The first chats were today, from 11-12 and 16-17 EDT. I missed the first 24 minutes of the first one because drop.io didn't keep a long enough chat log.

Overall it went well. Scheduling will have to be much different the next time we do it, so that China can get in on the action. We might do something like twice a month, alternating between morning and night.

Chat 1
======
...[most of the on-topic stuff]
Jeremy: @George The export function works great for me except that I'd like it to use extended characters (hē instead of he1).
Scott: @Josh, cool
George: @Byzanti when you said "ironic really" did you just mean that the bay area is also polluted? I thought it was all super-clean?
Scott: @Jeremey: that's a pretty quick thing I could add
Jeremy: @Nick, thank you. Do you think it would be useful to add that?
George: yeah, I was just thinking that Scott, probably not that difficult a tweak
Byzanti: No, no... Ironic that I'm learning Chinese etc, but find a lot of China so unappealing :p
Jeremy: The SRS seems to work great without it, but I do have quite a few things that I seem to forget rapidly.
Byzanti: (because of pollution etc)
I haven't been to San Diego
Josh: I find living in China to be unappealing for long periods, so I always end up in Japan
Chloe: @Josh why so?
Jeremy: I hear that Taiwan is acceptable for those of us paranoid about pollution and food quality.
Scott: @Josh, you studying 日本語 too?
George: @Byzanti, as someone raised in the Midwest, it's horrific to think about the pollution I've heard. A friend of mine said that upon returning from China she visited yellowstone where there was a huge forest fire. She woke up, the air was yellow and acrid, and her first thought was "wait, am I in China?"
Nick: The item-specific difficulties would be coming as part of an entirely new scheduling system that's only half-built, so while it'd be a lot better, it's backburning for a while.
Josh: @Chloe: Maybe I just have more friends in Japan haha
Byzanti: Food's great. After the first 6 months or so.
Apart from Sichuan food... Arg
heh!
Josh: @Scott: I worked in Japan for about a year, I don't really study it, just play around with the language more
Byzanti: It is really that bad...
Jeremy: I studied Japanese also and have never been there either!
(But not because of pollution.)
George: I was in India, and parts of it were really really polluted, I couldn't breathe
but in other parts it was just like Ohio
Jeremy: Which parts were like Ohio?
Scott: I went to London once and had trouble breathing there, but haven't been to Asia yet unfortunately
Josh: Hanzi is enough for me, kanji + hiragana + katakana + romaji makes my brain hurt
George: We were visiting Goa, and then we went to Hampi
Jeremy: Let me guess: Cincinnati, India
Byzanti: After visiting China, the only problem with Bladerunner, is there just isn't enough pollution in it...
George: Hampi was very polluted, as was the desert en route, but Goa was beautiful
Byzanti: When did you go to London?
George: Yeah Scott, when did you go to London?
Jeremy: I've been thinking about Goa, but I'm a little concerned it would be boring.
Scott: when I was 13, part of a week long school trip
Byzanti: In the centre there's obviously exhaust from cars, but it's very light for a big city. Nothing like LA or Kunming, or NY...
Scott: my elementary school had an exchange program with King's College
Josh: Some once told me I was driving them "crackers" in London, so I left
George: @Jeremy, depends what you're into. There are a ton of old expat hippies there from Europe, which is funny. Almost everything that's illegal in the states is tolerated, but there's almost no environmental controls
Scott: I think it was King's College
Nick: By the way, if any of you have Google Wave and haven't added me yet, I'm livelily@googlewave.com
Scott: Never had too much trouble with New York. Maybe I've toughened up since then
Byzanti: NY wasn't so bad.
George: Good idea Nick, I'm gsaines@googlewave.com
Ben: the pollution in china is definitely something that takes getting used to. I just got back recently from spending two years in shanxi province, where the coal mines and coal power plants are pretty out of control
Scott: and mine sderickson@googlewave.com
Josh: I wish I had a google wave account
Byzanti: I don't feel I should have to get used to it :p. I was in Xi'an for a year. Pollution from mamoth number of coal plants doesn't go anywhere as it's surrounded by mountains. Esp in winter.
