As a follow up to my previous post about the restructuring of Core 2k/6k - I can confirm that they've done a lot of reordering, even starting in the first step (for one example お医者さん has moved from step 10 to step 2). They've also reworded a bunch of the definitions.

I might just be remembering wrong but it also seems like there's a few new sentences, though I could be wrong on that.

Probably not of much interest to those that have done the core series already or are doing it with Anki, but thought I'd mention it.

kazelee Wrote:Extend the core Japanese and I'd pay. Just saying. You know, in case they read these threads like they say they do.

I have the same problem, but just with items audio, the sentences audio works fine.

I think Smart.fm can do whatever they want with the content created by them, but what about the content created by user? some people use audio created by their friends, girlfriends, etc...

Bokusenou Wrote:On Smart.fm? The Japanese Newspaper and
Super Japanese Vocabulary lists seem pretty good.

Does anyone have any other suggestions as to what's worth downloading while it's still available?

Elenkis Wrote:

Bokusenou Wrote:EDIT: I checked out the new iKnow site. It seems more buggy and less functional. Did they get rid of all the user profiles? How are people supposed to tell which users continually create good lists now? If there will be any of those left after the move... It seems like they got rid the social aspect of Smart.fm completely.

They've said that only the core learning functionality is up right now and that they're completely redesigning the social side of things and the content sharing. That stuff is supposed to be "coming soon" but I guess we'll see.

Ah, Ok. At least I know the site's not supposed to be done yet...

Splatted Wrote:Does anyone have any other suggestions as to what's worth downloading while it's still available?

If you like monolingual decks, yoikosann's 日本語表現 ones are pretty good. They're all short, and organized by subject.

How do you download those decks from smart.fm?

Use the Smart.fm Anki plugin (it's with the rest of the public Anki plugins). The description says it will no longer work, but it does. I just can't get it to download audio, but it works otherwise.

I JUST started making a deck for my students but I guess I can always use Anki. But it's going to be harder to motivate people to use Anki over Smartfm. ;(

Pulse Wrote:...and hardcore Anki user.

Sounds good to read/hear (whatever)

Pulse Wrote:I've been using smartKnow.fm for a while now, and the lure for me has been the (now meager) social aspect, as well as being able to jump in and learn stuff without any extra configuration. Just pick a vocab or sentence list and run with it. I love Anki, but I get frustrated pretty easily when I can't get setting up a deck to agree with me.

More and more FREE plugins for Anki are being created by creative programmers, which make creating new decks much easier.

gyuujuice Wrote:I JUST started making a deck for my students but I guess I can always use Anki. But it's going to be harder to motivate people to use Anki over Smartfm. ;(

anki works better for the long-term. But your right, it's harder to motivate people to use anki.

Is it possible to change import from smart.fm, not into anki, but into notepad, word, excel, google docs/speadsheets, etc.?

fleet street Wrote:Is it possible to change import from smart.fm, not into anki, but into notepad, word, excel, google docs/speadsheets, etc.?

If not, import to anki then export to tab/csv then import to whatever

nadiatims Wrote:boohoo

People really need to stop being so married to their srs decks. If losing access to Smart fm or even anki data is a huge setback, I think there are some holes in your learning strategy. seriously

And if one's house or place of business burning down were a huge setback....?

nadiatims Wrote:boohoo

People really need to stop being so married to their srs decks. If losing access to Smart fm or even anki data is a huge setback, I think there are some holes in your learning strategy. seriously

I haven't used their SRS in over a year.

That is not the issue. iknow/smart.fm sold themselves as the next generation Wikipedia where user created lesson plans would be shared freely worldwide. They kept assuring users during the last transition that one day there would be premium memberships and advertisements, but keep creating those lists because that would continue to be available for free. I was actually waiting for the paid premium memberships to be offered (despite the steady decline in site quality) as a teaching tool until this betrayal.

