
Show HN: Crowdsourced Language Learning Site - graylien
https://littlelingua.eu
======
ziont
so I thought this page was some elaborate crowdforce powered learning language
site but saddened to discover it's just a clever clickbait with affiliate
links to existing commercial and free websites.

I recommend these websites.

[https://www.thespanishexperiment.com/](https://www.thespanishexperiment.com/)

[https://www.thefrenchexperiment.com/](https://www.thefrenchexperiment.com/)

[https://www.theitalianexperiment.com/](https://www.theitalianexperiment.com/)

[https://www.thegermanproject.com/](https://www.thegermanproject.com/)

~~~
graylien
There are no affiliate links at all. These are great recommendations, thanks
for contributing! Also, we have the spreadsheets open for anyone to edit and
contribute - this is what is meant by crowdsourced.

~~~
ziont
these are all pay sites

[http://www.clickonfrench.com/?ref=littlelingua](http://www.clickonfrench.com/?ref=littlelingua)

[https://www.talkinfrench.com/?ref=littlelingua](https://www.talkinfrench.com/?ref=littlelingua)

[https://www.newsinslowfrench.com/?ref=littlelingua](https://www.newsinslowfrench.com/?ref=littlelingua)

~~~
graylien
You can filter between paid and free. And of course, there are paid sites - if
they were not paid, they probably wouldn't exist.

~~~
ziont
> There are no affiliate links at all.

So this is false.

> These are great recommendations

Those were already on your website.

~~~
graylien
What qualifies as an affiliate link ? To me it is a link that you get from an
affiliate scheme to make money from selling their product. We don’t have any
of them.

Okay good that the links are already in the site - you can’t expect me to
remember every link from the top of my head

~~~
ziont
attaching tracking links with your id for paid website by all definitions
affiliate marketing 101. maybe change the title to include the word
"Directory" or "Link Portal".

~~~
graylien
I can't say any clearer, we have no affiliate links. The '?ref=littlelingua'
appended to every URL is the same as Product Hunt links having
'?ref=producthunt'. We are not making money from it. It is not affiliate
marketing.

But even if it was, I don't know what would be wrong with that. It's a useful
resource, and would benefit from a source of revenue to improve it further.
What's going on here? Read this: [http://www.cyrilchandelier.com/dont-be-a-
free-user](http://www.cyrilchandelier.com/dont-be-a-free-user)

~~~
drieddust
Haters gonna hate. I think you are doing a good job so ignore these comments
and continue.

If you monetize too, I don't think its immoral. Money is the driving force of
Capitalism so taking money for a useful service is not a sleazy activity.

~~~
graylien
Definitely, thanks for voicing your thoughts here, other audiences we have
shared this with have also been very supportive so we will definitely continue
:)

~~~
ziont
I think we have very different values.

This is an example of a dark pattern. You create a clickbait title, for what
is more than just a collection of websites with affiliate links, slap on a
buzzword.

I've never attacked you personally, I just asked you to be more transparent. I
can't be the only one thinking I landed on a affiliate landing page.

The main problem with recommending paysites you share profit with is it
contradicts the entire purpose of crowdsourcing, which is building consensus
based on the wisdom of the crowd, not the sole proprietor of the website
seeking to benefit commercially.

Note that I've never mentioned it was wrong to make money, but simply telling
you I was misled, like among others, to a clickbait affiliate landing page.

If this was crowdsourced I would've gone about differently, but if you feel
attacked then I think that just speaks for itself.

~~~
graylien
Hello, there are no affiliate links. I have even removed the ?ref thing for
you too.

I don't know which are the clickbait affiliate landing pages you're referring
to. It'd be helpful if you would mark on the spreadsheet which links you
believe to be clickbait affiliate links. That would help me make sense of your
feedback, as right now it is unclear to me.

------
mahesh_rm
I run a side project in the language learning space, and I received this email
below a few days ago: === Hi XXX team,

We've had some interest about advertising on our homepage ahead of our Product
Hunt launch on Friday and we thought we'd open up the opportunity to
everybody. Have a look at the site and let us know if you're interested in any
available space.

littlelingua.eu

Best, XXX XXX ===

I find this practice horrible.

~~~
drieddust
What is your objection? I am curious to know.

------
graylien
Hi everyone, I'm working on a crowdsource language learning project.

We started by gathering resources like podcasts, apps and websites, but are
also aiming to map out all the different language schools in each country to
make them more discoverable.

Check out the spreadsheet here to add your suggestions. There's a tab just for
language schools too:
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jXLjoDbXvl_IKeBwWdwI...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jXLjoDbXvl_IKeBwWdwIHnux4E311CQNFZTpS9N6jfI/edit?usp=sharing)

Cheers!

~~~
yorwba
Scrolling through
[https://littlelingua.eu/resources](https://littlelingua.eu/resources) , I
noticed a few blank entries. You should probably fix those.

Also, I nominate [https://tatoeba.org](https://tatoeba.org) . It's a great
source of example sentences and many apps make use of their data. If someone
wants to contribute to the corpus, remember to only translate _into_ your
native language. Many people overestimate their second-language skills and
write awkward sentences that waste other's time correcting them.

~~~
graylien
Yeah some of the entries need updating as it's crowdsourced, they're all from
the spreadsheet so there must be a few duds in there.

Thanks for the suggestion of tatoeba too, that's excellent!

------
seveneightn9ne
There are a couple of features I feel are missing. 1) ability to filter by
beginner/intermediate/advanced resources. 2) ability to rate & review
resources and then sort by popularity/rating.

As it is I see a ton of resources for my target language, with no way to
choose between them.

Nice work overall, this seems like a really useful idea especially for less
popular languages!

~~~
graylien
Hi, thanks for your feedback. Rate and review is something we also identified
as a top feature to add.

Filtering by ability is also needed. This is our first version, so these are
in the pipeline.

------
somada141
I was surprised that I didn't see Memrise
([https://www.memrise.com/](https://www.memrise.com/)) in the lists. I've
switched to Duolingo myself in the past year but there are a lot of
crowdsources resources there for heaps of languages.

------
LisaDziuba
neat!

~~~
graylien
:D thanks !

