Language learning is a giant tree whose branches have multiple twigs. WK is a good product because it is so focused on one branch (Kanji) that it can tackle almost every twig it has. Trying to focus on other branches would muddle down the site and steal resources on refining the specific branch we paid to learn about.
I do think sites can always improve, but I think there’s no reason to mess with WKs core. I’d rather updates be focused on QOL, improving kanji learning and any features that help with it.
don’t take this the wrong way, but have you ever worked in app development? it’s not as easy as it seems, and the amount of polish and quality WK has been able to put out is quite incredible
OP isn’t wrong, WaniKani and OP just have different approaches to product management.
WK tries hard to stay as minimal as possible. There are no distractions, no rabbit holes of customization or otherwise tweaking the experience, etc. They want a very polished, minimal product, and they want to retain that, as controlling these things allows to keep a unified user experience. They do acknowledge that there is a chunk of users that want more, and that’s why the API exists (plus an API gives all kinds of other benefits like aiding in community building by having community-driven side projects, you can take advantage of others improving your product, and so on). It’s also a lot easier to develop in this way, because your technical debt is substantially reduced when the user scope is narrower.
On the other hand, OP wants more out of the box. More customization, more features, more power. Most of us on the forums would agree that a handful of user scripts are almost essential to the WK experience, so a desire to add those into WK proper is reasonable. I generally skew to this side myself, and this is almost always better for power users, but it does come at a cost.
It’s akin to the Apple vs Google phone wars (less so these days, but it still holds somewhat). I’ve always preferred the more tweakable Android OS, even if that means more bugs and less frequent updates. I certainly can’t fault anyone for preferring the iOS methodology though, it makes more sense for a lot of users.
Ehh, not everyone needs a Discord server. Forums feel more sophisticated, and are easier to manage. While there are channel categories, topics, etc., a lot of people will still be drowned out in Discord. Forums ensure that everyone is able to have their own space and a louder voice (like all the clubs, hangouts, study logs, etc.) without being pushed away in a matter of seconds or minutes. Their topics will always be there to visit, unlike a small Discord message. And it wouldn’t be fair to dictate who can or cannot have these special channels for big clubs, study logs, and whatnot. This forum is already more advanced than more older traditional ones, you can see people if are typing, or if there are updates and new replies to the topic.
Discord is also more vulnerable to lots of raids, attacks, trolls, etc. since anyone with an invite can pop in even with phone verification. A good deal people who join the Discord will probably not even care about WK and just go there to be a jerk because there’s no front to the Discord with the actual SRS program there and a subscription service to scare them off. I’ve been a Discord mod for an official company for a few years, and for sure it was hell and took a lot of time and organization in keeping it clean since it’s in real time as the population grew and grew. Things can blow up x100 faster than a forum. Burnout is real easy and you need extremely dedicated volunteers, and an extremely strong bot or have a good technical team to create strong mod tools that free bots and Discord doesn’t provide themselves.
But in the end it’s WK’s decision, and if they’re ready to take the next step into Discord I really hope they understand the ins and outs of managing a server.
While it’s beside the point of the thread, I have to agree here. I’ve been on a lot of Discord/Slack servers for years, and interacting on a forum again is a breath of fresh air. It’s like the 00s internet!
If you look at word frequency graphs, the first 3000 or so words (depending on language) covers around 80% of all material. But after that, the curve gets really flat. The next 3000 words (6000 total) only gets you to 90% coverage. And beyond that, you’re less and less likely to encounter any given word in general use, and you’re falling more and more into a particular topic’s specialized vocabulary.
I said it because OP specifically mentioned reading native material fluently. If that was hypothetically the goal of WK, as a customer I’d expect them to go into the 90+% range.
Figuring out which words to add would indeed be a big task if WK were to ever to go in that direction. ^^
The vocab that WK uses to reinforce kanji covers a lot of useful stuff. And knowing individual kanji means there are quite some jukugo words that you can understand even when reading or hearing them for the first time.
I definitely wouldn’t have wanted WK to be longer by the time I got to 60, but I can certainly understand if some want everything in one place. Or to have mnemonics for all of the core 10K.
Discord? No thanks. Just because its popular doesn’t mean its a good idea or good fit. Its like people trying to ask devs to shoehorn mutliplayer into every game they’re interested in, even if its a single player game.
Forums remain far more prevalent than Discord and for good reasons, least of all are not needing a third party program, and not being tied to a messenger app that alerts you to messages (if you forget to turn it off). I imagine they’re far harder to moderate too.
I love the forums! If things were to have shifted to Discord, I would not be a part of this community, and most likely wouldn’t have ended up sticking with WaniKani at all.
A discord server is specifically something WK won’t do. There’s some history there that I won’t get into, but it’s one of the reasons that the Discord meetups that do happen have to be careful to explicitly note that they’re not official.
I can see the argument for that, but I think maintaining the API is a better use of their limited resources. It allows for extension while at the same time requiring less in terms of resources.
I’m also a lifetime subscriber, and I like the scope of WaniKani so far. I have a few suggestions for enhancing learning of words and kanjis of a certain level (or are there any scripts available that have this functionality already?).
When you study the kanji, it would help if the order of the kanji shown can be randomized (currently alphabetical) at user’s command
when you study the vocabulary, show the kanji, hiragana and meaning in three columns (currently in 2 columns), sequence of which to be user modified on command, so that the user can learn the vocabulary in different ways.
I personally would love to see a feature that allows for kanji writing within the SRS system, as the really deep memorization of a kanji comes only when I write it. The current system creates a solid passive understanding of the kanjis and vocabulary, but has limited ability to create active understanding.
@anon92551973,
You mentioned the order of kanji currently being alphabetical. I assume you are referring to the level pages? If so, this script can randomize them, and also hide various info (reading, meaning, or kanji) until you hover over it.
Seems I am coming after the battle, uh. But still.
Regarding the number of topics here, I don´t really think there is any other solution than a forum. And if we have a forum, then, I am not too sure about the necessity of Discord. What is it going to bring to us ? If you wanna chat with some others users, then you can add each other on Discord and chat.
Then, the talk about the money thing and how expensive is the lifetime subscription. Yeah, it is super expensive, I completely agree, on a personal point of view. But, now, look at what you can access. Also, we don´t know what this money is for. I mean, you need to pay employees, taxes and so on. So how much of this money can be invested for new features ? Impossible to know for us. We can´t say they have the money. Nor can we say they don´t. So, let´s not pressure Tofugu too much. Suggestions are a good things, but let´s not be too incentive about that and let´s not make assumptions such as “it´s easy” or “they have the money” because we can´t know that.
Let´s enjoy what we have, because it´s a lot
