Quality control rant

I recently had some trouble renewing my account due to some problem in the payment system.Hope this has been fixed as told by Adi

mikeinewshot, as xiaohu says, she was banned from posting (not the site).  She is also a paid member, basic I believe, at least through the end of this year.

You can PM her still.

hi moloch,

The subscription pricing is updated and accurate, perhaps the discrepancy lies in that there are two tiers for pricing, one is the price per month if you buy two years at once; the other lower down on the chart is the price per month if you pay on a month-to-month basis.

Is that what you were referring to?

As far as the other little glitchy things mentioned, I will report them to the techie guys.  I'm sure they'll have them adjusted in no time.

Hi Amber,

It's the pop-up subscription chart on this page https://secure.praxislanguage.com/accounts/payments?service=chinesepod

It hasn't been updated to indicate Newbie lessons are the only free podcasts, as has been done correctly on this page http://chinesepod.com/help/subscription

Thanks Amber. I really appreciate it. Sometimes the smallest things can be so distracting. Do you remember how recently there was what appeared to be a link to a pdf (halellujah!) for QWs? Not a big thing, but quite a few users got excited for nothing, asked about it in the comments threads, and it was not really nice to waste their time in this way. I recall that this very minor thing was not fixed immediately, either. 

hi moloch,

Thanks so much for letting us know, I will have that updated.

auntie68,

Sorry to have caused distraction for you!

Thanks for the snarky clever-clever response, Amber!

Great rant, Auntie. Some really astute observations.

But Amber, I have to say that your replies really give the air of paying lip service to these complaints, which are really worthwhile ones.

Some issues may just be "other little glitchy things" to you, but for each person that's driven to write to you about them there are surely ten (or a hundred) others who were just as annoyed but didn't feel the urge to go out of their way to help you improve your service.

Ask your "techie guys" to look up "backward compatibility" before they make another change to the site. What I mean is that you really shouldn't change the ChinesePod "experience" for any of your existing subscribers (except perhaps to add to it) when you make an update. (The introduction of new profile fields with arbitrary default fields is a flagrant violation of that!)

Trust me, I understand how difficulty it is to keeping people happy when it comes to software. Your choices probably boil down to doing one of two things (or better still, both):

- Test really thoroughly yourself before making any change to the site. Have a set list of user actions (including things that could be done by any level of user you can imagine) that you run through every time there's a change, before you roll it out to the public.

or

- Have a separate beta site that you can invite heavy users to (or let users elect to use that site if they always want to have the latest and greatest, but potentially broken). Make the changes to that site first. Once the kinks are ironed out, migrate the changes to the real ("production") site.

Why is this thread still alive?.. Every time I see someone post in it I cringe and remember the resulting consequences that this thread brought about.

Can someone get rid of this thread?

me too light! all i hear is blah blah blah! get over it people!

I have the 1969 issue as well.. not too concerned really, however how about the fact that 3 weeks after the Sept 1. new pricing launch the product comparison chart on the select a subscription page still hasn't been updated. I know it's minor guys but why even risk confusing potential new subscribers?

just fyi, my payment history also sometimes displays incorrect information (about the amounts).

Just because I post somewhere doesn't mean I'm stuck on an issue or really have anything to "get over." It means I have something to say that could probably improve the "product" here. Little things do matter to some people and can bother them, and having suggestions ignored or even belittled is more bothersome still.

owengibbins

I just wanted to let you know that my post was in reply to Light487.  As much as I disagree with Auntie68 and her pointless rants, I DO NOT in any way agree with censorship, which if we start deleting posts just because it contains potentially "offensive" content, then Chinesepod will be losing all credibility and integrity.

As long as one is observing the forum guidelines set forth, one should be able to express oneself as freely as they want to, and about any topic they deem important.

I applaud you for expressing your opinions about what you feel could correct issues that compromise the Chinesepod.com user experience.

What I believe people should "get over" is their hyper-sensitivity and ultra-PC attitudes and just all go about our business of learning Chinese.

I also feel Auntie68 should never have been banned.

Thanks, xiaohu. I realize these issues are distractions from the focus, which is learning. There are great lessons here and I've really been enjoying them, and I wish nothing but the best for Praxis Language.

I find this is something definitely worth paying for here, but the little glitches (particularly in parts of the site that have to do with finances!) really detract from the professionalism and surely will make the occasional person think twice about forking over hundreds or thousands of dollars to this business.

About deleting threads, I totally agree: if it's not spam and it's not obscene, there's no call to delete anything.

People who have no interest in these "side topics" are perfectly free to ignore them. And so is the ChinesePod staff, clearly.

Finally, it makes me sad to hear that this is an organization that would ban a paying customer from a forum for such a minor issue as this really is.

owengibbins

I am glad that some users are speaking their minds about ways to improve the quality of the site.  Of course the Chinesepod staff is free to take these suggestions or leave them, because at the end of the day, they are just our opinions, however I believe this feedback to be invaluable.

I honestly think Chinesepod should be more actively soliciting users opinions about things that could improve the end user's experience here.  It's not to say that they haven't in some cases asked, but I think there should be a link on every page, like Google has, that welcomes dissatisfied users to express their opinions on how to correct issues, or improve the site.

If you notice, the only link on this or any page, is one that asks for lesson ideas, not one that asks how Chinesepod could improve.

Not to beat on a dead horse here, but I do believe it's Chinesepod's responsibility to the end user, essentially students of Chinese, to promote literacy in the language which they are dedicating themselves to learning.

By the way, I've written to Google many times expressing dissatisfaction about the fact that Chinesepod.com no longer shows up in Google search results.

I just meant original thread, not the recent posts.. sorry for the confusion. I was hoping I would not have to be reminded of the departure of Auntie68.. she was an asset to the ChinesePOD community and while she was a little abbrasive at times, I was saddened to see her depart.. so it's just the reminder of that by this thread being re-opened that I was commenting on.

light487

Auntie68 being banned was something I still can't (and most likely never will be able to) wrap my head around.  Even now after her departure, she is still ranked among the top 10 most active users.  She brought so much to the community, I know she was friends with our beloved Cassie Lin, (and if Cassie likes someone they can't be all bad...) and generally speaking she was well liked by all.

While I myself commented that her rants were getting a little bit out of control, I still can't understand why a valuable paid member of the site would be banned? 

I feel, that whatever issues existed, could have been worked out via private communication between she and the Chinesepod staff. 

While I personally didn't buy her "grumpy granny" disclaimer, I still think that banning one of the most active members of the community was very excessive.  Besides, if nothing else, her presence here did get everyone talking, and talking is good for the community.

I didn't know that Auntie68 was banned.  I thought that she was not a paying member, and therefore is now unable to comment.  But maybe I'm wrong.

Adam,

I agree, get over it.

Besides, a thread is a thread.  Good, bad or indifferent, ranting and raving or sweeter than pie, I don't think there's ever a cause to delete a thread.