4 ms·

This is so cool and something I’ve wanted for a long time, but it isn’t quite right yet (for what I personally want in an app like this.) I am your target mark

by gravity2060 2y ago

This is so cool and something I’ve wanted for a long time, but it isn’t quite right yet (for what I personally want in an app like this.) I am your target market, and I’d buy the lifetime /annual sub in a second if it had these features: I want control of the SR sequence or, I want to know what SR algo you are using and know it is best practice model. The landing page says 4 sends, but that isn’t true SR. The next thing, I’d want to see all of my “cards” or information pieces when I am logged in, so I can see and edit and delete and keep the database clean with a total view of content. The next thing I’d need (maybe you have this?) is for the email to effectively be a flash card, where the email content is the front and a link the email takes me to the “back” of the card so I can’t use cloze delete and other techniques. The last thing is bulk upload of content via a csv so I can bulk import mochi /anki / llm generated content. I wish you luck with this and would (selfishly) encourage you to not ship so many different things, and instead encourage you to pick one and make it best in class for niche users like me who would spend and spend on premium solutions, but won’t spend on superficial implementations.

iskrataa 2y ago
Can't thank you enough for the feedback. These are all great ideas which I'll look into. I was wondering what is your experience with Anki? Are there reasons you are looking into alternatives or do you just like the idea of getting stuff by email? Thanks again!
crashabr 2y ago
You should try Readwise
latentsea 2y ago
Why email at this point and not just Anki?
- ozim 2y ago
  Not the person you asked - but for me it is that I check emails compulsively any other app I have to remember/tend to forget. Like Todoist is great but I can go weeks without opening it and I skip tasks because of it unless I set email notifications.
  - latentsea 2y ago
    Hmm. SRS is a daily commitment though. If you skip it the reviews just pile up, which tends to be painful enough that you quickly learn it's a daily commitment. I couldn't imagine getting 150 emails a day to review stuff, or that being a workable UX.
    - ozim 2y ago
      I think 10-20 flashcards a day is better than 0. But on the other hand it might not be rate to learn something quickly enough.
      - latentsea 2y ago
        With the original Anki algorithm the rule of thumb is your daily review load will be 5x your rate of new cards per day. So 10 to 20 reviews per day is between 2 to 4 new cards per day. Definitely not enough for language learning, which is my use-case, but may be ok for certain other things.
        e12e 2y ago
        > 2 to 4 new cards per day. Definitely not enough for language learning What is your expected rate of acquisition for a new language? 40*365 ~ 14 000 new cards a year - that's a ten thousand word vocabulary with four thousand cards to spare for grammar, idioms etc?
        latentsea 2y ago
        When I learned Japanese around 15 years ago I did 10k in one year. Was a great pace. Still speak it to this day, so it worked like a charm. I try to target 35 a day, and expect to hit that at least 80% of the time.
wellthisisgreat 2y ago
Hey not to distract from OPs post, but I wanted to get into SR for a while, and your "what is your algo" question aligns with my line of thinking when approaching new methodology. Could you please share your SR tech stack? Are there good apps etc., that can make the process a bit easier? The pen-and-paper approach I used in uni for learning kanji / new languages has scarred me somewhat, so I am eager to try something tech-heavy.
- iskrataa 2y ago
  Hey, happy to help here. During my research, I found this Reddit post which was in lots of help, especially for beginners. https://www.reddit.com/r/Anki/comments/17u01ge/spaced_repetition_algorithm_a_threeday_journey/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Anki/comments/17u01ge/spaced_repeti... They expand their work on their GitHub as well. https://github.com/open-spaced-repetition/fsrs4anki/wiki/Spaced-Repetition-Algorithm:-A-Three%E2%80%90Day-Journey-from-Novice-to-Expert#day-3-the-latest-progress https://github.com/open-spaced-repetition/fsrs4anki/wiki/Spa...
safety1st 2y ago
On the topic of SR specifically, what does it mean to be best in class? I am just a layperson who uses a SR tool or two and has a passing interest in the topic, but the Wikipedia article on SR gives the impression that there are a variety of algorithms out there and none are established by research to be definitively better than the others, in fact the Criticism section mentions a study which found that absolute spacing was just as good. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition#Research_and_application https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition#Research_and... The OP said he's using Ebbinghaus' "forgetting curve" which is not exactly a SR algorithm but something similar, there is an actual formula associated with it - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgetting_curve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgetting_curve
- komuW 2y ago
  Take a look at FSRS. The paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3534678.3539081?cid=99660547150 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3534678.3539081?cid=996605471... Various implementations: https://github.com/open-spaced-repetition/awesome-fsrs https://github.com/open-spaced-repetition/awesome-fsrs Some benchmarks of various srs algorithms: https://expertium.github.io/Benchmark.html https://expertium.github.io/Benchmark.html
simple10 2y ago
Congrats on the launch! I second the request for lifetime pricing option. Also, the jump between $4/mo to $59/mo could use more explanation to justify the price gap. It's worth considering listing GinkoNotes on AppSumo if you decide to offer a lifetime deal. I think it would do extremely well.
- iskrataa 2y ago
  Hey, there is a lifetime option and it's just the higher number you mentioned. I suppose it's not immediately obvious that it's a one-off purchase, so I'll be working on the design aspect of this. Thanks for your interest and suggestions!

