Do many people, say above level 20, use wk without user scripts?
I’m moved to ask, of course, because of the outcry about the recent update. So many people have said that wk is unusable, for them, without some script or other.
— Dave
4 Likes
I wonder about this as well. It might be helpful to take into account that not all WK users also become forum users. 
I think, it’s safe to say that people who are not on these forums don’t use scripts and are thus not really affected much by the recent changes. (well, I have never found my way to a WK script but through these forums, but I guess it’s theoretically possible?)
People who have been part of the community for a longer period of time, have surely heard about scripts at some point - whether they decided to use them or not. I’ve seen plenty of users just not wanting to get into that sort of thing. But, I feel like many end up liking some script or the other at some point during their WK journey.
10 Likes
Can’t speak on behalf of 20+ users myself obviously, but I imagine this is the case. I would have never known scripts were possible had it not been for meandering my way to the forums while bored between reviews. I read through all of jprspereira’s Level 60 post and took a lot of their advice to heart, particularly about utilizing scripts. Compared to my first foray with WK before resetting earlier this month it has made the experience a lot nicer. Lesson reordering so I don’t have to slog through 60 vocab after hitting a new level (really irked me my first time around), custom self-study for additional practice options, detailed review timelines, typo catchers, etc.
I also imagine a lot of mobile only users just kind of stick with the base WYSIWYG experience in their browsers. There seem to be a lot of mobile users who weren’t aware of Flaming Durtles or Tsurukame judging by the posts in the update thread as well.
4 Likes
yes, this one surprised me, but I guess it makes sense: there is no official mobile app for WK, and to know about these 3rd party ones, you’d have to get onto the forums. I did use a different app before, but that got discontinued. Tsurukame is just much better anyways. Still, I only do stuff on mobile if I can’t help it. I much prefer typing on a real keyboard. ^^’
1 Like
I do have some scripts installed, but I overwhelmingly do my reviews on Android with FlamingDurtles instead of the web app (which is why this update doesn’t affect me).
I would have quit WK a long, long time ago if I had to use the vanilla WK experience, without either any of the user scripts or the built-in functions of FD that are missing from WK. No Anki mode for meanings and no undo button would be dealbreakers for me, and without lesson reordering (which I only started using in the mid-40s, strangely), I feel like the workload is poorly balanced - I much prefer doing 10 Kanji lessons and 10 vocab lessons a day than having days of learning only Kanji and others of learning only vocab.
2 Likes
You don’t have to be active on the forums to have an account on here, though. There were many people of various levels in the update thread posting for the first time in a long time or ever (though admittedly I don’t remember how many said whether they use scripts or not). It’s possible for there to be users who checked out the forums, found scripts while poking around, and just don’t bother doing more than lurk, if they visit the forums at all anymore
So not being active on the forums doesn’t discount someone from using scripts, but it is still difficult to get an idea of how many users (total or active) use them
Update: I just searched “wanikani” in the App Store, and Tsurukame was the first (non-ad) result, with Jakeipuu the fourth. I don’t know if Flaming Durtles comes up if you search for WaniKani in the Android store (whatever it’s called; I don’t remember), but I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s definitely possible for someone to come across the third-party apps without seeing them on the forums.
1 Like
Yes, I use it without scripts, but only because it’s through the Flaming Durtles that basically does the same things as the user scripts
2 Likes
I for one learned about scripts via a reddit post, spent enough time on that specific part of the forums to find what I wanted from them, and didn’t much visit the forums outside of that until this update. I’m one of those people who commented for the first time yesterday.
4 Likes
A fair few first time posters in that other thread came just to complain about scripts being broken tho, so I’m not entirely sure about this assumption even though it sounds logical on face value.
4 Likes
Yeah, I’m wondering about that as well. 
Then again, you can become a forum user, but not post? Lurkers are the dark whales of forums after all.
And I guess maybe the Third Party App Subforum is also publicly available? So searchable by Google? (unlike Campfire)
Anyway, there is 0 time between registering and being able to post on WK, as far as I know.
1 Like
Don’t use scripts. Do use Tsurukame for a large share of my WK stuff. Don’t have an opinion about the update, but I do think that a lot of the whining about how terrible vanilla WK is is overblown. Certainly there are lots of threads about how people have gotten themselves into deep holes through overuse of the very same scripts that people are saying are indispensable.
