The forums closing...

[Tj07]

This is quite unfortunate... with the closing of the Forums, many people's voices are silenced. I encourage all of you to share this link to everyone on the forums that you can find. The Revolution Has Begun!

[Explorer]

I agree. They are basically shutting down one of the most useful learning tools. Sometimes I have learned more from the forum than from the lessons... Meanwhile I am trying to promote this site in the Spanish-speaking community.

[Jenga218]

I agree. They are basically shutting down one of the most useful learning tools. Sometimes I have learned more from the forum than from the lessons... Meanwhile I am trying to promote this site in the Spanish-speaking community.

I agree, and I think it's hard to quantify just how useful the forums have been to learning. It's not just the lengthy grammar posts that can easily be copied/downloaded/saved. It's the active sharing of links and resources. Here are some resources I just found. Here's a site of PDFs of children's books in different languages. I'm struggling with this aspect of language learning. Oh, I've been there, here's something I tried. That feedback and exchange is so essential and can't, I don't think effectively be archived.

I remember when I first started Duolingo years ago, it was my first foray into self-directed learning a second language. I foolishly thought Duolingo would teach me Spanish. It wasn't until I joined the forums and started interacting with other learners that I found links to external sites, sources, blogs. Memrise, youtube, Benny Lewis. The forums were instrumental in helping me learn and develop not only my skills in my target language, but my toolbox or repertoire of how to learn a language - regardless of what language it is.

Yes forums like this and HeyMarlena's are stepping in to fill in that gap but I just wonder how new learners will find these breadcrumbs after March 22nd.

[Corinnebelle]

Yes forums like this and HeyMarlena's are stepping in to fill in that gap but I just wonder how new learners will find these breadcrumbs after March 22nd.

Maybe since Duo informed Duome ahead of time, they might be kind enough to link to this forum.

[Fnirk1]

I too find this decision plain wrong. But maybe there are some reason to madness...

I have only been along for a few years and I have mostly quietly search the forums for resources, sometimes helping out fellow users. But almost never written a post. Because only in my few years I have seen, mostly in the main English forum, things going from bad to worse. Yes there are some sub forum that still is on track, but many is more or less deserted.

Even though I think a complete close down of the forum is the wrong decision, it might have been enough to erase the main forums, not the language specific.

But it is what is.
Why can't we try to see something positive? Now we have the possibility to build up something new. And no, it will not be the same - but at least it's something.

[Stasia]

This forum has a real chance of becoming the replacement for the Duolingo forum (thank you Duome!), but to be a real language hub we need a bit more linguistic diversity. I see we already have a lot of English-speakers, great, we have some Spanish speakers, awesome, I think I saw a thread in Italian, amazing, but the rest?

How can we attract speakers of other languages? I posted the link to this forum on the French version of the Duolingo Message of Impending Doom, but it seems to have got lost in overall complaining-about-forum-closing posts.

[Explorer]

It'd be great if speakers of other languages could promote the new forum among the community. I believe this site has so much potential.

[Dovili22]

Yes Explorer. I will.

[SweNedGuy]

"The forums closing" is also causing a diaspora of forum users over diverse initiatives.

This DuoMe forum is certainly the most viable one for the larger community.

• There is also a Discord Unofficial Duolingo Forum, which is drawing less attention. There probably are hundreds of inactive users, but the spark to ignite activity on that forum is missing. https://discord.com/invite/G2kpndH

• The same platform also hosts a group of Swedish learners which used to be more active. It seems to be fading and certainly has not seen its activity boosted by the closing of the DL forums. https://discord.com/channels/7772874454 ... 5465006133

• Finally there also is a niche Italian Duoboard club: https://italianduo.boards.net/
  This initiative has been around for several years, but the closing of the DL forum caused the number of members to multiply. This is the only alternate forum which proved to be viable: mainly because of its clear focus and thanks to several active users (including me).

There may be more other forums of the DL diaspora around, but I just didn't pick them up yet. Please comment on any others you may be aware of.

[Stasia]

It'd be great if speakers of other languages could promote the new forum among the community. I believe this site has so much potential.

I asked those who are doing "reverse tree" to announce Duome on their target language forum sections, here: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/56304914

...it almost got downvoted into oblivion soon after posting, but it bounced back. One of the respondents said they made the announcement in the Indonesian section, so hopefully we'll get more multilingual users this way.

[Ali-Kat]

Yeah I've been on and off Duo since around 2016 back when activity streams and immersion were still a thing. Man has the app really stolen the spotlight and with the forum never getting integrated into the app I knew eventually it would get deleted just like all the other things that didn't get put there. It's crazy how the internet has been redirected away from PC usage over the past several years. It's really cool that duome is continuing the forum though, and hopefully someone redirects new users to the forum here (or I'll do it myself).

