I wonder if the current poll's results may be skewed as people are clicking on the "no" option because they don't like the feature, not that it is necessarily distracting as the "no" option implies. Personally I don't see how something can distract you from studying if it is on the homepage and does not appear when you are actually studying. The dark blue background was on the homepage and the study page, and therefore I think an argument of distraction had more merit in that case, but this feature really can't be distracting if it isn't even there when you're studying.

That's my two cents. Personally I like the feature. It doesn't really add anything to the learning process but it is kind of neat to look at.

I do not need that feature, it doesn't give me any useful information, but it's also not distracting me, so I'm neutral. However, I'm sometimes facing problems with slow response times, I'm just wondering, whether this will "eat up" additional performance.

I'm curious why people think it's distracting. I could see why some people wouldn't want their study habits shared on the homepage, though.

I clicked distracting because it looks cool but is totally useless to me...even if I could click the characters I wouldn't use it, still have enough material to study...

Right, I agree that is essentially useless as far as learning is concerned, but I think it's neat to look at (although I understand the argument by some that they don't want what they are studying made public). I just think the poll makes it look like there is a large number of people that actively find the ticker to be a distraction to their studying, when really those checking "no" just find it to be something else on the homepage that they personally don't use or care to look at. There is a big difference between something hindering your practice and a feature you just choose not to use/look at, which I do not think is reflected in the poll.

It was my understanding that the purpose of the ticker was to show people the amount of activity and learning going on (most likely geared towards converting non-subscribers).

If you really want to see what people are studying and think it's going too fast then just look at the source code. It has it all nicely listed out for you. In chrome, right-click it and then select inspect element.

Not like I care if anyone knows when I'm studying, but it's essentially like having an social networking application without an invisible or hide mode.

Assuming it displays all the activity at some point (which I think it does because it's always displayed everything I studied) it's giving away statistical data for free. How so?

Just create a simple program that scraps items from the "recent_items" id tag. Break them apart and pop them into a database. You would theoretically then have username, type of study, item studied and assuming a 20-30 second delay a generalized timestamp. Do that for a few days and you could use basic probability and statistics to determine all sorts of things; such as average number of active users.

I'm not suggesting it be done, but just throwing it out there for consideration.

Yeah I don't understand the "distracting" bit either (see my previous comment in an older thread). Distracting from what? The titles of the latest blog posts? The number of items due? The historical notes?

James

孟志书 I share your concerns. Maybe without usernames (if at all)?

I personally find the ticker distracting when I am on the home page, but from the home page, I click on the forum link or the study button and then it's gone so I am not bothered by it. I don't see the use of it, but I don't see the harm either!

As for 'privacy' concerns, I don't see an issue there either. OK, so someone could pull information of the ticker that shows I'm working on certain words. So? Someone can see that I spend my time on here and I am studying words from lists I have created. Not exactly what I would call an invasion of my privacy!

James, for me it's distracting from the useful stuff on the home page. Or perhaps "annoying" would be a better word for it. I don't like it the same way I don't like animated Flash ads on websites.

I agree with michau, in my personal opinion, is very annoying and useless, even on the home page prevents me from focusing on other more important things to me such “at a glance”, "polls", "community", etc.

jlm2jlm2

I'm in the "it's annoying" camp. It wouldn't be so bad if it was just the total number of items studied, though, and it only updated when you refreshed the page.

54 million is awfully impressive!

I agree with the annoyed fraction. It does not give me any useful information and when looking at the home page my eyes are automatically drawn to this very rapidly passing list, which in itself annoys me and distracts from other useful features on the home pages.
Although once you have left the home page, and it isn't really a page on which you'd stay for long, it's gone an no longer disturbing.

Okay, results seem pretty clear to me; I've removed it. Thanks for all your input, guys.

Nick thanks for keeping Skritter as professional as ever.