Ketutar wrote:I would. Because by the same logic one could say "I'm already a paying member of LingQ, so adding one more language isn't costing me anything". Or "my sister has this huge library full with language courses, so I can use that with no cost to me". No, if money is being paid to get an access to the material, now, later, earlier, what ever, it is not free and accessible to (most) everyone.
If I can't use a language course I found in the trash or that was given to me, I can't use any special offers or coupon codes either.
You are free to start your own challenge and make whatever rules/decisions you want. When I decided to do this, it was the first time I had ever started a challenge. Silly me, I didn't think about all of the possible ramifications of defining "free" and how much crap would arise from it.
When the challenge ends on November 21, 2018, I will restart the challenge by making it exclusively the existing pure version and the public library version. I will eliminate paid streaming services mainly because they're not really useful for a beginner to use to get to A2/B1 in a language anyway- unless it's a closely related language like between the Romance languages; Finnish and Estonian; German and Dutch; Ukranian and Russian. I could see it being useful in that regard. rdearman's trade option will be out.
There aren't many people left who are active in the challenge. LunaMoonsilver, rdearman, Spoonary and Elenia (apologies for spelling anyone's username wrong) are the only ones I can think of right now- and none of them are using any streaming service. The use of paid streaming services is pretty much a moot point. If people get upset about me eliminating it in the next challenge, fine, they don't have to take part in the challenge. It wouldn't be fair to eliminate it now as the challenge is already underway. For this cycle, the rules as stated apply. People must state upon entry the option they're using. In the final analysis, forum members will judge whether or not what participants have achieved is worthy. I've learned a lot with my mistakes in this first experience. The next time will be different.