What is the appropriate thing to do on this web when a flashcard set is found to have errors?
Hola,
I am very new here, and am trying to find my way through information as best I can. The question which I'm now concerned with is what one does when someone's flashcard set appears to have significant errors? This question comes to me because I have just located such a set.
I have chosen to send a private message to the person, and as kindly as possible mention the errors, and present the true answers for the words that we're wrongly translated. //
since these Flashcards can be used by other members for learning, isn't this somewhat a tricky situation? Or is that part of the 'point gathering' - by perhaps having a mode for correcting one another on here?
Please inform and advise me, as I haven't found a place other than this to ask.
Gracias! Buenas noches!
6 Answers
About the best way of learning something is to correct a mistake - one tends not to forget it then.
That is what I tell my students "Making a mistake is good"
So a PM to the creator is maybe the best idea.
The issue of having the sets reviewed for accuracy before making them public was brought up when the Vocabulary section was "revised" (broken into public and private sets). When I joined SpanishDict all sets were public and there were comment spaces like for forum replies where you could suggest corrections. This proved to be ineffectual since many authors failed to review their sets or just never bothered to make corrections. Since the matter of reviewing sets for accuracy before making them public has never been implemented I trust that there is some difficulty or reasoning preventing it. The site owner is aware of the situation and has made his policy decisions. As for PMing the author providing suggestions for corrections, that's fine as long as the author does not take umbrage at your recommendations. We wouldn't want to start arguments with authors that believe that their sets are "as is". (caveat emptor). At present, that is this site's stance on the issue. They have a disclaimer saying that the sets are unchecked and to beware accepting them as gospel. The responsibility for accuracy is with the user of the list; not the author.
I think sending them a PM is the right thing to do.
Most people would be very appreciative to know that their learning tools are incorrect.
I myself if I know the correct version and have the time just send them through there private message.Just like mom or a teacher would so they'll know the better. Wow I felt so involved. Not
Yes i guess that is one of the downsides of what is otherwise a great feature on this site, everyone being able to make their own flash cards.
I don't know if this has been previously discussed but I was thinking it would be great if you could ask a native speaker or advanced speaker to check your flash cards and once they've got the seal of approval they could then carry some kind of sign that they are correct. Thus helping other viewers to differentiate between checked and unchecked sets as there's nothing worse than learning something then to find out it was incorrect :(
Just an idea, does anyone think this might be possible?
I admit I make my flash cards in a hurry using them as notes from the lesson. Maybe there could be a way to mark them as private.
I have been astonished at the quality of the flashcards of others. Perhaps they could be officially reviewed and then marked as such.
