9 ms·

An open source web-based flashcard studying system

171 points by hwgilbert16 3y ago

akincisor 3y ago
I made a simple one myself as a one file html app. https://gitlab.com/aksrikanth/flash-cards https://gitlab.com/aksrikanth/flash-cards
anotheraccount9 3y ago
I wonder how to compares to Anki
- hwgilbert16 3y ago
  Anki has more features at the moment, but we’re hoping to go beyond its capabilities while addressing its shortfalls.
  - j45 3y ago
    Feature count won’t make it better than Anki, but user experience will.
    - pessimizer 3y ago
      Although features around moving cards between decks, drawing from multiple decks, allowing tranches of cards to be released based on other sets of cards reaching maturity, etc. would get me to switch. I've been an Anki user for a few years, and the inability for Anki users to do simple things easily (or sometimes at all) is frustrating. Having more than a few decks also slows everything in Anki to a crawl. The community has responded by dumping everything into an uberdeck (killing reusability, which gets sourappled), when we could instead be coming up with theories on how best to juggle multiple decks to maximize learning.
      - j45 3y ago
        Stay the course and build the next curve. I didn't adopt Anki for all the reasons you listed.
TheDong 3y ago
After skimming the site and code: Do not use this, just use anki. Anki has a free web version (anki web), and has free-as-in-AGPL desktop apps as well. Maybe one day this software will be comparable to anki, but right now it's missing spaced-repetition (which is the only thing that really makes large decks usable), and practically all the other features of anki.
- hwgilbert16 3y ago
  The project is still early in its development. Spaced repetition is something that has been recommended to me and has already been planned for the project from the beginning. The current flashcard implementation is not what it is intended to be in its final stage - it’s more of a showcase of initial functionality and a proving ground for building upon what other projects (like Anki) already offer. Anki web is an option, but the Anki project as a whole can be daunting to new non-technical users with the variety of implementations it has. Scholarsome is intended to be simpler to use for these users while still offering more powerful study tools.
  - j45 3y ago
    Well said about Anki. I use it and it’s not for the many, and learning with spaced repetition should be.
  - TheDong 3y ago
    If your goal is to be simpler, and also more powerful, could you write down what that means? If your goal is to just poke around without a plan, or to just copy features without a unifying vision, it seems unlikely it ends up simpler or more powerful than anki. As far as I can tell, there's no vision written down anywhere, no list of things other systems got wrong but you'll get right, no insight into what needs to be done in this space. The only selling points / differentiators I see listed right now are: "no paywall/free, open source". Those do not differentiate it from anki.
    - nerpderp82 3y ago
      > no vision written down anywhere Shouldn't this be a deck of cards?! I echo your sentiment. I also agree the Anki is a bit of a morass. A streamlined UI for creating Anki cards could be nice.
blasterjeff151 3y ago
It's a good start! Keep working on it - Anki has aspects that are very, very dated (IMHO) and an open source competitor would be good for everybody.
- hwgilbert16 3y ago
  Thanks for taking a look at it. As you said - Anki has some aspects that are due in part to its 20 year age. We’re going to be addressing those issues so that people are not reliant on only one option.
- alex-chew 3y ago
  I'm curious which aspects of Anki you find to be "very, very dated"? I haven't used Anki for very long, nor have I looked into any advanced-looking features, so perhaps I haven't run into those aspects you were referring to.
  - j45 3y ago
    Ask 10 non technical users
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - somsak2 3y ago
    sure why does the app give me a total number of cards to do? why not always present the card I'm most likely to forget and leave me to decide when to stop? why is it so hard to understand the concept of a note vs a card? why aren't there more ways to have cards be updated over time, to subscribe to updates? why does the app cost $25 on iOS? why can't I execute JavaScript within fields if my html/css is rendered in a browser anyway? just off the top of my head. many more to list. i love Anki but let's not act like it doesn't have serious downsides
    - zelphirkalt 3y ago
Exoristos 3y ago
Why not build on top of Anki?
frithsun 3y ago
I'd like to create one with basic and obvious gamification integrated into the design. Every aspect of my child's life is intensively, scientifically designed to be addictive and hyperstimulating except learning. Then we're back to digital flash cards that somehow manage to suck even worse than analog hand written flash cards. Not beating up on your early demo. Solid foundation. But please try to imagine a child using it and enjoying it. And whatever design decisions that implies will probably serve us adults better too.
- hwgilbert16 3y ago
  Simple HTML5 games are on the docket for future releases. Nothing advanced - but still something stimulating other than pure flashcards. This is a point where I’m not as well-versed. Would love to hear any recommendations for study games that you might find useful. As a side note, this is more targeted at an older audience, i.e. ~16+.
  - oofsa 3y ago
