I've been meaning to bring this up for a while. First, I think it's prettier than before, and the calendar snapshot is a good idea. But overall it's not nearly as good as the last one for the following reasons:
1) If you want to see the teacher's real calendar, you have to click into the profile, then click the calendar, which is 2 very slow clicks, and it takes you away from the list. Before, you could click the calendar from the list. Not only was it faster, but because the calendar is just a pop-up you never really left the list.
2) All the bars after the languages are red in the list, and even though native language bars are darker, it's deceptive imo.
3) Back to the calendar snapshot. Like I said, it's a good idea, but it's pretty useless. A 3 hour envelope isn't refined enough for me. Why not have a mini version of the actual calendar, clickable to full size?
Any opinions?
@Alan
I like your comment about teachers you don't like not showing up in the search. That would be amazing!!! I'm still not over the bad experience where I accidentally took a second lesson with a teacher I absolutely couldn't stand.
I haven't been a fan of the teacher search function for ages; unfortunately this isn't a huge improvement.
Though with regard to your first point; the Check Availability button below the teacher's entry in the search results DOES show their calendar for me, without taking me away from the list. Are you sure that's where you're clicking?
At least now it defaults to ONE of the languages that you are currently learning. It used to bug me that I would have to go back every time and filter down the teacher selection to my languages of interest. However now you can select only one language at a time, and it doesn't even remember what your last selection was. I'm guessing that it always finds the last lesson that you took. Or it's god's way of telling me not to ever learn French.
It STILL doesn't remember what your previous selections were, so you STILL have to flag things like "Native Speaker" every single time you do a search.
It STILL doesn't provide a search option for teachers who (for example) take small groups of learners, like family groups.
It STILL doesn't give you the option of removing specific teachers from your search listings. I saw one teacher that I tried previously and decided not to continue with, and one guy who, based on his community activities, I would not take lessons from if he was the last teacher on Earth. There are others that I had looked at before but realised that they weren't the right type of teacher for me. Why do I have to have these people cluttering up my search list?
The search feature for lesson cost has been GREATLY improved in the sense that the slider bars make a lot more sense than the old check box ranges did EXCEPT... a lot of the costs shown on the teacher search page are rubbish. I saw one teacher with a grotesquely high fee, and thought "Wow, what do they charge THAT for?" They don't. There are no courses on their page which are anywhere NEAR that fee.
@Wanda; here are a couple of other glitches to ponder over.
First, although this topic showed "3 comments" on the topics page, when I opened it mine was, at the time, the only one there. Then later I saw Aegis' second one. It is only now, 8 hours after you posted them, that yours have appeared for me.
The other thing is that for me, the Contacts list does work. I see every teacher that I've bookmarked or have had a lesson with. I can search by name, but that's not exceptionally useful if I have yet to have a lesson with them and have just bookmarked them as possible future teachers for other languages. I can't filter them, or sort them. But the list DOES work... unless there's something wrong with your account (which might also explain why it took 8 hours for me to see your comments).
As we know, there have been some very strange things going on at Italki, system-wise, of late.
Nope; I'm getting their full calendar, exactly the same one that I use to make bookings.I can select the week from the drop-down at the top or move one week using the arrows, and I can see the teacher's entire day by half hour blocks including free, booked and unavailable times.
If you're not seeing it, it may be worth raising a ticket with Italki support because that's very strange indeed. I thought for a moment that it may be available only to Premium members (those who have bought credits), but from the icon alongside your name it looks like you are too, so that's not it.
Yes, I have a friend who is trying to learn French; he's a bit suspect about Italki but would try it if I was prepared to study it with him. (I've no great love for French but I'd give it a go.) I've found a couple of French teachers who will do classes for two, but only because I've stumbled across them, not because I could search for them.) Which brings me to another point; the lack of ability to make notes about teachers. I need to manually remember which teachers they are, because I can't make a note about potential teachers for me to refer to or search by. That would be a "nice to have" as well.
