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Show HN: I built a quizlet clone in 2 hours

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Show HN: I built a quizlet clone in 2 hours

#1
Quizlet, a popular tool among high schoolers and college students used to study for tests recently made it's core functionality paid. In an era where Autodesk, Adobe, and Microsoft hold their proprietary software to their chests, it's exciting to see opensource alternatives come to compete with them. I'm 15, and I'm excited to do my part to keep education free for everyone.

https://openlearn.vercel.app

Re: Show HN: I built a quizlet clone in 2 hours

#4

As somebody who has no idea what Quizlet is, I have no idea what you expect me to enter in the textare you're showing after clicking Get started. I've entered some text and clicked Learn, only to be presented with an error stating not enough terms. Terms of what?

Quizlet is flashcards where you match a term with its definition to help memorize them. Amusingly, a Basic version of this was the first software I ever wrote (back in 1992)

This site would benefit a lot by having some example data prepopulated on the site itself. For now, copy/paste the below text and set the top-left to use commas:

California,Sacramento

Wisconsin,Madison

Georgia,Atlanta

North Dakota,Bismark

South Dakota,Pierre

Massachusetts,Boston

Re: Show HN: I built a quizlet clone in 2 hours

#5

As somebody who has no idea what Quizlet is, I have no idea what you expect me to enter in the textare you're showing after clicking Get started. I've entered some text and clicked Learn, only to be presented with an error stating not enough terms. Terms of what?

Quizlet is flashcards where you match a term with its definition to help memorize them. Amusingly, a Basic version of this was the first software I ever wrote (back in 1992) This site would benefit a lot by having some example data prepopulated on the site itself. For now, copy/paste the below text and set the top-left to use commas: California,Sacramento Wisconsin,Madison Georgia,Atlanta North Dakota,Bismark South D…

Aha! Thanks a lot for that.

Re: Show HN: I built a quizlet clone in 2 hours

#6

As somebody who has no idea what Quizlet is, I have no idea what you expect me to enter in the textare you're showing after clicking Get started. I've entered some text and clicked Learn, only to be presented with an error stating not enough terms. Terms of what?

I completely agree; the biggest issues on my issue tracker regard better labeling the site and making a more explanatory homepage. You create terms split by the character in the top left, and then (ideally), learn teaches them to you.

e.g.

do, act, drive ago, agere, egi, actus

love, like amo, amare, amavi, amatus

dare audeo, audere, ausus sum

hear audio, audire, audivi, auditus

fall, perish cado, cadere, cecidi, casus

sing, sound cano, canere, cecini, cantus

You first get multiple choice questions, then short answer questions. Later, we want it to show you the flashcards first so you don't have to read through a boring list of terms. Critically, it keeps you from learning more than five novel terms in a row, which is proven to help immensely compared to flashcards.

If you want to learn more, google retrieval learning.

Re: Show HN: I built a quizlet clone in 2 hours

#7
I know you’re 15, but I’ll talk to you like an adult.

I’m no fan of Quizlet, but to call this a “clone” is outrageous. It’s like sticking four wheels on a wooden board and calling it a Corolla clone.

At best you can say that you made a flash cards toy app that can read data from Quizlet.

Also, take a look at Anki.

Intentionally misleading is not marketing, nor is it “hustle”, it almost always smells like a scam even if that’s not your intention.

Re: Show HN: I built a quizlet clone in 2 hours

#8

I know you’re 15, but I’ll talk to you like an adult. I’m no fan of Quizlet, but to call this a “clone” is outrageous. It’s like sticking four wheels on a wooden board and calling it a Corolla clone. At best you can say that you made a flash cards toy app that can read data from Quizlet. Also, take a look at Anki. Intentionally misleading is not marketing, nor is it “hustle”, it almost always smells like a scam even…

I made a flash cards toy app that can read data from Quizlet. I made a shitty MVP, and I'm watching people use it, and I'm seeing where they stop. With Anki, I stop immediately. No real world user is installing software like that on their device, the homepage just screams virus to someone unfamiliar with opensource. This is where I was after two hours; check back in in two weeks.

Re: Show HN: I built a quizlet clone in 2 hours

#9

I know you’re 15, but I’ll talk to you like an adult. I’m no fan of Quizlet, but to call this a “clone” is outrageous. It’s like sticking four wheels on a wooden board and calling it a Corolla clone. At best you can say that you made a flash cards toy app that can read data from Quizlet. Also, take a look at Anki. Intentionally misleading is not marketing, nor is it “hustle”, it almost always smells like a scam even…

https://imgur.com/Ztwkv7k Opensource is not just for developers No non-dev user is going to figure this out

Re: Show HN: I built a quizlet clone in 2 hours

#10

I know you’re 15, but I’ll talk to you like an adult. I’m no fan of Quizlet, but to call this a “clone” is outrageous. It’s like sticking four wheels on a wooden board and calling it a Corolla clone. At best you can say that you made a flash cards toy app that can read data from Quizlet. Also, take a look at Anki. Intentionally misleading is not marketing, nor is it “hustle”, it almost always smells like a scam even…

I made a flash cards toy app that can read data from Quizlet. I made a shitty MVP, and I'm watching people use it, and I'm seeing where they stop. With Anki, I stop immediately. No real world user is installing software like that on their device, the homepage just screams virus to someone unfamiliar with opensource. This is where I was after two hours; check back in in two weeks.

That’s all fine, but you didn’t need to straight up lie. You cannot really justify it. Good luck to you with it, but know that you don’t need to lie. It’s not a clone.

> With Anki, I stop immediately. No real world user is installing software like that on their device, the homepage just screams virus to someone unfamiliar with opensource.

That’s a huge generalization. I’m a really world user and I use it heavily. I know many non-technical friends who use it as well. It screams virus for the ignorant. Don’t appeal to the lowest common denominator.

Quizlet’s killer features is that they have text books that are ready to use, and lots of decks that are ready to use. Your app will break if they stop allowing exporting data.

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