Didn't notice the GLARINGLY OBVIOUS change, and was instead desperately looking for the "had to do it to em" guy

Duolingo is NOT what it used to be.

“Duolingo is ‘sunsetting the development of the Welsh course’ (and many others)”.

I’ve used Duolingo since 2013. It used to be about genuinely learning languages and preserving endangered ones. It used to have a vibrant community and forum where users were listened to. It used to have volunteers that dedicated countless hours and even years to making the best courses they could while also trying to explain extremely nuanced and complex grammar in simple terms.

In the past two years it feels like Von Ahn let the money talk instead of focusing on the original goal.

No one truly had a humongous problem with the subscription tier for SuperDuolingo. We understood it: if you can afford to pay, help keep Duolingo free for those who couldn’t.

It started when the company went public. Volunteers were leaving courses they created because they warned of differing longterm goals compared to Duolingo’s as a company; not long after it was announced that the incubator (how volunteers were able to make courses in the first place) would be shut down. A year goes by and the forums—the voice of the users and the way people were able to share tips and explanations—is discontinued. A year or two later, Duolingo gets a completely new makeover—the Tree is gone and you don’t control what lesson you start with. With the disappearance of the Tree, all grammar notes and explanations for courses not in the Big 8 (consisting of the courses made before the incubator like Spanish/French/German/etc. and of the most popular courses like Japanese/Korean/Chinese/etc.) are removed with it. Were you learning Vietnamese and have no idea how honorifics work without the grammar notes? Shit outta luck bud. Were you learning Polish and have absolutely no clue how one of the declensions newly thrown at you functions? Suck it up. In a Reddit AMA, Von Ahn claims that the new design resulted in more users utilizing the app/site. How he claims that statistic? By counting how many people log into their Duolingo account, as if an entire app renovation wouldn’t cause an uptick in numbers to even see what the fuck just happened to the courses.

Von Ahn announces next in a Reddit AMA that no more language courses will be added from what there already is available. His reasoning? No one uses the unpopular language courses — along with how Duolingo will now be doing upkeep with the courses already in place. And here I am, currently looking on the Duolingo website how there are 1.8 million active learners for Irish, 284 thousand active learners for Navajo, and even 934 thousand active learners for fucking High Valyrian. But yea, no one uses them. Not like the entire Navajo Nation population is 399k members or anything, or like 1.8 million people isn’t 36% of the entire population of Ireland or anything.

And now this. What happened to the upkeep of current courses? Oh, Von Ahn only meant the popular ones that already have infinite resources. Got it. Duolingo used to be a serious foundational resource for languages with little resources while also adding the relief of gamification.

It pisses me off. It really does. This was not what Duolingo started out as. And yea, maybe I shouldn’t get invested in a dingy little app. But as someone who spent most of her adolescence immersed in language learning to the point where it was literally keeping me alive at one point, to the point where languages felt like my only friend as a tween, and to the point where friendships on the Duolingo forums with likeminded individuals my age and other enthusiasts who even sent me books in other languages for free because they wanted people to learn it, the evolution of Duolingo hits a bitter nerve within me.

~End rant.

I think I joined Duo probably in 2012/13 and I LOVED it. I've always been defending Duo when people said it's a shit website/app, because I did find value in it and thought it was a good gamefied resource. But since a couple of years back it's all been going downhill and the disappearance of the tree was the last straw for me. No grammar notes anymore? No skipping? I don't want to have to do 5 lessons on boring stuff I already know, let me skip the lessons.

Actually, the last straw was finding out that I can't type my answers in anymore. That was the biggest part for me - typing the answers, learning the spelling. Now it only allows me to click on words, which is not only slower for me but I also learn less. I don't have to think of a translation anymore, I just have to click on words offered to me. No active recollection of vocab, no remembering how to conjugate something, no learning how to spell the word.

I've stopped defending Duo. It really is a shitty website now.

I’ve stopped defending

Duo. It really is a

shitty website now.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

I have trouble taking care of my teeth because everything that involves doing that is a sensory nightmare. I decide to do some research to see if there's anything I can do about this. The results?

