Hi all,

I invite you to a new site (I asked Fabrice for permission to post about it here).

http://www.fixoodle.com

I like the basic idea of social language correction. In fact, I've dreamed about a cool site for language learning like this for over 10 years. In recent years, a few sites have popped up, but I haven't found a solution I really like, though. Sentence-by-sentence correction schemes leave you wondering, "did they not correct it because it is a great sentence, or did they just skip it?". Others allow correction of a whole text, but if people don't point out the changes, you have to do some hefty brain computing to find the differences between the final and original versions. In my experience, people can't be bothered to point out changes.

Fixoodle is all-or-none correction. With Fixoodle, before and after changes are automatically highlighted.

Along with postings/corrections, the site has a social translation functionality. You can ask for a translation of a short piece of text or attempt to translate something for someone else, with translation voting, etc.

Add a social component like messaging, friends, and groups, and you have Fixoodle.

The only thing that would make it even cooler is if you could supply a sentence and ask a native speaker to read it for you, and then do the same for them in English, then download the sound files. Maybe in the future...

Fixoodle is still in Beta, so bugs are bound to be around. I'd love your feedback, any comments appreciated.

Thanks!

Jay

What is the difference between this site, and say http://lang-8.com/ ? Just the automatic highlighting of changes instead of relying on user highlights?

I still haven't understood why awesome sites with similar, but slightly different ideas just won't collaborate and make something too awesome together.

Instead of that they make different sites and some of the smaller ones die.

Well competition is good, but it would be much more time-efficient to collaborate. And also, collaboration,community and sharing brings great ideas that you couldn't have thought of alone.

You have your basic paid translation service:
Link [mygengo.com]

This is even one level below that:
1) Free
2) Even lower quality than mygengo (or similar economy translation service) - probably
3) Takes longer or forever (i.e. you don't get your finished translation)

I don't think collaboration is a good idea. The one people collaborate with ends up like Facebook, with all the power. I would rather everyone steal each other's ideas. Uncreative people (like me) pick the best site from among those they're aware of.


jaystarkey, what is your relation to Fixoodle? Are you a member? The site owner? Work for the site?

jettyke Wrote:I still haven't understood why awesome sites with similar, but slightly different ideas just won't collaborate and make something too awesome together.

Instead of that they make different sites and some of the smaller ones die.

Well competition is good, but it would be much more time-efficient to collaborate. And also, collaboration,community and sharing brings great ideas that you couldn't have thought of alone.

Agreed.

Looks cool but how does it compete against lang-8 small, but established user base? I get corrections 10~20 minutes after a post.

I signed up.
It's clear the developer did not do basic debugging. Not recommended.

HI all,

Thanks for the thoughts and feedback.

I graduated from the IUC in Yokohama a few years back (was there as a Blakemore fellow) and am now pursuing other interests. I created Fixoodle because I am passionate about language learning -- that's it. I like social learning, and at the very least the site will be a great place for myself and a few like minded individuals to collaborate together. Hopefully it will grow into something cool for many people to enjoy. As far as translating goes, the purpose of the site isn't to provide quality translations for free. It is to allow people to practice language learning through activities like writing and translating, and to get feedback from other users, and hopefully make some friends along the way.

jcdietz03, by the way, did you stop back to check out the translation you got on your request? Not that quality is the point, but if that isn't quality...

If you have any feedback I'm happy to hear it (probably the best way to submit suggestions would be through the site, click on the "help" link at the bottom). I have definitely done some basic debugging and then some, but I'm sure I will be doing some more, especially in the early stages. ;-)

Thanks again,

Jay

I am looking forwards to http://duolingo.com/
which is from the inventor of recaptcha.
Learn a language while translating the web...

Go go Necromagic!

Anyone have any updated comments on the usage and features of fixoodle vs. lang-8? Lang-8's main pull for me is the near-instant feedback, even if it is piecewise or limited at times there are tons of users. How's fixoodle fair in this regard?

Duolingo is sweet for non-Japanese language (I'm using it for Spanish, it's pretty fun and addictive!), but it doesn't seem like Japanese will be implemented any time soon.

K.