Anyways, I didn’t mean to start my thread complaining but I thought I would give my two cents on what’s my mind. Does Wanikani actually read any of the threads or the feedback threads? I see a lot of feedback threads being made and yet I don’t think I ever hear any staff of wanikani coming directly to us or giving a response.
and whatever feedback we do give the users have to create scripts in order to make us, the users our lives and learning process easier. So I’m just thinking. We paid for the program, We pay to learn and if we see flaws, shouldn’t the staff do something about it? And not have the paying members do all the programming and work by making scripts? Wouldin’t it be easier for staff to do all this?
Once again I did not mean to come off by complaining for my first thread.
They do take feedback, though they’re much more likely to see it if you email them rather than through the feedback section of the forums.
Also, just because they get feedback doesn’t mean they’ll automatically decide to implement something. What counts as a “flaw” in this case is extremely subjective unless it’s an actual bug. Userscripts allow the site a high level of customization without the core functionality becoming cluttered and unmaintainable, which is a good compromise imo.
Bugs and errors tend to get pretty good attention, I think. Feedback in general is more likely to be seen and addressed by tagging an admin or emailing the team directly.
As for why the Tofugu team doesn’t create many of the custom scripts on their own, there’s a number of reasons. Just to name a few, they don’t have a very large team, so they simply don’t have the time to super-customize everything that users could want while still making sure that everything they put out is a tested and polished product that they would feel comfortable selling as part of their platform. Another reason is that many of the complaints they get are ideas for things that can be at odds with the method that they are implementing with WK. For example, it wouldn’t make sense for them to create their own re-order script and implement it on the site (even as a toggle opt-in option), since part of the method they’re promoting partially has to do with shuffling up vocab, kanji, and radical reviews so that you’re not going too much on autopilot while doing them. Yet another reason is that certain feedback is on the list, but either simply isn’t high priority or is such a huge change that it takes a while to implement. For example, there was a recent overhaul of mnemonics among other changes meant mostly to remove a lot of pop culture references that were unique to American/English speakers, since there are quite a few non-native English speakers on the site. But of course, that kind of overhaul is a TON of work, so it was definitely in development and testing for a while before going live.
At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that you’re dealing with a small business here, not a big, faceless corporation. Members that are willing and able to make these scripts are one of the backbones of the community, and it’s wonderful that the WK developers allow and even encourage these members to exist. It allows the site and the community to grow and evolve in a way that the Tofugu staff would never be able to handle if they were trying to do everything on their own.
Your questions are very understandable, and it’s not like they haven’t come up before, but it’s just not as simple as it seems at first glance. I hope you’re enjoying the site, and happy studying!
Scripts are more like mods for a customizable user experience which WK is open to but do not necessary support directly. For example, a common used script is the override script which allows you to ignore a wrong answer. While WK’s position is that this function isnt aligned with their product design philosophy, they dont block users from having that option through user scripts. If WK were to include the function into their core product, it would imply they condone the usage of the function especially to new users.
The reorder script is another popular script that runs counter to one of WK core mechanism.
Some of those script don’t just come out of the blue, they exist because WK provide an API allowing to retrieve the necessary information. Lot of work is done by the WK team to refine the API, you can follow the development here :
So it’s kind of a selling point of wanikani IMHO. They provide a simple, but open and stable interface with extensive API, so the users can customize their experience as they see fit. And If you take a look at the API and third party subforum, you will see that people have vastly different idea for their ideal WK…
They are very reactive about the content of the site. Any typo or error you might point out by mail will get fixed in a week or two. And as stated above they did not fear going for a big content overhaul recently.
As far as I’ve experienced, they have no interest in the usability or mobile compatibility of the site. They tend to offload this responsibility on script makers (if this is scrpt-fixable) or just leave things as they are. As it’s a small team there is probably no one with enough sensitivity to these issues and coding ability to make things move on that front.
