I was working through one of my courses last night on the app and ran into a couple of punctuation problems. I’ve also had some punctuation errors on the website as well, so I don’t know if this would be better suited to the general Memrise Bug Control category, but I’ll just post the app-based errors here.
I think perhaps additional punctuation within responses is causing the problem–in one case parentheses marking optional text, in the other, a hyphen. Here are screenshots of the two incorrect answers I gave that should have been accepted:
On a somewhat unrelated note, I also had difficulty accessing the forums from my phone. I could access them in Safari, but when I tried to log in, I was sent to the Memrise app. The app did not log me in to the forums on Safari or give me access to them from within the app, so I was unable to post this bug report until returning to my laptop.
It’s been like that for as long as I can remember. Like you, I can access the forum (read only) in Safari on my iPad but, if I try to log in, I get diverted to the Memrise app - from where there is no link to the forum. So, to post anything on the forum has to wait until I’m on my laptop. I don’t think it’s a bug, as such.
Did you type these answers or were it mulitple choice questions?
Isn’t it true, for typing, that you need to type the exact answer (i.e. “Great Bear (Ursa Major); Aldebaran or Arcturus.”)? And that, unless “Great Bear” is configured (with the ‘alternative’ button) as an alternative, that long answer “Great Bear (Ursa…” is the only correct one?
(Typing English would be unusual though if that isn’t the target language).
And, for multiple choice questions, isn’t it true that each of the choices is a literal option in the English column of the course (assuming the name is an English column) and that the learner has to pick the one that is exactly the same as in the English in the record for that word?
So in that case it would seem to me that there was a choice “Great Bear (Ursa Major); Aldebaran or Arcturus”, a choice “Great Bear” (which you chose) and 2 or 4 other choices.
That is how I understood the system to work, though I have read long time ago in a thread that somehow a punctuation (whether it was comma or semicolon I can’t remember) could indicate alternatives. In my courses but comma and semicolon are sometimes used in the question/answer and I have never noticed they were treated different then just text.
Any other experience or understanding how it should work, I’d like to hear it, because I have been wondering that myself.
Well this isn’t really a solution, but it’s the workaround I used when for some reason I got logged out from the forums on my phone. You can uninstall the app, login to the forum, then reinstall the app and login to the app.
Not really ideal I know, but it gets the job done.
It wasn’t a multiple choice answer; in multiple choice questions, alternatives are irrelevant because the full answer is given.
As for the question re: typing vs. tapping, the same types of answers are accepted for both. Here’s a screenshot of a portion of the punctuation guide which references this:
Based on this chart, your right that the answer ‘she-goat’ should have been accepted as correct.
However, regarding the ‘Great Bear’ answer, it should have been ‘Great Bear (Ursa Major)’. Though for us a parenthesis is character with a special meaning, Memrise just handles it as being part of the answer.
In the past I didn’t notice a difference in accepted answers regarding ; or /. I really wonder whether the Memrise App really works as the table says. I am going to test is when I have time!
BTW: I suppose you have a good reason for typing the English answers. I only make questions typing the language I am trying to learn, not the English. Or are you learning English, and is the other language your native one?
Again, I’ve checked the punctuation guide. Anything in parentheses is optional.
And thank you for your advice regarding about the fifth course I’ve designed, solely for myself, but I really don’t need it. This is a dead language. I am not composing texts in Biblical Hebrew. I am not speaking Biblical Hebrew with anyone. There is no reason for me to practice translation in a direction I do not translate.
Before offering unsolicited advice, please consider instead actually asking me why I do something that confuses you. (“I suppose you have a good reason” is not a question and can be read as quite condescending.) If, after clarifying what I am attempting to achieve, you still feel the need to offer advice, then do so without condescension. I may be new to the forums, but I am far from new to Memrise or course creation.
Sorry, I didn’t mean it that way. I actually didn’t want to ask ‘why do you type English’ because that can sound condescending, and so shared my own experience (for what it is worth), but ironically I achieved the opposite. Thanks for sharing your experience; it makes things clear.
And thanks for the other explanation about parenthesis. I searched for the exact text and found A Guide to Typing Tests, Tapping Tests and Memrise Punctuation. Though I’ve had situations in the past where there were parenthesis, and if I didn’t type them, the answer was wrong. But who knows, I didn’t do it correctly.
