For those who might have opted out of the email newsletters, this was in June’s edition today:
Summary Page & Kana-Vocabulary Opt-In
We haven’t forgotten about these and we’re actively working on them. We’ll share more news when we have them!
Full email below:
Curious about what we’ve been working on this past month on WaniKani? I remembered to email again, so take a look below.
Changes to User Synonym Management
We’ve made some changes to the user synonym feature so that it’s easier to see which synonyms are valid and which aren’t.
User synonyms are extra meanings that you can add to cover any meanings that we don’t have listed, and make sure that they’re accepted as correct during your reviews. We try to cover as many meanings as possible, either by listing them visibly, or behind the scenes, but we don’t cover everything (yet, at least).
We also keep a record of incorrect answers for each item. If you enter that answer, it will be marked as incorrect. We call these meanings “blocked” meanings. We have these so that we don’t accept an incorrect answer because, say, it’s close enough in spelling to a correct answer.
For example, “architecture” is listed as a blocked meaning for 建築家 (architect), because it is clearly wrong, and is an easy mistake to make if you haven’t mastered the word yet. But some users have experienced problems in the past because, if you added “architecture” as a user synonym for 建築家, we weren’t able to warn you that is was a blocked meaning. That’s a pain, because when you come to enter it in a review, you probably won’t understand why it’s marked as incorrect.
To fix this, we’ve updated the way we manage user synonyms. Now, if you add a user synonym that is a blocked meaning, we’ll warn you, both at the moment you enter the synonym, and when you try to answer with it.
So if you enter “architecture” as a user synonym for 建築家, it will now be displayed in red, and you’ll see a message explaining that it’s blocked and will be marked as incorrect during reviews.
Similarly, if you enter “architecture” for 建築家 during reviews, you’ll see a message letting you know that it wasn’t accepted because it’s blocked.
New Level Up Alert
Leveling up on WaniKani in the past has been a quiet affair…almost unnoticeable. We wanted to change that and celebrate your progress, so we’ve added a Level Up Alert banner that’ll show up when you move to the next level. We hope that the Level Up Alert will bring you a little bit of joy, and motivate you to keep working towards that next milestone (that next level)!
Content Updates
We have been adjusting the levels of some items after reconsidering a few factors such as frequency, difficulty, and visual simplicity to make your studying more efficient and enjoyable. Our last batch of items to move will be updated on July 12th.You can check out all the movements and our weekly adjustments to the content here.
Summary Page & Kana-Vocabulary Opt-In
We haven’t forgotten about these and we’re actively working on them. We’ll share more news when we have them!
That’s all for now! Hit that reply button if you have any questions.
Love,Jen
