All sentence discussions now read only!

[Corinnebelle]

The How-do-I-report-a-problem-with-a-sentence-or-translation- post contains this announcement:

NOTE: All Sentence discussions are now read-only. Previously, Android and web users were able to participate in sentence discussions. However, they are now read-only across all platforms.

KevinR86's [admin] take on it:
I'm fairly positive that this is only temporary. With the changes, it means that another internal team will oversee sentence discussions. Once things are organized they will resume as normal.

See this

pheonix7777777 [mod] wrote in reply to deans857467:

"And while we're on this subject - how are these discussions going to be moderated? I can't imagine each day the mods checking millions (yes millions) of sentence discussions to delete comments that make no sense/are gibberish." deans857467

Very likely similar to the way they are being moderated now... I've probably cleaned up (and warned for) just about as many SD comments as I have done in the forums themselves, thanks to those helpful users that make sure to report anything that doesn't belong there. As soon as something ends up in the mod queue we'll be aware of it and can remove it without having to check them individually, especially as global moderators.

AFAIK there will be stricter rules for using the SDs than there are at the moment, which is definitely necessary. Fingers crossed.

See this post

I don't know if we're going to have to have user sentence discussion here, or sentence discussions will continue after a brief interlude.

If they are closed Duolingo must have very poor communication with staff as well as with it's users. Feels like a monster took over!

Note Duolingo forum posts will stop working on the 22nd of March. Just putting them there so you can see I have sources.

This is also discussed in Duolingo forums have now been closed

[coto.i]

Please make a better use of the post title, otherwise the post might pass unnoticed. What you wrote here is not just some random thought about Sentence discussions; it's breaking news.

Instead of "Sentence discussions", try "All Sentence discussions are now read-only". Thanks!

[Corinnebelle]

Please make a better use of the post title, otherwise the post might pass unnoticed. What you wrote here is not just some random thought about Sentence discussions; it's breaking news.

Instead of "Sentence discussions", try "All Sentence discussions are now read-only". Thanks!

Thank you for the suggestion! I am good at understatement. I put the radioactive icon too!

[trackerwannabe]

Apologies if I missed it, but I saw no links to archived versions in your post. So, since (AFAIK) we don't know exactly when the original posts will disappear, I'm putting such links here. And, because I've come to mistrust Duolingo, I'm putting links to archived versions of all the links I see in your post (other than the one within duome).

How do I report a problem with a sentence or translation? was archived 22 Mar 2022 11:42:19 UTC.
Farewell to the forums and a message for the community was archived 22 Mar 2022 12:58:13 UTC.
Following sentence discussions was archived 19 Mar 2022 12:19:44 UTC.

[Jetdriver]

Is it just me, but the sentence discussions are just not loading today? Is this a side effect of the forum closure and is normal service likely to resume in time?

[trackerwannabe]

Is it just me, but the sentence discussions are just not loading today? Is this a side effect of the forum closure and is normal service likely to resume in time?

I think their system can't handle the increased load. Looks like the forums may die, not with a , but with a .

[justheaven]

SD posts are not opening from the Learn page. A tab quickly opens and closes.

A workaround for anyone who needs it:

• go to https://forum.duolingo.com/

• copy/paste the sentence in the search tab, like so

• If there's an existing post it will appear. However if there isn't, no results will show up.

---

• If the forum page doesn't load go to google.
• In the search bar type: site:forum.duolingo.com copy/paste the sentence there, like so

Again, if there's an existing post it will show up.

EDIT: The first workaround is now obsolete because obviously the forums are gone and that search method won't be possible. The only way to search SD is google.

[justheaven]

After many attempts to load a SD post I finally managed to, and yes, they are now read-only, i.e. the Discussion is locked.

This page: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/50551790

Gives this:

[back4morelater]

Locked for comments but is it just me but up/down voting them still seems to be possible?

[justheaven]

Yes, it's only possible to up/down vote comments right now.

You can't edit your own comments. You can however delete them.
You can't give Lingots anymore.

I don't know maybe these functions will be back when the SDs start functioning like they used to.

Or maybe not. We know nothing.

[JonD]

I have looked at three sentence discussions today in the Spanish course, unit 10, and all of them were locked. Is that how they all will be now that the forum is gone?

[Seiryuu]

Yeah, I also tried to access sentence discussions from a lesson, but it either brings me to a closed discussion thread or an invalid link, where a new tab is opened but immediately closes afterwards.

[Kelikaku]

I have looked at three sentence discussions today in the Spanish course, unit 10, and all of them were locked. Is that how they all will be now that the forum is gone?

I just went to several other sentence discussions, in two other languages.

They seem to be locked too.

[Corinnebelle]

Apologies if I missed it, but I saw no links to archived versions in your post. So, since (AFAIK) we don't know exactly when the original posts will disappear, I'm putting such links here. And, because I've come to mistrust Duolingo, I'm putting links to archived versions of all the links I see in your post (other than the one within duome).

How do I report a problem with a sentence or translation? was archived 22 Mar 2022 11:42:19 UTC.
Farewell to the forums and a message for the community was archived 22 Mar 2022 12:58:13 UTC.
Following sentence discussions was archived 19 Mar 2022 12:19:44 UTC.

Thank you! Good to have them.

[Corinnebelle]

Feel like it's useless now, learning without being able to access Duolingo to help you understand words you don't know by look at the SD.

Lets hope they're building a new layout for the SD's with searchability, better functions and accessibility to all sentences through an SD forum.

[EranBarLev]

I think we need here SD sub-forums for each course.

[justheaven]

I think we need here SD sub-forums for each course.

I suggested that too and I hope it can be done here.