Scott: You can sign up for one
Ben: my windowsills always had some black coal dust gathering there
Scott: I think they get you one pretty quick
Josh: I sent a request quite some time ago
Nick: What's your Google account?
Josh: e-mail?
Nick: Yeah; I'll send you an invite.
Chloe: My recent invitees got their invites within a few days
Scott: https://services.google.com/fb/forms/wavesignup/
Either that or sign up here
Josh: xxxxxxxx@gmail.com
Scott: It's pretty quick either way
Chloe: Really? They're responding to regular signups now, from that website?
Nick: Okay; I sent it; when you get it, add us from Skritter
Josh: Thanks, will do
Scott: think so
Nick: (It's taken a few days in the past.)
George: Just out of curiosity, are any of you guys jonesing for more characters? We have one or two users who are adding massive amounts and I was curious if anyone else wanted more character support
Jeremy: Not yet!
Scott: George don't you have literally hundreds of characters already lined up to add?
going on a thousand?
Jeremy: I'm only at around 500 learned, so no big surprise.
Nick: Let's check to see how many xxxxx is at now...
3650
Scott: well that's how many we have
Byzanti: I know bugger all...
Scott: but how many do we have to add on top of that?
Jeremy: Oh, I just thought of a feature request...:
Ben: hey skritter guys: have you thought about marketing skritter to the US department of defense for secret agents to use before they go abroad to spy for the US?
George: I was wondering how urgent it was to get those done. Looks like I can do it organically, which is good for my wrists.
Byzanti: Dancing girls.
Jeremy: Pasting in a Chinese text and having all of the vocabulary translated to a list.
And dancing girls.
Nick: We have like 4500 chars and like 1000 more to add right now, right, George?
Ben: i'm half joking, by the way...
Scott: how about dancing skritters?
Jeremy: @Ben: I think that the original SRS work was developed by the CIA.
Josh: Speaking of dancing skritter, when are you opening StripSkritter?
Nick: We need to hook up a Chinese text segmenter before we can do the pasting a vocab list in, Jeremy, but it's on the list and should be doable.
Ben: really, wow
Jeremy: Excellent, thanks!
Nick: What do you guys think of this style of chat, so far?
George: @dancing Skritters: hmmmmm, perhaps we can have a site-wide content rating that would allow us to censor the Skritter stripping for the younglings
Jeremy: I'd prefer IRC for myself, but this works.
Byzanti: Fine, but I just happened to be on Skritter at the time, so :p. Otherwise prefer forum/blog posts...
Josh: Put an expandable chat below the skritter app, so we can skritter and chat :)
Scott: One more thing for you to design, George
Ben: There's a past shansi fellow who is US consulate general in Shanghai. (Her name is Bea Camp). If you want to contact her I can get you guys her email.
Scott: @Josh, nick already wants to make that, so you can chat with anyone else practicing
when are you going to get around to that, Nick?
Chloe: wish the chat would let us organize more instead of having a continuous stream
George: @Ben, that would be great if you happen to remember
Nick: I'm trying to suss out interest.
Josh: @Scott: Awesome
Chloe: oh wait, that's like a forum with categories
Byzanti: Wouldn't want to use it, I'm distracted enough with the internet!
Scott: @Chloe and we can't have those
Jeremy: Not sure having it on the same page is a great idea.
George: I'm concerned that it would distract.
Jeremy:
Same.
George: No chat for you Nick!
Nick: I guess. Would you guys use it if it were only between you and admins?
Jeremy: A persistent chat room would be fine though!
You guys really want to hear us prattle on all the time?
Nick: Yes.
Scott: well Nick and I have already kind of gotten into the habit of being here while we're working
Byzanti: Would you really want to be always on? I think the bug/reports/suggestion/blog/forum is probably enough...
Chloe: or what about that tv/webcam website? You can see people on the webcam and then you can type to them
Scott: George disdains communication, or at least I have to prod him to get on AIM
George: AIM is for the proletariate
Nick: This place is okay; I'd rather have a dedicated client if I were going to be on it all the time.
Jeremy: ditto
Josh: Yes and you also need a chinese mastery ranking system, I want to become a level 34 KFC cook
Byzanti: heh
Scott: yeah, it's harder to know when someone has said something
Jeremy: Ooh yeah, an achievement system!
