It seems like WaniKani is going in a bit of a different direction than what the community is hoping. I think it’s great that the app is changing. But it’s pretty clear that the feedback you are getting is not quite aligned to what you are actually shipping.
kana vocabulary additions that are well intentioned but have confused people
summary page removal
breaking many plugins
User synonyms are ok but wouldn’t the ability to manually mark something as correct fix that and solve a big reason for why people use a plugin?
Adding a new level up alert seems like a decent idea as its small in scope and can make people a bit happier when they do level up however in the context of the recent features being added its definitely less welcome.
Anywho, my ask is to please focus solving the needs and problems of this community rather than what feels like trying to ship more features.
I feel for kana additions it should be opt-in for people higher than the required level. Making people learn such basic words is like a slap in the face when they’ve spent so much time not only here but studying Japanese. If the knowledge entry to WaniKani is hiragana and katakana knowledge, then people are definitely going to know what こんにちは means.
Perhaps there should be a separate “new kana items” button, any that you get right should be automatically burned and ones that are incorrect should be added to lessons. Although that can cause problems involving user synonyms anyway if people feel they got it unfairly marked wrong.
At the moment I don’t mind as they’ll be burned over time with minimal effort, but there is a limit to how many can be added before the number of complaints get worse.
Summary page removal is the most egregious, and after the many posts about it nothing has been done.
Great idea! While they are at it they should make sure to at least have chocolate and vanilla before adding toppings. Sprinkles are nice and all, but if you come out with sprinkles while chocolate is currently MIA some people might be upset.
Especially if you add the sprinkles to everyone’s icecream instead of making them optional.
On a more serious note. I feel there is a massive gap in communication between the shape of the feature users request and its version as it’s being rolled out/implemented.
Many people were not opposed to the kana-only update. The idea itself is a good one since it covers a reading proficiency gap which WaniKani hasn’t been addressing for several years. In addition, the initially proposed words were useful ones, like onomatopoeia. However, when the update was rolled out the words were extremely basic to the point of being mostly useless.
The summary page was something many people relied on and there were discussions in the community of how it’s used and how it could be made more informative. When pulling such a feature down, one should really communicate it to the user base before it happens and if there is pushback, roll it back and look for an alternative solution. Just leaving the users in the dry is a bad move.
kana vocabulary additions that are well intentioned but have confused people
summary page removal
User synonyms are ok but wouldn’t the ability to manually mark something as correct fix that and solve a big reason for why people use a plugin?