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An open source web-based flashcard studying system

github.com

61–70 of 103 posts

Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#61
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Anki isn't for everybody" But I didn't see a single sentence about how this is different from Anki and why? Why do you want to reinvent the wheel when Anki is good enough?

> But I didn't see a single sentence about how this is different from Anki and why? Why do you want to reinvent the wheel when Anki is good enough? Well, sometimes "good enough" isn't really the point. People have different tastes and different motivations. Why did people use Windows before v3.0 when Mac at the time was objectively better? Why did people bother using OS X when Windows at the time was objectively bett…

you keep using the word objective and i'm not sure you know what that word means. these are subjective comparisons that you are making. and different people have different subjective tastes.

Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#62
post #4

After skimming the site and code: Do not use this, just use anki. Anki has a free web version (anki web), and has free-as-in-AGPL desktop apps as well. Maybe one day this software will be comparable to anki, but right now it's missing spaced-repetition (which is the only thing that really makes large decks usable), and practically all the other features of anki.

The project is still early in its development. Spaced repetition is something that has been recommended to me and has already been planned for the project from the beginning. The current flashcard implementation is not what it is intended to be in its final stage - it’s more of a showcase of initial functionality and a proving ground for building upon what other projects (like Anki) already offer. Anki web is an opti…

If your goal is to be simpler, and also more powerful, could you write down what that means?

If your goal is to just poke around without a plan, or to just copy features without a unifying vision, it seems unlikely it ends up simpler or more powerful than anki.

As far as I can tell, there's no vision written down anywhere, no list of things other systems got wrong but you'll get right, no insight into what needs to be done in this space.

The only selling points / differentiators I see listed right now are: "no paywall/free, open source". Those do not differentiate it from anki.

Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#63

Not sure if the site's being HN'd or not, but the signup failed and then when I resubmitted the form it said my username was already taken. Tried a password reset just in case, but nothing came through for that either. Lots of error 401's, 409's and 500's in the network inspector.

It’s being HN’d right now. Twilio (email provider) seems to have flagged my account earlier, but emails appear to be working fine again. Give the signup another shot.

Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#64

Not sure if the site's being HN'd or not, but the signup failed and then when I resubmitted the form it said my username was already taken. Tried a password reset just in case, but nothing came through for that either. Lots of error 401's, 409's and 500's in the network inspector.

Same for me. An error during signup followed by username already taken followed by no password reset email.

Sorry about that. Email provider didn’t like the rapid increase in signup emails. Tested it, and it seems to be working now. Give it another shot.

Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct, it’s a web app. It’s run on a server that you will need connection back to - it’s not an Android or iOS app. Again, this is still very early in development. It’s likely that we will look into offline functionality in the future. In the future, we may potentially look into adding companion apps that can sync back to the server, but that is a far ways off from now.

Are you planning on documenting your API? contributing a mobile client would become a lot easier tbh after trying SwiftUI the last few weeks I am tempted to give it a shot myself but being really unfamiliar with this type of web development trying to figure out the API routes seems a bit daunting

Hah, thanks for bringing that up. I’ve been wanting to document the API, but have left it on the back burner so-to-speak since I figured nobody would reach it.

If you’re serious about giving the mobile client a shot, feel free to shoot me an email hwgilbert16@gmail.com and I might shift some priority over to the API.

Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#66
post #37

Will you propose tools to easily import existing stacks (Mnemosyne, Anki...) of flashcards?

We have plans in the works to allow imports from Anki. Right now, it only allows imports from Quizlet, but the ones you mention will be added in the future, assuming these other services provide a way for me to get the data other than web scraping.

Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#67
post #34

Could a teacher use Scholarsome to share flashcards with a group and track activity? It looks like some sharing features are already in place. Teachers use quizlet to assign both classwork and homework. Anki is designed for individual use and the sharing plugins are too complex and too limited for most teachers.

We’re planning to add study analytics in the future to track progress. It’s possible that we’ll have it so that this data can be shared with another user.

Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#68
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, that’s an unnecessarily harsh criticism. The OP spent a lot of time coding this up, it’s still in progress, and they should feel proud of it! Anki isn’t for everybody, and maybe this person made a UI that speaks to some people better than others. I count myself among the camp of people who like SRS but dislike Anki.

"Anki isn't for everybody" But I didn't see a single sentence about how this is different from Anki and why? Why do you want to reinvent the wheel when Anki is good enough?

Because options is good for consumers and drives healthy competition leading to more innovations.

Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But I didn't see a single sentence about how this is different from Anki and why? Why do you want to reinvent the wheel when Anki is good enough? Well, sometimes "good enough" isn't really the point. People have different tastes and different motivations. Why did people use Windows before v3.0 when Mac at the time was objectively better? Why did people bother using OS X when Windows at the time was objectively bett…

you keep using the word objective and i'm not sure you know what that word means. these are subjective comparisons that you are making. and different people have different subjective tastes.

> you keep using the word objective and i'm not sure you know what that word means.

I don't know if maybe English is your first language or not, but objective means "based on established fact".

In other words, you don't know the criteria I've used to rank one above the other in all my comparisons, you only know that it is something based on fact.[1]

> these are subjective comparisons that you are making.

No, they aren't.

The reasons a person may choose one option over another can be subjective. The fact that one performs better than another on a certain criteria is objective.

> and different people have different subjective tastes.

But I already said that:

>> People have different tastes and different motivations.

See?

My entire point was that, even if something is objectively better than something else, people may still want the something else due to reasons of taste and motivation.

[1] And, in fact, you could switch almost all of my comparisons around (except for the poor UI/UX on Macs - that comparison was restricted to only the UI/UX) just by using different criteria in the objective comparisons.

Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#70
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sure why does the app give me a total number of cards to do? why not always present the card I'm most likely to forget and leave me to decide when to stop? why is it so hard to understand the concept of a note vs a card? why aren't there more ways to have cards be updated over time, to subscribe to updates? why does the app cost $25 on iOS? why can't I execute JavaScript within fields if my html/css is rendered in a…

At least for the costs question I think the answer is: Because getting it into the Apple app store costs money.

Same for every app there, but few are $25. I've published an app there before and didn't price it that way.
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