I'm currently starting a new book in my Chinese language class that is not listed on Skritter's "Text Book" list. After talking with the Skritter guys, I'm gonna help out and make a list based on the book (it's the Hanyu Jiaocheng book, volume 1). My question for the community:

For the definitions, I basically have two options -
1) I can use the Skritter definitions. Generally, these definitions include not only what is in the book, but also other usage/meanings as well. This would be MY preference, just for general usage and expanding my vocabulary.
2) I can manually edit each definition to ONLY what the book uses.

Which one is preferable? I can see option 2 for some people, just to make it easier from a definition learning standpoint, but I like the first option for the reason I stated, mainly getting a better understanding of its usage in other situations. But I wanted to see if there was a preference one way or the other by other Skritterers when adding a list based on a text book they're studying from.

(I've e-mailed the Skritter guys on this for their input as well, but I figured since this affects the community more than these guys, I'd post it in the forum as well)

I'm not sure from your message what your expectations are, but it looks like you're assuming that whatever definitions you enter will be attached to that list, which is not the case. List-specific definitions have been requested in the past but Skritter doesn't support them.

If you edit the definitions of words that are already in the DB they will either be private to your account or shared as corrections. In the latter case, they will be sent to the ballers for review and either accepted or rejected; if they're accepted, they would become the official definitions.

I would just use the Skritter definitions. If other students don't like them, they can create their own custom definitions.

James

Ahhhhh.... I did not know that! Thanks, jw. Definitely makes my life easier. I wasn't looking forward and going through EACH WORD AND EDITING THE DEFINITION! ;-)

This is one of those things that reminds me that Skritter simply can't do it all. Often in textbooks, you have the same character listed in multiple lessons, with a separate definition each time since the character takes on a new meaning and is used in a different way (and sometimes has a new pronunciation).
But in Skritter, all those separate definitions appear under the same character. Even when testing your grasp of the definition, there is no way you will remember all 12 things a character can mean.

Just a good reminder that Skritter is great for learning how to write characters, but you still need to hit the books!