Course with no words in it?

I came across a course in Memrise (via a Google search) and found a course with no words in it! I was actually looking for a particular word I’m struggling with and hoping to find a ‘mem’ beyond the course I’m currently doing. Anyway, the course in question is called “Memory Techniques” and the creator is badal.mishra.75490f.
Here’s the link: http://www.memrise.com/course/228754/memory-techniques/
I went to that leadership and searched under “All Time” and it looks like no one has ever earned any points. Why would someone set up a course and enter no words at all?

@Maxine_Downunder - It looks like this person wanted to create a course, made it public before even adding a word, and then abandoned it.

I have seen a lot of abandoned courses on Memrise, but I have never seen one abandoned before even adding a word.

@Maxine_Downunder and @jaimebrasil ~ I was guilty of this one time :grimacing:. It was late at night and I set the course columns and levels up and was going to import the words in the morning from an Excel spreadsheet. I somehow made the course public, then went to sleep. The next day I forgot all about the course and went about doing other things. It was a few days before I realized what I did. Luckily no one came upon it. I added the words to it and it is still in active use today. Lesson learned - don’t make a course public until it is truly ready for prime time.

In this case, the creator may simply have forgotten to add words, abandoned the course altogether, or quite possibly even quit Memrise.

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Thanks for that @pdao. This is the first such one I’ve found. I can understand how it could happen - as in your case. What is quite weird though is that I was looking for the the word “paresseuse” and it took me to this course (and a number of other ‘real’ ones). So strange. Thanks again and best wishes.

Something kind of fishy about that course. I took a look at it, and what is very strange is that 50 people are listed on the all time course leaderboard, and all with 0 points for the course (that’s at least comforting to know). But it begs the question: Why would 50 people access a course with zero words ? Hmmmm… Maybe like the old X-Files tag line used to remind us: “The truth is out there…”

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We’ll probably never know. I wondered if the creator originally had words in it, then later deleted those words. Doesn’t make a lot of sense to delete everything though. Also, if that was the case there would have been some points earned originally - but as you (and I) discovered, checking the “All Time” points ruled that out!

@pdao - good catch on # of people taking the course.

The course is listed in the Hindi category. It appears that 343 students are on the leaderboard. Doesn’t look like a random assortment - photos and names look like a school cohort, perhaps. Most have only a few points overall. Group invite to a student list, perhaps. Interesting that someone has gotten that many students to establish accounts and add pictures.

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@lurajane ~ thanks for the illumination. You are always a wealth of information. :slight_smile: Have a great day !

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