Hi,
it would be a great feature to have the option to give the prompts a timer. Every prompt would have a timer counting down (or up) from (or to) a set time of seconds and if the prompt has not been answered it is regarded as not known (false).

What do you think?

Greetings, Thorondor

Sounds cool, but it would need a "Pause" button for when someone walks away from their computer. Otherwise ... wow! It looks like you don't know ANYTHING! :)

LingT had a feature like this. I didn't really get into it, though. Anyone else had experience with these kind of countdown timers?

I thought about the Pause-Button, too. I think it would be convenient to have one. But if it was difficult to program that, one could simple press the tab "study" for stopping and back by pressing "study all my lists" again.

@nick: What do you mean LingT hat a feature like this? Is LingT a Skritterer who uses his own script? Are we able to put our own scripts into the skritter?

I personally am against it (if it was just a option, disabled by default, no problem), as I often get up in the middle of Skrittering to see to something else, switch tabs, etc, and wouldn't want to constantly babysit the stream. As you're writing with the pen right there (or mouse) why can't a click be used to advance (as the system currently works)?

LingT was a Chinese learning website that had SRS and flashcards. They had a short timer for each prompt, after which it was marked wrong. In a way, the timer was cool, but sometimes I found it a little frustrating.

I'm with icebear on this one - as long as you don't look up the word, Skritter still gets an accurate idea of how well you know it, no matter how long you take to think of the answer. That is, actually just sitting thinking not trial and error!

I can see that some people would find this option useful, although it would annoy the b'jesus out of me!

If there is a view that these would be useful for some people then I think that, as long as they can be disabled, they should be looked at. As different people have different ways of learning and different motivations, there could be an option to have a 'game' mode with countdown timers and rewards for doing well such as the 'streak sparkles' that was put into the iPhone alpha and I am sure there are many other features that could be added.

Personally, I like the way that Skritter works currently without a countdown timer and it would turn me off using the site if I was forced to work with one. If it is implemented, it should be possible to turn it off :)

not useful at all IMO

Of course it should be optional. But I think that should be the case if with every feature.

The point is this: Some people wrote in the forum - and I am with them - that despite a good Skrittering it is still difficult to remember the words in conversations. That is for one reason, because you have to know the words in conversations at once and not after two minutes of thinking. This clock is supposed to make it more realistic.

The way I handle that case is, if I don't come up with the answer very quickly, I use the grading buttons to mark it so-so, or wrong if I couldn't come up with the right answer at all. That forces me to study the item repeatedly until it's fast to recall. A timeout isn't going to help there because I want it really fast, like less than two seconds fast. And a timer timing out in two seconds would be no fun. Doing it more organically by grading yourself according to the timer and your own judgement seems like a better solution to me. What do you think?

I already use the so-so similarly, and it seems to work well for me.

I "so-so" anything that I forget a odd stroke on, or need a audio prompt for, or that I feel I hesitated too long for. Comes back frequently enough that there seems to be improvement.

Ditto, 'so-so' works well for something that I pretty much know but amn't 100% on, and I use it in the same way.

Wow, two seconds...! I am acctually starting to be a little bit disappointed with my own performace. Characters that haven't been a problem for a while get into long term (meaning 2 weeks) and suddenly I have do mistakes and they get thrown back. But that's a different thread... For two seconds a timer would not be the thing to use. True.

I say two seconds because I want the words and characters I learn to be quickly recalled, otherwise they wouldn't be much use. If you're in a conversation you wouldn't want to have to rack your brain for a word for any lengthy period of time while the other person is waiting. And being able to get it instantly makes me feel pretty secure that I know it... at least for that day!