A long time ago it was stated that Contributors could do everything a Creator could except delete a course.
When we realised this was not possible, MemRise staff kindly agreed to make changes we couldn’t eg to rename columns, change testing (eg untick typing) and even more importantly ADD columns to the database.
(Many of these functions look like we can do it but when we go to add or save, nothing happens.)
Some of us have asked if Curators or Custodians of Abandoned courses could have these powers to save contacting yourselves - especially as you are so busy and will not be focusing on Decks.
Just out of interest, how often is it necessary to make such fundamental changes to someone else’s course as adding/renaming columns or changing testing directions? Do many users of abandoned courses request such changes? The basic permissions are enough to correct errors, make updates and add new items/levels or images/audio files. Anything more than this would effectively be transferring ‘ownership’ of the course. Is that what you are requesting?
In the main forum thread on this topic, Kevin recently said:
“Some of you have also requested increasing the permissions of contributors. This isn’t on our roadmap at the moment, but if that changes I’ll let you know.”
Just out of interest, how often is it necessary to make such fundamental changes to someone else’s course as adding/renaming columns or changing testing directions?
We can duplicate levels and change testing direction, so that is not an issue.
On many of the courses I have taken on over the years I’ve thought of extra information that could be displayed(I know some people like to add extra information on language courses to help avoid confusion) or tested on to enhance the scope of the course rather than starting from scratch with a similar one, but if the spare columns have been stripped away to only what is necessary then this can’t be done. Also if there are spare columns, then it is nice to have the title matching the function of that column.
Thank you for finding that response from Kevin. (Could you attach a link perhaps, please?)
Many thanks - I didn’t realise or hadn’t remembered that was also tucked in there at the end. (I thought perhaps it had been posted as a reply to that request somewhere else)
Memrise has made many changes to the interface since the creation of some of the courses I contribute to. I would like to be able to set the on-screen keyboard (to prevent spoiling answers for learners, I block this keyboard in my browser) and also enable the audio mode.
Extra columns can really be useful for disambiguating. I made a request once for some extra colums for a large course with many synonyms and got them from a former staff member. I would not know which staff member to ask now.
This might not really be the right place or thread but it’s closely connected: I would very much appreciate it if there was a way to also see who is contributing to a course. This way one would have a chance to contact just someone if there is a problem, i. e. a contributor who is here on the forum.
I have raised this but the only way is if the Creator or a Contributor says that they are supporting the course (in the full web description) - as I do on the 200 or so courses I support.
I also add in the short App description, a note to see the web version for full description and details about the Forum.
As one is I believe only able to access user courses via the web, I guess they will always start via the web page.
I also mention that they are welcome to add comments in the Forum.
As there is usually not enough room to add a link (we originally asked for a dedicated field for this) I usually put that in a Multimedia level:
What your saying absolutely makes sense. However, I was really aiming at courses where there is no information at all and where the creator is not on the forum. In those cases we’re all pretty much stumped. It should be peanuts for Memrise to add this information, but I know that we’re tilting at windmills here anyway …
The trouble is that some courses were created some five or six years ago and until about three or four years ago, each course had it’s own forum automatically set up when the course was created, linked to the course, which emailed the creator and contributor!
Oh wow, I didn’t know that (have been around for way less than 2y)! Whoever made the decision to remove this should be instantly tarred and feathered IMNSHO!
I think it was lack of server space that was behind the decision to separate the forums (plus not every one was used) - and even that wasn’t enough, that is why our courses are going to Decks - I think.
But at least we have both facilities preserved
Anyway some 5 years on, there is no guarantee that the creator would have responded - assuming they had not blocked notifications!
Just over three years. Memrise closed the course forum pages on the 1st July 2016. Nobody was happy then with the removal of the dedicated forums for every course. Especially about the removal of the course function to report a “word” which made a thread and automatically added word and level in the title.
DW7, do you know you can shorten the links? You can leave out the title, just the thread number is enough. For example for this thread you can use “community.memrise.com/t/41153”.
Thanks. I usually suppress the link displaying in full (ie with say the course details, by adding a space in front of the link) but I like to show or read the title before considering whether to go to it.
I would also LOVE to have the ability to edit the databases. I mean, there are so many more drastic changes I can make to a course, yet I cannot do some ostensibly trivial changes to a database I can create? That seems silly to me, and in this case just frustrating.
I’ve just gone to add a Contributor and the text says:
Contributors
Adding a contributor grants them full edit access on this course (except only the creator may delete the course). Contributors can also add/remove other contributors.
Firstly, as we all know this is not correct (discussed at length - especially that we can’t add a column).
Secondly, if true, I would prefer it if a Contributor could not remove another Contributor - I have heard of tales of mistakes being made and malicious action.
