Can we fix the leader board sliding/cheating?

Whats the point of having it if you can just sit there and click and recieve 3 points with 2 clicks of the mouse indefinately?

Hi Rainman

This discussion has gone back and forwards forever. It nearly drove me crazy in the beginning and eventually I just had to let it go.  If cheaters choose to do so, there is nothing that can be done about it. I think at the end of the day, there are people that genuinely do the work and the time and achieve those points and then you get the cheaters. At the end of the day other than being frustrated and letting it get to you, you can also just enjoy your learning experience and do the quantity you want to do. I learnt this the hard way and got so caught up in it and frankly it was not worth my ire and a complete waste of energy.

Happy learning

sebongela

Ps I do still wish they would get rid of the whole leadership board and just reflect the points you have done personally each day.

well said Seb

Spot on, Sebongela.

Duolingo has the same issue, for example.  It's not unique, and the main thing is to enjoy learning.

Chris

I purchased Rocket Spanish to LEARN SPANISH, not play king of the Leader Board. If some folks cheat, they get a bunch of points but they don't learn any Spanish. It's their loss. 

These points should motivate ourselves to learn new words, vocab, grammar etc and not pushing the buttons. 

Hi all - Yes, this has been an on-going issue and one that is difficult to put a stop to. A long time ago we tried to get on top of it but we ended up spending a lot of time chasing our tail, as there is always a way to game a system. And, if we get a false positive and suspend/ban people who haven't cheated then they rightly get a little hot under the collar.

In saying that, we do undertake a regular system review that includes things like this, so it does get roundtabled now and again.

In better news, you may have noticed the new progress bar and read times on the Dashboards for individual lessons. And we have provided better curation of the questions that are shown in the Benchmark and Rocket Certification testing.

Hi Jason

The point system does drive me a bit crazy at times, but have just decided to live with it. I keep on saying no program or even book can cover it all and be perfect. That said I am aware just how good Rocket is. That it is a one off payment, that one really gets value for money too. I have to say that I appreciate how much effort you and your team put into this whole language learning prrogram. I feel that your staff are just amazing. Whenever I have a query I get a really good good and quick answer

Once again thank you

Sebongela

Hi Jason

I'm more or less on the same page as Sebongela. The cheaters fool no-one but themselves and don't learn anything, so they don't affect me in any way.

I second Sebongela's statement about the product and your team.  Rocket is the best languages product I've ever used, and I've used lots over the decades.

Grazie mille

Chris

If people want to cheat, ignore them, they're only cheating themselves and not learning anything!

Jo x

Ive just seen this thread and wondering how & why people would cheat and also how you know they are cheating. Ive seen the top of the leaderboard and it seems incredible that a few people can get 5K points per day but maybe they actually do legitamately spend 5-6 hours a day learning their language. 

One way in which you can get a very high daily score is that the points accumulate over 24 hours, so if you study towards the end of one day and in the morning the next you can get the two days added together at least for a time. So someone with 5000 points may actually have scored 2500 over two days.

Also someone with a very high total points score may simply have used the app consistently over several years.

So someone with a lot of points is not necessarily cheating.

But does it really matter if someone is gaming the system, they are really only cheating themselves.

Hi All

This conversation has gone back and forth for what seems like eons.  I have tried to hide the points bar at the top, but that didn't work for me, as I like to keep track of my points. Frankly I wish they would get rid of the whole points system and just show your daily points and your badge.  That way no one is comparing to other learners or even other languages. I'm not sure what Rocket gets out of the whole communal point system and why is it there at all. It has been such a bone of contention and it comes up regularly. So Jason, why is the comparison necessary at all? 

Sebongela

Sebongela has a very interesting point.  Many online language programmes have league tables, but that's not always a positive thing.  Rocket could consider an option to disable the league table in exchange for an enhanced personal view of user perforamnce, whatever that might look like. 

Chris

Hi ChrisM108

Duolingo has that and Rocket. I disbaled the Duolingo one. Now I can just see what I have done weekly. Ouino has a trophy room, so you can see what you still need to do and they also have a calender where you can record what extra language you have done eg reading, reading writing or watching. Babbel you can set a weekly goal and they keep track of what you personally have done. I really like  all these features. Motivates me without being competitive. 

I just am a competitive person, but I prefer to just keep track of what I am achieving. As have said before Closed the points but keep on having to check back as I try and set a goal for each language, so have to open it to see if I have achieved my daily goal. 

Have a good weekend. We are in a drought situation here and there is a promise of some rain.  Thank goodness

Sebongela

Interesting analysis AllanM21. I'm in the same boat as far as comprehension and pronunciation goes. I too have the same problem holding a conversation when it comes to actual speaking around native speakers.

