Hi all, Anki’s 19th birthday was about 4 months ago. It would have been a good time to pause and reflect on what Anki has become, and how it will grow in the future. But I ended up letting the moment come and go, as I didn’t feel like I had the free time. It’s a feeling that’s been regrettably common of late, and I’ve come to realise that something has to change. For a number of years, I’ve reached out to some of the most prolific contributors and offered them payment in exchange for them cont...
You’re right that it isn’t, and doesn’t need to be, the most complicated thing in the world.
But there’s a bit more to it than it sounds like. Deck management, customizing flashcards (html/CSS templates), spaced repetition algorithms (including many user-customizable settings), statistics and visualizations.
Most importantly probably are the things they host online. Right now you can freely sync your data between devices, and they have a community portal where people upload decks to share. I’m imagining these will be among the first targets for paywalls (but could always be replaced by the community).
I thought Anki was just a flashcard app? That’s like hello-world tier software. I don’t understand why there would be a whole business around this.
You’re right that it isn’t, and doesn’t need to be, the most complicated thing in the world.
But there’s a bit more to it than it sounds like. Deck management, customizing flashcards (html/CSS templates), spaced repetition algorithms (including many user-customizable settings), statistics and visualizations.
Most importantly probably are the things they host online. Right now you can freely sync your data between devices, and they have a community portal where people upload decks to share. I’m imagining these will be among the first targets for paywalls (but could always be replaced by the community).