[01tmJ8kb]

Don't forget to request your Duolingo forum posting history before it is too late.
Go to the Duolingo DriveThru.

with thanks to Duolingo user 19O492554 for the reminder

Read more about the Duolingo Drive-Thru at https://archive.ph/FCfSG.

[g-heike]

To redirect people to this forum it needs someone who has a good knowledge about SEO. When you put duolingo and forum in the google or others search engines, until now I see not this forum in the first three pages. So after duolingo is closing its forum, noone knows about this possibility.

[eI000yo]

Using Yandex result number 2 on page 1^st:

yandex_duo_forum.png (165.62 KiB) Viewed 842 times

Bing: # 18, on page 3^th.

Duckduckgo: # 14, on page 2^d .

Yahoo: # 12, on page 3^th.

Dogpile: # 10, on page 2^d .

Google: Not on the first 20 pages at least. Incredible!!!

[Basler Biker]

To redirect people to this forum it needs someone who has a good knowledge about SEO. When you put duolingo and forum in the google or others search engines, until now I see not this forum in the first three pages. So after duolingo is closing its forum, noone knows about this possibility.

It would start by us creating our own "image" on the internet.
Look at how the main pages are titled !!

• The duome MAIN page ....=> Duolingo · Streak Hall of Fame (and more) by duome.eu.html
• The duome FORUM top page ... => Duolingo forum @ duome.eu - forums.html

If we don't start "disconnecting" soon from "duolingo" image..., then duome will never get "on top" of "language learning forum" related search results.

Trying a lot of searches, the first one I encountered - using the "new forum on duome.eu" search, was

The google and bing a.o. bots are active on duome.eu, so all is being indexed, yet avery page is by google related to the more popular "duolingo" keyword. It will take time to get on top. But the START is to rename our duome MAIN pages.

[g-heike]

Hm, sure, if you want to see it more as an independent language learning platform, then it would be good.

However, it mainly has the users from the Duolingo forum and Duolingo will probably continue to promote its social options, i.e. Facebook, instagram, twitter, reddit and also discord.

In addition, duome is known for the statistics page in relation to Duolingo. So if duoMe wants to continue to promote this very possibility, then it is advisable to keep the connection between DuoMe and Duolingo

If you want to keep the possibility open that learners from there will also find access here, then the question is whether decoupling is the right way. Because a new Duolingo user who enters the two words Duolingo and forum may want to exchange with other Duolingo learners.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

[Basler Biker]

Hm, sure, if you want to see it more as an independent language learning platform, then it would be good.

However, it mainly has the users from the Duolingo forum and Duolingo will probably continue to promote its social options, i.e. Facebook, instagram, twitter, reddit and also discord.

In addition, duome is known for the statistics page in relation to Duolingo. So if duoMe wants to continue to promote this very possibility, then it is advisable to keep the connection between DuoMe and Duolingo

If you want to keep the possibility open that learners from there will also find access here, then the question is whether decoupling is the right way. Because a new Duolingo user who enters the two words Duolingo and forum may want to exchange with other Duolingo learners.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Then it could be a task for duome to negotiate with DL to redirect "forum.duolingo.com" to "forum.duome.eu"
There have been negotiations about domains in the startup of duome. Maybe it's time to claim the rights back.
https://duome.eu/copyright

[g-heike]

It doesn't cost anything to ask, you can certainly try. But you also shouldn't be disappointed if Duolingo refuses because it wants to promote its own social media.

[Basler Biker]

It doesn't cost anything to ask, you can certainly try. But you also shouldn't be disappointed if Duolingo refuses because it wants to promote its own social media.

"expect nothing" is the key to never be disappointed
"under promise" and "over deliver" is the key to "user/customer satisfaction"

(just 2 thoughts that I had under the cursor)

With the second one in mind...Let us have a good, polite, constructive, positive minded site at all times, and we'll have serious questions coming in and good replies by skillled people. And then let the grape vine grow and the news spread from mouth to mouth.

[SweNedGuy]

I don't know if the DuoLingo fandom pages are scrutinized by Google and other crawling bots.
I have posted two user messages there. Posting a message mentioning both Duolingo forum and Duome (including the forum link) on any platform makes it more likely for this forum to be picked up in search results.

Duolingo fandom just published a new page announcing that the forum has been closed on Mar 22. (OK, today that's still forward looking)
I also posted a reference to this Duome over there.

Fandom Duolingo still has plenty of links to Duolingo Forum comments all over the site. Those links are going to become invalid as of tomorrow.