Oh thanks for that! I hadn’t seen that.
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I’m still new at learning grammar, so was very excited to see how cool Bunpro was in giving me some tools to help me along. But I had to learn everything off the site anyway, so I decided to stick with what was working for me in terms of grammar, which I already pay over $10 a month for. But that site I already pay for actually teaches me grammar/kanji and quizzes me on it as well as many other things, so it’s very worth it for me.
I knew all along Bunpro would be moving to a paid service, but when I got the email they were doing it so quickly, I was quite bummed. For me, it doesn’t give me $5 a month worth, it is neat, and I would pay something for it, but not $60/year.
It doesn’t bother me that it links to other sites, even textbooks do that sometimes. I’d think it would be fair for them to provide an affiliate link to the other texts and sites that teach the grammar. Like an Amazon affiliate link for Genki and using affiliate links for the other sites they might link to that aren’t free. I did notice a lot of the sites were free, which further rubs salt into the wound that they are asking for $5/month.
For some people, that is worth it for them. For me, having to go to other sites to learn grammar, and not really needing Bunpro, it is just too much for me (and I spend a lot of money on Japanese learning). This is what I think would be fair, using a combination of the following ideas.
- Providing N5 for free. Charging $10 per every level, so $40 total if you make it all the way to N1.
- One-time lifetime fee of $60, or a per year of $30.
- Giving WaniKani members a discount code for helping them work out the bugs. Maybe a smaller Reddit discount… It also helps to know where users are coming from.
- Using affiliate links to make 10% or so from the other services.
- Having a donation button (I would definitely donate if I used it.)
Anyway, keep up the good work, I like the site, it’s just not worth $5/month for me (at beginner level grammar), but I would definitely contribute financially if I did use the site.
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OMG! I’ve not looked at this thread for months and it’s turned into a right old ding dong.
For those of you complaining about the links to external resources being put behind a paywall, there’s nothing to stop you creating a kick-ass wiki page here that does the same thing.
- Take the first grammar site from The Ultimate Additional Japanese Resources List and chuck each section into the relevant grammar point.
- Go on to the next site.
- Repeat steps 1 and 2 until you reach the end.
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Bunpro Subscription Update
Thank you to everyone who has provided us with valuable feedback, support, and criticism.
The subscription system will begin May 10th. To allow users to test the full version of the site, we will offer all new and existing users a free one month trial. This means Bunpro will continue to be free to you for the next two months.
We will offer a “lite” version of Bunpro that will allow access to each grammar point’s meaning and structure, a limited number of example sentences and all of the reference links and textbook page numbers. This version will be free.
The full version of the site will be available to subscribers and includes:
・All of our example sentences.
・Our SRS system to review those sentences.
・The ability to add your own notes and study questions.
・Upcoming features such as review data visualization and more.
A monthly subscription will be available for $5 and a yearly subscription for $50. At the request of many users, we will also offer a $150 lifetime membership.
We understand that the site is still being developed and as a way of saying thank you for supporting us early on, we will offer a discount to make the price match the progress of the site. Since only 60% of the site (three JLPT levels out of five) is done, the monthly, yearly, and lifetime options will be available for 60% of the full price. This means that a monthly subscription will be $3, a yearly subscription will be $30, and a lifetime membership will be just $90. As we add more content we will adjust the price accordingly.
For those that have already supported us, any amount that you have donated will be available as a credit toward your subscription and will be deducted from whichever plan you choose should you choose to subscribe.
We are tremendously humbled by the outpouring of support, ideas, and feedback that all of you have provided us. This has been a valuable learning experience for us and we intend to utilize the knowledge that we have gained as we continue to make changes to Bunpro. Everything that has been said has influenced and will continue to influence how we move forward with Bunpro. Thank you again for all of your feedback, kind words, patience and understanding.
Cheers!
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That’s a much better plan!
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Love this, smiled reading the whole email. 