Scott: on the list!
Chloe: i still like the idea of having some kind of RPG game tied into skritter :P you get more exp the more you practice, and then you can level up
Scott: There's a ranker library that we're going to use
Nick: Scott, the article I posted from Yahoo Design Patterns thing was like, "no leaderboard for you"
Scott: yeah well
Josh: http://www.japaneseclass.jp/ has a ranking system that is somewhat interesting
Scott: we're with google
yahoo doesn't apply
Byzanti: Oh, and if you guys ever decide to change prices, do tell us in advance. Thanks :p.
Jeremy: @Nick, url?
Nick: Mm hmm. Because Gmail is all about who forwards the most chain letters, so they put leaderboards everywhere.
George: We have shied away from putting our phone number up on the site because we want to be able to focus on development without distractions, but Chat is a lot less invasive
Nick: http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/social/people/reputation/ranking/leaderboard.html
Jeremy: @Byzanti: oe reason to pay for a few years in advance!
Josh: @George: If you put your number up, I will call everyday
Scott: Nick has his phone # on the site
Jeremy: *one
Nick: My phone number is up in two places and no one's ever called me
George: @Jeremy, do you think you'd use chat if you were having problems?
Jeremy: Yes, for sure. YOu mean something technical?
Byzanti: I personally think chat would take up a lot of your time.
George: Technical or otherwise, I guess what I'm getting at is would the instant communication be better than leaving us a feedback?
Scott: well it would be a faster back and forth
Josh: @George: And a chat could potentially allow other users to resolve problems and take some work off your hands
Jeremy: Not always. Sometimes as long as I know you're aware of something I don't need interactive responses.
Byzanti: From my point of view, feedback is fast enough. I doubt any problems/suggestions would need to be instantly attended to?
Nick: One idea behind it would be that it might make people more likely to say something
Byzanti: Make that instantly in italics rather than bold..
Chloe: I guess if people needed to find something right away, chat might be helpful
Nick: A lot of people we've responded to say, "Oh wow, you responded!"
which makes me think that many people don't bother.
Byzanti: (guilty)
Josh: haha it's a rare thing these days
Byzanti: Actually, I was wondering... How many people use the form?
Scott: the feedback form?
Byzanti: yes
Scott: oodles
George: Quite a few, in the time we've been chatting, I've received 8 comments
Jeremy: Want to show us interactive #s for people practicing at the same time? That'd be some good social encouragement.
Byzanti: I was kind of thinking you (Nick) would have been getting rather fed up with me pointing out Opera not working :p
Scott: many of those comments were from shinyspoons though
Nick: We got 20 yesterday
Scott: with minor definition fixes
George: Heh Heh, no no. Nick loves fixing browser comopatibility.
Byzanti: heh
Nick: I love Opera.
Scott: down with IE6
Nick: Wait, is it still broken?
Jeremy: I once submitted more than 1000 bug reports for a single product.
Josh: Do writing tablets work well with skritter? Is it worth the buy?
Nick: YES
Byzanti: No no, working as well as the rest now, thanks.
Scott: if you submit enough feedback to us, you get to work for us for a summer for free!
Byzanti: Definitely!
George: YES
Byzanti: I bought a wacom tablet the other day
Scott: YES
Josh: well i'm sold haha
Byzanti: Spent a hell of a lot more time on here now
Jeremy: @Josh: I use the trackpad on my mac... works amazingly.
Byzanti: :-\
:p
Scott: wait what did I say YES to?
Nick: I wish we could include them with every subscription by default
Josh: if i only had a mac
Nick: they make it a lot faster after a bit of practice.
Byzanti: With your finger, jeremy?
Nick: I worry that many people give up quickly when trying to do it with a mouse.
Byzanti: Or a pen?
Stupid q.
Jeremy: finger.
Josh: The mouse is okay, but I sometimes don't feel like I'm actually right the character
Byzanti: Bet they don't support pens..
Jeremy: right
Chloe: I still need to get Snow Leopard and try out their chinese character writing on the trackpad
Josh: Sometimes I make a mistake and it clues me enough to finish the character
Chloe: dunno if it'd work on skritter, but theoretically?