"How to make your autistic child brush their teeth"

"Autistic Children and Sensory issues relating to tooth brushing"

"How to get your little shit to brush his fucking teeth"

Like, yeah Google, thanks, that really helps. And like, even if I was a child, some of the advice seemed... unhelpful. Like, doing a dance and singing a song while brushing your teeth? Even for a kid, I don't think that would help distract from a sensory experience as intense as brushing your teeth. Like, the extremely intense and unpleasant flavor, the intense feeling of the brush against your teeth scraping across it, even mouthwash has such an intense and disgusting flavor that I have difficulty keeping it in my mouth for more than a few seconds. I wish there was SOMETHING that could be done.

I actually did research on how to keep your teeth clean if you don't have access to a toothbrush or toothpaste! I needed the info for a story, but thankfully it also has real world applications. Maybe something here will help:

• If the bristles are a sensory nightmare, try a soft cloth instead. Cloth was one of the methods used before toothbrushes were invented, although they used shit like burlap. Don't do burlap. Cotton or linen should do fine.
• You can also buy natural toothbrushes made with bamboo and boar hair. I've never tried them so I'm not sure how different they'd feel compared to synthetic bristles, but they're pretty cheap on Amazon if you want to give them a shot
• If even the "extra soft" bristles are too stiff, you could try soaking them overnight in some mouthwash to soften them further. This is what we did when I was growing up, and it worked like a charm. Bonus points that the alcohol in the mouthwash kills any germs stuck on the brush
• If the toothpaste flavor is horrendous, make a paste with baking soda and water, then flavor it however you want with a sugar-free extract. Heck, look for recipes to make your own toothpaste, and experiment until you get something you can stand to use.
• If the texture of the toothpaste is bad, the baking soda method might work better for you, or you could try scrubbing salt or activated charcoal on your teeth instead—that's what they used before toothpaste was invented. Personally, I'd recommend the baking soda or making your own toothpaste.
• Different brands often have different textures, and some even have different flavors (this is especially true of kids toothpastes, which work just as well for adults), so swapping brands might help, too. I can't stand Crest, it makes my mouth feel all filmy no matter how well I rinse, but Colgate doesn't leave a weird feeling in my mouth. Also Colgate is the only brand my grocery store carries that has cinnamon flavored toothpaste as an option, and I'm a whore for cinnamon
• You're probably using too much toothpaste anyway. Most people do. You really only need a dollop about the size of a pea. I smush it out across the bristles so I don't have to deal with a glob of it in one spot.
• Floss if you can. That's going to do more to stop your teeth from rotting than brushing will. Standard dental floss is obviously an option, but if you're like me and you can't stand putting your hands in your mouth, try disposable floss picks or investing in a water flosser. I still hate the feeling of the floss between my teeth, but it's manageable since I don't have my fingers in my mouth on top of it. Haven't tried the water flosser since the picks work well enough for me
• Try chewing sugarless gum, especially right after you've eaten. It's not perfect, but it'll help. Also it comes in a billion flavors so hopefully there's something you like in there
• If absolutely none of that is helpful, rinsing with water is still better than nothing. You can mix in salt to help kill bacteria if you can handle it, but bare minimum try to do a rinse and spit.

Obviously not all of that is from my pre-modern teeth cleaning research—some is from personal experience! But hopefully something in there is useful to you

It's absolute bullshit that we have to approach these problems sideways because the people actually making "helpful" articles about it are all ableist :| Maybe some day soon we as a society can get over that.

Oh my God you are my hero thank you so much

in honour of ghost trick port to switch have this animatic i made a while ago :)

If anyone made this for me. I can’t even describe what I’d be willing to do for them

describing commission ideas is so embarrassing. yea this is my guy. and i want you to draw him. jesus just shoot me already

Hedge is underused as a prefix for creatures.

Hedgehog: A small animal found in gardens with a similar, if miniature, behaviour as hogs. Hedgewitch: A small magic user found in gardens with a similar, if miniature, behaviour as witches.

We’re sitting on untapped potential for hedgewolf. Hedgewhale. Hedgegod. Hedgeknight. Does any of this make sense or do I just need to go to sleep.

Source:
Eniale & Dewiela | Enidewi | エニデヴィ

by Shirahama Kamome

imagine if instead of it being called a sip it was as called a suck. can I have a suck of water? 🤨

imagine an expanse of graves spanning miles and miles, too many miles for you to traverse