thanks, koichi

Edit: Damn, this was a lot longer than I meant it to be, sorry >.<

Finally, something’s actually (supposedly) getting done! Or at least, you’ve acknowledged our existence to keep us satiated ;) I haven’t used TextFugu since 2011 but it’s just that I feel so sorry for newbies shelling out $120 for a site that’s half-done and all over the place. You should really make it clearer that updates are “once in a blue moon” as opposed to the frequent updates you used to do when I joined, and that the content here doesn’t take you past N5. And that you’re far less involved with the community these days.

“I’ve lowered the price of the Lifetime subscription to $99″

Oh, well that’s a little better…

“Our plan is to eventually increase the price beyond the original $120″

Unless you’re adding three-headed monkeys and extra lasers, I can’t see how this site could be worth as much as that, let alone the $120 it is now. The whole draw of the site (for me at least) was not so much its style but the sheer involvement and passion and personality of the creator, plus the promise of lots of updates; now that updates are so few and far between and you’ve focussed your attention on other ventures – practically abandoning TextFugu’s members in the process – so much of the initial value has been lost. For an unfinished textbook that takes you from absolute beginner to just plain beginner, $120+ is far too expensive, especially considering there are *free* alternatives like Tae Kim that take you way, way beyond that. If the $120 included WaniKani (in place of the current kanji section) and EtoEto as standard, that’d maybe be a little more reasonable.

I get that it takes a while to create content and update the site (over a year though… really?), but the sheer lack of communication is what’s been the most frustrating. I know you haven’t *actually* abandoned TextFugu since you’re still working on this big, mysterious update but you’ve definitely abandoned the forums and you barely ever mention us any more. EtoEto looks like it might be good though I’m afraid the same thing will happen: you’ll say you’re working on some super-secret, mega updates but really you’ll be off starting 5 other new projects and devoting all your time to them.

All that sounds pretty ranty, I know, it’s just that I cared so much about TextFugu when I first came here; after years of sticking around the forums, I’ve slowly watched it go downhill and more people become unhappy and it’s such a shame :/

Maybe it’s a case of “middle child syndrome”: Tofugu is the oldest child the parents love the most because he was first; WaniKani is the youngest that gets spoiled and fussed over all the time; EtoEto is the next child they’re planning; and TextFugu is the in-betweener – although the parents still love him, they don’t show it enough and he feels left out. And then there’s Koichi-ben who was the illegitimate child the father had when he was stationed in Japan a while back, receiving little more than a Christmas card each year just to acknowledge his existence. Metaphors are fun…

In other news: how’s Hashi getting on these days? He’s a pretty cool guy and doesn’t afraid of anything.

MisterM2402 [Michael] wrote:

EtoEto looks like it might be good though I’m afraid the same thing will happen: you’ll say you’re working on some super-secret, mega updates but really you’ll be off starting 5 other new projects and devoting all your time to them.

From what I’ve read, I believe the goal for the new rewrite is to combine TextFugu and Etoeto into one new product and expand on what’s already on both.

What I’d like to see is a program like WaniKani with the levels of progression and everything as a replacement for Anki in studying vocab and sentences. That I think would be well worth a $150 lifetime subscription.

By the way, Koichi, I really wanted you to know that I appreciate all your work to improve the language capabilities of the non-Japanese speaking lot around the world by creating a number of great websites. I’ve gone through all the seasons in Textfugu and have a lifetime membership. I would without hesitation recommend this site to anyone because it’s been worth every penny to me.

Even if a single update is never performed, I’ve already learned a whole shitload of stuff that I never learned or understood in years of previous Japanese lessons elsewhere. Having updates would be an added bonus.

頑張って下さいね！

Well, for all my frustrations, I’m still interested to see how it turns out. Not going to leave TextFugu *just* yet.

Thanks for responding, Koichi. I may complain and complain but I’m still a fan deep down.

It’ll update all the bugs to more awesome ones.