I wonder if free users can see the power of LingQ-ing when only allowed to create 100 LingQ.
The power of LingQ-ing lies in the ability to see the same word/phrase appearing in different context. The probability of this happening is low unless you create lots of LingQ.
I wanted to bring up this question for a while, but only feel the need today after chatting with a new free member, who could not see the power of LingQ-ing because he created too few LingQs. Because of this, he is reluctant to upgrade so that he can create more LingQs. This is really a chicken-and-egg issue.
One suggestion I have is to lift the limit in the first month for a new member. Once he has created hundreds of LingQs, he will see the power of LingQ-ing and hopefully he will get hooked up. In this case, do you think he will join next month?
I was a free account user for a long time (with the 100 lingq limit) from Dec. 2008 until a few days ago. Now that I have unlimited Lingqs and decided to use lingq.com as my main tool for learning, progress has really starting to take off now. I really wish that I had upgraded sooner.
I have learned more in the last few days with lingq (unlimited lingqing) than I have learned in 6 months using other methods…THIS IS NOT A LIE…
The setting of a maximum number of LingQs is completely arbitrary. Would 500 free LingQs really be better than 100? I doubt it. To really benefit from this system you need unlimited LingQs. Lots of yellow words…
@SolYViento: I believe people creating a new account every time is not going to be a main problem. Those who truly see the power of LingQ-ing would know that they need to keep the existing LingQs and use the existing account.
But of course, there are always individual who would like to hack the system, say, by export and reimporting the LingQs to the new account, though this is quite a hassle.
@MisterB: I hope you can really see the power of LingQ-ing after this liberation.
@Jamie: That’s why I suggest an unlimited first month instead of raising the limit. Those who do not like the system will not create a lot of LingQs anyway. The limit is only affecting those who want to experiment the system more, and they are the potential users who are going to discover the power of LingQ-ing.
But of course, there are always individual who would like to hack the system, say, by export and reimporting the LingQs to the new account, though this is quite a hassle.
True.
And while that is a lot of effort, that’s not $10 worth of effort.
And honesty doesn’t mean anything to people on the internet.
Still being a free member, I don’t know if I would join or would have joined if this site needed payment (even if it was after 4 weeks). Not having much money, sometimes not having any money at all would it make a hindrance if I knew I had to pay on a regular basis (i.e. once a month) - yes, even, if it’s only 10 Dollars (anyway, it is more, if you join tutoring, right?). Wondering, whether I should give the full membership a try, it is comforting to know, I can always downgrade again to a free account, when my budget is tight.
Actually, me too, I have no idea about the ‘benefits of lingqing’ - however I am also a very lazy person and am easily annoyed by typing in translations to my lingqs. (You will probably expel me from that site now… ) So I actually don’t know, if I would ever benefit that much from it, as I probably wouldn’t use very good ‘hints’ anyway. (google translator doesn’t help a bit, I couldn’t find one word I didn’t understand that google translator translated correctly)
I really love being able to read and listen parallelly and I did contribute by making two short lessons myself. I thought about getting coins for tutoring rather than spending that money on a full account.
Maybe I am using this site differently from the original purpose, but so far, I do like it.
Just for the record, I do not believe most people who own a computer and have internet access when they say the cannot afford $10 a month, any more than I believe people who say they have no time to study languages.
It is all a matter of choice, how we choose to spend our time and money, however limited the supply of those precious commodities may be for us.
Of course it is a matter of priority.
However, I’m not always able to pay my internet bill in time. Or my electricity bill. Or my helath insurance. Just for the record, there exist other people like me as well.
It would be another monthly bill, however small, it adds to the other stuff. I didn’t say, I’d never upgrade to a full account, however, knowing that I’d have to, would definitely put me off.
If you’re not interested in people like me here, for sure I can go and study languages using books (which are even cheaper) or watch youtube, get my own friends on the internet and skype with them for free and so on.
This is really a decision of you, who own this site, whether you like to have people like me lingering around or not. I’d just say, I bet not all people having a free account would register for a full account after one month’s trial.
The choice is with the user, free or paying. We offer a great deal of resources to free users and are happy to have them around. Many help us with content, translations, tutoring and are active on the forum. We also hope they spread the word.
Of course we hope they eventually become paying members…
And I stay with my original statement, it is matter of priorities for each member.
I have a free account at the moment, but will be upgrading again soon.
I think when most people say that they don’t want to upgrade, it’s more they want everything to be free. They pay for stuff in shops, not on websites. They believe they can get something better elsewhere.
I mean, I’ve only been here for a few days, so I can well imagine, I will be wanting to pay for it (as soon as I know how to pay my food for the next few months, i.e. having found a new part-time job or anything).
I think James123 has a point in saying that most people tend to spend money rather in shops than on the internet. However, having been on a low budget for quite some time, I can confirm anyone that the really big amounts of money you spend, you spend on going out, having a beer or going to the cinema, for train tickets or flight tickets, for hostels, hotels or at Mc Donald’s. Or on masses of chocolate by a special brand or unnecessary gadgets, let them be technical or just for interiour decoration purposes. Things in shops that last a while (books, clothes, necessary tools etc.) are ridiculously cheap compared to that. So is this website.
So, all you got to do is: cancel the date in the cinema and go for a nice evening at home instead and you got the money this site requires. It’s probably more rewarding.
In Germany a beverage at Starbucks or any other “café” costs you around 3 €. If you avoid visiting such a place and brew you coffee at home only every fortnight then you spared enough bucks to pay Steve and his crew to run this site. Is it much money? I don’t think so. I myself run a website offering information about better memorization of Chinese characters, and it is run through ads to pay the server cost. All further income is donated to charities. My whole work to create the website and its content isn’t paid at all. Thousands of hours without any recompensation. That was my personal decision, but many people expect “FREE” for everything on the Internet, but that is simply not possible. So please think about it and give LingQ the bucks they need to run it. A subscription with LingQ is well-spent money!
(Is this to me or to just anyone who is reading this and hesitating? If it’s to me: I didn’t have money to spend on Starbucks and stuff in months. When I occassionally buy some chocolate - I go for the 50 cents-brands anyway - that is pure luxury. I’m the one who is really calculating in terms of whether or not I can buy a cone of ice-cream once a week. However, probably most people do have more money than i have. So you’re right.)
Fingerhut: I know what you mean. When I joined LingQ (as a free member) the only money that I got was the child benefit that the government pays me to buy nappies and food for my children. Since this money went into our food budget, I was almost literally taking money out of my children’s mouths to buy myself anything.
When I moaned to Steve about the guilt-tinged expense of LingQing he suggested I offer my services as a tutor. It’s worked out well for me. Perhaps you can do the same?
I think this comes down to whether you see the value or not. If you see LingQ is worth $10US per month, you will pay for it.
I imagine that to a lot of people who just start using the website, it is just a tool to mark up new words. But they don’t seem to be able to see the importance of vocabulary building and learning words from context. They don’t see why this online vocabulary builder is worth $10US per month.
My original question is: how to help the free member to discover the value of LingQ? Perhaps giving them only 100 LingQs to start with may not be enough.
Taking nappies out of the mouths of my children ? Perhaps it’s too early in the day to try metaphors.
The other point I was going to make is that, due to the immense power and complexity of LingQ, it takes months if not years to get the full benefit from the system, as you build up your personal lexical database, and try experimenting with new languages. Other systems, by contrast, you can outgrow in a few months. It’s difficult to see how you could explain all that to a newbie in their first couple of weeks.
What persuaded me to upgrade was a 5 active lesson limit for free accounts. That has since been lifted I believe.
