Features/Requests

Language List

1. Use a 'search box' to find the language in the list. Search according to 'new', 'new_lib', ISO 639-3 and 'new_lib2'. It will work the same as the City search box here:https://polyglotclub.com/find-friends Add the following text each time a user start to type in the box: "type the language name in English, or in the orginal language. Example : type 'French' or 'Français'". if nothing is found : add the following text : "try to search according to other English name or the orginal language: Example : type 'French' or 'Français"
2. Users will not be able to select a "macrolanguage" in "language you can TEACH" and "Language you want to LEARN".
3. For "language you can TEACH" and "Language you want to LEARN", there will be an explanation for users about that if they couldn't find the result, they can search alternative names in Wikipedia, find the ISO 639-3 and type it. If they still can't find it on that, they can choose "Special" ISO 639-3 code "mis" and type the name.
4. When creating wiki lessons, users' "language you can TEACH" and "Language you want to LEARN" can be shown firstly.
5. Create a special page to allow an administrator/members of the translation team to edit the 'new_lib' and the 'new_lib2' fields. Warning: the field 'new' will never be editable ! because this field will be used to create URL like /wiki/Language/French. That way, we can hope to complete more language gradually with time.

Tags

There will be tags for each wiki lesson and quiz, including language names, country names, people names, and some other.

Locations

Errors

1. Location is not good enough, because it requires a “city”, but people can input a province and select it, such as “Shandong”. There is also a problem about repeated names, for example, “Jinan (Shandong)” and “Jinan Shi (Shandong Sheng)”; “Paris (Île-de-France, France)”, “Paris (Paris, France)”, “Paris 02 (Île-de-France, France)” and “Paris 08 (Île-de-France, France)”.
2. Many flags of countries are also in lack or wrong. There is a new flag of Mauritania, but it's not widely accepted.

country/region/city

I think it is clear to me that how "country", "region", "city" can be changed. They should be "country or territory" (it is still not satisfying, because it is not covering all common types of territory), "first-level administrative division", "city". Usual sites don't write like this, I think it's because words are long and few people concern about it.

disputed countries

The old lists need to be changed, so there are two problems, one is about disputed countries. Which are to be "recognized"? I see Taiwan, Palestine, Western Sahara are widely accepted, and some other are not. The other problem is how do cities in disputed territories belong to. Maybe it can be selected in both countries. I really want to ask people in these area about their opinions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dependent_territory#Overview_of_inhabited_territories

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_with_limited_recognition

Translation Team

1. it is hard to translate accurately if it doesn’t show the context. I think there can be a link to the page in each sentence. There are also “finished” sentences in need of correction. When possible I can add a link to the page.
2. People should also be able to translate languages which they are learning, it is because, for example, very few people learn Esperanto as a mother tongue, but learners are many and they can do it.
3. For Chinese, there should be Traditional and Simplified. Also, Cyrillic and Latin for Serbian, and so on for some other.

Chat room

Chat room sometimes is not secure, according to Firefox, because it sometimes directs to http:// address instead of https://. When I search Mibbit with Duckduckgo and Yahoo UK, the result is its http:// page. That’s a reason for why I prefer KiwiIRC.

Forum

There is a “My Forum”, but "Forum” is not shown on top bar. Also, there is a “My Meetings”, in fact it can be easy to understand if it is called “My Events”. Maybe “Meetings” is more precise than “Events”.

Videos

1. In Videos, options of “Select a video website” is somehow restricted.
2. "Beginner" should be "Basic", because the other two words "Intermediate" and "Advanced" are both adjectives, so "Beginner" should be changed.
3. "Back" and "Next" button can be hidden when cursor leaves there.
4. And the format is different from Corrections and Questions.
5. It makes me notice “Submit” button, which are in a frame and there are additional buttons to submit in Corrections, Questions, Articles and Help.

Articles

In Articles, after clicking “New article”, the page seems to be for writing an article of Help.

friends

1. In user’s profiles, there is an “Add friend” button, which is better to be shown as text “You are already friends!” if so.
2. And list of friends in profile should be placed under the main content, in case there are a lot of friends and it makes a large blank in the page.
3. In “My Friends”, order of the list should be last logged in. Users should be marked “inactive” if not log in for 30 days, so it will be easy to know by others.

