URLLesson Introduction
Big changes are afoot at Praxis Language. This episode of News and Features is targeted specifically at the users who do not visit the site and may be unaware of what's been going on. Tune in for the explanations from the ChinesePod hosts.
john says
September 1, 2008
More info from Ken: Why the September changes?
crosslink says
September 1, 2008
Not surprised - I wondered how long it would take. Anyway, it's extremely good value for money.
jane says
September 1, 2008
I have just regained the feeling that ChinesePod is on my terms again since the restoration of the editing facility in the vocabulary manager. Perfection would be achieved if the facility of a choice of of Pinyin/bo po mo fo could be given in the third exercise or a choice of simplified/traditional characters.
I don't know what I feel about video but I'll give it a try. I wonder if the eye will take away from the focus on the ear.
misterjess says
September 1, 2008
You guy were down WAY too long last night, sunday night is one of my best study times. I was in the middle of a lesson and stayed up two hours past my bedtime trying to finish. next time instead of putting up" system down for maintenance, be back shortly" put up "system down for maintenance,go bleep yerself".
izus says
September 1, 2008
well said team.
way too much content for free.
not fair to the legit payers.
auntie68 says
September 1, 2008
Hi izus, I'm a "legit payer", have been a Basic Subscriber all along. But as a legit payer, I can't help worrying what these changes mean for me. I am a more advanced user -- maybe "Upper Intermediate" by CPOD standards --, and I really appreciate the all-Chinese posts by native speakers who have (so far) been made to feel welcome here, as non-paying (but also unpaid) volunteers.
I've just felt the impact of the changes for the first time, after visiting ItalianPod and FrenchPod and finding the door to be firmly closed. I wonder whether CPOD actually imagines that native speakers of Chinese will be willing pay for the "privilege" of helping to guide learners.
To be fair, it's a concern which is only felt by the more advanced learners. Every now and then I read a deliriously happy and excited post by a very satisfied Newbie/ Ele/ Intermediate learner, including Chinese sentences, but I won't be able to understand any of the "Chinese". I don't mean to be insulting, my point is that learners may not know what they don't know, and that's where the native speaker volunteers come in and are so valuable.
I don't mean to discourage any learners out there. It's just that (unfortanately for me) I don't learn any Chinese from all-Chinese posts by learners who aren't native speakers, no matter how big their vocabulary may be. They might as well post in English.
hanyuxuesheng says
September 1, 2008
The sentence of the day:
"Subscription is sexy"
;-)
The nice thing is, one can now see who pays or not. All posts in lesson threads above Newbie from now on are from payers only...
It will be very interesting to see how many posts will be in those "closed" threads, especially in lessons published after Sept. 1. How big is the community of paying learners really?
Another point: downtime a few hours ago was far too long. If people pay they expect nearly 24/7 uptime. :-(
wojaojosh says
September 1, 2008
It was a bummer that Chinesepod was down last night :(
I'm not sure what to think about the video yet either; guess we'll have to wait and see what it looks like. Is there any indication as to what will be included on the video?
I use podcasting in my classroom and I try to limit the amount of video type of content I use because as someone said in an earlier comment, I don't want it to be distracting to the listening component. I use it when it is necessary; which I think is a bit too much as of right now.
I still think Chinesepod is the best thing out there for learning the language :)
kelvinb says
September 1, 2008
Thumbs up.
A solid paying subscriber base means even better services.
sarahjs says
September 1, 2008
I this this change has been long over due. I can't wait for the new stuff. I wonder what the videos will be like???
john says
September 1, 2008
Those of you interested in video, so far we have the first Vocab Tour up.