I suppose (hope) that my speaking ability will catch up with more study and practice. However my experience is more limited than yours as I've only been to small towns in Quintana Roo (Yucatan Peninsula)

I met & befriended some Argentinian folks there (in Mexico) and their Spanish does sound like Italian to my ears.

One phrase I learned early on let's people know I'm still learning: 

“Yo hablo español pero solamente un poco, estoy aprendiendo todavía."  

I am very anti-competitive but I find that the Leadership Board gives some framework on which to gauge my personal progress and I personally find it very helpful.  The whole idea of “cheating” on this is totally foreign to me.  You paid good money for Rocket German to learn German.  The Leadership Board has no element of glory to it because we are all essentially anonymous.   Why would one play games like what others have mentioned?  Such spurious pursuits only cheat oneself on the pathway to learning German one step at a time.    I think we should keep the Leadership Board. 

Hi all - One thing I should mention is that (on a browser) the points/leaderboard widget at the top of the page can be hidden. Just go to your profile (top left) and check the box by “Leaderboard and Points Widget”.

This was a very interesting discourse on the leader board. I tracked it down only to find out how someone could possible get 9000 points in one day. So as I understand it, if you never reset your browser, the points just keep going up, ergo the same folks at the top of the board. Or it really does reset every day and some people just punch a key over and over to get a high score. At any rate, I reset my score each day as I have a daily point level I try to attain. When I first started RS, it boggeled my mind that someone could get that many points in one day. I once hit 1000 but decided that was way more work in one program for me. I just envisioned some poor soul, locked in a room doing nothing with their life exept Rocket Spanish from morning till night. No freinds, no relationships, just plowing through one lessone after another. I would have thought that after a month or two of all day long RS, a person would have finished the whole course and disappeared from the leader board. Now I envision some poor soul sitting alone all day pressing the same audio button over and over again. Not sure who is to be pitied more. As for the folks who lacked in the actual ability to converse, Try some of the one on one conversation apps. I use iTalki twice a week plus have joined a local spanish club to practice talking. A member from Spain said to a new member that I could barely speak spanish when I firsat arrived. Now I am faily conversant even if I sound just like someone speaking broken English. So back to my daily goal and no more wondering about Ken and Beverly…

Hi All

You can reset your score every day. I understood it happens automatically within Rocket. Am intrigued.

Maxie

I use the leader board to compete with myself and make sure I keep studying every day, and learning… I don't care if someone else just sits there clicking for points, they're not lerning anything if they do that, they're just wasting their time. 

Just my two cents, but the leader board is a nice track for me to run on, so to speak. I set a goal for myself and it is there in black and white if I make it or not. It doesn't bother me if others are clicking about for just points. Che sara' sara'.

To who ever it was posted this… you hit the nail on the head, some of us really don't have a life, and that is me.

When I first started RS, it boggeled my mind that someone could get that many points in one day. I once hit 1000 but decided that was way more work in one program for me. I just envisioned some poor soul, locked in a room doing nothing with their life exept Rocket Spanish from morning till night. No freinds, no relationships, just plowing through one lessone after another.

 

Hi Petax,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. It's true that language learning can be quite engaging and time-consuming, but it's important to strike a balance between learning and enjoying other aspects of life too. Everyone's learning journey is unique, and it's essential to find a pace that works best for you and fits well with your lifestyle.

Remember, the most important thing is to enjoy the process and make progress in a way that feels comfortable for you. If you have any questions or need support during your language learning journey, feel free to reach out.

Happy learning! :) 

Hi Petax,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. It's true that language learning can be quite engaging and time-consuming, but it's important to strike a balance between learning and enjoying other aspects of life too. Everyone's learning journey is unique, and it's essential to find a pace that works best for you and fits well with your lifestyle.

Remember, the most important thing is to enjoy the process and make progress in a way that feels comfortable for you. If you have any questions or need support during your language learning journey, feel free to reach out.

Happy learning! :) 

I don't understand why some people here think the people with high points are just pushing buttons to get points. I don't know maybe there are some people like that, but I personally highly doubt anyone spend time just to get higher on the leaders rank on a stupid language app where there is no insentive like prize etc. I can only speak for myself but I've been on high level on the leaders board but that's because I HAVE TO master the language I am studying for both professional and personal reasons. I have made it my commitment and priority, so I try to sit down and do at least one lesson a day, and in addition to that, I am constantly and repeatedly pushing and listening to the vocabularies, sentences and practice conversations whenever I have the chance. And my points naturally go up everyday. So not everyone with high points are merely pushing the buttons. That's how I am learning.