George: We've got the reseller agreement hooked up so that we can offer Wacom tablets at a discount with Skritter subscriptions, but it's going to take an overhaul of the payment page
Scott: yeah it's on my list
George: and by payment page I mean the entire payment backend
Byzanti: It would just work like a mouse on skritter....
You wouldn't need the snow leopard additions...
Chloe: @Josh I use a bamboo, which is relatively cheap for a tablet and does all the basic stuff really well
Nick: Hey Scott, did you look at Spreedly for payments?
Chloe: I can even use it with Photoshop, so it's a good deal
Josh: I've read alot of good things about bamboo
Scott: not yet
Josh: How much do they run?
George: About $70 retail
Scott: cause UX stuff first!
Chloe: Uhh, mine was something between... $60 and $80
yeah that
Byzanti: Er. UK £50-70
We get robbed :p.
Josh: Not too bad
Chloe: yeah, it's a good investment, doubly so if you're an artist :P
Josh: I just bought a new trumpet, so it might have to wait until christmas haha
George: Yeah, we'll actually be able to offer them at Skritter for between $45-50
Chloe: except, being a grad student kinda cancels them out .__.
Josh: @George: very nice
George: @Josh: my bro plays the trumpet, I used to make him play "The Final Countdown."
Chloe: i'm getting a Nook for Christmas :D hopefully it will support Chinese reading
Josh: haha i remember playing that at high school games
now i just play musical theatre shows around the tri-state
George: I played flute during high school and I could play "The Final Countdown," but it just wasn't the same
Josh: it's lacking some power
it needs to be obnoxiously annoying
Nick: Any other things merit bringing up before we end this chat session?
George: Totally agree, musical theater sounds pretty cool
Scott: play it on a piccolo
Josh: hahaha
George: no
Jeremy: not for me
Scott: I once knew a guy named Sam Piccolo who played the flute
Josh: traitor
George: poor kid
Jeremy: was fun!
Scott: At music camp, man that was fun
He was a counselor actually
George: yeah, it was great chatting with you guys
Nick: How often would you want to do this?
Josh: glad we had this chat, i'll be looking for the wacom thing in the future
Scott: We should set one up for when China isn't sleeping
Jeremy: not sure.
George: would it be too much weekly?
Byzanti: Er. As I said, it was more that I happened to be on at the time...
Josh: weekly is too much
i think you should have them when you release significant changes or what not
Nick: App Engine does it twice a month, once in the morning and once in the evening
Byzanti: One last q: What are your priorities for new features atm?
Scott: let's try that
George: >Nick types furiously
Nick: 1) Finishing new practice design implementation 2) Pinyin and definition practice
Scott: I'm working on tweaks to the user interface, and doing my part to help Nick with the new practice page and reading/definition practice
I'll also be working on getting Japanese ready for launch
Byzanti: Cheers :)
George: 1) working with Scott on getting UX things tweaked and working better 2) conductin more personal UX testing
Byzanti: UX?
George: User experience
Nick: I wonder what Dr. Uy would say about that
Scott: We bring people in and see where they fail
George: Last time it was pretty tragic, nobody was able to even create a custom list
Scott: The custom list builder, hoo boy
Well I've already made those tweaks, George
last night
Byzanti: heh. Yet to try that....
Jeremy: <-- down to 266 to review, from 500 yesterday evening
George: Nice Jeremy
Byzanti: I fugre I just put characters on a new line or something...
figure*
Scott: After we're done with these tweaks, there will be no more UX problems
Right George?
George: sho' thing
Josh: Well I have to go, take care all!
Scott: later
Thanks for coming!
Jeremy: xiao josh
Byzanti: Bye!
Nick: 再见！
Chloe: bye!
George: I'm signing out, going to get back to making progress on my list of things to do
再见！
Scott: I'm gonna go food shopping
Jeremy: ok George, and thanks again!
Scott: Later all
Jeremy: bye Scott!
& Nick!
et al.


Chat 2
======
Suizo: Have been using your program for the last 2 months and it has made a hell of a difference to my learning
I like the idea of the chat
Scott: Good to hear!
SicVita: hey guys
Scott: What do you like in particular, and what do you think could be improved?