iskrataa 2y ago

Can't thank you enough for the feedback. These are all great ideas which I'll look into. I was wondering what is your experience with Anki? Are there reasons you are looking into alternatives or do you just like the idea of getting stuff by email? Thanks again!

crashabr 2y ago

You should try Readwise

latentsea 2y ago

Why email at this point and not just Anki?

ozim 2y ago
Not the person you asked - but for me it is that I check emails compulsively any other app I have to remember/tend to forget. Like Todoist is great but I can go weeks without opening it and I skip tasks because of it unless I set email notifications.
- latentsea 2y ago
  Hmm. SRS is a daily commitment though. If you skip it the reviews just pile up, which tends to be painful enough that you quickly learn it's a daily commitment. I couldn't imagine getting 150 emails a day to review stuff, or that being a workable UX.
  - ozim 2y ago
    I think 10-20 flashcards a day is better than 0. But on the other hand it might not be rate to learn something quickly enough.
    - latentsea 2y ago
      With the original Anki algorithm the rule of thumb is your daily review load will be 5x your rate of new cards per day. So 10 to 20 reviews per day is between 2 to 4 new cards per day. Definitely not enough for language learning, which is my use-case, but may be ok for certain other things.
      - e12e 2y ago
        > 2 to 4 new cards per day. Definitely not enough for language learning What is your expected rate of acquisition for a new language? 40*365 ~ 14 000 new cards a year - that's a ten thousand word vocabulary with four thousand cards to spare for grammar, idioms etc?
        latentsea 2y ago
        When I learned Japanese around 15 years ago I did 10k in one year. Was a great pace. Still speak it to this day, so it worked like a charm. I try to target 35 a day, and expect to hit that at least 80% of the time.

wellthisisgreat 2y ago

Hey not to distract from OPs post, but I wanted to get into SR for a while, and your "what is your algo" question aligns with my line of thinking when approaching new methodology. Could you please share your SR tech stack? Are there good apps etc., that can make the process a bit easier? The pen-and-paper approach I used in uni for learning kanji / new languages has scarred me somewhat, so I am eager to try something tech-heavy.

iskrataa 2y ago
Hey, happy to help here. During my research, I found this Reddit post which was in lots of help, especially for beginners. https://www.reddit.com/r/Anki/comments/17u01ge/spaced_repetition_algorithm_a_threeday_journey/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Anki/comments/17u01ge/spaced_repeti... They expand their work on their GitHub as well. https://github.com/open-spaced-repetition/fsrs4anki/wiki/Spaced-Repetition-Algorithm:-A-Three%E2%80%90Day-Journey-from-Novice-to-Expert#day-3-the-latest-progress https://github.com/open-spaced-repetition/fsrs4anki/wiki/Spa...

safety1st 2y ago

On the topic of SR specifically, what does it mean to be best in class? I am just a layperson who uses a SR tool or two and has a passing interest in the topic, but the Wikipedia article on SR gives the impression that there are a variety of algorithms out there and none are established by research to be definitively better than the others, in fact the Criticism section mentions a study which found that absolute spacing was just as good. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition#Research_and_application https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition#Research_and... The OP said he's using Ebbinghaus' "forgetting curve" which is not exactly a SR algorithm but something similar, there is an actual formula associated with it - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgetting_curve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgetting_curve

komuW 2y ago
Take a look at FSRS. The paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3534678.3539081?cid=99660547150 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3534678.3539081?cid=996605471... Various implementations: https://github.com/open-spaced-repetition/awesome-fsrs https://github.com/open-spaced-repetition/awesome-fsrs Some benchmarks of various srs algorithms: https://expertium.github.io/Benchmark.html https://expertium.github.io/Benchmark.html

simple10 2y ago

Congrats on the launch! I second the request for lifetime pricing option. Also, the jump between $4/mo to $59/mo could use more explanation to justify the price gap. It's worth considering listing GinkoNotes on AppSumo if you decide to offer a lifetime deal. I think it would do extremely well.

iskrataa 2y ago
Hey, there is a lifetime option and it's just the higher number you mentioned. I suppose it's not immediately obvious that it's a one-off purchase, so I'll be working on the design aspect of this. Thanks for your interest and suggestions!