I knew this was coming, but...

[cathyw]

 yesterday I finally got the new "path" version of Duolingo, and I am utterly discombobulated by it.

they "saved all my progress", except they didn't, because I had a level 2 Golden Owl in Dutch and I no longer have any Golden Owl at all; it can join my Golden Owl in Spanish that was taken away years ago on the Deprecated Trophy Shelf I guess?

without the lessons being helpfully labeled I don't know where I am in the course or what I'm supposed to be focusing on. all I've got to go on is 'follow the path, do all the lessons sequentially.' I'm almost tempted to start over in my courses? I'm almost tempted to quit, except that I'm paid up through the end of the year and I have a streak of nearly 1200 days.

I was not uncertain about whether I was using the tree in the best way. I had a system. they utterly destroyed my system. if I could have opted in to 'leave me alone, I'm doing fine' I definitely would have, but users don't get to design their own experience anymore (except on dreamwidth).

is this just 'we don't like change'? is this some kind of low-key neurodivergent reaction to my habits and routine being disrupted by outside forces? i don't know but any enthusiasm I had for duolingo just got sucked out the window.

Comments

[cassildra]

I'm hearing a LOT of bitching, especially on the LSG server, about the "new" Duo experience, if that makes you feel better.

[cathyw]

I think it would have been better if we'd been given the option to switch existing courses, and new courses were on the 'path' by default.

[cassildra]

Absolutely. It would've been better.

[lauradi7dw]

A lot of neurodivergent people have dropped duolingo entirely since the change.
I'm not ND and I've kept on, but your post reminded me that it has always seemed like no two people got the same experience even in the old days. My spouse and I are each paid users. I don't use the app, he doesn't use the browser version. We do different languages. The rewards system has worked differently all along, we get different types of quizzes, etc. I used to do the little stories in Spanish, French, and German (not available in most languages) but now I can't find them. Neither of us ever had golden owls, I don't think.

[cathyw]

oddly losing the golden owl is one of the most obnoxious things - I had this thing, which I had earned by hard work; you took it away from me arbitrarily.

[hils]

It's definitely not just you! I don't feel like I'm learning anything at all under the new system. I liked the repetitive nature of the tree. It helped what I was learning really sink in. Now they've mixed all the topics together, don't spend enough time on them, and don't let you go back and practice old things you've learned. I really hate it and my streak is the only thing keeping me here. I know I should just delete it and find another way to learn but I can't quite bring myself to do it yet.

[cathyw]

that's the thing. when I was actually taking Spanish classes in school, there was a lot of drill and repetition. we'd spend a week practicing conjugating regular AR verbs. we'd write sentences and do dialogues with this week's vocabulary list, which all related to either a grammatical topic or a particular subject area. old duolingo did that? and the system I had worked out for figuring out what to do next played that up - I'd work through a checkpoint, then go back to the previous checkpoint, review the ones I'd completed, and work through the next one.

the sentences I did in my Dutch lesson last night felt completely random. which I guess is good for making sure I'm learning it and not memorizing the exercises?

one thing that might make it up to me is if they don't use Junior's voice to introduce new characters/vocab in the Chinese class anymore, but I'm not that hopeful.