Just to be clear, on the need to type plurals, this applies also only to the browser version. On the Android app version, plurals are not needed (and the result is accepted automatically the last word is entered), and so it is much quicker to use.
Thanks misxifRM - The ‘must hit return’ problem seems to have been resolved but as you pointed out the strict typing rulle seems to be back. I’m hoping this will be resolved quickly because it’s Memrise-wide and not just confined to our course. Elizabeth
Hello Elizabeth, as I understand from other threads on the forum (in particular the long thread at Has there been a change in the way memrise treats commas?), the problem of “strict typing” will not be fixed - if the answers contain commas.
My understanding is that Memrise has decided to reserve commas for use within complete sentences, and so they cannot be used as a divider. They are saying that semi-colons (";") or ("/") separators have to be used. I see that this course has semi-colons in some case, but that these are not working as well - but this is apparently a short-term problem.
I don’t know what is the implication of having to change all the commas in this 5000-word course. If you can load all the database at once, then you can do a search and replace, but from what I hear it is not so simple to work on the entire list at once.
Please correct me if I have understood this wrong.
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I really find this hard to believe – that they can’t ‘go back’, that previous scripts, programs, whatever haven’t been saved.
I’m sorry but there’s no way I have the time to go through the whole course removing commas (which in any case would render the whole course somewhat dodgy from a grammatical POV - eg der Tag, -e is a common convention in writing down the singular and plural forms in German (or any other language as far as I’m aware.)
I also lack the technical know-how to remove all the commas from the database and in any event it would have to be selective - some need to remain.
I’m sorry not to be more hopeful or positive – It’s just as much a nightmare for me as for everyone else.
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It has become more complicated. In the cases where there are semi-colons, and not commas, if I type a comma it is rejected as an error.
I think that the person who has to answer this is @BenWhately
misxifRM
Well, all the jigsaw pieces drop neatly into place. How sad, something that was really a good community effort gone down the gurgler. I appreciate the need for those at Memrise to make a living but it seems to me the lure of the commercial world (with the prospect of 10s of millions, mostly paying members) proved too tempting. Not enough funds even to keep two separate platforms – the community generated courses and the Memrise generated courses? Shabby is the kindest word that I can find.
I’ll keep the course going as long as possible. Note to other contributors if you’re still around: We can solve the comma problem by adding the root noun, without a plural, or the root strong verb without tenses, to the alternative list in edit mode. I will do this on a fairly ad hoc basis – I just don’t have the time to go at it full bore.
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They are daydreaming about the 10s of millions of users. Check their forums, when the whole site was down, the most popular topic had 4K views (not comments, or users and i myself checked it 10 times), which means the daily users of the web app are no more then a couple of thousands, maximally.
Thank you to the person who is changing the commas to semi-colons. They seem to be working through the course sequentially and I see that they have already got to level 143 (at the time that I write this posting).
Unfortunately, entering plurals is still required (at least on the browser version) even when the separator is a semi-colon. Since I understand that the course is set to NOT strict typing, I guess that this is a bug.
@hung-phan, perhaps you can look at this?
Ok. @misxifRM, can you post the example for that here? I am collecting all the informations, so I can solve the problem faster.
Hello @hung-phan, I have tested this again on this 500 German Words (Top 87%) course: http://www.memrise.com/course/47049/5000-words-top-87-sorted-by-frequency/
It seems that the plural (the part after the semicolon separator) is not required when typing the answer (neither when learning new words or doing a review), but it IS required when making a multiple selection choice.
You can go anywhere on the course to test this, but it is a little easier to test in ‘Learn’ mode, since the exercises cycle through the word ‘tapping’ option as well as the typing options (whereas in ‘Review’ mode, normally only one option is provided, unless you make a mistake). For example, there are a few cases at this level: http://www.memrise.com/course/47049/5000-words-top-87-sorted-by-frequency/43/garden/learn/
@hung-phan, in this level, there are the following examples:
die Aufmerksamkeit; -en
die Lage; -n
das Schicksal; -e
der Punkt; -e
der Witz; -e
der Unfall; -"e
die Kamera; -s
das Taxi; -s
It should be possible to just type (or select from the ‘tapping’ screen where you have to tap multiple words) just the part up to before the semi-colon, for this to be judged as a correct answer. This now seems to working for typing, but not for tapping.
In the example shown in the screenshot, this should be marked as correct if the ‘enter’ key is pressed (or the ‘Check’ arrow selected), but it is judged now as being incorrect.
FYI, @hung-phan, in the example I gave in the screen shot, it is NOT necessary for the semicolon itself to be tapped for the answer to be accepted. I think that this is correct behaviour, since the separator itself is not part of the required answer. (It is ignored if it is tapped, and is shown in white, compared to the correct words which are shown in green, in the screen which confirms the answer.)
@EHurtt Elizabeth, can you please add me to the list of contributors on this course? I will do my best not to break anything!
Thanks, Robert
@dylan.nicholson.548 - thanks, if it is you who has been making the changes from commas to semi-colons.
Thanks @misxifRM,
I know the problem. It is explained in this post.
In the meantime, I can help you gather all the problems for your courses and present to the team. Hope that help. I cannot promise anything else.
Hello @hung-phan, thanks for documenting what happens in the different cases.
When will the tapping interpretation of the semi-colon and slash separators be aligned with the typing interpretation?
Hi @misxifRM,
For tapping test, it is correct that you don’t have to select semi colon in the alternative from.
die Aufmerksamkeit -en will work.
And for this question,
I am afraid that I cannot answer that. It is product question. You should ask other people for it or follow the post on
Yes, I changed them all, but at least for me it’s not actually working.
(fortunately I have a user script that overcomes the semi-colons not working, which also worked even with the comma version, but ideally nobody should need to install such a thing)