@kevin5284 Hey Memrise, with no app support or offline mode, this seems to remove the incentive for advanced learners to keep their premium subscription.
Personally I’ve been a premium subscriber for 3 years, and solely create my own courses as the official courses only cover beginner and lower intermediate content. I’d love to keep supporting the site, but will there be any benefit to a premium subscription for users like me?
I understand that you wish to separate the courses, but perhaps you could still allow existing premium users to continue to use their courses in the app?
Kevin, thank you for your time and answering questions. I suppose it’s not the most pleasant thing on Earth.
But frankly speaking I don’t believe you, there is no logic. This new website not by a long shot is a sister site, for me it’s more like a “bastard brother site”. Why to seperate them in the first place?
You can not convince me (at least for now) that learning via mobile website is gonna be more comfortable than via actual app, however buggy and clumsy it is.
Memrise is quite big IT company, you have investments in millions of euro and you can not afford to have yourself an app, but you are building a website for the user created courses? Give me a break, it’s 21 century. Sooner or later every business will have an app. Take a look at Google Play and its skanky apps. If you are a big business and you don’t have an app then your business is lame.
I know you had some sort of brainstorm and discussed this topic all over, you had in mind some business calculations, etc. But you are killing a thing that was (is) very dear for such a language freak like me and I’m wondering if anybody in your office feeling the same. Learning new words with your app was very fun and great joy.
I’ve spent some time of the evening looking for a new place to live, that is to say. But all these other apps and websites are suck, pardon my French. I just don’t know what to do with it.
Yeah, I have paid account too, which honestly I don’t need because practically I’m not using courses by Memrise. Mostly I’ve bought it out of respect for your company.
I purchased the Memrise Pro so I could use the app off-line for a ‘local’ African language, because I live in a country town in Ghana and internet is unreliable.
If Decks is not available off-line, and community languages aren’t available on Memrise, it sounds like I will have no reason to continue Memrise Pro. Am I right?
I don’t understand why Memrise insists on being Duolingo. You are not Duolingo. What set Memrise apart was its user created courses and the ability to learn at an advanced level or to learn something highly specific. Now that you are taking that away from the offline app, there is no point in paying for your subscription. Just sent my refund request. Enjoy becoming like every other average language learning app and then slowly disappearing into obscurity.
I am a longstanding pro subscriber, and have invested hundreds of hours creating courses on your website, and thousands of hours learning on my tablet. I am now fluent in Mandarin and Korean, partially due to your (existing) service. And I am utterly devastated by this change.
If my courses will not be available on the app, I will be unable to use your service at all. There is no such thing as a mobile-friendly website for flashcards. It’s an app, or it’s nothing.
If this change goes forward, I will cancel my subscription and migrate to another service.
May I suggest an alternative? Leave the existing Memrise site and app as-is. You don’t even have to continue development. If you have an ingenious business model you want to pursue, create a new site for that. And all the best to you.
Alienating your existing customers while starting a new business model is pretty poor business strategy…
100% agree. If anything, differentiate the Memrise created courses from the community created courses in the app by tagging them or making a different section.
I also have used Memrise heavily to become fluent in Mandarin, and I’m currently working on a community created course for Japanese. I’ve used Memrise created courses, community created courses, and personally created courses on Memrise. There’s no reason that these need to be separated.
The beauty of Memrise is the community behind it. Please, don’t kill the community.
For app users, this is terrible news. The is no way a mobile-friendly website could ever run as well or smoothly as the app. Even things like the audio feedback in the app greatly enhance the leaning experience for me. I’m a language teacher and often recommend the app to students because of the range of both Memrise and user-created courses available. Removing all the user generated content from the app is going to make it difficult to recommend in the future.
I feel exactly the same as many others who have commented.
I’ve been a Memrise Pro user for the last two years with hundreds of hours spent learning Mandarin using community courses. The Memrise-created courses are not anywhere near advanced enough and, to be honest, are of worse quality (having completed all three).
The only reason I have a Memrise Pro subscription is to use these community courses to learn, the majority of the time via the mobile app. With the courses gone from the app, no offline mode, no easy use of the flashcards, etc. there is 0 reason to continue using Memrise.
Please do not make this change - I love Memrise as a learning tool and restricting the courses available severely damages it’s ability to do so.
You may want to consider building the app around both your sites then. If the comments are anything to go by you will see a massive decline in the app if people can`t access user created course.
I know the app is kind of mess, but surely it wouldn`t be that hard to work in access to courses from the second site.
Heck, im not sure why you didnt just divide the site you already have. How hard is it to have a Site made course section and a User created course section?
Exactly. The biggest issues I have with it are 1) not having an app 2) ‘working on making it mobile-friendly’ which neither sounds like it will be available from the start of the change nor does it sound credible, no offense 3) no offline-mode what the hell! A big f… you to all the users living in areas without reliable internet connection or who can’t afford to pay for mobile data.
I’ll give it a chance but I don’t believe I’ll enjoy switching from app to mobile website, from offline mode to no offline mode. This might be the end of my subscription eventually as well.
Or is there any reason, any improvement or solution, any motivation for me to stay? The basics of the languages I can easily learn by a different app that connects users with each other and gets me in touch with native speakers. Why shouldn’t I quit memrise, learn there and add Decks to it?
No way!! Guys, I payed premium membership ONLY for using user-created courses offline in Application!
Your memrise courses absolutely unuseful for advanced users.
I’ll ask for money return.
Will Memrise created courses (such as Italian, Japanese, German, etc.) be available for free on Memrise (web and app)? Will there be any limitations to these courses?
Some creators of community created courses deleted themselves on Memrise, but their courses (such as Learn Beginner German - No typing) are still available. Will these courses be transferred to the new site?
When you say Decks, I get the impression that this new website is going to be like some other website (such as Quizlet). Is the new website going to be the same as this one?
Will all of my personal stuff be transferred to the new website?
As is the case with many of the posts in this thread, I paid for a pro subscription because the app with its offline function has made reviewing community created Mandarin content so easy over here in China where the Internet connection and VPN functionality aren’t always the best.
I will be very disappointed if this change comes to pass as stated in your post. Splitting the brand makes sense but not providing an app with the same functions doesn’t and will surely lead to a significant loss in customers. I know for sure I will be requesting a refund for the remaining time on my subscription and won’t be renewing for another year. I would undoubtedly be renewing if there were an app with offline mode for community content and not just a website with reduced functions.
Please reconsider this change, the app is wonderful as it is currently.
I paid an expensive annual subscription in order to be able to use the offline capabilities of the app with my own course. Why you are doing that with people that pay for premium ?
I only use user created courses and have a pro membership. How do I get a refund on my subscription as the planned changes in March make the pro membership a waste of my money. Memrise could have at least warned us about this drastic change with more notice. One month notice is very disappointing.
I’ve been a Memrise pro member since May 26, 2016 according to my account, but unfortunately I will be unsubscribing. I’ve spent a lot of time creating courses, which will now be pretty much useless for me. I live in Beijing, China and being able to use my courses offline through an App is basically why I need your service. Transporting all of my efforts to a website that I won’t be able to access without a VPN is depressing. I will have to resort to recreating all of my courses in another app like anki. A complete waste of time.
I can’t believe this! I have spent hours creating and editing courses, as well as hundreds of hours learning various courses. I love this app but now DECKS is apparently ONLY going to be available on mobile devices!!! NOOO!!! (Deep dismay!)
I hardly ever use the mobile app, it is not as efficient! I have also never used an official MEMRISE course - the user uploaded courses are what sets Memrise apart from the rest!
I am a Pro user but I will be asking for a refund!
NOT HAPPY!!!