Suizo: I like the new practice screen, but miss some of the features of the old one
Nick: I have a log of the last 36 minutes of the other chat which I can post, but it didn't save all of it.
I'll post the log of this chat, though.
George: we have quite a group here, thanks to everyone for stopping by
Suizo: like knowing which list the character I am comes from
Nick: That feature will come back, but later
LiSiTing: Oh, yes - I was going to mention that as well
Scott: That seems to be something a lot of people miss
Nick: We need to rebuild the system such that it tracks multiple lists that items are added from
instead of just the first one. This will also allow us to let you turn lists on and off
Scott: Well we can at least put in the single list we still have in our backend
Nick: We could do that--it would go in the lookup menu (which comes up when you click the magnifying glass)
Scott: Though the only place it would probably fit is in the lookup box, the one you open with the magnifying glass
So it wouldn't be visible by default
Nick: Do you guys like seeing the list that it came from, the section, or both?
toneandcolor: Hi guys - I have a questions about the audio files - are you aware that some audio files (especially the 'complete' audio of a multiple character word) tend to be cut-off
Suizo: What I would like is to have an option to put tough characters into a cram list while you are learning. Generally I am ok with 80 % of the character and always stumble over the same
Nick: Yes, it's a problem I'll be working on soon, due to vagaries in Flash player implementation.
Scott: We're soon going to be adding a star system
Bob: Hey all - new to Skritter and just had a few minutes to drop in and say thanks for the product. I use skritter with my Chinesepod.com subscription, but since I'm also using Integrated Chinese its great to be able to practice characters from those lessons too.
Scott: so you can mark words for later going over
Nick: toneandcolor: which Flash player version do you have?
Scott: Thanks!
LiSiTing: Both, NIck!!
George: @Suizo the star system that scott is talking about will put marked items into a cram list that you can then edit later
toneandcolor: uh..good question
Suizo: Thanks
Nick: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/155/tn_15507.html -- visit here to find your flash player version
Bob: I am really looking forward to an iPhone app
Nick: Suizo -- do you like seeing the list a word was added from, the section, or both?
Scott: I like seeing both, myself!
Suizo: both
LiSiTing: yep
George: For instance, I get 放， 防， and 方 confused all the time
Suizo: I use a book in parallel, so need to know the chapter
Scott: George, I'm not sure it will interface with the cram system that tightly
toneandcolor: I agree with seeing both the word list and the section
Scott: The star system
Nick: toneandcolor: did you see, we finally implemented your tone color system?
George: @Bob, lots of people are, we're just waiting for Flash CS5 to come out so that we don't have to re-write the bulk of the code
Nick: The beta for that is scheduled later this year or early next, but we're not sure if we'll get in on the beta.
LiSiTing: That makes a lot of sense. :)
toneandcolor: yeah - it looks good!
Nick: Flash 10,0,32,8
Suizo: When I work real fast repeating characters I am often on a new character and it still is pronouncing the word I already finished
Nick: Lots of people have asked for different sets of colors, though; they think 4th tone should be the red one
toneandcolor: Nick: Yeah, I know
Nick: Yeah, that Flash player is the new one and is not handling the sound just so yet. I'll fix it soon.
George: @Bob as full-featured flash makes it's way to other platforms (blackberry OS for example) we can start making apps for more devices, but iPhone and Android get first billing since the market size is so much larger
toneandcolor: I guess the more it's used the more there will be people that think I chose the wrong colors
Nick: Suizo, do you think it should just skip starting to say characters once you've skipped past the word they're on, if they're queued up to say?
Suizo: probably
George: @Suizo, I've had similar problems with the sounds piling up, so I'm with you, it can get pretty ridiculous if I have a lot quick tone prompts in a row
LiSiTing: While on the topic of sound and word pronounciation:
Nick: I actually put in a message if anyone ever has 15 sounds queued up to play (they're going really fast)
a few people have hit it
(it emails me)
George: I've tried to trigger that email before just for kicks, but it is pretty difficult
LiSiTing: I've noticed that sometimes it will say the word after I've completed the charcters, then say the last character from a word.
Any way to make sure it says the character then the order?
