the thread: The Death of GR Community Engagement > Likes and Comments
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Sadly, I have to agree with your assessment of the situation.
Kalinka wrote: "I would advise everyone to start getting their GRs houses in order.
Make sure you are prepared to move elsewhere if need be."
That would be my advice, too! And Debbie, I echo the others' agreement with and appreciation of what you shared.
I've been a member for a long time and I have to agree with this assessment.
The entire reason why I became so involved on this site is for the groups. Not sure why they decided to "fix" things that were working for the majority.
I guess they didn't know the adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Now they're about to capsize the boat.
I hate that this is happening , I've looked all over to see if there are other sites like what goodreads used to be and I cant find any, I really enjoy the the group feature here and would hate to loose it , I really enjoy hanging out with every one in the groups that I'm apart of , it would be so sad to loose that
Thank you for capturing the worst changes to this site since I’ve joined. It felt like, at the time, it was designed to minimize group discussions.
I’ve been a member since 2010 and highly active. I moderate several groups and it’s heartbreaking to watch the community aspect of this site wither away. It’s now managed by people who have no personal connection to the essence of a book community. Group activity is now pitiful and I’m disengaging as a moderator for most of them.
I think Amazon has achieved its objective, myopic as it seems. They’ve ceded their place as the coveted starting point for reviews and social community. Instagram and TikTok are now number one for most publishers and authors and those communities are robust and growing. Facebook is a distant third and no one talks about Goodreads anymore other than a depository for reviews and book info.
My heart aches and Bezos should know better. He’s fouled up The Washington Post and this, once considered a jewel, will soon become a memory.
I'll be honest with you all, Goodreads truly overestimates my willingness to linger in their crumbling estate 😅 I already find far better company in Fable, StoryGraph, and the ever-chaotic halls of Discord. Yes, Goodreads was important to me as a reader years ago when I could not find many people I had book preferences in common…but now? The roof leaks.... and there are better alternatives. I'm here because of nostalgia and because I have groups and friend here, I would certainly miss not having virtually around. But GR is no longer relevant, and it's 100% because of their own doing.
Great topic!🗣🗣🗣
I am very much in agreement with all that you have mentioned here, Debbie.. I feel that you are spot on in your assessment of future moves by GR, given the way they have been and are maneuvering this site in the present..
I would advise everyone to start getting their GRs houses in order.
Make sure you are prepared to move elsewhere if need be.
Very well said, Debbie.
I have been a GRs member for a very long time and have met many reading friends here. I’m sad for all that’s happing to the community and all the changes that make me feel so disconnected.
ok thats a lot to read on work time (audios only at work lol)
Summary?
we're considering moving?
I'm discovering more things each day that GR (with Amazon as it's OverLord) is doing to kill communications between members of the Community. Mainly this has to do with Notifications.
First, GR just started discontinuing the notification e-mails we were getting, and explained this away by saying it was done because so many Members had complained about getting too many, and their e-mail was getting clogged up with them. Now, any Members with this problem could have easily solved this on their own by going to their account settings-as well as their group settings- and specify what type of e-mails they wanted to get and how often. But, the complaints gave GR the perfect excuse to start cutting notifications, while giving validity to it. At the time, it didn't raise my suspicions at all, because it sounded reasonable.
But then, after learning e-mail notifications were no more, GR also shut off auto-notifications as well, again with no prior warning. Now, all the things you would normally be notified of, i.e, comments on status, comments on reviews, comments on photos, comments on polls you've voted on, comments on group threads-you must make sure you're clicking the Notify Me box for everything, or you will be left out of the loop and know NOTHING about what is going on in your groups or your personal updates.
All of this was implemented by GR on Sept. 24, 2024 without any prior notice to it's Members.
Then, four to six months after this took place, GR disabled our ability to put named links in our About Me sections in our profiles. Those who already had those links in their Profiles at the time-those were "grandfathered in". The ability is now gone for anyone else to do it for their Profiles.
Sometime between December 2024 and January 2025, GR disabled the button at the top of group threads that allowed a Member to be able to see all new posts in that thread first, to ensure the Member didn't miss any new post in the thread they were following. Again, this button has been disabled since since December 2024, and has not been corrected yet.
Now, in the last month, a new glitch has come up with the Polls. Only the creator of the Poll can click the Notification box and actually be notified about anything going on with the poll. The rest of the group Members that actually come to the Poll, vote and/or comment there, and then click the Notify Me box will not be notified of ANYTHING occurring on the Poll. This is pertaining to Group Polls as well as Community Site Polls. This action is effectively diminishing Community Engagement on this platform as a whole.
GR is also doing this same "glitch" on status updates and reviews you want to follow. Anyone who hasn't noticed this yet, after you know you've clicked the Notify Me box for a review you want to follow, leave it, then go back and check. I guarantee the box will no longer be checked and you will not receive any notifications on it.
These "glitches" are no accidents by GR. They are not likely going to be fixed either. This is a purposeful, well thought-out plan that's being executed slowly, but surely, to take the "Community" aspect out of GR, and make it into a drone of Amazon's to rate and sell books, in my honest opinion.
It is my fear now (given the trajectory of GR's actions to date) that the next steps taken will be to get rid of the Groups altogether and then-finally-policing how and when we will be able to post our reviews.
Given all that I have discussed above, as well as what all of you have most likely witnessed for yourselves, what are your thoughts on this?
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Sadly, I have to agree with your assessment of the situation.
Kalinka wrote: "I would advise everyone to start getting their GRs houses in order.Make sure you are prepared to move elsewhere if need be."