You're right; the down time was too long. Longer than we planned. The changes went smoothly, but our tech team is definitely going to have to find a different way to make these changes to decrease the down time. We apologize for that.
izus says
September 1, 2008
hey auntie68
i understand your concern. chinesepod seems to have made their decision on which direction they are going to focus towards.
everyones case is different.
everyone learns differently.
you cant satisfy everyone.
i would be interested in the overall poll percentage of paying folks who are newbs...elly's.... intermediate...and so on.maybe cpod feel they want to focus more on the masses.
i just watched the traffic video and i cant wait for more.
jiā yóu CPOD!!!
auntie68 says
September 1, 2008
Thanks for the decent and kind words, izus. I'm not a native speaker. But as long as I'm here, I'll do whatever I can to make the "learning curve" less steep, whenever I can. I'm a newbie in Arabic, and have nothing less than total respect (and sympathy) for anybody who is in the same boat as I am. 加油！
P/s: And if I can moderate what I posted above, I learn so much Mandarin from the bilingual posts by non-native (but native-fluent) CPOD teachers such as Amber and John, it's just that the un-programmed, spontaneous, and voluntary, input of native speakers means so much to me that I know I'd miss that if it got squeezed out somehow by the changes. Again, thanks.
xinjiapo2703 says
September 1, 2008
I think it is fair for the new rules. Think some folks were taking advantage of what others like myself paid for. Cannot blame them for it, Chinesepod needs the extra money obviously and hopefully this brings in those people and they can enjoy the full suite of CPOD. I only hope that the subscriptions that our currently priced do not jump because CPOD says to "enjoy" the current features to a better extent we should pay more. Very troublesome to hear when someone says to pay more it benefits US when it does not especially for features most people would not use.
I hope CPOD does another Christmas sale though :) I want a 24 month subscription this time!
quasifrog says
September 1, 2008
No problem. But! But! Please continue letting us pay month to month without mandatory bank drafts, and here's a really great suggestion. :
My ICBC card with Union Pay is a much bigger account than my little Colorado Bank so how about letting us expats pay with our Chinese money since this is where we're making it? OK?
izus says
September 1, 2008
some people ask me why i am paying for the subscription when i can find it free on other websites. where someone has downloaded and posted the newb and elly mp3's and pdf's to download for free.
i would hope C-Pod takes steps to close these bogus sites.
izus says
September 1, 2008
i agree 100% with quasifrog i feel cpod should give us the choice on whether we choose automatic payment or not.
coyote says
September 1, 2008
Hi,
I have a question. I discovered Chinesepod on itunes and since that day, I always listen to ChinesePod podcasts on my ipod. It's really convenient for me.
Quickly, I understood that ChinesePod is really really great and I took a Basic profil in order to have the pdf. I am in China and I don't need the Premium level for the moment cause I can practice in real life.
So my question is: how can I have the podcast of my level (elementary/intermediaire) now??
Need I to upgrade my subscription?
calkins says
September 1, 2008
izus, I completely agree with you. I think it's really lame that people take advantage like that (just to save a few bucks), but I guess it's not a big shock. Most of them probably have a conscience and they know it's wrong - it's nice to learn Chinese on my terms and guilt-free!
I don't know if CPod can do anything about those sites because of the creative commons license. But I think going forward, lessons will not have this license, so CPod will be able to take action. Another smart move.
jennyzhu says
September 1, 2008
'Subscription is sexy.' Oh, no. What was I thinking? I sounded like Paris Hilton to whom everything is hot and sexy.
Thank you for your response, criticism and suggestion. Your support is integral to making ChinesePod work better for Poddies.
moloch says
September 1, 2008
CPod,
I noticed you only updated your pricing chart on the page linked from the bottom of the site, but didn't update your product comparison chart on the subscription page that people will actually see. Also some package prices still quote 'starting from' prices based on 1 month subscription and some quote based on 24 month subscription. These prices have been incorrect on your subscription page for some months now.
Just trying to help and not be annoyingly critical.
Also, why advertise as $5/month when it's actually $5.75/month over 12 months? Small difference but if a store advertises something for $5 you shouldn't expect to show up and see $5.75 on the price tag.
user21047 says
September 1, 2008
Hi there
You may have good reasons to change your funding system
But PLEASE make it easy for us to use! Your podcast says nothing useful about how to handle all the changes
I've been a premium user for years and what I liked was simplicity meaning every other week I would automatically download all lessons on itunes and get going with my ipod. This doen't prevent me from going on the site but I will definitely not do it every day.
Now the single idea of having to figure out HOW i can get back this automatic download gives me a headache..my RSS?? don't know what it is
Spending one hour to struggle with my computer after a day work- instead of studying chinese- sets me in a such a bad mood that I just can't thank you
trevorb says
September 1, 2008
Video sounds like a great idea to me. I tend to listen to Pods when driving and do other exercises when I can leading to a certain lack of consistency. Videos will force me to give them time....
