Several users have brought this up, and I feel it is time to put it into the site.
Basically, there would be a simple on/off switch that would let you freeze your account. It would prevent your schedule(s) from moving forward - so no taking time off for vacation and coming back to way too many terms to study.
Here's my question: it would be relatively easy to make it site-wide - everything in the site (quiz-wise) would be frozen,so you wouldn't be able to use it while it was frozen (schedules, quizzes, etc). It would be much more difficult to implement, though, to limit it to specific schedule(s) - example: freeze schedule A, but leave B,C normally.
The question is: if this functionality was built in, which version of it (of the two I gave) would you want to use?
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12 years ago
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The site-wide one would be the only one I might ever use.
Having said that, am I wrong in thinking that the more you use a feature like this, the less accurate the SRS algorithms that govern when to ask you questions again would become?
I've heard such features discussed before elsewhere (when dealing with SRS systems), and the general consensus seemed to be that since the human brain doesn't ever stop "forgetting," there is really no way to truly "pause" the process. Still, I definitely can see the argument that it's better for the SRS scheduling of your terms and kanji to be slightly off than to simply give up and quit altogether because you come back from a week vacation and have thousands of quiz questions to plow through.
I'm really only asking out of curiosity, and for a better understanding of how the SRS system on Renshuu actually works (without knowing too much of the numbers). I think it would be a good addition to the site.
1. Yes - it does 'break' the SRS system. However, I've been a teacher long enough to know that you have to look at things a bit more realistically at times. While following SRS perfectly is great, consider the situation you gave: a user, not having this feature, gives up on studying because they are overwhelming after losing track of a schedule for a few weeks. I'd prefer they have non-optimal studying over no studying at all.
2. Catching up would best be done with the schedule unfrozen. While (as noted above) I am entertaining the idea of relaxing things a bit to help those on the fence, I don't want to make it *too* easy to skirt around the SRS system.
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12 years ago
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Cool, thanks for the explanation. I fully agree with you that some > none. Also, it seems like using it sparingly would cause less deviation from where it should be, anyway.
Definitely think the first option would be the best. If you could freeze schedules individually, what's to stop people from just freezing a schedule randomly and not because they have to? Also, just because I know someone else will bring it up if I don't, if the schedules get frozen, what happens to the hankos (like the study every day one)?
Freezing sounds like a great idea, and site-wide over individual schedules. Realistically, sure, when I've been away for a few days I may be behind on thousands of terms. But that can be awfully daunting. It's more encouraging and rewarding for me as a student to see those red numbers go away. At any rate, if I didn't have the time to study for a few days, I probably don't have the time to catch up.
I imagine most people using this site are motivated by an internal desire to learn, so adding the freeze option wouldn't really be enabling slacking off.
I think a site-wide freeze option would be a good if someone go "offline" for an extended period of time (e.g. 2 weeks).
I have more than 1500 vocabularies in "red" in my master schedule at the moment, and I don't think I will be able to catch up anyway...I think having a freeze option probably makes no real difference for me.
Sitewide, definitely.
That being said, I'm all for freezing the hankos (and pro accounts) when you "switch off." When and if I finally get a chance to take a couple days off, the last thing I want to worry about is losing my standing in the charts.
You don't lose your class ranking when you go on break, so why should you if you (ever get to) take a vacation?
If I switch renshuu pro off, a few things come into play:
1. The entire site would need to be turned off - since there are pro features outside of the quizzing.
2. Auto-renewing subscriptions - it would be tricky (if not impossible) to adjust the renewal period of these accounts, so if you were, for example, off for 2 weeks, the expiration of the renshuu pro could be moved forward, but the auto-payment would still occur at the same time.
What about this compromise? For one-time payments, the extension would be made (no problems). For auto-renewal accounts, the renshuu pro subscription would not change, but your renshuu account would be credited with an xx day voucher (redeemable anytime) that you could use if/when you stop your subscription. I will look into the adjustment with the auto-subscription, but I seem to recall that being a restriction on the systems that my payment vendors (Amazon/PayPal) have in place.
I agree with the general consensus on site-wide freezing... but I don't think hanko should be frozen. I think the study-everyday ones recognize that you're sacrificing at least a little time everyday, whether it's a normal weekday or a vacation or whatever, and being able to maintain that standing [i]without[/i] studying everyday doesn't make sense to me. Of course there are times when it's impossible to study, but I think you have to just accept that and let your stats reset - otherwise it seems like you could just use it all the time.
A little tangentially, but to those currently facing huge backlogs, don't give up! I seem to end up with 1000+ red terms several times a year, and it's never impossible to catch up - just give it time, do your normal daily workload + however many you can, and you'll be back on track eventually. :)
[color=blue][font=arial]Definitely the site-wide option. I myself have suffered from that daunting feeling of seeing every schedule with red numbers (in fact I haven't fully "recovered" from my last "break") so in that sense I'm all for that option (also, if you did forget some vocab/kanji you'll get the wrong answer and it will go back to level 1 or 2 anyways).
However the hanko should not freeze, after all, what's the point in getting a reward for an achievement you didn't make?[/font][/color]
Freezing everything is the best idea.
though I'd prefer a couple of options...
I often have time to do part of the study like for example kanji only or perhaps the low level questions (3 or below)
so it would be nice to have the option to only freeze the vocab or kanji or the high level items.
as for the Pro subscription... I can't see why you need to freeze that. Use it or lose it :D
Unfortunately, as noted above, freezing certain things draws in a *lot* of complexity. As in...maybe 10 times as complex as coding just the site-wide freezing.
2 questions:
1. Where would you expect links for freezing to appear?
2. For timed schedules with set end-dates (like, the schedule is set to end on August 1st), do you think freezing should push that back? Personally, I feel like it shouldn't, because people (I think) usually choose that option if they need to finish before something occurs, like a test or exam.
[quote author=マイコー link=topic_id=5551&post_id=27908#rmsg_27908 date=1359894161]2 questions:
1. Where would you expect links for freezing to appear?
2. For timed schedules with set end-dates (like, the schedule is set to end on August 1st), do you think freezing should push that back? Personally, I feel like it shouldn't, because people (I think) usually choose that option if they need to finish before something occurs, like a test or exam.[/quote]
[color=red][font=georgia]
1. User settings, Quizzing tab perphaps? Or maybe have a unique tab for the Freezing option? ???
2. I agree, pushing it back would make it pointless to have that option (at least I wouldn't use it if I didn't have a deadline)[/font][/color]
[quote author=マイコー link=topic_id=5551&post_id=27908#rmsg_27908 date=1359894161]2 questions:
1. Where would you expect links for freezing to appear?
2. For timed schedules with set end-dates (like, the schedule is set to end on August 1st), do you think freezing should push that back? Personally, I feel like it shouldn't, because people (I think) usually choose that option if they need to finish before something occurs, like a test or exam.[/quote]
1. I think it's better to include a check-box in user settings for freezing all schedules with one click
2. Since it's easier to catch up in timed schedule, and it's better to remain "timed", I don't think we should freeze the timed schedules.
