5 ms·

How online learning with LurnQ is more social and clutter-free

15 points by tarunmitra 14y ago

nnq 14y ago
...damn, just when I started equating "social" with "cluttered" :)
- Garoof 14y ago
  Yeah. Was trying to read that as "more free from social and clutter"...
vy8vWJlco 14y ago
I understand that it's "social" for specific reasons (content discovery, distributed authoring, re-using the communication platform for discussions, etc) but the mandatory social login really is a high bar for people looking at it for the first time who are unable or unwilling to log in to one of the big ad^Wsocial networks. (There was a discussion on HN - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5408735 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5408735 - about the effect, and about alternative approaches, aptly named "Users don't like social login.")
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- tarunmitra 14y ago
  here is a similar debate on Quora and Robert Scoble's answer http://www.quora.com/Startups/Why-are-the-logins-to-so-many-startups-websites-tied-to-users-Facebook-accounts?srid=OQY&st=ns http://www.quora.com/Startups/Why-are-the-logins-to-so-many-...
  - vy8vWJlco 14y ago
    Thanks! Scoble is obviously very excited about social media ("we are heading into an age of predictive services based on our identity"), which is fine - I still see it as a trap and not an exciting future - but even if I, and others like me, accepted social media I think LurnQ would see usage go up if the sign-in were simply optional (ie, if they placed the login below the content). (I also understand that that may seem like extra work if all the features are "best" with the social parts... But by not doing so, the non-facebook crowd - which includes the impatient and not-logged-in - simply press X.) Take Khan Academy, for example: you can watch the videos and explore but login to get the features that depend on tracking through time.
    - tarunmitra 14y ago
      The core value proposition of Khan Academy is the content they produce which is amazing stuff. LurnQ on the other hand is a consumer tool that aims to simplify online learning. It helps you manage your learning in the open learning ecosystem. It i somewhat like GitHub for learning and unless you signup the experience can not be delivered.
drucken 14y ago
Sounds like they generalized (weakly) the much older and popular language learning site, LingQ (http://www.lingq.com http://www.lingq.com)...
pungoyal 14y ago
naah .. too clunky! plus, no way to delete my account.

15 points by tarunmitra 14y ago

nnq 14y ago

...damn, just when I started equating "social" with "cluttered" :)

Garoof 14y ago
Yeah. Was trying to read that as "more free from social and clutter"...

vy8vWJlco 14y ago

I understand that it's "social" for specific reasons (content discovery, distributed authoring, re-using the communication platform for discussions, etc) but the mandatory social login really is a high bar for people looking at it for the first time who are unable or unwilling to log in to one of the big ad^Wsocial networks. (There was a discussion on HN - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5408735 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5408735 - about the effect, and about alternative approaches, aptly named "Users don't like social login.")

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
tarunmitra 14y ago
here is a similar debate on Quora and Robert Scoble's answer http://www.quora.com/Startups/Why-are-the-logins-to-so-many-startups-websites-tied-to-users-Facebook-accounts?srid=OQY&st=ns http://www.quora.com/Startups/Why-are-the-logins-to-so-many-...
- vy8vWJlco 14y ago
  Thanks! Scoble is obviously very excited about social media ("we are heading into an age of predictive services based on our identity"), which is fine - I still see it as a trap and not an exciting future - but even if I, and others like me, accepted social media I think LurnQ would see usage go up if the sign-in were simply optional (ie, if they placed the login below the content). (I also understand that that may seem like extra work if all the features are "best" with the social parts... But by not doing so, the non-facebook crowd - which includes the impatient and not-logged-in - simply press X.) Take Khan Academy, for example: you can watch the videos and explore but login to get the features that depend on tracking through time.
  - tarunmitra 14y ago
    The core value proposition of Khan Academy is the content they produce which is amazing stuff. LurnQ on the other hand is a consumer tool that aims to simplify online learning. It helps you manage your learning in the open learning ecosystem. It i somewhat like GitHub for learning and unless you signup the experience can not be delivered.

drucken 14y ago

Sounds like they generalized (weakly) the much older and popular language learning site, LingQ (http://www.lingq.com http://www.lingq.com)...

pungoyal 14y ago

naah .. too clunky! plus, no way to delete my account.