    One problem I've seen is that most addictive things, including games, either offer a diversity and discovery of content (as seen in watching YouTube videos or playing incremental games (Cookie Clicker, Candy Box!, etc.)), or foster competition and demonstration of skills (as seen in games like chess or FPS). However, memorization is by nature a repetitive and solitary task. Duolingo operates in this space, and their gamification model, I believe, is to motivate users to study by allowing them to display their streaks and levels to others. (competition) Anki also has a streak-based gamification, and it's somewhat successful, as seen here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Anki/search/?q=streak&restrict_sr=1 https://www.reddit.com/r/Anki/search/?q=streak&restrict_sr=1. However, these gamifications are not as fun as real games. It won't make your heart thump like FPS games do. I believe there is room to incorporate features from incremental games (like Cookie Clicker) into flashcard apps, although it is not as simple as it sounds. Habitica [1] is another example of integrating incremental features into a task management system, but it lacked a diversity of content when I tried it last year. Incremental games are not merely about numbers increasing; they also involve the discovery of various elements (like grandmas, farms, factories, mines, shipments, alchemy, portal, ... in Cookie Clicker). [1]: https://habitica.com/static/home https://habitica.com/static/home
Jonnston 3y ago
I use anki right now. I mean this question in good faith, is there a reason for me to switch? I'm happ with anki, but I'm open to being sold. Relatedly: Can I pay for this? Anki won't accept money, and it makes me nervous that one day the software is going to change and become unusable. I don't know how ankiweb can afford to host decks at no charge.
- hwgilbert16 3y ago
  If your reliance is on spaced repetition - in the current state - do not switch. An SRS has not been implemented yet, but it is high on the priority list. Once it has been added, I’d encourage you to look around and see if Scholarsome can fit your use case. To be upfront - this is still very in-dev. Anki is much more feature complete, and will be for some time, but I’m a believer in shipping fast and early to get feedback from users. I don’t have any plans to monetize my hosted option. At most, I may add a donate button in the future. Releases are all containerized, so it should be easy to host yourself on a system under your control if you trust that more than using a third party.
- Blahah 3y ago
  Anki is supported via the paid iOS app. It used to accept donations but the payment processors kept causing problems.
  - 93po 3y ago
    iOS app is $25 which is wild though
kazinator 3y ago
You're missing installation steps for how to use this on a phone without access to the Internet. I can use AnkiDroid with the device in airplane mode. For some users, it is absolutely critical that the spaced repetition program runs on a mobile device, because that lets them use any spare moments they have in any situation anywhere for the purpose of studying. It's a web app, but the installation talks about Docker containers ... seriously?
- hwgilbert16 3y ago
  Correct, it’s a web app. It’s run on a server that you will need connection back to - it’s not an Android or iOS app. Again, this is still very early in development. It’s likely that we will look into offline functionality in the future. In the future, we may potentially look into adding companion apps that can sync back to the server, but that is a far ways off from now.
  - proprietario 3y ago
    Are you planning on documenting your API? contributing a mobile client would become a lot easier tbh after trying SwiftUI the last few weeks I am tempted to give it a shot myself but being really unfamiliar with this type of web development trying to figure out the API routes seems a bit daunting
    - hwgilbert16 3y ago
      Hah, thanks for bringing that up. I’ve been wanting to document the API, but have left it on the back burner so-to-speak since I figured nobody would reach it. If you’re serious about giving the mobile client a shot, feel free to shoot me an email hwgilbert16@gmail.com and I might shift some priority over to the API.
  - blasterjeff151 3y ago
    I mean, you can always wrap your mobile website in a native-app skin (with Ionic or whatever the modern version of Phonegap is)
dan-g 3y ago
Since Anki has been coming up quite a bit in the comments, and this is a self-hostable (but not yet spaced repetition) flashcard system, I wanted to note that Anki does let you run your own sync server now: https://docs.ankiweb.net/sync-server.html https://docs.ankiweb.net/sync-server.html
- dan-g 3y ago
  Not quite sure why this deserves a downvote, it’s pertinent since it’s also an open-source flashcard system and there are lots of other comments about it, but okay!
mieses 3y ago
Could a teacher use Scholarsome to share flashcards with a group and track activity? It looks like some sharing features are already in place. Teachers use quizlet to assign both classwork and homework. Anki is designed for individual use and the sharing plugins are too complex and too limited for most teachers.
- hwgilbert16 3y ago
  We’re planning to add study analytics in the future to track progress. It’s possible that we’ll have it so that this data can be shared with another user.
natmaka 3y ago
Will you propose tools to easily import existing stacks (Mnemosyne, Anki...) of flashcards?
- hwgilbert16 3y ago
  We have plans in the works to allow imports from Anki. Right now, it only allows imports from Quizlet, but the ones you mention will be added in the future, assuming these other services provide a way for me to get the data other than web scraping.
lelanthran 3y ago