Nick: That's on the new practice, right, LiSiTing? Has it done that in the last day?
Suizo: Need to leave, thanks for the good work, great to have your program to work with, cheers
Nick: Thanks, Suizo!
George: 再见！
Scott: ありがとう！
George: Scott, don't Japanese her
for goodness sakes
Scott: aww
LiSiTing: Nick: yes, and yes
Scott: don't fear my ひらがな
George: @Scott, I'm going to assume that al those characters mean "I'm a stupid head facey face"
LiSiTing: No, I think the mean "katakana"
Scott: hiragana actually
LiSiTing: darb
dan
darn
Scott: close though!
George: heh heh
Scott: カタカナ = katakana
well, in katakana anyway
George you're just jealous
George: Several users earlier mentioned they wouldn't be very interested in having an open chat, do you guys agree?
Scott: You mean one that is open all the time?
George: Yeah
SicVita: yeah, I think the forums suffice for the most part
LiSiTing: definitely
Nick: I will attempt to fix the sounds out of order bug. I thought I might have fixed it, but I guess not all the way. Audio on the new practice is still a work in progress.
LiSiTing: I understand. :)
SicVita: oh, have you guys ever considered implementing an option for male/female voice audio?
George: We were also asking with what frequency people would be interested in chatting, we were thinking perhaps 2x month
SicVita: I noticed every once in a long while I hear a male voice
LiSiTing: I like the mix - sometimes it's good for me (as a female with a lower register) to hear the male's voice
Do you guys have time to chat that often??
George: As I understand it, the male vs female voice is just based on ChinesePod's converage of the word database
LiSiTing: Interesting
SicVita: ahh
Scott: We could just stay in the chat while we go about our work, and pop in when we see someone has messaged
George: That's what we suggested, but folks seemed to prefer the forums or the feedback reports
Scott: as long as it didn't interrupt too much, or people didn't mind waiting for us to take a break from whatever we're doing
George: @LiSiTing: actually, we all three like communicating directly with users, so we would be happy to chat twice a month
Scott: would mix up the chat times though so people in various time zones would get a chance to join in
George: The reason we wanted to start these sessions was to engage our users more, to hear concerns that for whatever reasons weren't making it through the forums, etc
Scott: could also just leave this chat open for skritter users to come in and talk amongst themselves
SicVita: true
LiSiTing: @ George: You must!! I can't believe how quickly you all get back to my e-mails and posts!
Scott: we get that a lot!
LiSiTing: We have something like this though the university I attend... where there's a chat open all the time
George: has it devolved into absolute madness?
SicVita: hehe
LiSiTing: it's actually kind of annoying because people will leave messages there for each other, but there's no way to know you have a message waiting for you there
Nick: I doubt we would have enough traffic for a Skritter channel at this point.
LiSiTing: basically, yes madnees would be a good way to describe it
Scott: George when I need a design done I'll let you know through here
LiSiTing: And he'll get the message next month!
Nick: yeah, I'll message you that it's time to wake up and go to the gym, George
Scott: the way this is set up the message would probably disappear before he'd get a chance to see it
George: We had a chat-like program called the Oberlin confessional, it's at a number of colleges but is run by an Obie
It was probably a little worse than 4chan
LiSiTing: lol
nice
George: Kinda like 4chan and craigslist mixed together
The kid that ran it thought it was a "healthy way to express latent emotion." I just thought it was smarmy. To each their own!
LiSiTing: Oh, another thing:
After I complete a character/word and its tone, the sound button won't play the audio of the character again
I like to hear it several times when it's new
Nick: Right, sound button is still whack.
George: Who said it's whack? You take it back!
sorry
Nick: You should be.
toneandcolor: I have a question related to going fast: often when I'm flipping through things that I know (without writing the character or tone) I've noticed that the pinyin for the last character of any compound doesn't show up
George: hrmmmm. Scott, that sounds like something in your department.
LiSiTing: yeah, saw that, too
Nick: What, that's still my department.
Scott: sounds like it's in the flash/javascript interface dept, also nick's dept
toneandcolor: I know that you don't want to slow users down, but I think it would be helpful to see the completed romanization (even for a half a second) before loading the next entry
SicVita: oh, when you guys planning on rolling out the definition practice?
