Yes, they started with “3 simple ingredients to effortless learning,” 1 Science (SRS), 2 Fun (the garden metaphor), which has been gone for some time, and 3 Community, which is now almost gone completely too.
There’s not much left now except the SRS, which they didn’t invent, and isn’t a feature unique to Memrise. So Memrise, as we once knew it, really is gone.
And their explanation that this new change is only about avoiding offensive mems doesn’t add up.
The fact that they won’t show the course creators’ own mems means that they don’t trust the course creators not to post offensive mems, so why would they continue to trust course creators not to post offensive content in the actual items in the course itself?
After all, it’s just as easy to offend with words and pictures in the course items, as it is in the mems. So if they truly want to eliminate all possibility to post offensive content, they will have to eliminate community-created courses too. It is the only logical conclusion to what they have said.
If they don’t follow up and eliminate community courses, then maybe preventing sensitive users from seeing offensive content isn’t the real explanation, but only a “plausible excuse.”
Welp… you can’t turn away for a second without Memrise taking yet another terrible management decision. Seriously, removing the whole mems sharing system because of a few bad apples? What next, removing words that may be offensive if anagrammed? I’m appalled. Good thing I’ve downloaded my course for Anki, from what I’m seeing this trainwreck of a platform may as well implode tomorrow.
Oh god! the only reason for me to use this app were MEMES and now they all gone/ Wattahell ! Im trying to learn chinese here and big amount of mems i used were written by some linguists/ if they were offencive to smbody why need to shut it down for everybody ?!?!?!?!
I had that thought, too. I once read that the best way to contact memrise to get their attention was to write an actual pen-on-paper letter and send it to them via snail mail. That would definitely get their attention!
I was wondering about creating a new thread with a template of a letter to send to memrise. If they were bombarded with actual post in the form of dozens (hundreds???) of letters asking them about the reason for this decision and a request to reverse it as soon as possible, that might make more of an impact than this thread here.
Ben Whately is still the CEO of memrise and, as far as I can tell, he was the one who was so keen on the whole crowd-sourcing aspect of memrise.
It just does not fit in with the original game plan
But then I was looking at the app with all its spaceship and exploration imagery - totally different from the original “garden” idea of the web version that we still see - and was wondering if memrise is going to move away completely from this collaborative idea on which the company was founded.
What do you think about the idea of a draft-letter thread? I am sure some people whose native language isn’t English or who aren’t very confident about their written English might appreciate a draft to work with.
They are not going bust, I have been looking at information about the company’s finances on the net. Apparently, they started making a profit as of late 2016. So the company is actually doing quite well, in fact.
What the point to learn language without real words and slangs? Yes! It must be offenceve - its a real language. People have different emotions and words should describe it. In school from child you can hear much more agressive sayings. Additionaly you better remember exalted memms, some times with brutal injuring humor. Offcource it may heart someones “fealings” and some times mine, but it’s a price for speed.Don’t ready for it - use casual flash cards.
PS I still angry… and waitng for take back my tool.
It’s obvious now, someone have to create a real memrise for real users — I feel really eager to abandon this userhateful service, that every now and again brings in new obstacles for our learning process.
I I have to say, what a ridiculous decision it was to take away mem’s. I have used this site for many years and I enjoyed learning many different languages and how great it was to have mems created by others, and those we could create ourselves that helped me to remember words that I have learned, and now that’s gone
Was the decision to remove them really based on some users complaining about some offensive mem’s. I have only seen a few offensive ones myself, and even still there are solutions that others suggested, that could have easily be implemented like a report button or toggling mem’s. I am angry about this decision and I hope the staff come to their senses and reverse this decision.
It seems to me that this is a mistake. To as it were take the Mem out of Memrise is to deny the creativity, fun and community spirit that has been so inspiring and loveable about Memrise. It appears to go against the mission statement of Memrise. I have often found that the simple act of looking through the lists of selectable mems with a view to selecting one has helped to lodge words in my memory.
