again, I know that there’s been several features removed in the past with the promise of them being returned, only for nothing to have been done. So I understand the frustration. But I think expressing that frustration in a less accusatory way would probably help everyone because the reality is that we don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes.
The content is still being updated which is great! The general apathy does send mixed messages though (so again, jumping to conclusions doesn’t help, but I can see where people are coming from).
I’m glad the latest change doesn’t bother you, though that doesn’t mean it hasn’t affected other people. But as I said, there’s probably nicer ways of expressing that.
That’s not for me to say. One person’s post (or however many posts from past users) doesn’t discount the fact that there are many people in that thread who do still use WK who weren’t happy with the changes.
A lot of that may have had to do with the fact that the change was originally buggy for a lot of people, and that clicking ‘keep me logged in for two weeks’ wasn’t actually doing anything.
For the record, I’m indifferent to the change and the bug seems to have been fixed. That wasn’t the point of my post.
To be fair, he does have an actual real-life kid to occupy his time now, so WaniKani is just gonna have to be the good onii-san and live with not being papa’s favourite any more.
I mean just show up do your reviews and get on with your life. I don’t get these complaining posts all the time. The only thing that really needs to be vanilla WK is an undo button but the other changes don’t matter in the least. If you want to learn you’ll keep going, otherwise you will find a reason to complain and give up. Also you paid for the site as it is not for lifetime updates yeah?
