I just had a feature request. At the moment, I inundated with a lot of reviews...which needs a good hard days work to get down to 0.

So this does not happen in the future, I was hoping that I would set up a Skritter regimen that was more sustainable.

Previously, when ever I had bursts of enthusiasm I used to add far too many words in a session. This used to make a lot of reviews down the track (I have my settings set to review all 4 types).

What I was hoping is that Skritter could have a 'target setting' that told me when I had added my target amount of words per day (e.g. 15). This would mean that I could set up a steady time per day in which to do Skritter.

What if you swicth to manual add only, and manually added 15 per day? I do that and it works well, mixing in new words with my reviews.

Perhaps a time-saving and moderating feature would be to have skritter automatically add a desired x amount of words per day. That might help one get in a frame of mind where manual adding is left aside altogether.

I think it sounds like unnecessary weight on the app. One should rather get used to practicing selfdiscipline, and not commiting hubris by adding too much.

If you're using the app (it's not clear from your post) then manual adding is definitely the way to go since you can easily choose the number of words to add at one go.

I'm looking to start working on Goal Mode soon, which, while not setting an adding target per se, will change the review bar from "2720 to go" to "X to go for today", where you can choose X (like 200). Then you just do that many reviews, due or not, every day, and don't worry about what Skritter thinks is "due" (which can be psychologically overwhelming sometimes)--that number would be hidden.

If you used that, and stuck to it, then you'd get to 0 reviews left for today and perhaps stop, thus not getting a zillion words added. And if you did, then in theory it would be more pleasant to work through old reviews. What do you think?

I think I would be very careful with that... I don't think it is a good idea to make it standard, at least.

It will be an option you can enable that's suggested whenever you have a huge backlog of reviews.

I like your idea, nick, but how about a time option instead? So it says "X mins to go for today" where you can choose X. Then individuals are encouraged to set a daily target which they can turn into a regular habit.

One problem at the moment is that it's easy to set "clear the review queue" as a goal. Some days that's easy and quick, other days that's long and hard.

But a daily time goal is fixed, knowable, and easy to turn into a habit.

I was thinking about target setting also since quite some time, but never came up with that because you guys were quite busy with the IOS app. I would have a different approach:
As Skritter has a lot of data about me and my learning pattern, it could calculate a user profile. It could measure how many reviews I would need for already "learnt" items in my vocab list, as I have definitely forgotten some (as my retention rate is below 100%).
Let's assume I have 5000 items due for review within the next 8 weeks, however, I would need for 3% of them another 5 reviews, as I've forgotten them, for 5% another 4 reviews, and so forth. This would lead:
5 Reviews for 3% = 150 Reviews
4 Reviews for 5% = 250 Reviews
3 Reviews for 7% = 350 Reviews
2 Reviews for 10% = 500 Reviews
in total another 1250, altogether not 5000 Reviews, but 6250.
If I now tell Skritter, I have a list there which I want to finish within the next 8 weeks and this list contains 500 new items, then Skritters knows that I need on average 5 Reviews for each Writing, Definition, Pinyin, etc; this makes 500 X 5 X 4 = 10.000 Reviews. Together with the old reviews I would have to do 16.250 Reviews. If I need on average 10 seconds per review, that means 162.500 seconds or 2700 minutes, within 8 weeks = 56 days it comes to 48 minutes per day. Then I can think about whether this a realistic target for me or if I have to lower my own expectation and ambition.
I would then assume that Skritter would level out my reviews, so that I can get an equal amount of reviews per day, but let me work towards my target.
The same calculation could be made the other way around: if I tell Skritter I only want to study 30 minutes per day, Skritter could tell me: in this case, you would learn xx new items within the next 8 weeks or you would not learn anything new and your retention rate may drop also.
I know that this is a bit more complicated, but a user profile may be calculated only once per day for a brand new user and may be only once a month or even every 3 month for a long-term user who studies every day. If the user didn't study for 6 month, he could be regarded again as a new user.
Skritter has so much data about me and I was thinking about how to make best use of it and getting me to a realistic target in the most efficient and effective way.

That, Roland, sounds a lot like the ideal srs program, that I always wanted Anki to be. I am no programer, so I have no idea how (if) unrealistic it is, but I agree that the data the system has on us probably could be used to our advantage.

@Lechuan, that is what I think I am going to do in the interim. However, I have done this before and it seems that a "manual add" adds words more quickly than an "automatic add".

@Drone, that is a good suggestion.

@Laspimon, that is the whole point of having the goal target notification. Once I know that I have reached my limit for adding new words for the day I stop. However, if my infamous "hubris" kicks in...well I don't know if I will be able to exercise any self-discipline. As for your comment regarding adding "weight to the app". I think that is a comment better left for a programmer.

@Nick, taken on its own, that is not a bad feature tweak in my opinion. However, it would just be good to have something that could also add ongoing learning. The way I see it, that would be good if you were just in revision mode, but it would not take into account learning new words (i.e. adding new words)