I've just added the word 大拇指 (thumb) and noticed that for 拇, the last three strokes go horizontal line, then top dot then bottom dot, whereas for 母 by itself I've always done top dot, line, lower dot.

Is there a special rule for this case?

It's funny because my Chinese gf said it's the upper dot first, then she said 'oh no actually I do the line first already for 25 years.' But several sites suggest first the upper dot, she says 拇 or 母 should at least have the same order, and thinks upper dot first is more common... @.@

Junglegirl I also wanna ask you if your W12 is working well, a friend maybe wants to buy one to start Skrittering.

According to Wenlin （文林）it is always upper dot, then line, followed by final dot. There should be no special rule.

Nciku has the same order:
http://www.nciku.com/search/zh/detail/拇/1310653
http://www.nciku.com/search/zh/detail/母/1310642

@Elwin: Unfortunately not. The problem is that I can't download flash player, or anything else, from the Chinese Android market. I finally managed to open an account to access the market, but as soon as I try to download anything it immediately shows an error message and shuts down. I guess it's just a problem with my individual machine, but I'm back in Geneva now so it's too late to do anything about it. I gave up and now I'm just waiting impatiently for the iOS app.

Junglegirl I think the only problem can be your SD card/TF card, or that you don't have one. Just buy one of for e.g. 4GB or 8GB in a shop, without a card you cannot download apps and stuff.

Go to settings > SD card ＆ device storage to see if you have one. If you do, it might be a broken one.

@Elwin: Hmm, I definitely have one, which I bought along with the W12 from the same seller on taobao, but it didn't occur to me that that was the problem. I guess I should try buying another one then. Thanks!

Your welcome, first check it while in the shop. If that doesn't work, at least update your W12 here: http://ramos.com.cn/download.php. And download dolphin browser 6.2, the normal browser doesn't use flash.

One more tip, you don't need to download all the apps like dolphin browser in Chinese, you can also google '[name of app] apk', for e.g. dolphin browser 6.2 apk. Apk is the android file name. Then at least you can use the international english apps, not the chinese apps that are changed according to regulations.

Great, thanks!

As resident stroke order grouch, here's what I've got for this one:

母 radicals:
MDBG: dots, horizontal
Nciku: dot, horizontal, dot
eStroke: dot, horizontal, dot
Arch Chinese: horizontal, dots
Wenlin: dot, horizontal, dot
Paper dictionary: dot, horizontal, dot
Taiwanese MOE: dot, dot, horizontal

Since Arch Chinese and the Taiwanese MOE disagree, and it's easy, we try to make sure the first dot and the horizontal are always interchangeable for this radical.

But 母 is not to be confused with the visually similar boat radical:

舟 like in ban1 (sort; kind; class)
MDBG: dot, dot, horizontal
Nciku: dot, horizontal, dot
Arch Chinese: dot, horizontal, dot
eStroke: dot, horizontal, dot
Wenlin: dot, horizontal, dot
Paper dictionary: dot, horizontal, dot
Taiwanese MOE: dot, dot, horizontal

For this we have ordered the dot first, but also made the horizontal and dot interchangeable.

I'm working on a stroke order page to explain all of the quirks of Skritter stroke order so that people can more directly comment and correct the research I've done!

@George: Wow, that's a lot of research, thanks for your efforts! But as far as I can tell the first dot and horizontal are not interchangeable in the case of 拇. I've tried writing the dot first and skritter doesn't recognize it.

Thanks for letting me know junglegirl, I just took at a look at that character and realize that you are completely right, I had it entered wrong on the backend! It should now be fixed and live. If you see any more characters with suspicious stroke order, drop me a line at george at skritter dot com and I'll fix them for you.

That's great, thanks George!