Kitsun.io - Self Study now implemented! - Open Beta - Web-based SRS Learning Platform

#1

Hi everyone!

I’d like to present my project Kitsun.io to you all. Kitsun is an SRS based platform which has been in development for a while now. The website is currently still in beta, but the launch date is getting close :slight_smile:

What is it?

My goal with Kitsun.io is to deliver a web-based (better) alternative to anki, while incorporating some of the great features from Wanikani. I’ve strived to make it easy for people to understand how everything works and to create a satisfactory user interface / experience.

Here are some core features:

  • Easily create your own flashcards
  • Jisho.org integration with instant card generation
  • Share your decks with other users
  • Pick a deck from the Community Centre and start learning right away
  • Sleek UI/UX
  • Works everywhere and on every device (as long as you have internet)
  • Very tweakable settings while having familiar default settings (similar to WK)
  • Anki / TXT / CSV imports
  • Full CSS3/HTML5 support for your card layouts

So, simply put, Kitsun is an online SRS-based platform where users can create decks, cards, layouts and templates and easily share them with other users.

Most of the features of anki are available on Kitsun. To make it even easier to test and perhaps switch from anki, I’ve also created an import feature. Simply upload your anki deck, TXT or CSV file and it will import everything to Kitsun.

Why the WK community and what’s in it for you?

I love WK and it’s community and you are all very familiar with the inner workings of the Spaced Repetition System, making you ideal testers.

Also, you get to use the system for free until launch, making it easier for you to test out whether you like it or not :slight_smile:

Screenshots

Please note that it is still in development so it might still change.

decks
decks.png1906×985 1.01 MB

dashboard
dashboard.png1903×985 105 KB

templates
templates.png1907×985 84.7 KB

cards-grid
cards-grid.png1760×984 98 KB

cards-table
cards-table.png1907×984 102 KB

review
review.gif1909×977 113 KB

Pricing

Kitsun will be a paid platform once it launches, prices are not final yet!:

  • TBA per month ($3.75 for anyone registered before 19-08-2018)
  • TBA per year (save $10) ($40.00 per year for anyone who registered before 19-08-2018)
  • TBA for lifetime ($125.00 for anyone who registered before 19-08-2018)

The media storage limit currently is set at 1GB. So far, most users don’t even get near the storage cap. However, if it becomes an issue we can always discuss increasing the limit.

Current Roadmap:

Before launch:

  • Stripe integration (Payment system)
  • Finish the landing page (the main page you will see before registering/logging in)
  • Complete the guide/manual, format it and add images where needed.
  • Terms of agreement / Legal stuff
  • Implement Trial accounts & limitations
  • Layout filtering for community decks (so filtering certain card types, e.g. sentence or audio cards)
  • Implement a Dark Theme
  • Implement interactive tutorials (nearly done)
  • Set up the feature voting section on the Kitsun forums
  • Some more minor points (take a look at the priority and backlog trello lists)

Either before or after launch:

  • Instant Jisho cards
  • Advanced Instant Jisho cards (use your own templates/layouts)
  • Deck level system
  • Card unlock system (based on the deck levels)
  • Export -> Reimport functionality for data management (export into google sheets/excel -> adjust data -> reimport -> update all cards with the changed data
  • More gamification / artwork
  • Collaboration on deck creation (create a deck with the whole bookclub!)
  • Statistic Page!

After launch:

  • Combined Deck Dashboard / Reviews / Lessons (All your decks combined into one central place)
  • ‘Do all reviews in X hours now’ feature
  • A lot more!

Ultimately I would love to get a team together to start making our own specially crafted decks. But for now this is a second priority.

Sounds good, how can I start?

You can register here!

Need help, have questions or feedback? We have the following options for you to use:

Torii - SRS learning application for vocabulary
My Journey of 368 days (+ The Ultimate Guide for WK :open_book: )
Quora in Japanese - the perfect solution for those that dislike reading news/manga/fiction
A website for creating/practicing your own SRS decks?
Anki core 10k by WK levels
Wayyy to slow
君の膵臓をたべたい (I Want to Eat Your Pancreas) Book Discussion
Wanikani style input in Anki?
Is my Anki Layout good? Worrying over layout too much
Japanese Learning Resources
Hinekidori's Wanki deck font failure after updating Anki
My Journey of 368 days (+ The Ultimate Guide for WK :open_book: )
iKnow sorted by WK level
Any tips for improving katakana reading?
Any tips for improving katakana reading?
Best way to learn vocabulary?
Additional vocab per WK level
Why only 2000 kanji?
A bit upset with Memrise
Using Anki on a Chromebook, general laptop advice? - SOLVED (thanks!), bought a Macbook Air
Do you want a WK-like tool for vocab learning? [Poll]
Aria the Masterpiece Home Thread (Beginner Book Club / Aria Book Club)
#2

REMOVED

Please take a look at the guide section on Kitsun for a quickstart :slight_smile:

#3

I’ve signed up. Looking forward to test it out.

