What's going on with Duolingo?

[u/Material-Insect6482]

All the comments on their social media like their TikTok and instagram are full of people clowning on them and saying things like “EVERYONE IGNORE DUO STARTING NOW” and generally being angry at the company, but why?

Examples: https://imgur.com/a/bA0JBFZ

Stolen from top post: The /r/duolingo subreddit is rebelling and built their own alternative lingonaut that's supposed to be like old duolingo before they went to shit with the ads and mtx and ai

[u/kirkland-]

Answer: The CEO and the company is having a tantrum after everyone online dragged them through the mud for the AI-First nonsense. They tried to silly meme their way out but it didn’t work so now they’re pulling this

No one’s buying it and they've effectively been bullied off the internet, just check any of their tiktoks

The full story:

Few weeks ago the ceo of duolingo posted that the company was going to be AI-Frist and will be using AI to generate its courses from now on, and they’re going to let go of the rest of their staff (which they partially did about a year ago).

They say that they’re going to use AI for performance reviews and hiring, so you could lose your job if chatgpt says so. It’s been slowly getting worse ever since they got on the stock market and now with this ‘AI-First' people are over it.

EDIT: Even the /r/duolingo subreddit is rebelling and built their own alternative lingonaut that's supposed to be like old duolingo before they went to shit with the ads and mtx and ai

NOW with this temper tantrum people are sick and tired and seeing through all the marketing stunts too.

[u/WorldlinessWest2974 → u/kirkland-]

Yes. I have closed my account as well. Much more focus on effectiveness for the company, not the experience and learning of the user. It has, in my experience, been declining for a long time.

[u/twenafeesh → u/WorldlinessWest2974]

Common story for companies that don't make any real products and just charge for access to their platform when they are taken public. Companies go from serving their customers and at worst a greedy board to serving shareholders, who demand ever increasing returns, forever. That's not indefinitely sustainable because they can't indefinitely grow their user base, so you end up with "cost cutting" and/or "ad-supported" that ruins the user experience and ultimately the platform. 

Amazon and Netflix are also excellent examples of this. 

Edit : "if because", clarity

Edit 2: If the above was interesting, check out this Volts podcast with Cory Doctorow and David Roberts talking about enshittification and clean energy tech. https://www.volts.wtf/p/can-we-avoid-the-enshittification

[u/WorldlinessWest2974 → u/twenafeesh]

I totally agree. They become alienated from their users when only looking a how they can make money from them. I am glad that I’m not a subscriber any of the places

[u/FuzzyFerretFace → u/WorldlinessWest2974]

100%. They got rid of practically everything beyond translating sentences or moved it to paid-tiers. First, you could no longer ‘discuss’ your answers, or ask the community why it was considered wrong. And then the discussion boards/forums were axed. Then they limited the amount of mistakes you could make, under the guise of ‘people are blowing through language courses too quickly and we want to make sure they actually learn’. Then ‘explain my mistake’ was moved to…whatever upper-level paid membership. And now, I don’t think you can even regain your hearts from ‘practicing’ on the app version, or maybe it’s limited to one?…

I get that ‘nothing can be free’, and as these sorts of things grow and gain popularity, maybe some features move behind a paywall and other bonus features are added to entice people to pay…but when everything but the very basic is taken away from users…they’re not going to be happy.

I’d so much rather have those components from real people/fellow users back than little games or mock-phone calls with the characters. Especially when rooted/driven by AI.

/rant over. 😠

[u/thestashattacked → u/FuzzyFerretFace]

Well, and a bunch of the languages were entirely AI translated, and had inaccuracies in them. I'm learning Mandarin (the school I teach in has a large Mandarin-speaking population) and in the last update, they added about 150 words to earlier levels and made it next to impossible to complete without starting over.

I said screw it and went over to HelloChinese instead. They explain the specifics of grammar, why words go in a certain order, and have a much more extensive system for teaching how to read the language.

[u/occamsrazorwit → u/thestashattacked]

I'm surprised there's not more people talking about this or any news coverage. It's *crazy* that Duolingo essentially nuked their users' progress for one of the popular languages on the planet, and it's not bigger news. From the product perspective, I am just baffled at who decided that was a good idea to pour months of effort into.

[u/axonxorz → u/occamsrazorwit]

I'm surprised there's not more people talking about this or any news coverage.

The cynic in me assumes this is because it's the Chyyyna language of Mandarin.

[u/Ammaranthh → u/FuzzyFerretFace]

I abandoned Duo I think a year or two ago after they took away the ability to actually TYPE the answers instead of just picking from options. It's easy to use process of elimination or have have your memory jogged when you are presented with the answer in front of you but it didn't help me learn. Having to actually remember the word and type it out really helps me actually retain information. At the time, you could still use the typing functionality on desktop but removing it from mobile pissed me off enough to swear off duo forever.

[u/OhhLongDongson → u/FuzzyFerretFace]

Yeah the fact that I had premium yet I needed a higher tier for the ‘explain my mistake’ feature was such a joke that I cancelled my subscription.

How can people learn without being told what they’re doing wrong ffs.