As for the pods already stored on the web. They are out there already and it has been proven with music downloads there is nothing CPod or anyone else can do about that. Cpod is not about the podcasts though its about the community and that is important. I've looked at other sites myself but its the community that makes this one my chosen teacher.
Auntie68 raises a valid point though that I hope CPod can figure out as input from native and near native speakers can be really helpful especially with the cultural input they often bring on the use of the language.
bazza says
September 1, 2008
So you're saying you're more advanced than every non-native learner on here? ;)
henning says
September 1, 2008
No, what (the always much too humbe) Auntie says is that the Advanced students here still do not nearly approach the correctness and elegance of even the most uneducated native speaker. This is especially true in Chinese which leaves a nimble speaker so many degrees of freedom.
There is one exception to the rule. And that is Changye. All native speakers I have shown his posts to pointed out that his writing is both elegant and without flaw.
frances says
September 1, 2008
Of all my fellow students here on CPod, I'm most cautious about learning from those who seem to be only a little more advanced than myself. The less advanced, I can usually tell whether their Chinese is correct. The much more advanced, and I would be doing well if I could mimic their errors... I probably couldn't anyway. The students only a little ahead of me... I can follow what they're saying well enough not to be able to tell whether they know something I don't or are making some horrible grammatical error.
Auntie is very advanced, and I doubt that she would do well to learn from most of her fellow students at this point.
henning says
September 1, 2008
frances,
with English (absolutely not my native language) I learned that sometimes us non-natives ardously mimic clumsy expressions, wrong word usage, or plain errors because they sound so unbelievable great to our ears - especially if the other non-native comes from the same country as oneself and the dictionary seemingly supports the choice of words.
I learned to check with google not only if an expression is used elsewhere but also where. If it is only in other German research papers I become suscpicious. Worst case: the one and only hit comes from...myself.
But, yes, just like you, I continue to mimic anyways in the hope that in total (and with a multitude of sources) I get more correct than incorrect input. :)
Cornelia says
September 1, 2008
Auntie68's and Frances's comments lead me to an idea:
What if CPod would offer free access for nearly-native-fluent speakers based on a test (online + Skype-check)? Such a passed test could work as subscription payment, with the expectation that those users help in the comments section. Their avatars should bear a special mark as "voluntary proficients" so that learners can distinguish that their comments probably are free of errors. (I had also appreciated the "admin"-mark for Praxis staff which you had in place more than one year ago.)
I would also expect that you may get cross-help among your community: as soon as my native language will be up (Germanpod) I will certainly drop by - because then I would have something to post of which others can clearly benefit. If you keep your Praxis subscription unlimited, i.e. as soon as you want to study 2 languages you have access to all languages this might work.
In any case I will be curiuos to see what topics you will cover, as I have a lot of colleagues from a merger who might take up German if presented in the entertaining style Praxis usually applies. I will certainly advertise for you!
mattwhyndham says
September 1, 2008
as I understand it, any subscriber can continue to use itunes to slurp up their selected podcasts, something not very well explained in the News item. I thought at one point Ken was describing turning the flow of podcasts off altogether, which really would be a retreat to the 20th century.
Go to http://chinesepod.com/your_user_id_here/feedsettings and copy the feed URL in the box to ...
(itunes) Advanced, Subscribe to podcast ... there!
As it is, I think they should still let some of the warmth of the hearth out to the non-subscribers. Oh wait, they have ... on the site itself, via the biddy flash players!
frances says
September 1, 2008
@mattwhyndham:
Since no mention was made of personal feeds, it did sound like Ken was saying that advanced lessons would only be available through the site from now on. I hope that most users who are fans of the convenience of the podcast format will come to the site and learn otherwise!