Hi Sofia-Rinascente

point well made, these posts moaning are essentially by people not as invested as you or me. In other words lazy people who are competative, but don't compete. They are astionished that some of us will spend a day doing Spanish lessons, possibly day after day. I know I have. Busy with a summer job at the moment in Spain,  so my weeks of intensive 10hrs a day on here has paid dividends. Crazy words I thought would never be used, which were very hard to learn,   I discover are in fact in almost every conversation.  Rocket is very very good at this, in practical terms they really do provide real world vocabulary. I was already ‘get by in Spanish’  level having lived here for 20 years. But the many hours I spent in down time in the spring has really paid dividends, and I enjoy having convetions with people so much more, which I do at the end of the day in my local where no English is spoken. It is the connecting words that I have found most useful. Words that sum up a couple of awkward direct translations. e.g. cada = every rather than “todo los” or alredador = around e.g. to go around the town. As I am a tour guide this has come in handy.  demasiado = too much. Just three examples that made hours of study worth while. Obvuosly there are many many more but these brought joy to my heart. Along with the endings Vámonos piénsalo probarlos.

You keep on doing the intensive, and if you hit the top of the chart doing it, be proud of yourself. Never mind these nutters who would be better off studying than worrying about how hard other people are applying themselves.
 

Hi Pentax and Sofia Rinascente - That's a fascinating insight, so thanks.  I'm particularly interested that you are making such a success from intensive study of Rocket each day.  Do either of you use other resources, e.g. videos, podcasts, etc?  If just Rocket, I may adapt my learning strategy, as I use a range of resources each day.  Thanks in advance.

Chris

Thank you Pentax for your post, and ChrisM108 I don't use any other apps etc. It's only been a month so I am not anywhere near the fluency I need. I plan to finish the entire Rocket lessons in 6 mo to 1 year. I'm hoping to get the enough basics and confidence so that I can start practicing with actual native speakers. 

I'm sure you'll achieve your goal of talking with native speakers, Sofia.  My main tool by far is Rocket, and I'm conversing with Italians over Skype - increasingly with practice, without thinking about it.

Good luck!

Chris

I agree Sofia, this program will help you converse with natives. I am going much slower than you but I was able to carry on simple conversations with natives after finishing Level 1. Level 2 has really helped me move from simple to more complicated conversations. My biggest issue is the speed. I have trouble keeping up and that is one thing the Rocket program won't really help you with. You just need to listen to native speakers. Lots of us use TV programs or podcasts. At first you look to pick out individual words, then phrases, then get the gist of the conversation and some day I hope to be able to truly understand what is being said at their normal speed. Not there yet, but if they slow down, I can hang in pretty well. I need to expand my vocabulary now as well, as I find that is what trips me up when they are talking slowly (and probably part of the problem when they speak normally).

Good luck!

Hi All

I have been doing Rocket German. I went to Germany for 3 weeks and I was so surprised that I felt totally comfortable conversing and finding my way around Germany. The problem was that many wanted to practise their English and I wanted to converse in German. I am now hoping to take my languages all to the next level. 

Maxie

Dear ChrisM108 y Sofia-Rinascente

I did a couple of months intensive, morning till night. I have already passable Spanish and can get by in a conversation. I learned what spanish I know just by ear, as I have lived in Spain for 20 years,. My need is to get my Spanish to a level where I can work. That is my motivation. I spent the last 20 years teaching my children english! So they have excellent qualifications in Engñish, and my Spanish is terrible, I know people who have been living here for a year who are much better than me.

What I discovered is how terrible my spanish is… and for a while I actually found it more difficult to have a conversation with my spamish speaking friends (who don't know. english, and thus there is no easy get out ‘how do you say in spanish?’ without mime and guestures).

As I mentioned in my post, the new vocab' and grammar I have forced myself to learn has really paid dividends, and I am back in the swing of chatting with my friends again. I also work with people who only speak spanish, as a tour guide, I am  the english speaker. I have to make a lot of minor translations for my work mates, and for the clients. This form of practise is not availabke to most people learning. 

I spent 8 hours in a day doing Rocket, then I would go to my bar next door at the time when there were few clients and speak to the person begind the bar, with whom I have become very good friends. They don't speak any english short of hello.  As time passes people come in to the bar and I enjoy listening to, and joining in with their conversations, when I can.  