Firstly, I wish you all the luck; this is a genuinely useful category of software and there simply aren't enough alternatives out there. That being said, the big hurdle with SRS software is ... lack of content. I wrote one too but gave up on it because creating the content takes too long. What I'd like to see someone create is an open and free wikipedia-type-everyone-can-contribute-content project specifically for flashcards. When I sign up to any SRS I want to be able to point the software to (for example) www.srs-commons.org/topics/programming/languages/kotlin, or maybe www.srs-commons.org/topics/history/south-africa/the-boer-war, or www.srs-commons.org/curriculums/us/grade-10/trigonometry. Students seem particularly motivated to create a commons of cheating material, maybe they could be similarly motivated to add to a commons of study material.
- oofsa 3y ago
  I believe the issue is not a lack of content, but the quality of the content. There are so many decks on https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/ https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/, including ones for Kotlin (https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/kotlin https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/kotlin) and Trigonometry (https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/trigonometry https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/trigonometry), but most of them are of low quality or not what I want. Sometimes it's easier to just create a deck by myself.
  - blasterjeff151 3y ago
    Hmm - I've rarely used prebuilt decks but maybe I should consider that. Other services besides Anki have them as well. iDoRecall has a bunch that are tied in with OpenStax (a "free e-textbooks for all" project).
- hwgilbert16 3y ago
  It's likely that we add the ability to import from Anki, I'll also add the ability to import from other services that act as flashcard repositories. I've seen a few of them in my research. However, the project is more focused on giving individuals the platform to create their own sets/import from elsewhere, rather than hosting a large repository.
sedatk 3y ago
I just wanted to say Anki.
peterwallhead 3y ago
Not sure if the site's being HN'd or not, but the signup failed and then when I resubmitted the form it said my username was already taken. Tried a password reset just in case, but nothing came through for that either. Lots of error 401's, 409's and 500's in the network inspector.
- ayhanfuat 3y ago
  Same for me. An error during signup followed by username already taken followed by no password reset email.
  - hwgilbert16 3y ago
    Sorry about that. Email provider didn’t like the rapid increase in signup emails. Tested it, and it seems to be working now. Give it another shot.
- hwgilbert16 3y ago
  It’s being HN’d right now. Twilio (email provider) seems to have flagged my account earlier, but emails appear to be working fine again. Give the signup another shot.
qznc 3y ago
> Inspired by the larger sites that are now charging for core functionality, Scholarsome intends to be a drop-in replacement for any study workflow. What „larger sites“ does it refer to? All the comments here are about Anki but this seems to target something else?
- blasterjeff151 3y ago
  Probably referring to Quizlet and Memrise, and the up-and-coming iDoRecall.com
andrew_jef 3y ago
Alternatively, I’m a happy free user of NeuraCache [0]. It has a dedicated ios app, where I can use markdown notes in Obsidian as flashcards. [0]: https://neuracache.com/ https://neuracache.com/
guerrilla 3y ago
What's wrong with Anki? Why would I switch to this?
- blasterjeff151 3y ago
  It's a fresh start, the way I see it - Anki has a lot of dated bloat that's hard to shed (analogous to the heavyweight Visual Studio vs. the lightweight Visual Studio Code)
avereveard 3y ago
Are flashcard system actually more efficient than other ways of knowledge memorization? It never worked for me,I am curious to whether I'm the weird one or if there's anything that can back help me understand if I'm using the system work. To me, just for the sake of having a data point down, summarisation in writing is how I remember stuff.
- pessimizer 3y ago
  I promise that turning your summary into flashcards and looking at them for the next couple of years will help you remember that stuff longer.
blasterjeff151 3y ago
I want to also mention an SRS site that has gotten really polished and isn't nearly as well known as Quizlet and Memrise and the rest - and it's not open source - but the science and the polish are all there (you can even create cards while watching a Youtube video and it will link to that spot in the video as an optional source reference) - it's called iDoRecall.com, worth checking out. (I found it in an old thread here on Hacker News where the creator posted about it when it was new - I followed the link and was stunned at how polished it had become)
Dowwie 3y ago
I'd like to see the product without needing to register first
- hwgilbert16 3y ago
  I've added a gif to the readme that showcases one of the current flashcard modes.
betimsl 3y ago
Give Mochi a chance, it's got all the things and ease of use :)
ez_mmk 3y ago
If you are looking for a good flashcard tool I suggest studykit.app started using it after Quizlet shut down most of its basic features
AlexErrant 3y ago
I'm also building an Anki clone (sigh) that I'm calling "Github for flashcards". >A free, open source, local-first, spaced repetition system that works offline, has p2p syncing, plugins, and first class support for collaboration. https://github.com/AlexErrant/Pentive https://github.com/AlexErrant/Pentive Very much a WIP, completely unusable, but I recently made a video demoing the technical proof of concept. I plan on it being more or less Anki-compatible though, so there'll be cloze deletions, note types, etc.
- 93po 3y ago
  Props for this. We need a good, popular, open source anki for sure.
sunjester 3y ago
An example of over-engineering?

