4 ms·

Someone save this site. It's a pretty cool site that helps people learn languages. Man, so much crap out there with new flash sales websites, new aggregators f

Someone save this site. It's a pretty cool site that helps people learn languages. Man, so much crap out there with new flash sales websites, new aggregators for media consumption, startup's that do home cleaning. But a website that tries to teach people something enriching without a business model, but just tries to do a good job gets tossed on the way side. We need a foundation or grant program for non-profit and NGO websites. Most startups are crap-shoots anyways, VCs and developers should waste respectively their money and time on things that do good than the usual social media crap or new online marketing channels for conventional businesses.

lobotryas 13y ago
>Someone save this site This someone can be you. Call up OP and give him an offer for all the code and IP.
- wozniacki 13y ago
  Is there no one that could take this (and others like this) to the notice of a Moskovitz or a Houston, in a discreet way and without much fanfare, so that a lifeline could be had? This should be chump change to any valley Mogul. http://givingpledge.org/ http://givingpledge.org/ Self-pleasuring vibrator projects seem to be able to get funded with a lot more ease, for Pete's sake. http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/29/sex-pun-goes-here/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/29/sex-pun-goes-here/
  - melling 13y ago
    There is funding going into language learning software. http://www.crunchbase.com/company/duolingo http://www.crunchbase.com/company/duolingo http://www.crunchbase.com/company/mindsnacks http://www.crunchbase.com/company/mindsnacks And as I mentioned below, the space is crowded with plenty of little guys... like myself. :-) Most of us will lose. That's capitalism. Hopefully, the survivors will be much better because they competed in such a crowded space, and the consumer wins big in the end.
jmathai 13y ago
> We need a foundation or grant program for non-profit and NGO websites. Have a look at http://www.shuttleworthfoundation.org/ http://www.shuttleworthfoundation.org/ Being a fellow I can say it's an amazing group.
melling 13y ago
I noticed that he's considering doing an iOS app. I think the space is pretty crowded for language learning software. I've been working on my iOS app part time for 3 years this month. I'm building it to be generic but getting clean data is a nightmare. I was going through my French data tonight and saw some basic errors. I started paying people a few months ago to help write sentences, which will eventually be in each language. Anyway, writing it is a lot of fun. Give me a couple more years I think it'll be great. Here's what I have so far: http://www.h4labs.com/design1.html http://www.h4labs.com/design1.html http://www.h4labs.com http://www.h4labs.com If there are any patient people who want to help me iterate more quickly, drop me an email and say that you saw me on HN and I'll give you a promo code. I think French will be clean soon and I just got the pinyin back for my first 600 words. Have a go with the Lite version (2.2.2 is submitted) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/h4-spanish-lite/id388918463?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/h4-spanish-lite/id388918463?...
Blahah 13y ago
I'm not sure it's worth it. This is a crowded space (disclosure: I developed for Anki). Everything Wordchamp does is done better by a bunch of competitors. Add to that the fact that there have been intermittent shutdown notices scaring users away since at least 2011, and I think there's not much value left in saving it.
megablast 13y ago
Where is the actual language site, I couldn't find a link.
- Blahah 13y ago
  http://www.wordchamp.com http://www.wordchamp.com

lobotryas 13y ago

>Someone save this site This someone can be you. Call up OP and give him an offer for all the code and IP.

wozniacki 13y ago
Is there no one that could take this (and others like this) to the notice of a Moskovitz or a Houston, in a discreet way and without much fanfare, so that a lifeline could be had? This should be chump change to any valley Mogul. http://givingpledge.org/ http://givingpledge.org/ Self-pleasuring vibrator projects seem to be able to get funded with a lot more ease, for Pete's sake. http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/29/sex-pun-goes-here/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/29/sex-pun-goes-here/
- melling 13y ago
  There is funding going into language learning software. http://www.crunchbase.com/company/duolingo http://www.crunchbase.com/company/duolingo http://www.crunchbase.com/company/mindsnacks http://www.crunchbase.com/company/mindsnacks And as I mentioned below, the space is crowded with plenty of little guys... like myself. :-) Most of us will lose. That's capitalism. Hopefully, the survivors will be much better because they competed in such a crowded space, and the consumer wins big in the end.

jmathai 13y ago

> We need a foundation or grant program for non-profit and NGO websites. Have a look at http://www.shuttleworthfoundation.org/ http://www.shuttleworthfoundation.org/ Being a fellow I can say it's an amazing group.

melling 13y ago

I noticed that he's considering doing an iOS app. I think the space is pretty crowded for language learning software. I've been working on my iOS app part time for 3 years this month. I'm building it to be generic but getting clean data is a nightmare. I was going through my French data tonight and saw some basic errors. I started paying people a few months ago to help write sentences, which will eventually be in each language. Anyway, writing it is a lot of fun. Give me a couple more years I think it'll be great. Here's what I have so far: http://www.h4labs.com/design1.html http://www.h4labs.com/design1.html http://www.h4labs.com http://www.h4labs.com If there are any patient people who want to help me iterate more quickly, drop me an email and say that you saw me on HN and I'll give you a promo code. I think French will be clean soon and I just got the pinyin back for my first 600 words. Have a go with the Lite version (2.2.2 is submitted) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/h4-spanish-lite/id388918463?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/h4-spanish-lite/id388918463?...

Blahah 13y ago

I'm not sure it's worth it. This is a crowded space (disclosure: I developed for Anki). Everything Wordchamp does is done better by a bunch of competitors. Add to that the fact that there have been intermittent shutdown notices scaring users away since at least 2011, and I think there's not much value left in saving it.

megablast 13y ago

Where is the actual language site, I couldn't find a link.

Blahah 13y ago
http://www.wordchamp.com http://www.wordchamp.com