掲示板 Forums - Writing question problems

I've just started doing writing questions, and I've encountered two issues:

1. I have the grading set at the default, halfway between gentle and strict. But it seems like kanji and kana are graded completely differently, with kana being judged very harshly if I don't trace over the lines exactly, whereas with kanji I can go outside the lines a little and still get a perfect score as long as the stroke is otherwise correct. This is particularly noticable for the kana い & り.

2. There are times when I'm not actively writing in the box, but the next stroke or two turn red as if it detected incorrect input, making me have to start all over. Happens accross multiple devices (tablet, PC, and Android phone - all using Firefox), usually at least once per 10 question quiz.

Also, just a suggestion, it would be nice to be able to have a separate setting for where the answer panel should appear for writing questions, or to be able to set the location separately for each schedule. My normal sitewide setting is for answers to appear beside the question panel, and that's fine when I'm doing other question types or doing writing questions on my Android phone, since it actually makes the panel appear below the next question, but on PC or tablet, having it appear beside the next question means it goes where I rest my hand when using a pen to write on the screen, and even with Windows set to ignore my hand input, something usually gets clicked on by accident. It would be nice to be able to set the answer panel to appear after the question or below the next question for writing questions/schedules only, without affecting my other question types or schedules.

1. Here's some screenshots of low scored kana, along with high scored kanji with a similar amount of mistakes/red marks. With the kanji I had an entire stroke completely out of the lines in each one, but still got perfect scores, whereas with the kana I was within the lines most of the time, but didn't always match the exact curves, or sometimes my finger wobbled, and I got the results you see.

2. Still trying to replicate this consistently. Tried Chrome on my tablet, still happens, but on my phone with the app, it doesn't seem to be happening now. It usually happens partway through a character, often when I go from doing the left to the right section or from the top to the bottom. And it's not the same as when I actually do accidentally touch inside the writing box or write a stroke out of order, because then I can see both the suggested stroke and my input, but when this happens there's just what I already wrote correctly in green shown with the suggestion in red, no obvious places where accidental input may have occurred. I'll keep quizzing and see if I notice anything else.

Ok, I figured out the grading issue and the third issue. The first one was just coincidentally hiragana, but it wasn't because it was hiragana. It would happen if you finished a character, then pushed the arrow sending you to the next character. The *first* stroke in that next character was graded extra harshly, and since kana have fewer strokes, one bad stroke would really mess up your score :)

Let me tackle the easier stuff first:

1. I love the idea of hi-lighting the arrow button, consider it done!

2. I completely understand the issue with the buttons. Given that someone might go through it all the way, then want to redo parts of it, do you think the following would be ok?

a. Buttons remain hidden initially

b. Appear after the last character (whether it's kanji or vocab quizzes) is finished at least once, and remain on the screen after that (even if they go back and redo some or all of the characters).

3. Jumping to the grading thing, I know exactly why it's happening, but I have less of an idea as to how to approach it the most effectively.

The reason it is doing that came from when I originally designed the question modes where the characters disappear. The idea is that say you draw a perfect stroke, but it's 5% (of the box's width) too far to the left: it shouldn't be marked incorrectly. So the system has an offset limit - if it is within x% of the starting point of the stroke, move the stroke so it lines up with the beginning.

The biggest problem with kana are the long strokes - there is a good chance that you'll start off, but as long as you can see the line, you'll adjust yourself and fix it early on. However, the beginning of the stroke is off, so it moves the entire thing.

I think for now, I'll just turn off the offset system if the stroke is still visible.

I'll get #1 and #3 done soon, and will consider #2 after hearing back from you.

Ok, got it added!

woohoo!

I was thinking it would be cool to have the results panel appear below the question like how it looks on mobile in portrait mode, but that would probably look stupid on larger screens. A better solution would probably be the ability to set a separate answer panel preference for certain schedules instead of, or in addition to, the current sitewide preference. That way schedules with the writing vector could be set to have the answer panel appear after each question (which eliminates the issue of answer panels appearing where you rest your hand when using a tablet or other larger touch screen), and other schedules could still use the side by side display (which, outside of writing questions, is a very convenient display method on larger screens with enough space). I think adding a button to activate the writing panel would get annoying after a while, since it would make quizzing take longer.

Thanks!

So, this is ...I'm not quite sure the best approach to take here. 咖哩 uses a character that we do not have stroke information for. renshuu has data for about 6,500 different kanji, so that covers a crazy amount. That first character seems to fall outside of that, which is why it didn't work. Effectively, it's not an appropriate word for writing practice.

Given how extremely rare it is, though, I am at a loss as to how to approach it without taking too much time doing so.

This is a good idea, but there is one major issue getting in the way. I can mark anything that cannot be drawn for whatever reason, but that's kanji only. Writing isn't split up (vector-wise) into kana and kanji, so I'd only be able to block writing entirely if "bad" characters existed. That would prevent it from being used for hiragana practice as well.

What about this - if something cannot be written, it appears in the box up above normally, but that box cannot be selected, and it will not be part of the writing flow for that term? Some message would be necessary when this happens.