171 points by hwgilbert16 3y ago

I made a simple one myself as a one file html app. https://gitlab.com/aksrikanth/flash-cards https://gitlab.com/aksrikanth/flash-cards

anotheraccount9 3y ago

I wonder how to compares to Anki

hwgilbert16 3y ago
Anki has more features at the moment, but we’re hoping to go beyond its capabilities while addressing its shortfalls.
- j45 3y ago
  Feature count won’t make it better than Anki, but user experience will.
  - pessimizer 3y ago
    Although features around moving cards between decks, drawing from multiple decks, allowing tranches of cards to be released based on other sets of cards reaching maturity, etc. would get me to switch. I've been an Anki user for a few years, and the inability for Anki users to do simple things easily (or sometimes at all) is frustrating. Having more than a few decks also slows everything in Anki to a crawl. The community has responded by dumping everything into an uberdeck (killing reusability, which gets sourappled), when we could instead be coming up with theories on how best to juggle multiple decks to maximize learning.
    - j45 3y ago
      Stay the course and build the next curve. I didn't adopt Anki for all the reasons you listed.

TheDong 3y ago

After skimming the site and code: Do not use this, just use anki. Anki has a free web version (anki web), and has free-as-in-AGPL desktop apps as well. Maybe one day this software will be comparable to anki, but right now it's missing spaced-repetition (which is the only thing that really makes large decks usable), and practically all the other features of anki.