@Henning:
Your Engish has reached the level where you make fewer errors than the average native English speaker. Among native English speakers who chat online, you are far, far ahead of the curve. You do seem to avoid the errors that I recognize as common among Germans speaking English. Maybe I should make more use of Google myself!
coyote says
September 1, 2008
mattwhyndham :Thank you so much. I do what you said and now I can have ChinesePod podcast. Thanks a lot.
a1pi2 says
September 1, 2008
Ugh. I assume because of my new feed address my Zune just started resyncing all my old podcasts. Looks like I'll soon have two copies of everything on my player :{
frances says
September 1, 2008
My feed did something weird too, but it doesn't want to re-download the lessons themselves, just the related materials (PDF, fix audio). I think it means that CPod changed their URL patterns for the supplementary materials, and for the lessons that I have still have bookmarked iTunes is no longer recognizing the links. Now I think I'm going to have to manually delete the duplicated entries from my iTunes if I want to keep them from actually re-downloading.
a1pi2 says
September 1, 2008
@Frances: Ah, so it's not Microsoft's fault this time :P Good to hear that. I assumed it was just a Zune issue because CPod doesn't test on non-iPod platforms. (Of course, now that they're focusing on improving life for paying subscribers we'll get more cross-platform support, backup servers for the Sunday night outage, Hanzi user names, etc etc.)
The solution for me appears to be to delete the old feed (cpod.com/a1pi2/lessons/feed) and subscribe to a new podcast at the new feed (cpod.com/a1pi2/lessons/feed/SECRET).
And it looks like on the new feed CPod finally stopped giving me the dialog MP3s for free : ) Yay!
calkins says
September 1, 2008
Has anyone noticed that the site is much faster since the update last night? It seems 5x faster here (US). And it's nice that the when you open a conversation, the browser finally automatically goes to the latest comment. Thanks CPod!
johns says
September 1, 2008
This is Chinese Pod, lessons on the go. I would like more of the content downloadable in an audio format so that I can repeat the words and sentences with their English translations in the car, on a plane or at work. As it is, I love your product but only use it when I am sitting at the computer, not when I need to practice on the road.
I fly back to Shanghai in two weeks and would love to download a variety of key phrases for the trip. All along, this step could be anticipated. I wish you every success with it. This is a good value and a happy place to learn Chinese whether you make any more positive changes or not. Bravo!
chris says
September 1, 2008
Hi CPod team,
I posted a suggestion a few weeks back elsewhere but this seems a more appropriate thread for it.
On the flashcards, you will recall that there is a self-scoring mechanism for users to click whether they were right or wrong. It would be an excellent feature if, at the end of one's flashcard session, the user could recycle through JUST the incorrect flashcards. Even better would be if CPod could somehow automatically tag all the incorrect flashcards such that they went into a sub-group. Therefore, next time the user goes to the flashcard page he/she could just select this sub-group to be able to focus on the words they know they have problems with.
Would this be an easy improvement to make??
Thanks, Chris
sarahjs says
September 1, 2008
I liked the video. Nice and simple. Definatly wanting more. Will you be doing any Taiwan versions, as there is a difference in some of the nouns, like for transport?
sabrinaguenier says
September 1, 2008
Hi,
I'm 100% agree with Chris. I now have so much vocab in my vocab section that i don't play with the flashcards anymore. I should take time to delete the vocab i know now but that mean "take time" and i do prefer spending it discovering new lessons and vocab. But that mean i don't consolidate my vocab any more.
Something else: the grammar section. It would be nice if, while discovering new words in the dialogue section for ex., a click could bring us to the grammar section. No need (in my opinion) to have a boring sections like any grammar book (nouns, verbs, questions...) but entries like the "HSK, a guide to the usage of HSK vocabulary" ed. Beijing Language and culture university press could be very usefull. Entries could be from english or chinese to：
- get the differences between the uses of 地 and 得，or 会，能, 不 and 没。。。 。。。
- get the different ways of expressing the aim, consequence, opposition, condition...
- the "directionnels" as we call them in french. Ex: 我过去找他 or 天黑下来了。。。 。。。
- where should we put the "了"
- how to express time... ...
I don't see this section as a classic grammar lesson, but just as a support, if we need to fix a rule, to go forward, to know more about the grammar use of a 汉字.
非常感谢.加油!
macallus88 says
September 1, 2008
That would definetly help me. I wouldn't have to make a list of all my mistakes.
Also I would like to see a type-in format for the cards. So you see the English/Hanzi and type the Pinyin in with the tones (like on the exercises).