Can’t wait to see how things progress for ya’ll 
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Where that other email had felt really… sudden and unsettling, this past email was definitely nice! I think the suggestions you guys are deciding to implement will really help settle the unrest caused by the email before.
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Overall I think this new approach sounds much better than what you previously announced. However does this mean that you’ve decided not to allow “lite” users to have full access to the first (or first few) lesson groups of each JLPT level like you previously mentioned? I suppose this was replaced with the one month free trial, right?
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I think this is a good solution and some nice updates. It’ll be great to see how Bunpro progresses
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Sold! I love the lifetime subscription option, I wish this were more of a thing these days. Cheers guys!
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I have a little idea (not mine originally but I can’t remember who suggested this sue me): Buying access to individual JLPT portions. Life time is $150, divided into 5 for the 5 JLPT portions would be $30, what should be a fair price. Though n2 has more than double n5’s material so maybe some adjustment is necessary…
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Such a “why didn’t I think of that” moment, lol
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These sound like reasonable adjustments!
Just curious, was this ever addressed/fixed?
post
post 2
I still don’t believe that halving and rounding is an effective way of managing SRS downranks, nor is continuing to modify the SRS rank for subsequent answers within the same session (after answering incorrectly).
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This is sooo much better!
I’ll definitely buy lifetime subscription ^^
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Much better =)
And I like how all the links are outside the paywall =^_^=
So the monthly and yearly subscription will start in May. But lifetime being forever, how about opening it early? I’d like to have it in before improvements make the price go up, as I honestly feel 100 is what I’m maximum willing to pay for it ^^; (even with all levels done)
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@Subversity I haven’t paid close enough attention to see if this was ever changed. Hopefully it was fixed. I think explaining the formula in the FAQ (and not letting it get outdated like WaniKani 
) would be nice.
@pushindawood, some additional thoughts and questions:
The mobile version of the site could still use a lot of improvements. I just logged on using my phone yesterday and I was already logged off again. And at least as of a couple weeks ago I know there was still a lot of issues with text wrapping on top of other content.
Like @durtle, I’m definitely still interested in buying individual JLPT levels if it’s priced reasonably. I hope you’ll consider that option in the future.
Finally, when you guys finish N2 will you have a grace period between announcing the update and raising the price? It could be very jarring if the price of all subscription options just suddenly jumps with no notice.
EDIT
You might want to consider sooner rather than later how to handle upgrading subscriptions. WaniKani handles them by prorating your current subscription period which is nice.
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A good idea would be to say “we release the next level at x date. The price will also go up that day” some time in advance =)
So the price can in fact go up same day, but there are advance notice
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Charge what you find is fair. But please, keep updating the site, at least a little. Don’t do another Textfugu.
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@seanblue Thank you for your questions. You are correct in assuming that the free trial will replace our original idea of just leaving a certain number of lessons completely accessible. We believe that a month of complete access will not only give everyone enough time to test out all aspects of Bunpro, but also give everyone a chance to see if the system works for them.
You are absolutely right about our current mobile experience needing some tweaks. We are working on getting issues like short sessions and text-wrapping fixed. We also have an iOS app nearly ready for release and an Android option that will be available for beta testing within the next couple of weeks. The option of making individual JLPT lessons available for separate subscriptions is definitely something that will consider. Thank you @durtle for your suggestion! We have already implemented a way for you to prorate your current subscription should you choose to upgrade. Cheers!
@Subversity Thank you for your question. Yes, we did change the SRS to reflect both of these suggestions. Similar to Kaniwani, no matter how many times you get a grammar point incorrect in the same study session your streak will only drop by one. When you get that grammar point correct later in your review session, your streak will still be minus one. Cheers!
@Abstormal and @seanblue We learned our lesson about not giving everyone enough heads up and we do not plan to make the same mistake again! We will let everyone know well in advance when we plan to make any changes to the subscription. We will also let you know when we have lifetime available for everyone. Stay tuned! Cheers!
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