hwgilbert16 3y ago
The project is still early in its development. Spaced repetition is something that has been recommended to me and has already been planned for the project from the beginning. The current flashcard implementation is not what it is intended to be in its final stage - it’s more of a showcase of initial functionality and a proving ground for building upon what other projects (like Anki) already offer. Anki web is an option, but the Anki project as a whole can be daunting to new non-technical users with the variety of implementations it has. Scholarsome is intended to be simpler to use for these users while still offering more powerful study tools.
- j45 3y ago
  Well said about Anki. I use it and it’s not for the many, and learning with spaced repetition should be.
- TheDong 3y ago
  If your goal is to be simpler, and also more powerful, could you write down what that means? If your goal is to just poke around without a plan, or to just copy features without a unifying vision, it seems unlikely it ends up simpler or more powerful than anki. As far as I can tell, there's no vision written down anywhere, no list of things other systems got wrong but you'll get right, no insight into what needs to be done in this space. The only selling points / differentiators I see listed right now are: "no paywall/free, open source". Those do not differentiate it from anki.
  - nerpderp82 3y ago
    > no vision written down anywhere Shouldn't this be a deck of cards?! I echo your sentiment. I also agree the Anki is a bit of a morass. A streamlined UI for creating Anki cards could be nice.

blasterjeff151 3y ago

It's a good start! Keep working on it - Anki has aspects that are very, very dated (IMHO) and an open source competitor would be good for everybody.

hwgilbert16 3y ago
Thanks for taking a look at it. As you said - Anki has some aspects that are due in part to its 20 year age. We’re going to be addressing those issues so that people are not reliant on only one option.
alex-chew 3y ago
I'm curious which aspects of Anki you find to be "very, very dated"? I haven't used Anki for very long, nor have I looked into any advanced-looking features, so perhaps I haven't run into those aspects you were referring to.
- j45 3y ago
  Ask 10 non technical users
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- somsak2 3y ago
  sure why does the app give me a total number of cards to do? why not always present the card I'm most likely to forget and leave me to decide when to stop? why is it so hard to understand the concept of a note vs a card? why aren't there more ways to have cards be updated over time, to subscribe to updates? why does the app cost $25 on iOS? why can't I execute JavaScript within fields if my html/css is rendered in a browser anyway? just off the top of my head. many more to list. i love Anki but let's not act like it doesn't have serious downsides
  - zelphirkalt 3y ago

Exoristos 3y ago

Why not build on top of Anki?

frithsun 3y ago

I'd like to create one with basic and obvious gamification integrated into the design. Every aspect of my child's life is intensively, scientifically designed to be addictive and hyperstimulating except learning. Then we're back to digital flash cards that somehow manage to suck even worse than analog hand written flash cards. Not beating up on your early demo. Solid foundation. But please try to imagine a child using it and enjoying it. And whatever design decisions that implies will probably serve us adults better too.

hwgilbert16 3y ago
Simple HTML5 games are on the docket for future releases. Nothing advanced - but still something stimulating other than pure flashcards. This is a point where I’m not as well-versed. Would love to hear any recommendations for study games that you might find useful. As a side note, this is more targeted at an older audience, i.e. ~16+.
- oofsa 3y ago
  One problem I've seen is that most addictive things, including games, either offer a diversity and discovery of content (as seen in watching YouTube videos or playing incremental games (Cookie Clicker, Candy Box!, etc.)), or foster competition and demonstration of skills (as seen in games like chess or FPS). However, memorization is by nature a repetitive and solitary task. Duolingo operates in this space, and their gamification model, I believe, is to motivate users to study by allowing them to display their streaks and levels to others. (competition) Anki also has a streak-based gamification, and it's somewhat successful, as seen here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Anki/search/?q=streak&restrict_sr=1 https://www.reddit.com/r/Anki/search/?q=streak&restrict_sr=1. However, these gamifications are not as fun as real games. It won't make your heart thump like FPS games do. I believe there is room to incorporate features from incremental games (like Cookie Clicker) into flashcard apps, although it is not as simple as it sounds. Habitica [1] is another example of integrating incremental features into a task management system, but it lacked a diversity of content when I tried it last year. Incremental games are not merely about numbers increasing; they also involve the discovery of various elements (like grandmas, farms, factories, mines, shipments, alchemy, portal, ... in Cookie Clicker). [1]: https://habitica.com/static/home https://habitica.com/static/home

Jonnston 3y ago

I use anki right now. I mean this question in good faith, is there a reason for me to switch? I'm happ with anki, but I'm open to being sold. Relatedly: Can I pay for this? Anki won't accept money, and it makes me nervous that one day the software is going to change and become unusable. I don't know how ankiweb can afford to host decks at no charge.