Other additions which I think would be good are:
and finally, similar to chris's idea. The success rate of each card could be stored, with a seperate group including your worst cards (with a limit on the history of about 20 ticks or crosses, to enable it to be removed from the group with several correct attempts). A worst 20 card group, worst 100 card group, or whatever.
Any improvement in the Flashcard area would be greatly appreciated.
josh says
September 1, 2008
Honestly, i'm suprised it took soooo long for C-pod to start restricting all the great lessons they've made. Obviously it costs money to run C-pod and free lessons for everyone would only keep more people from signing up. I'm glad that you guys will be focusing on us paid subscribers!!! Now for my suggestion on how to greatly help in me learning chinese and also others... I'm at the Upper Elementary level and I really enjoy listening in on intermediate and upper intermediate but I miss out on all the conversation in-between the lesson dialogue. So, can you plz post a simple pdf that would translate the conversation between John and Jenny. I mean, there's been a lot of times where I try to listen and look up the words and I swear they don't exist in my dictionaries. This would greatly improve my ability to learn chinese....my 2 cents anyhow...
Keep up the great content guys. Your really on to something here
sarahjs says
September 1, 2008
I've noticed a few changes. The PFD addresses are way longer than before. there are some crazy numbers in them, but the putting trad before the last .pdf still works.
Is Chinese Pod thinking about putting a direct link to the trad pdf's from the discussion page??
And the 甚is now什 I don't know when it was changed.
It seems that Chinese Pod was very busy during their downtime. I think it would have be nice for CP to say 'we will be down for x hours' rather than having a little note saying we'll be back soon.
yavin says
September 1, 2008
Hi Chinesepod team
I never posted anything before. This time I felt that I may have something to contribute so I decided to proceed with the unthinkable and post a comment.
There is no question that good service (and we all know that ChinsePod provides great service) should be monetarily rewarded. However, there is also the question of attracting new customers. When I just started using your service, for a long time I only downloaded the audio files without subscribing. It took me a while before I decided I really want to go ahead with full subscription. The fact that I could listen to audio files for free kept me coming and helped make my decision easier. Now you got me hooked and barring any major changes in the service, I will continue my subscription for many more years.
You already provide several incentives for those who just want to try it out. It may be worthwhile to think of more ways of attracting potential listeners and people like myself who take longer to commit for a subscription. For example, instead of one week free trial, maybe it can turn into two weeks. That can make a big difference for people. That said, you probably have all kinds of constraints that I am not aware of (like people downloading content for free and then uploading it to the net ...).
Well, I hope that helps. I really enjoy your service. I hope you do well and continue enriching the internet for many more years.
triphazard says
September 1, 2008
I would like to ask, (respectfully of course) WHY, oh WHY is ChinesePod going almost completely, "You must pay in order to learn Chinese" ? I have been using ChinesePod because it was free. It is still however fun, easy to use, and extremely helpful. Please respond!
light487 says
September 1, 2008
Why the September Changes?
Click on the above, this podcast and also the above conversation may have all the answers you are looking for.
patmethenywesmontgomery says
September 1, 2008
The video lesson looks nice enough.
Now that CPod has the time to dedicate to ensuring the existing content works, and providing new content for paying customers, It would be nice if CPod could provide feedback on the suggestions we make, or at least have a systematic way to address the suggestions we make. If nothing else, we could get away from subscribers making the same suggestion over and over again, when the original answer was, "we did that and only one person liked it", or "nice idea in theory, but would take too long to implement".
luobinzhenmei says
September 1, 2008
You guys are so cute--so sheepish about actually charging money for your hard work (Ken especially sounds SO embarrassed). When I think of all the things we have to pay for that we don't really want, it is about time that we have to pay for your hard work and the new features. Don't bring in too many new people-- we love you guys the way you are.
roscovanbasten says
September 1, 2008
@flyboeing777
There have been a lot of suggestions from users by email and through the website and we are looking at each and every one of them.
I agree, however, that we should set up a method to address these suggestions. One possibility would be to start a new thread "Suggestions" to answer all questions asked and to encourage more ideas from our valued users. An alternative would be to create a group so that the conversation doesn't get lost over time and so that we can create new sub-threads within the group to cover certain aspects such as "Suggestions for video", "Suggestions for flashcards" etc..