However, I do agree that having a limited team is no excuse for not fixing some of the scripts’ dependency. Let’s be honest: I doubt the % of users using scripts is that big. In other words, most users are not taking advantage of all the work being done in the API system. Plus, it’s not like some of these features would take weeks to build.
When features are native to the system, they feel and work so much better.
Actually, WK has one of the best responsive layouts I’ve seen in any site. There’s almost nothing that you can’t do on mobile that you can do on a PC.
The fact that they even support scripts to the extension (heh) that they do is exceptional, and every now and then you’ll even see them help script-writers debug the logic of their code to work better with the WK code.
Whenever they overhaul some aspect to the site, they always listen to complaints and suggestions. Hell, they accepted 2 of my suggestions; one was the name of the short-lived @WaniMekani bot, and the other was the option to sort lessons by ascending level then shuffled when they changed how lessons were ordered.
Hang around in the forums enough and you’ll see a bunch of the Tofugu team popping in and out of threads every now and then.
To be honest I think their replies are nothing but disgraceful when you contact them. I am already certified at JLPT N5, and have already found many synonyms that are extremely basic and should be included in the vocabulary. Instead I get marked wrong and it holds back progression for new lessons. The same with very simple typos where the keyboard button slips and you are clearly correct and if you get a screenshot proving you are correct they will not erase incorrect scores.
I see their inability to undo their mistakes as a major hindrance to progression and learning as it is forcing people who are advanced enough already to dwell on easy items rather than learn new harder ones.
I’m not sure if that’s what you mean, but you can add your own synonyms for radicals, kanji and vocab. Also, in my experience, they checker is very tolerant with regards to types. Sometimes much too tolerant. Maybe just take a moment after you’re done typing to make sure there’s no big mistake.
That being said, your tone is very aggressive, and I’m not surprised that your not getting a warm response. Try being nicer to people and they will be nicer to you
They had a topic from before where they asked about this stuff and we told them about user synonyms and whatnot. They said they found that info helpful. I guess it wasn’t helpful enough.
I haven’t taken any JLPT test, and not to diminish your accomplishment too much, but aren’t N5 and N4 rather negligible in the grand scheme of things? I have heard many times that N3 is generally the lowest acceptable, “You can speak some Japanese now,” level. You learn a lot of N4 kanji through the lower levels as well, and relearning basics is never a bad thing, and can only strengthen your foundations.
As for synonyms that should be included, I see you have been informed that you can add your own, so I don’t see the big issue. If you get something ‘wrong’ that you feel isn’t, just take a second, add the synonyms you think should be there and move on. Going back an SRS level isn’t the end of the world. Though trust me, I know what it feels like to have to wait an extra 8 hours to level up, lol, happened to me yesterday when I went to fast and typo’d.
Speaking of small typos, back when I was level 20 some years ago, I remember typing some things that were way off that were accepted as correct. I would much rather get something wrong and have to do it again than accidentally reinforce potentially wrong information in my head. The system is pretty lenient as long as the answer is over 4 letters.
Hopefully you can grow to like the system as it is, you stand to learn a lot here, and while the beginning seems disheartening (I reset 20 levels backwards and am retreading old comfortable ground myself) patience and understanding will help you so much throughout your journey here. Userscripts aren’t hard to use, though I would stay away from any scripts that touch lessons or reviews in any way unless you have tons of self control, they are too easy to abuse, and like some have said in this thread, the staff built the system this way to optimize learning.
I saw in the thread that @Leebo linked that he means spelling errors in the reading. I don’t think there is any lenience there and I don’t want there to be any. And expecting the staff to reset your vocab for you manually is kind of silly. The override script was mentioned in the other thread, but no link was provided.
In the dozens of emails I’ve received from the WaniKani staff I’ve never once had a negative interaction.
If they were rude (which I still doubt), perhaps you should look at your emails and see if you instigated the situation unintentionally. If they simply disagreed with your suggestions, that’s not disgraceful at all. It’s their right as the creator of the product to build it however they like. If you’re not okay with that, you can make due or not use the product.
. “Ninja” edited it
nevertheless.