hwgilbert16 3y ago
If your reliance is on spaced repetition - in the current state - do not switch. An SRS has not been implemented yet, but it is high on the priority list. Once it has been added, I’d encourage you to look around and see if Scholarsome can fit your use case. To be upfront - this is still very in-dev. Anki is much more feature complete, and will be for some time, but I’m a believer in shipping fast and early to get feedback from users. I don’t have any plans to monetize my hosted option. At most, I may add a donate button in the future. Releases are all containerized, so it should be easy to host yourself on a system under your control if you trust that more than using a third party.
Blahah 3y ago
Anki is supported via the paid iOS app. It used to accept donations but the payment processors kept causing problems.
- 93po 3y ago
  iOS app is $25 which is wild though

kazinator 3y ago

You're missing installation steps for how to use this on a phone without access to the Internet. I can use AnkiDroid with the device in airplane mode. For some users, it is absolutely critical that the spaced repetition program runs on a mobile device, because that lets them use any spare moments they have in any situation anywhere for the purpose of studying. It's a web app, but the installation talks about Docker containers ... seriously?

hwgilbert16 3y ago
Correct, it’s a web app. It’s run on a server that you will need connection back to - it’s not an Android or iOS app. Again, this is still very early in development. It’s likely that we will look into offline functionality in the future. In the future, we may potentially look into adding companion apps that can sync back to the server, but that is a far ways off from now.
- proprietario 3y ago
  Are you planning on documenting your API? contributing a mobile client would become a lot easier tbh after trying SwiftUI the last few weeks I am tempted to give it a shot myself but being really unfamiliar with this type of web development trying to figure out the API routes seems a bit daunting
  - hwgilbert16 3y ago
    Hah, thanks for bringing that up. I’ve been wanting to document the API, but have left it on the back burner so-to-speak since I figured nobody would reach it. If you’re serious about giving the mobile client a shot, feel free to shoot me an email hwgilbert16@gmail.com and I might shift some priority over to the API.
- blasterjeff151 3y ago
  I mean, you can always wrap your mobile website in a native-app skin (with Ionic or whatever the modern version of Phonegap is)

dan-g 3y ago

Since Anki has been coming up quite a bit in the comments, and this is a self-hostable (but not yet spaced repetition) flashcard system, I wanted to note that Anki does let you run your own sync server now: https://docs.ankiweb.net/sync-server.html https://docs.ankiweb.net/sync-server.html

dan-g 3y ago
Not quite sure why this deserves a downvote, it’s pertinent since it’s also an open-source flashcard system and there are lots of other comments about it, but okay!

mieses 3y ago

Could a teacher use Scholarsome to share flashcards with a group and track activity? It looks like some sharing features are already in place. Teachers use quizlet to assign both classwork and homework. Anki is designed for individual use and the sharing plugins are too complex and too limited for most teachers.

hwgilbert16 3y ago
We’re planning to add study analytics in the future to track progress. It’s possible that we’ll have it so that this data can be shared with another user.

natmaka 3y ago

Will you propose tools to easily import existing stacks (Mnemosyne, Anki...) of flashcards?

hwgilbert16 3y ago
We have plans in the works to allow imports from Anki. Right now, it only allows imports from Quizlet, but the ones you mention will be added in the future, assuming these other services provide a way for me to get the data other than web scraping.

lelanthran 3y ago

Firstly, I wish you all the luck; this is a genuinely useful category of software and there simply aren't enough alternatives out there. That being said, the big hurdle with SRS software is ... lack of content. I wrote one too but gave up on it because creating the content takes too long. What I'd like to see someone create is an open and free wikipedia-type-everyone-can-contribute-content project specifically for flashcards. When I sign up to any SRS I want to be able to point the software to (for example) www.srs-commons.org/topics/programming/languages/kotlin, or maybe www.srs-commons.org/topics/history/south-africa/the-boer-war, or www.srs-commons.org/curriculums/us/grade-10/trigonometry. Students seem particularly motivated to create a commons of cheating material, maybe they could be similarly motivated to add to a commons of study material.