Let me know where you would like to see suggestions responded to.
hape says
September 2, 2008
If GermanPod would be up and running I can help other learners with their problems in German. But if I have to pay for a subscription as a native speaker, I would not do that.
The same with Chinese people... So I expect that no native Chinese are able to help/answer in the conversation section of the higher podcasts.
It's a pity. I don't see a solution for this.
user6278 says
September 2, 2008
Loved the Vocab tour hope there is more coming soon. Also as explained many times, it is really inexpensive if you compare it to Private Lessons, going to the University, etc.
hanyuxuesheng says
September 2, 2008
user6278,
i am surprised that many people here compare CP's price (basic/premium) with the price of private one-to-one lessons.
If one does this, one should compare the CP executive plan with the price of private lessons.
In CP alone (basic/premium) you are still on your own, nobody corrects you, you nearly never speak, learn nearly no grammar, don't learn how to write....
CP's podcasts are great, but it's only a small facet within Chinese language learning.
hanyuxuesheng says
September 2, 2008
hape:
I also think it isn't a good development that native Chinese have no possibility to hear the podcats and to comment/help the learners - unless they pay.
It would be great to help other learners of my native language, and to be helped by native Chinese in my learning here - a true network of learners!
xiaohu says
September 2, 2008
Josh,
I totally agree that they should provide a basic transcript of the dialogue in the podcast. While Jenny is in her flow during the recording of the podcast, she brings in a lot of new vocabulary and grammatical structures which are also useful study material. Ever since the beginning I thought they should give a full transcript, not just a transcript of the dialogue.
giant says
September 2, 2008
Is there any plan to implement the FLASHCARDs system with Spaced Repetition? I'm currently using a freeware with spaced repetition (SM2 algorithm) and it's far superior (including several sentences as an example per word) than the very primitive flashcards system on CP.
Unfortunately it's also not possible to download [my] flsahcards to be practiced offline - this is also an extremely dissapointing disadvantage.
wonglungsek says
September 2, 2008
No update on Cantoneasy?
frances says
September 2, 2008
I'm curious about the Cantoneasy program too.
mlewan says
September 2, 2008
I will miss you guys.
Cutting off the intermediate and advanced lessons from the free list is probably a good commercial decision. I'm surprised you have been able to give them away for so long.
However, I fall into the category of lazy and occasional listeners, so paying does not make much sense for me.
Besides I already have filters in iTunes to filter out everything but intermediate and advanced lessons. The beginner lessons' are too basic for me.
Anyhow, I must say that I have enjoyed every single one of the podcasts I have listened to. Good luck to all of you and to all of your paying listeners!
jenyoung says
September 2, 2008
Well, I for one think this is a shame. I really can't afford anything. I used chinesepod because it is free. And I really take strong objection to the notion that those who use the site for free are just freeloaders on what others pay for. Think about others circumstances - please!
Is there anything in the works to work with colleges and classrooms to get a reduced fee? Please?
helenhelen says
September 2, 2008
I'm happy to pay, but sexier subscription options would be nice. I like the premium features, and I upgrade when I'm going to have the time to use them, as it means I can tackle more difficult lessons. But this isn't most of the time, it's a month every so many months. My ideal learning on the run subscription would include the dialogues and fixes, as well as the podcasts and transcripts. I don't need to be at the computer to use these, so they'd mean more effective study but not significantly more time-consuming study. Would this make sense for anyone else?
hanyuxuesheng says
September 2, 2008
As CP podcasts at my level aren't freely available anymore and no subscription type makes sense for me (as I use CP only from time to time), I just want to thank ChinesePod for everything they published at no cost in the last years. It helped me a lot and it improved my Chinese.
You should think about subscription offerings for people (like me) who want to download only one or two lessons (with the HTML text) in a month.
For me, it's now time to leave.
BYE BYE ChinesePod and THANK YOU!
wes33 says
September 2, 2008
I sporadically picked lessons in the mid level range that were of interest for me. So, instead of these subscription levels I would have preferred a pay per lesson approach, probably as a boundle (transcripts + audio + vocabsheet in a flashcard friendly version). Advantage for the user: no contract (one can easily move between the different products of praxislanguage), one gets what he really needs.
kien says
September 2, 2008
The change implies that ChinesePod is sufficiently well-established and can continue to attract new subscribers even on a paying basis. Congratulations to ChinesePod for this significant achievement.