Anyone who gives that site a penny is akin to an abused wife who defends her scumbag husband, and then gets her ass kicked repeatedly afterwards. They represent the worst in corporate greed. If at any point in the last few years they would have communicated honestly with their users, many would have done what ever was necessary to keep what was an incredibly innovative product two years ago moving forward.

bodhisamaya Wrote:Anyone who gives that site a penny is akin to an abused wife who defends her scumbag husband, and then gets her ass kicked repeatedly afterwards. They represent the worst in corporate greed. If at any point in the last few years they would have communicated honestly with their users, many would have done what ever was necessary to keep what was an incredibly innovative product two years ago moving forward.

Haha. Truly, 1-2 years ago the site was ace and it showed to me that even learning boring facts like capitals, countries etc. can be fun. Compared to the popularity, however, they failed to eradicate obvious flaws and keep pace with innovative user suggestions. They were only enjoying their popularity and didn't get their asses up doing something, it seems.

Plus, there never was a proper Android app. Big mistake...

Is there a thread or a website that explains how to work the smart.fm plugin? And how much of the smart.fm format does it actually retain? I really liked the process of typing the words in, and the variation between English and Japanese multiple choice.

This is admittedly really sad, but I don't see it as a betrayal...what they are closing is a two-year market research experiment. Google 411 did the same thing - they used the service to develop a voice-response system and shut it down once they had collected the data they needed. Very rarely do free things stay free.

harusame Wrote:Is there a thread or a website that explains how to work the smart.fm plugin? And how much of the smart.fm format does it actually retain? I really liked the process of typing the words in, and the variation between English and Japanese multiple choice.

Here is a guide on how to use the plugin, written by the author. https://github.com/ridisculous/anki-iknow-importer/wiki

"anki works better for the long-term. But your right, it's harder to motivate people to use anki."

I'm looking for a guide on how to add BG's and sounds to Anki so to make it less itimidating for students. Any ideas?

I don't really get the anki is complicated / intimidating thing, I guess it looks a bit serious / boring.

What's a BG?

I don't mind it, but younger kids do and I would like to change that.

Yeah, I meant background for the program.

Also, how do you change the size of text? For a kanji/hanzi deck how could I make it so it would be readable? Thanks

harusame Wrote:And how much of the smart.fm format does it actually retain? I really liked the process of typing the words in, and the variation between English and Japanese multiple choice.

The plugin just downloads the smart.fm text and audio, and turns them into regular anki cards. Nothing more I'm afraid.

Yes I too love the smart.fm program for initial vocab learning; i think the way it tests you is key. Don't worry, I'm planning to write an anki plugin that mimics it (once i stop being so lazy).

Since they disabled comments on their closure announcement, you can comment on their Youtube page if you want to voice your opinion

gyuujuice Wrote:Also, how do you change the size of text? For a kanji/hanzi deck how could I make it so it would be readable? Thanks

Get into deck properties, open card layout and click the 'Fields' tab at the top.

harusame Wrote:I really liked the process of typing the words in

You can do this in Anki as well; in the previously mentioned card layout settings (albeit the first tab) there should be a drop down field, where you can have it compare input to different fields.

I used the typing thing in Anki for like a day, then I was all like, 「面倒臭いな…」

nest0r Wrote:I used the typing thing in Anki for like a day, then I was all like, 「面倒臭いな…」

I use it all the time, for all of my cards, except the ones where there's nothing to type. I'm so addicted to typing that my favorite games of all times are The Typing of the Dead and The Typing of the Dead 2.

aphasiac Wrote:

harusame Wrote:And how much of the smart.fm format does it actually retain? I really liked the process of typing the words in, and the variation between English and Japanese multiple choice.

The plugin just downloads the smart.fm text and audio, and turns them into regular anki cards. Nothing more I'm afraid.

Yes I too love the smart.fm program for initial vocab learning; i think the way it tests you is key. Don't worry, I'm planning to write an anki plugin that mimics it (once i stop being so lazy).

I haven't used this myself, but I just found this:
http://en45masao.appspot.com/smartfm/listconv.html
(through: http://smart.fm/users/en45/journal/2011/...7359-iknow )
And from what I can see, it exports to csv or table if you don't like getting information from anki. Although, I found this plugin though a japanese site, and since I can't read Japanese well enough to understand well, I would be wary of this program, I just thought that I would post it...