oofsa 3y ago
I believe the issue is not a lack of content, but the quality of the content. There are so many decks on https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/ https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/, including ones for Kotlin (https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/kotlin https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/kotlin) and Trigonometry (https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/trigonometry https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/trigonometry), but most of them are of low quality or not what I want. Sometimes it's easier to just create a deck by myself.
- blasterjeff151 3y ago
  Hmm - I've rarely used prebuilt decks but maybe I should consider that. Other services besides Anki have them as well. iDoRecall has a bunch that are tied in with OpenStax (a "free e-textbooks for all" project).
hwgilbert16 3y ago
It's likely that we add the ability to import from Anki, I'll also add the ability to import from other services that act as flashcard repositories. I've seen a few of them in my research. However, the project is more focused on giving individuals the platform to create their own sets/import from elsewhere, rather than hosting a large repository.

sedatk 3y ago

I just wanted to say Anki.

peterwallhead 3y ago

Not sure if the site's being HN'd or not, but the signup failed and then when I resubmitted the form it said my username was already taken. Tried a password reset just in case, but nothing came through for that either. Lots of error 401's, 409's and 500's in the network inspector.

ayhanfuat 3y ago
Same for me. An error during signup followed by username already taken followed by no password reset email.
- hwgilbert16 3y ago
  Sorry about that. Email provider didn’t like the rapid increase in signup emails. Tested it, and it seems to be working now. Give it another shot.
hwgilbert16 3y ago
It’s being HN’d right now. Twilio (email provider) seems to have flagged my account earlier, but emails appear to be working fine again. Give the signup another shot.

qznc 3y ago

> Inspired by the larger sites that are now charging for core functionality, Scholarsome intends to be a drop-in replacement for any study workflow. What „larger sites“ does it refer to? All the comments here are about Anki but this seems to target something else?

blasterjeff151 3y ago
Probably referring to Quizlet and Memrise, and the up-and-coming iDoRecall.com

andrew_jef 3y ago

Alternatively, I’m a happy free user of NeuraCache [0]. It has a dedicated ios app, where I can use markdown notes in Obsidian as flashcards. [0]: https://neuracache.com/ https://neuracache.com/

guerrilla 3y ago

What's wrong with Anki? Why would I switch to this?

blasterjeff151 3y ago
It's a fresh start, the way I see it - Anki has a lot of dated bloat that's hard to shed (analogous to the heavyweight Visual Studio vs. the lightweight Visual Studio Code)

avereveard 3y ago

Are flashcard system actually more efficient than other ways of knowledge memorization? It never worked for me,I am curious to whether I'm the weird one or if there's anything that can back help me understand if I'm using the system work. To me, just for the sake of having a data point down, summarisation in writing is how I remember stuff.

pessimizer 3y ago
I promise that turning your summary into flashcards and looking at them for the next couple of years will help you remember that stuff longer.

blasterjeff151 3y ago

I want to also mention an SRS site that has gotten really polished and isn't nearly as well known as Quizlet and Memrise and the rest - and it's not open source - but the science and the polish are all there (you can even create cards while watching a Youtube video and it will link to that spot in the video as an optional source reference) - it's called iDoRecall.com, worth checking out. (I found it in an old thread here on Hacker News where the creator posted about it when it was new - I followed the link and was stunned at how polished it had become)

Dowwie 3y ago

I'd like to see the product without needing to register first

hwgilbert16 3y ago
I've added a gif to the readme that showcases one of the current flashcard modes.

betimsl 3y ago

Give Mochi a chance, it's got all the things and ease of use :)

ez_mmk 3y ago

If you are looking for a good flashcard tool I suggest studykit.app started using it after Quizlet shut down most of its basic features

AlexErrant 3y ago

I'm also building an Anki clone (sigh) that I'm calling "Github for flashcards". >A free, open source, local-first, spaced repetition system that works offline, has p2p syncing, plugins, and first class support for collaboration. https://github.com/AlexErrant/Pentive https://github.com/AlexErrant/Pentive Very much a WIP, completely unusable, but I recently made a video demoing the technical proof of concept. I plan on it being more or less Anki-compatible though, so there'll be cloze deletions, note types, etc.

93po 3y ago
Props for this. We need a good, popular, open source anki for sure.

sunjester 3y ago

An example of over-engineering?