It strikes me that ChinesePod is that very rare business that can both deliver commercial returns to its investors, and yet make a significant social contribution to society generally (including the ChinesePod community) and goodwill between nations. I look forward to the day when I can be an investor in ChinesePod!
We should also acknowledge the tremendous contribution from the ChinesePod community. I especially appreciate reading posts from Changye, Henning, Auntie68 and the many regular contributors. It must take up so much time and effort to post so many comments, at such a consistently high quality, and often with such grace, courtesy and elegance.
I must not forget the people in ChinesePod. I particularly appreciate the enthusiasm and grace they show, both in the podcasts and the posts. I imagine there are many people in ChinesePod that have made significant contributions which are not visible, and thank them for all their efforts too.
Best wishes.
patmethenywesmontgomery says
September 2, 2008
@roscovanbasten,
thanks for the reply. I was thinking that giving suggestions visibility under the "community" tab that shows up when we first log-in would be a good place to put suggestions. I was thinking that adding a "suggestions" tab, along with the existing "conversations", "groups", and "Rankings" tab might be a good place to start. then under "suggestions", there could be "lesson topics", "improvements to the site", and "other". For each of these, there should be a status of something if the suggestion is actually taken. So if someone suggests a lesson topic of "juicy, scandal-ridden American politics" (btw, i'm an American), we can see in the status that that topic was suggested months ago, and was deemed too racy for sensitive CPodders. Or that it was accepted as an advanced lesson for delivery 6 months from now on the site. Hope that helps.
Also, for those that only periodically check that "suggestions" tab, I think it would be helpful for cpod to be able to link back to a suggestion if one has been made in the comments of a lesson, like this one. so you could have said, "flyboeing777, thanks for the suggestion. here's the latest on that topic", and then have a link going back to the suggestion page.
I realize that's creating more work for cpod, but once the discipline has been established into the user community to go to the suggestions portion of the site, then maybe cpod wouldn't have to link back to the suggestions from the comments.
z1444z says
September 2, 2008
I'm fine with the subscription changes.
I'm a fan of the Praxis language pass, and hope that this will continue to be priced reasonably as more languages are added. It makes all the difference on multiple subscriptions.
Good luck,
Rhonda
vbipat says
September 2, 2008
i love cpod - jenny, ken, and the community - but i'm pretty sad that now i have to pay for this amazingly cool site. so long and g'luck cpod.
:(
jenyoung says
September 2, 2008
@helenhelen
I agree - that would definitly be nice! More options if they are going to be limiting acess
edgar_brasil says
September 2, 2008
Yeah, suscriptions are sexy an decisions on itunes are fair, Cpod team is doing a great job!!.
Great advance with the videos, congrat!!.
Think about a tool to practice the chinese writing, not only reading.. =)
Rgds,
Edgar
wilo108 says
September 2, 2008
Oh dear!
"Learning on your terms" just became "learning on our terms".
This decision to renege on the noble and principled stand which first attracted me to ChinesePod is highly regrettable, not least because it can only indicate one of two things: that ChinesePod is in such dire straits that it has no choice; or that the powers-that-be now feel that they are in a strong enough position to be able to milk their user-base more vigourously.
The situation is comparable to an open-source software program which, having established a loyal user-base and built a strong community on the basis of it's philosophy, decides to close the source on all future development and become a commercial enterprise.
I will be cancelling my subscription - I only used the freely-available material anyway (as a small part of my learning strategy), but subscribed as a gesture of support for what I thought was a principled and enlightened business-model.
真可惜 :(
labbman says
September 2, 2008
technically that is not giving more value for paying custumers, but giving less value for non paying people.
getting relatively more based on the others getting less, doesn't do you any good does it?
auntie68 says
September 2, 2008
To Ken Carroll, CPOD: You stand to lose nothing if you will keep the idea of a possible return to a partially-free model under continual review. Even the NYT was able to find a way -- after two years -- to reverse its own decision to charge for access to certain parts of the online paper:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/business/media/18times.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=nyt%20online%20chargs&st=cse&oref=slogin
The very idea of advertising revenue is probably repugnant to some of your users, but to be absolutely frank I wouldn't mind going through some adverts (*with a "skip this ad" option) in order to permit at least the podcasts to be accessed free of charge. Paying subscribers will be able to view the site ad-free, of course.
Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing reasonably discreet Chinese-language pop-up ads at the Upper-Intermediate/Advanced levels where Chinese nationals might lurk. In fact, exploring such ads is not such a bad way of putting my newly-acquired vocab to use, especially if the copy is well-written and meets CPOD standards. And some of them might even be useful to CPOD users who are expats living in China.
Since CPOD is going into EnglishPod, surely there must be a way to make this work and harness cross-advertising between these two different -- but related -- demographics. English speakers like me would be moving freely in EPOD, native Chinese speakers would be free to circulate in CPOD and help the more advanced learners.
To those who abhor the idea of advertising, I'd like to list out some potential sources of revenue who aren't so bad (surely?):
auntie68 says
September 2, 2008
To Ken Carroll, CPOD: You stand to lose nothing if you will keep the idea of a possible return to a partially-free model under continual review. Even the NYT was able to find a way -- after two years -- to reverse its own decision to charge for access to certain parts of the online paper:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/business/media/18times.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=nyt%20online%20chargs&st=cse&oref=slogin
The very idea of advertising revenue is probably repugnant to some of your users, but to be absolutely frank I wouldn't mind going through some adverts (*with a "skip this ad" option) in order to permit at least the podcasts to be accessed free of charge. Paying subscribers will be able to view the site ad-free, of course.
Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing reasonably discreet Chinese-language pop-up ads at the Upper-Intermediate/Advanced levels where Chinese nationals might lurk. In fact, exploring such ads is not such a bad way of putting my newly-acquired vocab to use, especially if the copy is well-written and meets CPOD standards. And some of them might even be useful to CPOD users who are expats living in China.
Since CPOD is going into EnglishPod, surely there must be a way to make this work and harness cross-advertising between these two different -- but related -- demographics. English speakers like me would be moving freely in EPOD, native Chinese speakers would be free to circulate in CPOD and help the more advanced learners.
To those who abhor the idea of advertising, I'd like to list out some potential sources of revenue who aren't so bad (surely?):
sandiego2009 says
September 3, 2008
Ah, you worked hard ChinesePod. Subscription needs to be paid. Even though I am new and I started listening to you guys a week before the subscription started (yeah, "lucky me!"), but I think you guys deserver every penny for your hard work. I do hope that you guys focus more on the advance level, as I believe most of your clients must be advance speakers.
best
sparechange says
September 3, 2008
So you're saying your going to subject us to that theme song every week?
user33255 says
September 3, 2008
There are two sides to the story:
If you can't afford 5 bucks a month for a basic subscription, then maybe you should worry about something more than learning Chinese.
However, if native Chinese and advanced learners cannot listen/comment/correct without paying, then that is obviously a real disadvantage for the Pod. I would not blame them.
huasen says
September 3, 2008
Can't fathom why anyone would have a problem with the new charging policy. This stuff costs money to put together, what on earth makes you think you should get it for free?
hape says
September 3, 2008
http://chinesepod.com/terms says in a footnote:
The last podcast has the number 979.
Seems that "1127" in the footnote needs to be corrected...
user33255 says
September 3, 2008
The people here at Praxis Language/ Chinese Pod obviously have to generate some revenue to keep up their good service. Nothing in the business world comes free these days, and they have provided many free service before this change already.
I don't know if it is ethically, or legally okay.... so take this next suggestion with a grain of salt.
I am wondering if a native chinese/ very advanced subscriber is able to prove his credentials, (totally fluent in Chinese) if he/she might still be given the prior benefits... These people obviously will not pay if they already know the language well. But their contributions in the 'comments' section is pretty much indispersable. Maybe you can send out a resume form or something to see if they qualify. I am not speaking for myself, not wanting to get it free; I would not qualify on the terms I mentioned anyhow.
Anyways, a tough call. As for me, I was happy to upgrade and pay a bit. You guys deserve it, and probably even need it to continue on. Keep up your good work.
calkins says