Glossika Product Updates

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Speakeasy
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Re: Glossika Product Updates: Messages 4 of 4

Postby Speakeasy » Sun Sep 24, 2017 7:07 pm

Speakeasy wrote: ... as all of my experiences with the Glossika website (including those in May of this year when I attempted to purchase a couple of products but, owing to repeated technical problems, ultimately abandoned my attempts at doing so) have been fraught with repeated technical problems, including those of the past few days, I will now – with the deepest of regret -- make the following prediction:

Irrespective of the virtues that the new product line might possess, Glossika’s inability to develop and maintain a simple order placement system on their website suggests to me that they will experience serious difficulties in the delivery of the new products. ...
Still, I cannot deny that: "Pessimists are usually right and optimists are usually wrong, but all the great changes have been accomplished by optimists." -- Thomas Friedman
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Re: Glossika Product Updates: Messages 4 of 4

Postby MacGyver » Tue Sep 26, 2017 4:28 am

After playing with it for a while, I have to say I really like the new Glossika. But, it is super buggy at the moment. They really should make it free for a month or so until they iron the bugs out, I mean currently its just a big beta test.

I won't be subscribing even once the bugs are worked through though. $30 a month is just too much especially if you plan to only study one or two languages. I just won't spend enough time using Glossika each month to justify that kind of cost.

I hope they review their subscription packages in the future, I don't imagine the percentage of people who want access to all languages compared to those who want 1, 2 or 3 languages would not be large.
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Re: Glossika Product Updates: Messages 4 of 4

Postby EdithKeeler » Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:34 am

(I used to be on HTLAL a lot but with all the technical drama there I sort of got out of the habit of going every day so haven't been here either for a long time. Reactivating to have my two cents on new Glossika :D )

After initial disappointment and still some hesitation I have signed up for a month (at the 15% discount rate so its about $25USD). I'm doing French and Russian. (I have hard copies of Indonesian and Mexican Spanish too and may return to those one day)

This is mostly because it really is my favourite way to learn and I genuinely make a lot of progress with the system. I spend so much money on resources I only half heartedly use, I decided I could bite the bullet and pay that for something I do use and find valuable - at least for a month to test my consistency with it. Also, for various boring reasons I have not had access to the computer all my glossika files are on so haven't been able to use it for several months. So, I'm deprived and eager to get back to glossika-ing.

Before with GSR, there was a lot of flipping back and forth (or scrolling up and down madly) to find sentences so I find the automated nature of it a nice change. I like being able to wake up, pull up a session and just let it run.

In terms of technical issues, the desktop version has been fine except for a bit of syncing problem between different computers (work and home). The iPhone version however constantly reloads and is unusable, on the FB discussion group others have reported this and hopefully it'll be fixed soon.

If I use it every day or most days, I am happy to pay that amount. Of course if I don't, then it's a waste and I have to remember to be vigilant about cancelling before next month ticks over. We'll see!
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Re: Glossika Product Updates: Messages 4 of 4

Postby Brun Ugle » Fri Sep 29, 2017 1:11 pm

It looks like they just released two more free courses to the site: Sorani Kurdish and Manx. While the new site is still quite buggy and needs a bit of work, it's turning into a real treasure trove.

*Must resist temptation. Must resist.*
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Brun Ugle
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Re: Glossika Product Updates: Messages 4 of 4

Postby Brun Ugle » Fri Sep 29, 2017 3:17 pm

THEY LISTENED TO ME!!!! :D :D Now I feel special.

The timer showing time remaining is way off and apparently it would be very difficult to fix. This meant it would often count down to 0:01 and just seem to be stuck forever. I'm not the only one who restarted a course thinking that it was stuck in a loop because of this. So, a few days ago, I suggested that they add a rep countdown, so that even if the timer is off, we can see that we are making progress and estimate the time ourselves. And when I logged in just now, the rep countdown was there.

I was a little skeptical to the new app and I still hope we get some of the old options like being able to look through all the sentences GMS-style and being able to download the files easily for offline use, but they do seem to be very active on the Facebook group and listening to suggestions, so I think I will trust Michael and his vision for this product. I signed up for a one year membership and have been using the site since it opened and so far, I'm really enjoying it. I'm sure it will be even better once they get the kinks out.
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Re: Glossika Product Updates: Messages 4 of 4

Postby Serpent » Fri Sep 29, 2017 3:33 pm

Seneca wrote:
crush wrote:There are currently a number of languges labeled as "free". Currently, these include:
* Catalan
* both Hakka courses/dialects
* Taiwanese

Michael mentioned that these will be (are?) free as a service to minority languages and he plans on growing the number of completely free courses as time goes on, eventually offering more free courses than paid ones. I think this is a very noble gesture and i'd be happy supporting such a project. I think i'll sign up for at least a year's subscription and see how things turn out.

I do wonder, though, do these courses have an actual "end' or are you expected to review your sentences indefinitely?

Did prices change, or is Catalan listed on different parts of the website with different prices?

Do you have to register (for free) to get the free course? Or how does it work? :P
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Brun Ugle
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Re: Glossika Product Updates: Messages 4 of 4

Postby Brun Ugle » Fri Sep 29, 2017 3:45 pm

Serpent wrote:
Seneca wrote:
crush wrote:There are currently a number of languges labeled as "free". Currently, these include:
* Catalan
* both Hakka courses/dialects
* Taiwanese

Michael mentioned that these will be (are?) free as a service to minority languages and he plans on growing the number of completely free courses as time goes on, eventually offering more free courses than paid ones. I think this is a very noble gesture and i'd be happy supporting such a project. I think i'll sign up for at least a year's subscription and see how things turn out.

I do wonder, though, do these courses have an actual "end' or are you expected to review your sentences indefinitely?

Did prices change, or is Catalan listed on different parts of the website with different prices?

Do you have to register (for free) to get the free course? Or how does it work? :P

You have to register on the new site to use it. As I understand it, that gives you access to the free courses and 1000 reps each of the paid courses. Beyond that, you need to pay for a subscription.
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Re: Glossika Product Updates: Messages 4 of 4

Postby Saim » Fri Sep 29, 2017 3:52 pm

Yeah, you need to sign in to be able to even see the courses I think.
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Re: Glossika Product Updates: Messages 4 of 4

Postby crush » Fri Sep 29, 2017 6:58 pm

Was just coming to post about the two new free languages. It really is a bit of a mess right now, but they are working on fixing stuff. I dunno that i'd feel comfortable making people pay $30/month for it yet, though. There is definitely a lot of content and i love that they are offering the smaller languages for free, i think a month or so from now is probably a better time to start once we paying beta testers have found most of the bugs. Also, not really sure what they were thinking releasing a web app instead of native apps, i guess it's much cheaper and easier to maintain but it's much slower, you have to deal with lag, and on mobile devices which already have limited memory/processing power... Once the bugs are ironed out it'd definitely be worth the money, though i still think $20/month is a bit fairer, and even that's on the high end.
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Re: Glossika Product Updates: Messages 4 of 4

Postby mouse » Thu Oct 05, 2017 2:42 pm

The fact that they want people to pay for essentially beta testing their site suggests to me that they are not doing well financially. They've had technical and customer service problems since day one and they don’t seem to be able to fix them.

I don’t like to be negative, but ever since Mike refused to make the text of their pdfs searchable due to fears of piracy, I’ve had the feeling that the company is not responsive to the needs of the consumer. The new pricing scheme and lack of beta testing I think stems from this attitude.

That being said, the goals of the company (especially regarding minority languages) are good and I wish them the best of luck.
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