This is so true, I never looked at the forums until the ziggy thing happened and I needed answers haha. This is also true statistically, these polls and surveys aren’t being conducted in a manner that is statistically significant.
I think that however the poll is enough motivation for Memrise to conduct better research on what its user base wants.
I also think that it isn’t a bad thing that most of the people who are voting in this particular poll care. I use Memrise every day, and thus Ziggy can affect my every day life. I’d expect that Memrise should also want to cater to members who use their site more often as well, as they’re the ones who are more likely to care about what the site looks like, e.g. me. This is the same way a democracy is run, not everyone votes (either because they don’t care, don’t have time (which can be another problem with surveys), or don’t think their vote matters). So it might not even matter that it’s not technically statistically significant.
You’re proving @VT22’s point exactly: you’ve only come to the forum because you’re annoyed with the changes, whereas if you were happy then you wouldn’t need to come since there would be nothing to complain about.
The people that like Ziggy who don’t currently use the forum won’t be aware of this poll, and so their opinions won’t be represented well.
Here’s some empirical proof: the iPhone 7’s lack of a headphone jack. The people who didn’t like it complained a lot, yet despite this they still sell just as well as all the previous iPhones, and if you go into a big city you’ll still see just as many people walking around today with iPhone 7s as with the previous iPhones.
It’s the same with anything - the people who don’t like a change will always be more noticeable than the people who don’t mind, or like it, because the latter group don’t have any reason to complain.
i think the problem is that Ziggy, in the way it is at the moment, is too childish and doesn’t fit the audience at all. it’s not a big deal, but i’d prefer not to force it.
old ranks had witty names and added some competitive spirit to learning process, and i miss them. simple level numbers just can’t do that. i don’t understand, why they’d gone, because they wouldn’t interfere with Ziggy. and Ziggy could become something like MS Word helper (do you remember it? it was quite funny) with comments during studying (“woooow” when you get 10+ right answers streak, for example) and cues in pop-ups such as “well done!”, “don’t forget to learn some words today, pal!”, etc. and other app announcements.
btw, i just don’t get the logic of Ziggy evolution - it has no sense about changes in colour, eyes and limb number, i just can’t follow progress. for me, it would be much better with natural evolution model (tadpol - amphibian - reptile and so on).
well, the main thing, Ziggy is pretty raw for now, and that’s the only reason of negative reactions. but it can be improved and become useful for all.
I totally agree. I love learning languages and the new system just makes the whole thing seem like a complete waste of time. It doesn’t engage many people over a certain age and it doesn’t create as much enthusiasm either
First I would like to say the original format was far superior both stylistically and motivationally speaking. I can’t possibly imagine what the purpose this change serves. No offense to the artist but these new mascot designs are horrendous and down right infantile, mind you I said infantile not just childish as there is a distinction. A lot of people using/paying to use Memrise clearly dislike these changes as they don’t fit the core demographic. “Almost 5 years worth of data on how we could tweak it to make it slightly better. So, after brainstorming with the team and testing with real world users, we came up with Ziggy”…really? 5 years worth of data and all that brainstorming and this is what you came up with? Removing the actually good ranking system that motivated people to continue learning, replacing it with levels and a silly cartoon alien. You could have spent all that time “brainstorming” to think of actual ways of improving an already working system instead of gutting that system and subsequently replacing it with something far inferior. For a site about learning you certainly make some illogical and in my opinion down right stupid decisions Memrise team.
I mainly use the desktop version but I am also really annoyed at the app changes. On desktop I’ve simply blocked all elements relating to Ziggy. I cannot bear to look at them. I used to pay pro every month but now they certainly ain’t getting a penny more from me!
Don’t know why they have this obsession to screw around with everything and make it all look awful, not to mention more difficult to use! Step by step it has gotten worse.
Like many have said, the old garden style format was lovely, I prefered the old logo. Now we are stuck with this bland streak of purple and a boring lower case m. And of course, these nightmarish, badly drawn cross-eyed aliens. I also remember from a few years back (and really miss!) how you could save three courses of your choice to your “dashboard”, in order to focus on them more. Then everything was all pilled together in alphabetic order, so messy! Scroll, scroll.
It doesn’t look like they are going to make any changes that people are actually asking for. Just a “Ziggy V1.1”.
NO, NO, NO!!
If I cared less I might lose consciousness. I voted “4”. I am motivated by the fact that I remember things that I study… not by the site theme. I wish they would spend more time on learning modes and fixing bugs and less on aesthetics.
When they talked about “gamifying” memrise more, I thought it would mean more learning modes and more ways to set up courses. E.g. the option to be tested on alternative definitions.
I didn’t think it would mean meaningless things like this.
The (old) Android app v3.39.2-439 still shows the (old) global max streak badget (e.g 95 days), which the website does not show anymore on the left panel below “words learned” and “points”.
This is the pre-ziggy draft version, where the Ziggy is still an egg (already displaying new level system).
I have not tested any recent Android app updates.
So the badget backend data is just hidden from the homepage…and probably (hopefully) could be re-displayed with some HTML / userscript tweaks.
Yeah, I am not upgrading my iOS app as it still has the streak badge, and the old rank names. I reached a new rank just the other week. OK, nobody but me will ever see them, but that’s fine by me.
Unless Memrise add something super-amazing to the app, I see no reason to upgrade.
I like the levels; I’m not so attracted to the Ziggy either.
I love the motivation of the old ‘ranks’. The Ziggy doesn’t have much of a feel to me. The old names were funny, like ‘Meminence’ or ‘Memmoth’! It’s already quite a while, and still touches us… But I had them until recently, I think november or so…
Well, it is easy to find out, if there are people who don’t like badges - just use them again instead of Ziggy: if there are fans of Ziggy, they will come here and vote against badges.
All that’s left is to count how much people like badges and how much like Ziggy.
The more liked system should be left on memrise as a result.
How do you think - will this work out?