Otherwise this wouldn't be necessary if we actually KNEW if the SDs will stay locked forever or it will be just temporarily (I know Kevin said that he's 'fairly certain' that's the case). But then how long will that temporary be? A week? A month? Two months? Reminds me of when Timed Practice was removed and they were saying a similar feature will be available soon. And it's been 2 years.

[EranBarLev]

Otherwise this wouldn't be necessary if we actually KNEW if the SDs will stay locked forever or it will be just temporarily (I know Kevin said that he's 'fairly certain' that's the case). But then how long will that temporary be? A week? A month? Two months? Reminds me of when Timed Practice was removed and they were saying a similar feature will be available soon. And it's been 2 years.

Exactly. Then let's open those sub-forums now, and we can lock them if Duo ever unlocks its SDs.

[arthurkun]

This certainly isn't what I was expecting when they said they would leave them up, but damn... To lock them permanently? What's even the point of visiting them now if you can't ask any questions.

[arthurkun]

Feel like it's useless now, learning without being able to access Duolingo to help you understand words you don't know by look at the SD.

Lets hope they're building a new layout for the SD's with searchability, better functions and accessibility to all sentences through an SD forum.

Honestly though, knowing how Duo operates... I seriously doubt that will ever happen.

[Corinnebelle]

I think we need here SD sub-forums for each course.

I suggested that too and I hope it can be done here.

Otherwise this wouldn't be necessary if we actually KNEW if the SDs will stay locked forever or it will be just temporarily (I know Kevin said that he's 'fairly certain' that's the case). But then how long will that temporary be? A week? A month? Two months? Reminds me of when Timed Practice was removed and they were saying a similar feature will be available soon. And it's been 2 years.

Reminds me of when they made the forum without PM anymore, said they were going to replace it with something better!

[DJCat]

I think we need here SD sub-forums for each course.

I suggested that too and I hope it can be done here.

Otherwise this wouldn't be necessary if we actually KNEW if the SDs will stay locked forever or it will be just temporarily (I know Kevin said that he's 'fairly certain' that's the case). But then how long will that temporary be? A week? A month? Two months? Reminds me of when Timed Practice was removed and they were saying a similar feature will be available soon. And it's been 2 years.

Reminds me of when they made the forum without PM anymore, said they were going to replace it with something better!

This is in the FAQ on Duolingo. I don't think the sentence discussion will change from read only.

What will happen to Sentence Discussions?

Sentence discussions will remain online as read-only. Previously, Android and web users were able to participate in sentence discussions. However, they are now read-only across all platforms. We highly encourage you to continue to ‘report’ translations and exercises by tapping the flag icon. Learn more here. Our team monitors these reports and we appreciate your help.

[trackerwannabe]

Feel like it's useless now, learning without being able to access Duolingo to help you understand words you don't know by look at the SD.

Lets hope they're building a new layout for the SD's with searchability, better functions and accessibility to all sentences through an SD forum.

We now have bizarre cases like this (archived here and here, just in case) wherein Sitesurf provides a useful pointer to further information, but that page (now being in the sunsetted forum) is now unreachable. And, as the sentence discussions are now locked, the page cannot be updated to point to archived information.

Perhaps it was a prescient user who, seven months ago, said that that site could not be accessed.

[Rickiefl]

This is a real backward step. Often the discussions are the easiest way to check something, and there are often interesting variations on sentences posted. I find it very useful to read (most) of the opinions.
Particularly poor that new lessons will have no discussion.

[Seiryuu]

It's been what, two weeks since the forums shut down and sentence discussions locked by this point?

[trackerwannabe]

[It's] possible to up/down vote comments...

While this seems to be technically true, I'm not sure it's effectively true any longer. I put in two upvotes recently, and both seemed to be immediately downvoted by someone. I suspect that "someone" was the Duolingo software. It highly unlikely to have happened so quickly, two times in a row. If I come across another comment deserving of an upvote (or downvote), I'll try it again.

Edit:
It happened again. I'm now convinced it's automatic.

[Corinnebelle]

Mine open, but they hang for awhile.

[Corinnebelle]

It's been what, two weeks since the forums shut down and sentence discussions locked by this point?

Yes, and no changes yet.

[sandygaletoo]

I suggested that too and I hope it can be done here.

Otherwise this wouldn't be necessary if we actually KNEW if the SDs will stay locked forever or it will be just temporarily (I know Kevin said that he's 'fairly certain' that's the case). But then how long will that temporary be? A week? A month? Two months? Reminds me of when Timed Practice was removed and they were saying a similar feature will be available soon. And it's been 2 years.

Reminds me of when they made the forum without PM anymore, said they were going to replace it with something better!

This is in the FAQ on Duolingo. I don't think the sentence discussion will change from read only.

What will happen to Sentence Discussions?

Sentence discussions will remain online as read-only. Previously, Android and web users were able to participate in sentence discussions. However, they are now read-only across all platforms. We highly encourage you to continue to ‘report’ translations and exercises by tapping the flag icon. Learn more here. Our team monitors these reports and we appreciate your help.

Frankly, this is not a surprise. When they announced the closure of the forums, it did not make any sense that a portion of it would still work.
So, what they said was the forums are closing and SD will still be available. (Did not confirm/deny the new Read Only status)

What was not said (very important) was any type of confirmation that questions/answers could be posted.

[Cifi]

[It's] possible to up/down vote comments...

While this seems to be technically true, I'm not sure it's effectively true any longer. I put in two upvotes recently, and both seemed to be immediately downvoted by someone. I suspect that "someone" was the Duolingo software. It highly unlikely to have happened so quickly, two times in a row. If I come across another comment deserving of an upvote (or downvote), I'll try it again.

Edit:
It happened again. I'm now convinced it's automatic.

Ouch. I can confirm. The Duolingo system pretends to accept our votes, only to "adjust" them automatically to get it to the previous count. Crazy.