Scott: have you seen that bug before Nick?
ASAP!
Nick: Where doesn't the pinyin show up?
toneandcolor: otherwise, a user may think they have the right tone on a word and rifle through it, but never have a chance to be corrected
LiSiTing: On the right where the word is shown
SicVita: excellent! I'm itching for it
Nick: In the word level prompt, or in the character area?
toneandcolor: Nick:I should have been more specific - its actually the diacritic (the tone mark) that's not showing up
Scott: so am I
LiSiTing: word leve, I believe
toneandcolor: ..or the color in the new version - on the last syllable of any multi-character word
Nick: Oh, so you have a tone prompt, and you go to the next one, and you never saw whether it was right or not because instead of inputting the tone you just skipped it with the next button/spacebar?
Scott: I can't study any Japanese words that lack Kanji until it's ready
toneandcolor: Nick: right
LiSiTing: Except we didn't skip it on purpose
it just goes on it's own
Nick: The reading and definition practice is the thing I'm doing immediately after the new practice page is solid, but it'll still take a while.
toneandcolor: again, I now you don't want to slow people down
Nick: If it's skipping without you pressing anything, that's a bug.
Scott: But reading and definition practice will come out first as a flash card sort of thing, then after that have you typing them in
Cause active learning is the way to go
toneandcolor: but it would be nice to see the complete romanization/color before moving on
George: Yeah, Nick has had a ton on his plate for the last few weeks and getting the active pinyin and definition practice is a mammoth project.
Nick: If it's skipping when you press skip, then you probably shouldn't press skip on the last one. You can actually input the tone you think it is if you think there's a chance you might be wrong.
toneandcolor: right
I guess I should be using the keyboard more
Nick: It should take less time to input the tone than it would to decide it'd be easier to skip it...
at least, that's the idea.
Scott: you'll be using the keyboard more... when reading and definition practice are done!
George: oh man pinyin and definition practice are going to roxor my boxorz
said George, intelligently
SicVita: heh
Nick: (Scott and George don't have to do any work for pinyin and definition practice, which is why they are so excited.)
Scott: I have to do work!
I have to make it work on the backend
Nick: What's that, like an hour?
Scott: It's just about 1/10th the amount of how much you have to do
George: Oh geez, this is getting out of hand gentlemen
Nick: Just sayin'.
LiSiTing: and hilarious
Scott: I'll help when you have to figure out how to input hiragana and katakana with the keyboard
Nick: Oops, I forgot to do it until 2011, sorry Japanese.
Scott: nooooooooooo
George: heheh
Scott: Japanese demands equal rights!
Nick: I gaijin smashed and Japanese said "watashi--wa--sumimasen!"
LiSiTing: And on that note, I think I'll call it a day - I have some errands to run before making dinner
George: I wish there was an AIM-like indicator for when people are typing, I can never tell if there's an uncomfortable silence or if I'm waiting for typing to occur
Nick: Thanks for the feedback, LiSiTing
Scott: Yep, thanks for coming by
LiSiTing: No prob.
toneandcolor: I have to go too
LiSiTing: thanks for listening and being so on top of things
toneandcolor: Keep up the good work guys!
Nick: Catch you later, Nathan
Scott: thanks!
LiSiTing: I have no idea how you guys get all that work done and study, too
George: 谢谢！
Scott: shye shye!
LiSiTing: 再见！
SicVita: indeed, you guys are quite 厉害
Nick: Massive procrastination powers directed at studying np
toneandcolor: 拜拜！
LiSiTing: @ Nick: Of course, I should have known.
George: 厉害是不是"hardcore"?
SicVita: yup
George: nice
Scott: As the company chef, I'm going to take my leave early a bit too and get started on dinner
George: Nick always tells me to 加油 and so far I've sort of kept pace, but being in Chinese 2 is a beast
SicVita: yup, I'm out too then, I don't have many complaints/suggestions at the moment, thanks for opening up a chat guys
well, no complaints other than the post-2000 crawl
George: no problem, thanks for stopping by
SicVita: later!

Nice being able to get to interact with the Skritter team a bit! Wacom wacom wacom haha