Hey everyone. We're considering simplifying how we do keep track of what you're learning. Bottom line is, you wouldn't be able to stop learning a set of characters by disabling a list. So for example if you add a bunch of characters from the Radical list, but then decide you don't want to study radicals, you wouldn't be able to just turn off the Radical list and all associated characters and tones in one click of a button on the vocab page.

This would improve things for everyone in a number of ways, especially going forward. It would simplify and speed up our code a great deal. It would make the number of items to review completely accurate all the time (as opposed to now when it might be including things that the system hasn't yet figured out have been ignored). Simplified code would also make the system more stable, and we could focus more of our time on other things. One other problem is the current system is not very scalable, so we would have to limit the number of lists you could have enabled at any one time, which I think would become frustrating when we have many more lists available, as well as custom lists.

And although you wouldn't have that high level control over what you are studying, you would still have other ways, and soon more ways, to exercise control. You will eventually be able to go through lists section by section and choose items to ignore. You can always ignore things on an individual basis while you study them. And you will still be able to choose a subset of items to study with Cram Mode (which I plan to expand and improve later as well).

So we want to make sure this would not be a major disruption to our users. If it's important to you guys, we'll try to figure out a better way to keep it. We could also use suggestions for alternative ways you could control what you are learning. Let us know your thoughts!

I say do it!

Not being able to remove a list I was just trying out, if I don't like it? Is ignoring each item one at a time going to be the only get rid of it? Sounds painful, although I'm probably misunderstanding it. I do place a high value on "high level control over what you are studying," so I hope whatever change you make won't be too detrimental.

Sounds fine, but Chad also makes a strong point. Users current have no idea about the vocab in any of the lists until they add them.
However I think this is largely a separate problem. I know it took me a while until I figured out what the Easiest->Hardest order was.
Do it!

U made your point.
U should do it.

(Anyway,Skritter is so well done & well thought, I just trust its makers to keep making the right choices).

Please don't remove this feature. Let me tell you how I plan to use it in the future.

So far I've mastered the HSK 1 list. I use Anki for my other Chinese flashcard needs, though that will hopefully decrease to a certain extent as Skritter's power and flexibility increase.

In the HSK 1 List, there were very few characters that I hadn't learned or at least become familiar with previously, but there were about 8 or so.

As soon as the second HSK list is available, I'd like to slowly work my way through it, but I really don't want to be overwhelmed by 800 new characters, an increasing number of which will be unfamiliar, so I'd like to disable that list after the first 100 new characters or so. I definitely don't want to have to go through 700 characters and for each one tell the system that I don't want to see that characters for the next 4 months!

Bottom line, cram mode is quite useful, and so is the power to disable a list.

serickso, The arguments you have against it are a programmer's arguments. I'm a programmer as well, and I feel your pain, but this type of functionality is available in other spaced repetition programs, so it's definitely possible to do correctly. As far as it interfering with scalability, I don't claim to know the intricacies of the problem, but I would suspect that, if anything, this is an argument against your current architecture and not an argument against the feature.

fandawei, I wouldn't trust the Skritter team to make the right choices. As for any software, it's only a good collaboration between Skritter and its users that will help Skritter achieve it's full potential.

@Chad and Zach

Well, there will be at least one other way that you would be able to ignore characters from a list. I've recently built a completely new vocab list page that allows you to browse what's on any list, select words from lists, and either add or ignore all those selected words. If ignoring them one at a time from the practice page is small scale, then this would be mid-scale control. This is one of the many large changes you'll see with the new version of the site coming up.

@Comos

I think the example you've outlined wouldn't happen. If this feature were removed, you would still have just as much control over what is added to your study schedule. So you could turn on the HSK 2 list, have it add 100 words gradually, then disable it so you can review those 100 words, and not get to the next 700 until you want to re-enable the list. What you wouldn't be able to do is add 100 words, then disable and re-enable those words for study as a group at will. Given this, do you still feel it would be a big problem?

The main scenario where I see there being a problem is if you use a list for a while (so that a large number of words get added from it) and then you decide you don't want to learn from that list anymore. You could go to the new vocab list page and choose the last several that were added, so you're only studying the ones that you know pretty well already and take little study time to continue knowing them. This page also shows you how well you know each word in the list, so that can help you decide which of the last several you want to have ignored.

But what if you don't want to continue studying *any* of the words in that list that you've added? I think that would be a fairly uncommon case, but as a substitute we could make a button that ignores all words in that list that were just added from that list (so it doesn't ignore words added from a different list as well). It would not be instantaneous though, and to undo it you would have to gradually re-add everything from that list in the same way you normally add words from lists.

@serickso, I guess I misunderstood what the change would be. As far as the change that you're proposing, perhaps you're right and it wouldn't be of much use to me, but I have a hard time knowing, since I've only been using Skritter and Anki for a little over a month now.

I know this thread is old, but after working with the new format, I had some comments on the issue of the vocab list selection process - which lists you are studying, and which lists you are not.

I'm currently frustrated by the new system. I thought the old "cram" option to be incredibly useful. My class uses the ITC textbook system, and it's been really useful to be able to use skritter while progressing through the lessons. But sometimes I don't have time to jump back and review old characters, even if I don't know them perfectly. Or sometimes I want to go back and focus on a particular topic.

Now, without the ability to select vocab on a list-by-list basis, the process for selecting vocabulary is much more tedius. It's not impossible, but it does negate one of the major benefits that Skritter was conferring, which was the ability to quickly jump into character study. To be honest, the new method of selecting a single list is frustrating (selecting old lists and ignoring them). I'm currently writing this post while waiting for the old lists to be ignored, when I'd rather be practicing the vocabulary list I wanted to practice.

Furthermore, from a user interface standpoint, it feels like a good deal of trouble to select a list to study and to then have to unselect everything I don't want to study at a particular point in time. So in terms of ease of use, I highly recommend restoring a easy-to-use method of selecting only one list at a time.

I understand your point about it being easier from a programming standpoint to avoid this kind of single-list selection, but I really encourage you to develop this at some point. Giving Skritter that kind of flexibility will greatly strengthen its commercial appeal. I love Skritter, but doubt I'll be enticed to buy a training program that won't let me study what I need to study without having to first disable all the words that I don't want to study.

I'm not saying get rid of the current system. I'm just saying that restoring a way to quickly and easily select a single list to practice is an extremely important function.

"Please note that for now Cram mode is offline. It will be rebuilt soon, better than before!"

I just saw this note, so my apologies for not being up to date on current developments!

I'm imagining (and hoping) this is going to resolve all the concerns I mentioned above.

I do think the new cram mode will fix your concerns, Carl.

We may not be able to get to it too quickly -- a ton of bugs have cropped up with the new version and we're flailing about with our machetes. We'll do our best.