Also, thanks for being upfront about this becoming a paid service.

#4

I’m not an Anki user so maybe I just missed the info but to me you forgot the most important information : Why your service over Anki?

#5

Edit: Updated answer since this comment is still being read often.

I think the main reasons why someone would use this over anki are the following:

Modern interface
One of the most common complaints with Anki is that it looks outdated and feels un-intuitive to the average user. Kitsun is web-based and has a modern UI/UX. This also means that your cards can make use of HTML5 and CSS3 features.

Ease of starting
Anki is relatively difficult for users to get used to and it takes quite some effort to start creating cards that have the visual flair that we nowadays expect. In Kitsun there are default templates and layouts which allow the user to instantly start creating their flashcards.

Any deck created also has default settings which make sense (based on WaniKani’s system).

Community Centre
Next to this, the user can just go to the Community Centre page and instantly grab the shared decks that they want, without having to download, import or tweak anything.

Instant updates
Another benefit from this is that whenever the creator wants to update their shared decks, they can just do so by clicking the update button. This action will instantly update the deck for all current and future users with the changes that the creator made in the original deck which was used for publishing. No need to re-download anything.

Cloud Storage
Everything is stored in online databases and servers right under your own account. Meaning you won’t need to sync or download anything.

Same Experience Everywhere
Kitsun is a progressive web app, meaning that it should provide the same experience on every type of device that supports websites (excluding some small browser limitations).

Gamification
Gamification definitely helps users with studying if done right. It boosts their studying behavior and helps build a habit. Taking a note from Wanikani, Kitsun incorporates a similar system.

Community Forums
To help build a community, Kitsun also has forums available. We have threads for every Community Deck so that users can discuss the deck or provide feedback to the creators. Another use for the forums is voting on new features and requesting features.

Instant Cards from Dictionaries
This one is hot off the press, having the flow of:

Encounter vocab in wild -> search it in Kitsun (with the Jisho.org API) -> instantly add it as a flashcard to learn

is something Anki does not offer or needs time/skills to set up.

Collaboration (coming soon)
Ever wanted to create a deck with multiple people (e.g. a layout designer, a content creator, a quality checker etc)? This will soon be possible on Kitsun.

Example use-case:
On the WaniKani forums users often form bookclubs. The users can make a shared deck on which they can all collaborate to insert unknown vocab. That way other bookclub members can use the deck to pre-learn or retain the vocab they encounter while reading a certain book.

#6

Definitely going to check it out!

The name confuses me though since I’m also using a website called kitsu.io that’s like an anime/manga database similiar to MyAnimeList. :joy:

#7

Hahaha I did notice that website but was already set on naming it like this. But look at it from the bright side, now you just have to type N to switch :wink:

#8

Is Anki → Kitsun import a planned feature?

#9

It seems it already is a feature :stuck_out_tongue:

#10

I’ve been using other people’s Anki decks, but actually started my own this morning and wow is it hard going. There’s definitely a gap in the market for a product with better UX, so I’ll look forward to playing with this later tonight. Good luck with it!

#11

Oops :eyes: I’m happy with Anki, so I just skimmed the OP.

A follow-up then: is everything imported? Item statistics, media, card layout, scheduling?

#12

Imma get on this asap :smile:

#13

Is this language/topic agnostic? Or is this specifically for Japanese? Would like to try this for my language learning flow :slight_smile:

#14

Will there be any way for cards to have three ‘sides’, as it were? If I’m learning vocabulary, I think I’d like to be able to test English > Japanese, Japanese > Meaning, Japanese > Reading. Would I just have to create separate cards to test for each of these things?

Also a very small note that the text on the black bars in the shots of the ‘review’ layout that you included looks super dark.

#15

Currently everything (including media being uploaded to the kitsun servers) except progress and the stats (from progress) is imported. I will take another look to see if I can import progress as well.

It can be used for anything you can learn with flashcards. Seeing your comment makes me realize I kinda put it in the wrong forum category :sweat_smile:

#16

Would you like it moved? Regulars can do that for you.

#17

Hmm, I think that currently the easiest way for this is to create a card with a layout for “English > Japanese” and then save the card two more times with other layouts selected for the other two. Making it just a few button presses of work :stuck_out_tongue:

Edit:
@Radish8 (In case you didn’t see the edit)
I’ll note it down as a feature request to select multiple layouts so it automatically makes a new card per layout, seems pretty handy!

#18

Awesome. I was going to create my own mini WK version for my Vietnamese vocab learning. But if this is a way better substitute than Anki, then this will save me time.

I haven’t seen the features list yet. Any plans for a CSV or JSON import?

#19

Cool, that’s totally fine - just wanted to understand how it works. So you can’t flip cards, as it were? There’s always a question side and an answer side?

Edit: @neicul thanks for the tag! Definitely gonna check this out.

#20

It would be awesome if you could make it to work offline too, like Google docs are. There are places where it’s hard to have a good internet access, so being able to work it offline too would be great.