It’s Spanish or Vanish

[Gustav 6,322]

One of the perks of being a relatively young and independent adult that no one tells you about is that all the other young and independent adults are trying to tell themselves they’re making progress in learning another language with Duolingo, and so are you. 
 

Seriously, I’ve never seen anyone talk about this at length, but it’s true. I never talk about it, but I just extended my streak and I can name at least 4 people in my circle of 10-ish “people I see every day” who definitely just did the same thing and also never mention it. I spent years trying to learn Spanish in school and still really don’t speak it, so I know full well that 3 minutes on some app every day won’t help me in any language (and it doesn’t help that it’s not even Spanish that I’m working on). But it’s just a thing that people do that I do as well. It is what it is. 
 

One of the big hallmarks of Duolingo that any user knows about is its SUPER aggressive style when it comes to sending reminders. Push notifications, phone going off at exactly 10:49 PM every night for some reason, sometimes multiple emails a day, red circles on the app icon (why did it have a 5 in it today? I have no idea). It’s annoying—maybe not quite as bad as LinkedIn, but it’s up there. But to make this VHL-related, why can’t we do the same thing?

 

I just think the VHL would be a much better place if we absolutely hounded down members for their activity. You didn’t check the forum today? You just lost your 27-day streak, idiot! That inbox of yours hasn’t been used much lately? Check out these posts you missed today! Your phone has some dust on it? Let’s knock it off with some harsh buzzing from us asking you (at 10:49 every Sunday) why you haven’t earned max TPE. Or, better yet, maybe @Berocka just passed you in the TPE rankings! Better catch that asshole before it’s too late!

 

Even though I think this would be just as annoying as you would, I can’t help but think that the fine folks over at Not Actually Helping You Get Bilingual have numbers somewhere indicating that things like these are statistically the best way to keep people pushing their product. And while I don’t think we should try it, I think it would be an interesting experiment that those of us with a sense of humor would find fun. 

[N0HBDY 1,108]

We can abuse the hell out of the phone notifications button if you want, then it's like the same thing duolingo is doing.

[N0HBDY 1,108]

and no I'm not joking lol

[Enorama 2,030]

1 hour ago, Gustav said:

Or, better yet, maybe @Berocka just passed you in the TPE rankings! Better catch that asshole before it’s too late!

 

THE BEHAVIORALIST AS TAX COLLECTOR: USING NATURAL FIELD EXPERIMENTS TO ENHANCE TAX COMPLIANCE

[Beketov 8,939]

5 hours ago, N0HBDY said:

and no I'm not joking lol

I mean to be fair that would only affect members that have the app, we can’t push notifications to anyone else.

[N0HBDY 1,108]

4 hours ago, Beketov said:

I mean to be fair that would only affect members that have the app, we can’t push notifications to anyone else.

Exactly that means we make everyone get the app

[Gustav 6,322]

10 hours ago, Enorama said:

 

THE BEHAVIORALIST AS TAX COLLECTOR: USING NATURAL FIELD EXPERIMENTS TO ENHANCE TAX COMPLIANCE

nerd

[Enorama 2,030]

1 minute ago, Gustav said:

nerd

 

Do you even behavioural economics bro?

 

[jacobcarson877 2,432]

I think with some Discord bot shenanigans this actually wouldn't be the worst idea for the VHLM and VHLE, but dear god please leave me alone in the VHL.

[Gustav 6,322]

1 hour ago, jacobcarson877 said:

I think with some Discord bot shenanigans this actually wouldn't be the worst idea for the VHLM and VHLE, but dear god please leave me alone in the VHL.

I figured out that there’s a way to set up MEE6 so that you can, first, let people give themselves a role by leaving a reaction on a bot message, and second, have the bot ping that role once a week. This is still a thing in Davos! I love it and I’d suggest that other GMs (especially on lower levels) take advantage of the same thing.