Smart.fm closing, rebranding as iKnow, changing to paid site

[Bokusenou]

Zvx

Bokusenou

Zvx

Made me sad. emo I started using Smart.fm before Anki and I really liked its system a lot. I started thoroughly using Anki today and I don't like the change at all. It could just be because of the lack of [Korean] content related to my skill level, but it doesn't motivate me. Smart.fm helped a lot as it had complete audio files, "graded" you, dictated your study time into thoroughness, etc.

I know it won't replace Smart.fm (which you can still use for free until April), but the Smart.fm plugin for Anki can rip any Smart.fm lists to Anki. I'm ripping all the Smart.fm content I'm interested in to Anki right now.

Much love for introducing me to this I had no idea it existed. heart

edit; Wait, what? D:
"As of August 2010, smart.fm no longer provides a public API. This is a real shame for Anki users, as it means you can't get content you've studied on smart.fm into Anki. For the time being, the plugin will no longer work."

Nevermind, it works? Flawlessly. I am pleased. Thanks again.

Yeah, no prob. I couldn't get it to rip any audio, but it worked very well for me otherwise.  

[Seinaru ite]

Waterbending-Otaku

What's anki? O_o

It's another spaced time repetition program like smart.fm, but it's extremely different. I couldn't think of how to explain the difference in words, but you can see a demo video here (skip to 1:47)

I think it's really time efficient... for me smart.fm was better for doing long study sessions while anki is more like do a few cards every day.  

[Waterbending-Otaku]

Seinaru ite

Waterbending-Otaku

What's anki? O_o

It's another spaced time repetition program like smart.fm, but it's extremely different. I couldn't think of how to explain the difference in words, but you can see a demo video here (skip to 1:47)

I think it's really time efficient... for me smart.fm was better for doing long study sessions while anki is more like do a few cards every day.

I Like that.
So our smart.fm accounts are just being deleted April? Laamme.  

[Sockers]

I'm annoyed. gonk I really loved using this site, and $12 a month is way too steep for me.  

[Seinaru ite]

After using the new site for a bit I think I like it. The interface is a lot better than the old site's, but right now it's missing a lot of features. I kinda want to subscribe to it but I don't have a job or anything. stare

Btw, it's 1,000 yen a month, which, before the recession, was actually $9. So unless they set a set USD price, it might actually get cheaper. Also, they said in their most recent blog post that they're planning to offer reduced prices for students and cheaper long-term subscriptions.  

[Bokusenou]

Update: Smart.fm/iKnow has replied to the criticism both here (search for "Moench") and on their blog...Their reply on user created lists seems demeaning to me. I understand that the official lists were the most popular, but to say what they did about the user created lists...  

[Seinaru ite]

Well you can still use user created lists on smart.fm if you want to. It's not like iKnow has any new features or anything besides a calendar. Frankly they're in a position where no matter what they do they're going to be raged at. They should've just released iKnow when it was at least near fully developed... they must be really desperate for money, I guess. Although, everyone's getting the service free for now... Ok, I totally don't get what their reasoning is.  

[eden-of-mine]

I found the old site too clunky, and I'm not really liking Anki yet. I am finding the new site to be a lot easier to use, I may as well use my free months. I really can't see myself paying almost enough for a MMORPG subscription for what's not much better than Byki, though...maybe if they lower their prices or add more features/official languages. I'm pretty unimpressed that the best they can do as far as pronunciation is have you compare audio. I can hear myself speak, thanks, I want to know if it's RIGHT!  

[eden-of-mine]

It looks like they are responding to the criticism with a big change in how they treat user-created content from SmartFM, but imo this punishes the people using the custom content and potentially excludes anyone not learning Japanese or Chinese.

http://blog.iknow.jp/en/2011/02/04/on-user-courses-in-iknow/

I commented:

Quote:

This is great, a step in the right direction that respects the efforts of those who made content. However, I feel you’ve neglected to consider users who are working on studying user-created content. What happens to our stats and our study sessions? Do we have to start over from the beginning? Worse still, less popular languages might not have any content available at all for a long time. This seems rather unfair to users not learning Japanese or Chinese, and it gives people like myself little reason to pay for a service that doesn’t have any relevant content.

Perhaps a better method would be to leave the content open unless the creator makes it private? Or allow users to subscribe to user-created cards, with the money going towards them? Or better yet, *making access to user-made content free* unless the creator wants to receive a small payment from iKnow, or keep it only for themselves, or allow iKnow to use it for free? If, as your earlier post suggested, everyone is really coming to SmartFM/iKnow for your work, not user-created content, that shouldn’t be a problem at all, should it?

The issue was that your company was profiting off other people’s work. Getting rid of any work with a creator that isn’t around anymore doesn’t seem like a good solution either.

 

[Midnite Blue Moon 888]

Odd; if you google "iKnow", you get several different websites that don't appear to have much to do with each other. I'm glad someone in this thread provided a link to the right one!  

[Anzthuniel]

Ugh, they are so dumb. Smart.fm has been great for some years now. Now it's going to be all Japanese and Chinese forever and having to PAY for it. crying

 

[Bokusenou]

Anzthuniel

Ugh, they are so dumb. Smart.fm has been great for some years now. Now it's going to be all Japanese and Chinese forever and having to PAY for it. crying

I'm hoping that, maybe they won't make enough money being a paid site, because most people will flee come April, so they'll make a free version that's more limited on features or something...  

[Anzthuniel]

Bokusenou

Anzthuniel

Ugh, they are so dumb. Smart.fm has been great for some years now. Now it's going to be all Japanese and Chinese forever and having to PAY for it. crying

I'm hoping that, maybe they won't make enough money being a paid site, because most people will flee come April, so they'll make a free version that's more limited on features or something...

That would be great!

 

[Seinaru ite]

That would be great. I don't see why they haven't even had ads the whole time they're running. With the small amount of people paying for subscriptions compared to the large amount of people that did use the site, ads would probably get them more money. I'd think.

They said that list / goal / w/e they're called now making options were going to be one of the first things they added in April, so it shouldn't be just Japanese / Chinese for long.

Edit: They released a new iPhone app last night. The theory is good, it looks exactly like the new studying app, but it's so slow that it's unusable for me. ._. And it's not even usable offline.  

[chpmunk]

gonk gonk gonk gonk

RAAAAAGE AND TEARS THAT IT'S PAID NOW.

I'm so disappointed and sad.