The new words from rocket become apparent, as does the grammar and I realise I have been hearing these things all the time, and it has just gone over my head. When conversing with natives, you will find a lot of nodding and smiling, the odd ‘muy bien’ when you actually don't really understand, goes a long way to keeping the conversation going. Just get the feel for the vibe of the conversation. As ‘oh! No esta bien’ can work just as well. or ‘Lo siento’ if you are commenting on an appaerently sorry tale, like death or iillnes. Or ¡pobre!  when you get the idea that the person talking has had a bad experience of some kind or had a hard day or no sleep. (it's the way they tell them).

Other than bullshitting, and going with the flow. I have changed the language fo my entire computer (easy to do  just change it and restart) also my mobile, and I tend to watch Netflix in Spanish, sometimes with english subtitles, so I can follow the story - it is supposed to be entertainment after all, not a task.

I use google translate a lot for text messages, which I first draft in spanish, then check with google to see how close I am, if I understand google's version, the I use it. I set my spell checkers to Spanish.

I try and read the news papers in the bar when nothing better to do.

No I don't use any other apps for learning Spanihsh.

In many cases where I am dealing with bilingual people, such as my doctor, I would trnaslate what I have written above in google, go through it very carefully making sure that I understand it all, work on the parts that I don't, then send the Spanish with the english afterward. (a continuación). This is a very good exercise.

¿Algo preguntas?

I hope that helps :-)

PS I also think in Spanish when doing things on my own.
e.g. Necesito lavar la ropa 
Quitarme la ropa 
Necesito lavar los platos 
Necesito comer algo 
Voy a lavarme los dientes
hora de dormir
debo beber un poco de agua
Joder estoy borracho

My thoughts are not always perfect spanish, but you will find once you start, it is hard to stop!!

 

Hi Petax

I would love to spend 3 months in a country to speak more fluently. I find “Lo siento ” one of my favourite words. Spent 3 weeks in Germany this summer and Excuse me was a phrase I used frequently. 

I speak European Portuguese and find that helps with my Spanish, and even Italian, but it also adds confusion at times, as by default I want to use Portuguese. In German I find I want to use Afrikaans, as there are similarities there. I find it fascinating how languages often have threads in common. Even Swedish has similarities to German and Afrikaans. Although generally that is very different and I have found it challenging. 

Enjoy Spain

Maxie

Ciao Maxie. Come stai?

Thanks, Petax.  That's useful info, especially the focus on Rocket as the primary learning source.

Chris

Hi Chris

Am good thanks. Just got my Canadian citizenship and waiting for my new passport.

As we are part of the commonwealth had to pledge allegiance to King Charles the third .

Been busy cutting back my garden. We have a big garden, so a big job. Weather is changing rapidly, getting chilly, but we have not had much rain. Distressing as there have been so many wild fires. At times as many as 500. Just awful!

Otherwise all is good.

Sharon

Congratulalations, Maxie.  Given the quality of western ‘leaders’, King Charles and Prince William/Princess Catherine are doing a great job in my opinion.  

To the contrary, we've had little but rain here this summer, and the trend continues.  The finger points to a strong El Niño.

Take care.

Chris

Hi AI22.  Parliament regularly review royal finances and votes on them.  I recentlyi-ish saw a report's cost/benefit that showed the tourism benefits outweighed the public cost, especially considering that the family generate income from a number of the estates (e.g. Duchy of Cornwall).  It also showed that if they did not exist, the public would need to maintain the cost of the palaces, estates etc. (including the environmental implications).

Global politics is badly fractured IMHO, and they (the royals who actually work for their citizens, that is) are constitutionally above politics.  They have high levels of respect partly because of that.

Public duties per year (2022 being the latest) - no income paid for them:

• Princess Anne - 214 royal engagements.
• King Charles III - 181 royal engagements.
• Prince Edward, Earl of Sussex - 143 royal engagements.
• Sophie, Countess of Wessex - 138 royal engagements.
• William, Prince of Wales - 126 royal engagements.
• Some numbers here: https://www.royal.uk/financial-reports-2021-22
• I hope that helps.  I also hope the mods are ok with me replying, as it is off topic and just my opinion!
• Chris

Hi Chris

Have no problem with the royal family. My granny was British and all my aunts and uncles  followed the Royal family with interest. My mom saw the king, queen and the 2 princesses in Swaziland. My mom and her siblings were at a British school in Mbebane and when thye royals were in tour they were all taken by bus to the parade. 

They talked about it for years. 

Just an interesting bit of trivia. One of the boy scouts was trying to get a photograph and he got such a fright when the then king leaned right over to pose for a photograph.

Have a good weekend. Last day to garden this week, rain predicted now for a week. So happy!

Sharon

Same here, Maxie.  Autumn arrives tomorrow but in fact, it's been here for a week.  Time to batten down the hatches!

Buona fine settimana!

Chris