That would be my advice, too! And Debbie, I echo the others' agreement with and appreciation of what you shared.
I've been a member for a long time and I have to agree with this assessment. The entire reason why I became so involved on this site is for the groups. Not sure why they decided to "fix" things that were working for the majority.
I guess they didn't know the adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Now they're about to capsize the boat.
I hate that this is happening , I've looked all over to see if there are other sites like what goodreads used to be and I cant find any, I really enjoy the the group feature here and would hate to loose it , I really enjoy hanging out with every one in the groups that I'm apart of , it would be so sad to loose that
Thank you for capturing the worst changes to this site since I’ve joined. It felt like, at the time, it was designed to minimize group discussions. I’ve been a member since 2010 and highly active. I moderate several groups and it’s heartbreaking to watch the community aspect of this site wither away. It’s now managed by people who have no personal connection to the essence of a book community. Group activity is now pitiful and I’m disengaging as a moderator for most of them.
I think Amazon has achieved its objective, myopic as it seems. They’ve ceded their place as the coveted starting point for reviews and social community. Instagram and TikTok are now number one for most publishers and authors and those communities are robust and growing. Facebook is a distant third and no one talks about Goodreads anymore other than a depository for reviews and book info.
My heart aches and Bezos should know better. He’s fouled up The Washington Post and this, once considered a jewel, will soon become a memory.
I'll be honest with you all, Goodreads truly overestimates my willingness to linger in their crumbling estate 😅 I already find far better company in Fable, StoryGraph, and the ever-chaotic halls of Discord. Yes, Goodreads was important to me as a reader years ago when I could not find many people I had book preferences in common…but now? The roof leaks.... and there are better alternatives. I'm here because of nostalgia and because I have groups and friend here, I would certainly miss not having virtually around. But GR is no longer relevant, and it's 100% because of their own doing.
Great topic!🗣🗣🗣I am very much in agreement with all that you have mentioned here, Debbie.. I feel that you are spot on in your assessment of future moves by GR, given the way they have been and are maneuvering this site in the present..
I would advise everyone to start getting their GRs houses in order. Make sure you are prepared to move elsewhere if need be.
Very well said, Debbie.
I have been a GRs member for a very long time and have met many reading friends here. I’m sad for all that’s happing to the community and all the changes that make me feel so disconnected.
ok thats a lot to read on work time (audios only at work lol)Summary?
we're considering moving?
I'm discovering more things each day that GR (with Amazon as it's OverLord) is doing to kill communications between members of the Community. Mainly this has to do with Notifications. First, GR just started discontinuing the notification e-mails we were getting, and explained this away by saying it was done because so many Members had complained about getting too many, and their e-mail was getting clogged up with them. Now, any Members with this problem could have easily solved this on their own by going to their account settings-as well as their group settings- and specify what type of e-mails they wanted to get and how often. But, the complaints gave GR the perfect excuse to start cutting notifications, while giving validity to it. At the time, it didn't raise my suspicions at all, because it sounded reasonable.
But then, after learning e-mail notifications were no more, GR also shut off auto-notifications as well, again with no prior warning. Now, all the things you would normally be notified of, i.e, comments on status, comments on reviews, comments on photos, comments on polls you've voted on, comments on group threads-you must make sure you're clicking the Notify Me box for everything, or you will be left out of the loop and know NOTHING about what is going on in your groups or your personal updates.
All of this was implemented by GR on Sept. 24, 2024 without any prior notice to it's Members.
Then, four to six months after this took place, GR disabled our ability to put named links in our About Me sections in our profiles. Those who already had those links in their Profiles at the time-those were "grandfathered in". The ability is now gone for anyone else to do it for their Profiles.
Sometime between December 2024 and January 2025, GR disabled the button at the top of group threads that allowed a Member to be able to see all new posts in that thread first, to ensure the Member didn't miss any new post in the thread they were following. Again, this button has been disabled since since December 2024, and has not been corrected yet.
Now, in the last month, a new glitch has come up with the Polls. Only the creator of the Poll can click the Notification box and actually be notified about anything going on with the poll. The rest of the group Members that actually come to the Poll, vote and/or comment there, and then click the Notify Me box will not be notified of ANYTHING occurring on the Poll. This is pertaining to Group Polls as well as Community Site Polls. This action is effectively diminishing Community Engagement on this platform as a whole.
GR is also doing this same "glitch" on status updates and reviews you want to follow. Anyone who hasn't noticed this yet, after you know you've clicked the Notify Me box for a review you want to follow, leave it, then go back and check. I guarantee the box will no longer be checked and you will not receive any notifications on it.
These "glitches" are no accidents by GR. They are not likely going to be fixed either. This is a purposeful, well thought-out plan that's being executed slowly, but surely, to take the "Community" aspect out of GR, and make it into a drone of Amazon's to rate and sell books, in my honest opinion.
It is my fear now (given the trajectory of GR's actions to date) that the next steps taken will be to get rid of the Groups altogether and then-finally-policing how and when we will be able to post our reviews.
Given all that I have discussed above, as well as what all of you have most likely witnessed for yourselves, what are your thoughts on this?
Though I have not been a member on this site for very long, based on what veterans of this site have told me and also what I have encountered with the non-ease of notifications myself, I have to say that I am in agreement with your thoughts and assessments here.
It is very clear, their objective. Unfortunately, it is working. If members of the site continue to be apathetic about it, however, by not taking advantage of the information given to them to help them navigate the site better, then I'm afraid they too are feeding this beast and making it that much easier for Amazon/GR to achieve their objectives with this.