Chat softwares

“Chat softwares” in profiles should be updated. Not many people use AIM and ICQ now, there are new products in fashion, not only “chat software” but also “social media” now. There should be a list of them to select from. And, “software” is an uncountable noun.

social media
Facebook / Messenger
YouTube
WhatsApp
WeChat
QQ / Qzone
Installgram
Tumblr
Twitter
Sina Weibo
Baidu Tieba
Skype
Viber
Snapchat
LINE
Pinterest
YY
LinkedIn
Telegram
VKontakte
BBM
Kakaotalk
Other

The list is from https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/ and should be changed with new versions in the site.

No Google+?

Wiki

culture

As we can see, in wiki lessons, when it comes to culture, the list of languages does not fit. So I think that as a lesson of culture can involve many countries or peoples, it's better to add a new feature "tags", which includes countries, peoples, and an option "world". I think there may also be a "History" sharing the tags with "Culture".

I also think another set of tags can be applied to vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. And then, those "in many languages", "in many cultures" can be picked out from "English" into "World", which is more reasonable.

lesson topics

1. I want to talk about what I have found, which can be better in the future, though I think you are very busy now. I don’t mean to urge you, just take your time. When creating a new lesson, Some suggested titles in vocabulary:
   1. Are repeated, e.g. At the beach/Beach, Beverages/Drinks, Feelings and Emotions/Personal Feelings, Sightseeing/Travel/Tourism, Animal Sounds/Sounds Animals make, Count from 1 to 10/Counting and Numbers/Numbers, Means of transport/Transportation, City/Places in a City, How to say “No”/Negations().
   2. Covers things of other titles, leading to repeated contents, e.g. Weathers{Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter}, Plants{Trees, Flowers, Herbs and Spices}, Means of transport/Transportation{Vehicles{Car, Motorcycle}}, Animals{Mammals, Insects and Bugs, Birds, Reptiles}, At Home{Bathroom, Bedroom, Living room, Kitchen, Furniture, Rooms}, Free Time Activities{…}.
   3. Have better alternative names. e.g. Countries and Continents (Continents and Oceans is better, with Countries being placed alone), Fish and Seafood (Fish and other Aquatic Life is better), At Home (Home is better), Classroom (School is better).
   4. Are confusing, e.g. Outside, Fitness, Beauty.
   5. Have a misspelling, e.g. Useful sentenses.
   6. Have little content to write about, e.g. Maps, Cycling.
2. In Grammar, there are many to add, e.g. Adverbs. Imperative Tense doesn’t need to be followed by two words.
3. In Culture, there is only one title. Also there is a serious problem about polysemy. For example, when I choose “English”, it means ”the language of English People”. When I choose Vocabulary, Pronunciation, or Grammar, “English” means “things about English language”. When I choose Culture, “English” means “things about English Nation”. The former 3 can be tolerated, but Culture can’t be. What if a Singaporean or a Belgian person want to introduce its culture and find nothing to select? So Culture should be treated differently.
4. There is an option Tips, but no one can select it.
5. The OK button is also useless here.

login

That "remember me" should be "remember user name and password" instead of giving a sense of automatic log in.

register

1. In register page, "OK" button is actually useless unless to choose France.
2. Security check seems to be still unavaliable in China. Italki has a solution of providing a special one for Chinese.

feature suggestion

At the home page to encourage it before the new version? I think my ideas are limited.

Top menu

In fact I haven’t found many cases of listing so many items on top bar. These two are doing so, but there are no icons.

https://www.timeanddate.com/

http://dic.naver.com/

It can be icons and when the cursor moves there, a textbox appears and show the name.

Misc.

1. In Corrections and Videos, after selecting a language, there is also a “select a language” in the new page, and more languages can be selected there. People may ask what it means to have a restriction firstly. I think it’s to be convenient.
2. Threads of Videos, Forum, etc. are in chronological order of last updates, so there should be the dates of last update instead of dates of being created.
3. In Corrections and Questions, words below “Please respect our submission rules”, “How to ask a good question” are too small. It can be not comfortable for old people.
4. There are so many explanations written capitalized, but as far as I know, some people are not accustomed to this if their mother tongues are not in Latin Script.
5. Some texts in translated pages are not suitable for the common format, such as "remember me" has covered a big part of "login" in Japanese.
6. One language should not be selected more than once in "language you want to learn", "language you can teach" and Find Friends.