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Duolingo Handbook

handbook.duolingo.com

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Re: Duolingo Handbook

#3

Post by mostlysimilar »

I respect that everyone learns differently but I can't stand Duolingo's approach to gamification. Between being treated like I'm 7 years old and being bullied into using gems to keep standing in the leaderboards I just can't do it.

I would pay them extra money to disable all of the gamification features and just let me use the damn language learning parts of the app.

Re: Duolingo Handbook

#4

Post by [deleted] »

mostlysimilar wrote: post #3

I respect that everyone learns differently but I can't stand Duolingo's approach to gamification. Between being treated like I'm 7 years old and being bullied into using gems to keep standing in the leaderboards I just can't do it. I would pay them extra money to disable all of the gamification features and just let me use the damn language learning parts of the app.

[deleted]

Re: Duolingo Handbook

#6

Post by GuinansEyebrows »

mostlysimilar wrote: post #3

I respect that everyone learns differently but I can't stand Duolingo's approach to gamification. Between being treated like I'm 7 years old and being bullied into using gems to keep standing in the leaderboards I just can't do it. I would pay them extra money to disable all of the gamification features and just let me use the damn language learning parts of the app.

I have some news that’ll make your day

Re: Duolingo Handbook

#7

Post by esafak »

I like that they rejects MVPs. An initial product should have minimal features but be polished unless you are doing something completely new.

Re: Duolingo Handbook

#8

Post by mostlysimilar »

GuinansEyebrows wrote: post #6
mostlysimilar wrote: post #3

I respect that everyone learns differently but I can't stand Duolingo's approach to gamification. Between being treated like I'm 7 years old and being bullied into using gems to keep standing in the leaderboards I just can't do it. I would pay them extra money to disable all of the gamification features and just let me use the damn language learning parts of the app.

I have some news that’ll make your day

Turn off gamification and infantilizing language*

Re: Duolingo Handbook

#9

Post by slillibri »

ozornin wrote: post #2

"Don't do dumb shit" is a great product principle

Honestly, it seems like their principle lately is actually 'Do dumb shit'. They have been gradually making the app worse with the only goal being moving customers to the most expensive subscription tier. For example, I am a Super tier subscriber (not Max) and they decided that paying to not see ads doesn't apply to them showing ads for the Max tier. They also are pushing their AI (I think) 'video call' feature which I have no interest in. I have been a long term subscriber but I am not renewing in April. It's just not worth it anymore, and this doesn't even take into account issues with the language lessons themselves.

Re: Duolingo Handbook

#10

Post by Alex-Programs »

mostlysimilar wrote: post #3

I respect that everyone learns differently but I can't stand Duolingo's approach to gamification. Between being treated like I'm 7 years old and being bullied into using gems to keep standing in the leaderboards I just can't do it. I would pay them extra money to disable all of the gamification features and just let me use the damn language learning parts of the app.

There are a lot of pure language learning apps without the gamification.

Memrise, Lingq, https://nuenki.app (mine :P), etc. The relevant subreddit and languagetools.directory will have more.

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