Why has sololearn fallen so far?

Question

Its disappointing to log back into this app after so long and see so much useful material locked behind a pay wall.
When i first started using this app, it was unique in that it provided quality content without a need for monetization, there were no ads, no pro membership, just a community of users who could lean on eachother to learn programming and computer concepts together.
I guess i can even get needing the ads, the people who created this deserve money for their work, i can even understand an ad free pro membership, however it makes me sick to see extra practice material where we can actual utulize the skills we are learning locked behind a subscription fee.
As more and more functionality gets added to the "pro" subscription the base user experience seems more and more hollow, cant even set a daily goal for myself.
Anyway its sad to see how far this app has fallen while ive been away. It seems the developers have decided to veer from their original ideals for some extra cash.

Answer 1

To be honest, I agree with you. The more and more things being locked behind pro is a bit annoying. For instance, the daily goal feature occupies a big portion of the Profile section, but is for Pro users only.

But in favour of SoloLearn, the things locked behind pro are quite reasonable. The pro-only features don't really interfere with user experience. For example, you can use the features that make the actual app like Q&A Forum, Code Playground, Feed, messaging. You only need Pro for some 'extra' features like daily goal (which is useless IMHO) and extra practise problems. They are not indespensible. You can live without them.

I was Pro for 1 year (got it for free), and to be honest, it isn't really worth it to pay for those features. You get extra problems which you can get on any other platform also, you get to see who visited your profile which is useless, and there are no ads, which personally don't affect me as there aren't many ads unless you play a lot of challenges.

Answer 2

Martin Taylor where is quality reduced?
More lessons
More features
also for free.
Let the profs get their sugar. But I also see improvement for the nonprofs.

Well... BadgeHunter... I myself am not free of it and working on level 17.
But as well there is a group discussing code etc.
Surrounded by PleaseDoMyHomework this group is which makes SL worthfull for me.
It is the art of ignoring the rest.

Answer 3

same here after around 5 months i am back and seeing all this makes me feel sad
first there was everything available for free and now it is just the opposite i know that for revenue they need to add ads and that is okay but making challenges and codes problems pro is ridiculous.

Answer 4

Perhaps I have overlooked something, but I haven't noticed any features that were once free and now require a Pro subscription. AFAIK, Pro features are all new.

The reason Sololearn was once entirely free of cost and free from ads was because startup expenses were paid by grants. Inevitably, grants run out. It was always part of the plan to monetize the platform and either become independent of the grants or else close up shop. Be thankful they are still here.

Answer 5

I wasn't expecting so many active users in solo learn🤔😀

Answer 6

Brian Few months ago, we could run the example codes in the lessons, but now we need subscriptions for it, which i believe is the biggest regression of the app. Please, make it free SL.

This pro-feature doesn't make any sense accept for wasting the time of the learners, because we can still see the code, then why not let us run the code immediately so that we don't have to go back and then write it ourselves in our playground and then run, and then return back for the lesson again; too much work.

Otherwise, I love this app! Nothing is perfect.

Answer 7

Brian Really ? That's weird , maybe there's a limit to the "Try it yourself". I too could use it when this update came while others were complaining bout it, but after few practices, i couldn't anymore.
I think you'll soon run out of practice too with the free, if not, then this is a bug ought to be fixed by authority.

It's "Tap to try" instead of "Try it yourself" now.

Answer 8

Can really agree. Sololearn used to be great. By introducing ads and paywalled content Sololearn are killing their community, most certainly myself.

Answer 9

InfiniteLoop well, that is a genuine departure from principle. I have not yet seen it where "Try it yourself" is only available to Pro users. My Android app is up to date and it still works for me in all the lessons I have been in recently.

Answer 10

Yep. I agree that i use to recommend it to my friends but the ads made it worst and i dont use it anymore.

Answer 11

An Update to this post, recently decided to get back into solo learn and now there is even a Heart system that punishes you for incorrect answers and locks you out of lessons unless you subscribe to pro or wait 5 hrs. There are good things here on solo learn but punishing people for trying to learn and getting answers wrong seems like too much

Answer 12

i remember when sololearn was so inclusive. now you need 70-150 dollars just for some extra, much needed practice sessions in between lessons.

this place is a joke compared to its former self. what a way to go.
well, hopefully something new will grow from the ashes.