Just got an email today saying that community-created courses are going to Memrise sister site, ‘DECKS’ in early March. It said I’ll be able to use my Memrise login, and the best part is that the community-courses will be FREE.
At the moment, I’m taking the intensive Learning the Kanji, created by Mackrell) and been studying for almost a year.
My question: What good is the $30/yr subscription for Memrise?
3 Likes
When they begin this transition about 3.5 years ago, which coincided with what seemed to be a very obvious management change or buy out, they tried to garner a lot of momentum with the community by adding games and modes that took well to app-learning and mimicked duolingo a bit. After dragging the original branding from “planting your memories” to “purple”, most were just so paranoid about losing the learning functionality of the original site that they grinned and bore it.
Though the website is superior in many ways, they began to only focus on the app, and I think this is generally where they started looking at the profit margin and reviews on the google store. Their priority switched from learning science to the profit-viewed sense of any corporation. Thousands can easily download, pay for, quit and forget about memrise, and that means more now than those that the outnumbered previous users that memrise had inspired to actually look into the science of memory.
The subscription felt like a tongue in cheek request for support by “giving” the features of the app that none had asked for when i’m sure all the older user base would donate regularly just to support the old intention towards knowledge and its still like that, but it seems with Decks, they’re working towards a more mandatory rate while avoiding the argument of “wait…I created your courses and you’re making me pay?” For now, the last time I had not payed, the subscription avoided a large pink button telling me to subcribe, gave me access to difficult words (which avoid as I don’t know how they affect my word timing and history), and the use charts and graphs, which are fun to look at but are fundamentally flawed for a lot of users (ie. if I learn every morning and review every afternoon, does that really point towards better retention during those times?). The subscription I believe also allows offline courses on the app, which used to be free (not sure about this one, this may still be free). So the subscription is basically for those who still want to give to the base functionality of the learning site, and since many enter memrise through the app, it also provides a seeming “need” to access everything, when it’s easier to see the vast amount of courses and utility still available while on the website.
I’m not sure how long you’ve been on memrise, but it was originally boasted on the reputation of memory champions. They could have taken funding and ran in that direction in really interesting ways. But now it’s in this sort of situation I think where they’ve begun relying on the inflow of the app and it’s higher tendency toward subscription, and higher downloads rely on more flash and game tendency. The future waits to tell what they have up their sleeve in terms of changes and add-ons as their separation of user-made courses lightens server load and will align all official memrise courses in a more unified way.
5 Likes
Wuxian, thank you for your reply. Very helpful. Right now, I’m only using Memrise to learn Japanese Kanji, one of the community made courses. So if Decks just keep the basic desktop review, etc that I’ve been using, no need to re-subscribe when it’s time.
Much appreciated… m(_ _)m
A lot of useful background information Wuxian, thanks. However, I’m not sure how people feel about paying for something that everyone can now get free (I’m 6 months into my Memrise subscription). Are subscribers going to x month’s worth of subscription money reimbursed?
I think it’s unclear what would happen later on if Decks introduced a subscribe function - would old Memrise subscribers get free months [that they had left over on their last subscription in Memrise]? I think it would be good for this to be made clear.
If freaking want my money back. I’m mostly using memrise for user created courses and my paid membership is mosly for difficult words. I paid for something i wont get any longer i’m really angry about this.
3 Likes
I feel the same way, @JoelleSmits. I recently purchased a Memrise subscription because I wanted to download decks to use offline during travel and plane rides, since I travel so much for work. But the majority of the decks I use are user-created, so this change to Decks pretty much negates the entire reason I subscribed.
3 Likes
I recently didn’t renew my subscription, which turned out to be for the best. There’s a dozen websites I can pay for structured Polish courses on so I don’t need memrise for that. What I need it for is user created courses for minority languages and the vocab of the hobbit in Polish.
Problem is what benefits would a subscription give to Decks? Far as we know it is website based, not app based so it will not have any offline features. Staff has apparently stated maintaining 2 apps is too costly so if anything they might want to sell off Decks or throw it full with adds.
For me personally the subscription just became unnecessary overnight. It was good for offline (that is paid feature), but no more.
Do they really think that studying flashcards is the best idea when you are at home with a good Internet connection?
It will be sad to see memrise next year with falling revenue and users, then the developers will wonder what happened, only to be reminded to look at this forum with 99% of the users saying this is a bad idea.
When your business model is based on community, you leverage that, you don’t cut it off!
3 Likes
to answer the original question (what good is the Memrise subscription) - for me, as of today, null. nada. nothing.
only worth it, potentially, if you use the Memrise provided courses
2 Likes
Hey everyone! I’ve been on a quite long break from Memrise and recently returned to continue with my courses. (So nice to be back in the language learning community!) Memrise is now promoting a good offer for a year subscription option, but the concrete benefits of a paid subscription are not very clearly advertised on the subscription page. I have been using the platform for a while and would really want to support the developers team, but before I subscribe I would really like to know what functions I am paying for. I mostly use Memrise for my own created courses or create courses for language students. Before Memrise subscription gave access for different study options, but this feature isn’t advertised at the moment. I have read the thread and was wondering if there has been any changes since last year in terms what the subscription offers for community-course creators or it is more beneficial for official Memrise courses?
1 Like