Questions Related to Developing School Curriculum ankihub deck that contains anking cards and class made cards

[astrong]

Context

I am currently an Anking optional tag owner for my school’s anking step deck related tags. We tagged them by lecture and updated them as the curriculum changes year to year.

During my M1 and M2 years, I identified the gaps between our in-person lectures and what was available on the Anking Step deck and either made new cards or identified class-made cards from previous years and added our lecture specific anking opitional tags to those cards. I periodically uploaded my anking base for my fellow classmates to download so that everyone had access to these other lecture specific cards. This allowed all the cards to be pulled with tags for use on filter decks and to be moved in a separate subdeck depending on the students preference.

For this coming year I am trying to consider the easiest way to have these blended optional tags shared with my classmates; usually, they just import my updated database and get the class-made cards with the optional anking lecture specific tags added to them.

I am trying to find a way to make it easier for new maintainers to just update the optional lecture specific tags that are on both the anking step cards as well as our lecture specifc tagged cards, so that it updates across everyone at the school that uses the deck and is subscribed to the optional tags.

Question

I was wondering if it is possible to upload a school specific ankihub deck that includes our classmade cards by lecture as well as the anking step deck. The overall goal would be for the lecture specific tags would be handled through the school-specific deck, and updates or changes in tags would happen across ankihub as needed. While a subscription for the anking step deck would be possible so that everyone can still get the updates and amazing images that the anking ankihub team produces from time to time.

I read on other posts from years ago that there could be syncing issues depending on which decks/tags are subscribed to first. Can anyone tell me more about any potential issues with uploading a school specific deck that includes anking cards and is subscribed between multiple decks?

Just seeing if anyone knows more before I beta test it. Also, feel free to suggest other alternatives.

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You’re thinking about this in exactly the right way. Here’s how I’d break it down from an AnkiHub/AnKing perspective.

---

1. What you’re trying to do

You want:

• A school‑specific AnkiHub deck that:
  • Contains:
    • Your class‑made cards (lecture‑specific).
    • The AnKing Step cards that your cohort actually uses.
  • Manages the lecture‑specific tags (your current “optional tags”) on both:
    • Class‑made cards and
    • AnKing Step cards.
• Students stay subscribed to:
  • Your school deck (for lecture tags + custom cards).
  • The official AnKing Step deck on AnkiHub (for ongoing edits/images).

You want these to coexist cleanly and auto‑update across all students and future maintainers.

---

2. Key constraint: card identity on AnkiHub

On AnkiHub, each card is “owned” by one deck (one AnkiHub deck ID). If you:

• Upload AnKing cards into your school deck, and
• Your classmates also subscribe to the official AnKing AnkiHub deck,

then there will be two separate versions of the same conceptual card:

1. Version in your school deck.
2. Version in the official AnKing deck.

They do not merge automatically. That’s where old “syncing issues” comments usually come from:

• Duplicates
• Conflicting note IDs
• Confusing which version to study/edit

To avoid that, you generally want each note to belong to only one AnkiHub deck per user profile.

---

3. Two main approaches (with pros/cons)

Option A – School deck contains only your school’s own notes

Idea:
Keep the official AnKing Step deck as the only source of AnKing notes.
Your school AnkiHub deck only contains:

• Class‑made cards
• Possibly “bridge” notes that reference AnKing tags (but do not copy AnKing notes)

How to handle lecture‑specific tags then?

On each student’s side:

1. They subscribe to the official AnKing Step deck.
2. They subscribe to your school deck.
3. You provide a tagging/profile setup guide so that:
   • Your lecture‑specific tags get applied to the right AnKing cards locally (via:
     • Tag‑only shared deck,
     • Or a one‑time “tag sync” workflow using filtered decks + search, etc.)

Pros:

• No duplicate AnKing notes.
• Clean, minimal long‑term maintenance.
• Students get all AnKing updates without conflict.

Cons:

• Harder to get automatic propagation of lecture tags across all users purely through AnkiHub.
• Requires a bit more setup guidance for each new cohort.

This is currently the safest setup if you want to avoid identity conflicts.

---

Option B – School deck includes AnKing cards (what you’re proposing)

Idea:
Upload to AnkiHub a school deck that already contains:

• AnKing notes (those your school actually uses), and
• Class‑made notes,
• All with lecture‑specific tags already on them.

Students then:

• Subscribe to your school deck.
• Also subscribe to the official AnKing deck (for updates).