2 Likes
It seems most (*of the ones complaining) can’t handle WK without Double Check, which allows correcting typos, etc. Which makes it seem like they don’t actually know the answers to the questions. I mean really, how many typos can you have in a review session to lose your mind about not being able to use Double Check?
2 Likes
I think it’s worth to rein back both sides of these arguments. Sure, there have been cases of overuse of double-check and override, but there are legitimate need for it for many with reading disabilities or other issues.
I do think WK should make vanilla options for people with set requirements to use the site better. That includes, fixing the color scheme, which was not fixed for color-blindness as far as I understand it. Same with getting all items to have sound, not just vocab.
But, I know it’s a small team, and they might not be able to do all of that. I do think those things were much more priority than the changes that got implemented, imo. 
@mods What are your thoughts about making the side fully available to people with disabilities? Is this in the pipeline? Ngl, it’s something I’ve thought about before as I saw new “bigger” things get implemented.
For what it’s worth, the only scripts I ever used are display ones that are no longer relevant (i.e. timeline improvements back when the number of reviews displayed as “42+” if there were more than that). I never did any reordering, takeback, filtering, etc. and haven’t used any third-party Wanikani apps.
I remember appreciating that the lack of a takeback taught me to not worry too much about getting things wrong - there’s so many words to encounter so, so many times when reading that seeing one item one more time isn’t a big deal.
There’s nothing, like, righteous in that though. If anything I suppose it mainly just means my native language is English and I don’t have any obstacles that would cause problems with typing answers.
Also, my personal approach to language learning is very “get so used to a simple tool it becomes second nature” rather than “make your tools as efficient as possible.” Which is probably a lot of it. Both approaches I’m sure are fine, even though personally I don’t have any interest in the latter.
3 Likes
Let’s see… people with motor issues, ADHDers whose brains work faster than their hands (though I suppose you could lump that under motor issues), people whose native language isn’t English (which is a lot of users!)… There’s even getting something “wrong” because it’s not listed among WK’s accepted answers and you haven’t yet added it to user synonyms, when the answer you input is a valid translation!
10 Likes
Language translations are rarely 1 - 1. Instead of wasting time on an SRS memorizing exact translations, many think it’s better to just get the general idea and then refine it during monolingual learning
3 Likes
Oh absolutely, I agree that Double Check is a necessary userscript (and for certain reasons should remain a userscript). But most (all?) of the complaints I’ve seen have been from regular users having absolute meltdowns because they’re so stressed out about not being able to fix simple mistakes.
When you get a lot of mistakes in a single session when you actually know the item, that becomes very frustrating and demotivating, not to mention it can potentially set you back by a lot, needlessly
9 Likes
So for me there are a few aspects to it:
-
Having undo means that I can go fast without having to triple check my answer before pressing
enter. It means that I can answer super quickly for items I know well (or think I know well) and risk making typos that won’t penalize me. If I get something wrong I check if it’s a dumb typo I should undo or if I did make a mistake and should accept it. That makes reviews significantly faster and less stressful. -
For meanings it’s super easy to get something wrong-but-not-really by answering with a synonym or a closely related word. Typically answering a kanji meaning with a verb instead of a noun for instance. For instance you get 禁 and you answer “forbidden” instead of “prohibit” and get dinged. In these instances failing the entry feels too harsh IMO.
6 Likes
I use a few scripts. The only one that I am really missing right now (I think?) is the one that makes all onyomi appear as katakana. I liked that one because 1) my ability to read katakana is a lot weaker than hiragana, so it forced me to become more comfortable with katakana; and 2) most dictionaries put onyomi readings in katakana, so it felt like good practice to learn to associate the two. Hopefully it will get updated and I’ll be able to use it again.
I have in moments of frustration (such as when a typo or an unrecognized synonym cost me a burn) installed and turned on the double check script, but I’m actually kind of glad it doesn’t work anymore. I would definitely abuse it when it was turned on. I am trying to be more accepting of the fact that I’m going to be here doing tons of reviews for a long time anyway. I might as well review this item that I really should have burned a couple more times–what’s the harm?
That’s how I feel anyway. I understand it was necessary to some people’s learning processes. For me, though, I am kind of relieved that the temptation has been removed.
1 Like