Risks / caveats:

1. Duplicate cards / conflicting note IDs

   • If students already have the official AnKing deck in their profile, and then import/subscribe to your school deck (or vice versa), they can end up with duplicates.
   • Depending on how note IDs are handled, merges may not be clean or obvious.

2. Maintenance complexity

   • Any edit to an AnKing card in the official deck and a different edit in your school deck produces divergence.
   • Students will have to choose which version to keep or manually reconcile them.

3. Ordering of subscription matters
   Old advice about “subscribe in the right order” is essentially trying to control how Anki matches notes and prevents duplicates. The more decks that share overlapping notes, the more fragile and confusing this becomes.

If you do beta test this:

• Test on:
  • A fresh profile (no existing AnKing cards).
  • A typical student profile (already has AnKing Step from AnkiHub).
• Watch for:
  • Duplicate notes/cards.
  • Notes that don’t get lecture tags as you expect.
  • Conflicts when you push tag updates from your deck vs AnKing’s changes.

---

4. A middle‑ground strategy (often easiest in practice)

What many schools/groups end up doing (in various forms):

1. Keep AnKing Step deck purely “official” via AnkiHub

   • No re‑uploading of AnKing notes into a separate maintainer deck.
   • Everyone subscribes to the same official deck.

2. Use a school AnkiHub deck only for:

   • Class‑made cards.
   • Optional “helper” cards that reference AnKing tags or card IDs (e.g., “See AnKing tag: school::M1::Cardiology::Lecture_12”).

3. Manage lecture‑specific tags locally via:

   • A tag‑only deck (export a small deck whose only function is to apply tags to notes that already exist from AnKing).
   • Or carefully documented searches and filtered decks (e.g., instructions like: “Search tag:AnKing::Step::CV and tag:Lecture_12, then add school::M1::CV::L12 tag manually or via a simple bulk action”).

4. Document a clear “new maintainer” handoff:

   • Step‑by‑step process for:
     • How to add/update lecture tags on both AnKing and class‑made cards.
     • How and when to export/upload changes to your school deck/AnkiHub.
     • How students should subscribe and in what order.

This avoids the biggest technical landmines while still letting you coordinate at the school level.

---

5. Practical recommendation for you right now

Given current AnkiHub behavior (and what older posts were warning about):

• I would not recommend making a large school deck that fully duplicates the AnKing Step notes and then also having everyone subscribe to the official AnKing deck on top of that.
• If you want to test it anyway, treat it as an explicit beta, on a small group of volunteers, in separate test profiles, and document everything carefully.

For most stability and future maintainers:

1. Keep AnKing Step = official AnkiHub deck only.
2. Make a school AnkiHub deck for class‑made content and possibly “helper” notes.
3. Use:
   • A tag‑only updating method, or
   • Very clear instructions/templates
     to get lecture tags onto AnKing notes without turning those notes into a second AnkiHub deck.

---

If you’d like, share:

• How many custom cards you have (roughly), and
• How tightly your lecture tags are tied to specific AnKing tags/nids,

and I can outline a concrete “workflow” for next year’s maintainer (e.g., exactly how they’d tag, export, and upload while keeping everyone in sync).

[Brian_BH]

Hello,

I would be happy to help.

I have been in a similar boat as regards trying to align optional tags and the AnKing Step deck.

For clarity: at least as current there isn’t a way to cross-link a personally made in-house deck and the AnKing Step deck and still have both update. That is, unfortunately, not a thing that is possible at the moment, to the best of my knowledge

You can, of course, have an optional tag set on the AnKing Step deck and coordinate your in-house material in this way, and the AnKing Step deck cards will still update as normal. But, there isn’t a way to link the Step deck directly to a separate in-house deck at the moment, for better or worse

Separately, if you were to try to start a deck that was in-house material and that included cards from the AnKing Step deck, those cards would no longer be linked to the AnKing Step deck and so would not update in place as normal, unfortunately.

About the closest you can get, and I have seen folks do it, would be to do something like the following:

• Have an optional in-house tag for the AnKing Step deck.
• Have a separate deck for in-house cards and material.

It does, thus, necessarily require having two separate decks for better or worse.

We’re in discussions about how best to develop the optional tag programs, particularly in light of trying to make as smooth as possible we can the experience for folks trying to match the material up to their in-house subject matter. At least as yet, though, the current functionality listed above is about what the system is capable of, at least for the time being.

My hope is that something like what you describe might be possible in the near future, allowing for coordinated tags across the AnKing Step deck and in-house decks. I agree that this would be a great way to go, and likely a lot of use for a lot of folks. Hopefully that’s something that can be added to the quiver sometime in the near future.