Werner’s Comments (group member since Aug 22, 2009)

Werner’s comments from the Action Heroine Fans group.

Well, we'll give it a read and see what we think! :-)

Give me a heads-up when the new installment of your series is out, Patrick! Barb and I both will be eager to read it.

Laz wrote: "My daughter invited me to StoryGraph to buddy read a book. It's different. No written reviews, just stars and tags."

It wouldn't be a good fit for me, then. My favorite aspect of Goodreads is that it's a venue in which I can share my book reviews with others (and read their reviews as well).

P. Pherson wrote: "Ive had mailboxes for as long as there has been internet, and on forum sites, I very much in enjoy my PM boxes. All along there have been spammers and scammers, its just part of life. I can deal. I..."

My sentiments exactly, Patrick!

E.G. wrote: "Done, but I'm not optimistic."

Thanks for signing, E. G.! I'm not optimistic either, but I think that for the principle of the thing, it's important for the Goodreads community to make our voice heard.

Thank you, Georgann!

By now, everyone has probably read the notice from Goodreads that soon (they didn't specify the exact time), our ability to exchange personal messages on this site will be abolished. There's an online petition, at this link: https://www.change.org/p/urge-goodrea...? , urging Goodreads to keep the personal messaging feature; I've signed it, and I would encourage every other Goodreads member to sign it as well. (Over 1,000 people have done so already.)

Thanks, Patrick. Will do!

Although I'll be online tomorrow morning, because of the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S. and because of family coming in, I'll be offline after that until around mid-day on Saturday. Best wishes for a wonderful and gratitude-filled Thanksgiving to all those who celebrate it!

Well, we've now moved into November, with the year soon to be drawing to a close; and with 11 books featuring action heroines read this year, I've more than made my goal!

After a lot of bad news, there's finally been a good development! It's been confirmed that the glitches for notifications have been corrected. Your notification boxes are now working as they should on all status updates, reviews, polls and new threads created within groups. You will need to continue to check those boxes to remain informed of new posts or updates; but the good news is that these boxes are now remaining checked, once you've clicked on them. Hopefully we won't encounter this disruption again (but please do remember the workarounds, just in case we do!).

As an unrelated tip, for some time, many Goodreaders have complained that their update feeds don't show updates from all the friends whose activity they'd like to see. Some of this can be due to shortcomings in Goodreads' algorithms; but there actually is a function you can use to help with this, if you're having that problem.

Whether you know it or not, in the eyes of the Goodreads program, you have two kinds of friends, the regular ones and "top'" friends. Every time you accept a friend request, or you friend request someone and they become your friend, the program automatically checks them as a "top friend" for you. At that time, you can uncheck it; but if you didn't do that, their input may get prioritized in your update feed.

If you want to prune your "top" friend roster, go to your friends list. Once there, click the edit button at the top. Here you will see the option to either select or deselect someone as a top friend. You need to do this on EVERY page of your friends list. Once you've done this, click the Done button at the top and move on to the next page.

You can also customize your updates feed. On your homepage, select the customize icon button at the top of your updates feed, (you'll see this button right above where your updates begin). It will look like this once you click on it:

UPDATES........................Customize (you would click this)

UPDATES FEED PREFERENCES:

Content:
(What types of updates you see):
-Book updates only
-Reviews only
-Everything

People:
(Whose updates you see):
-Goodreads community
-All friends and people I follow
-Top friends and people I follow
-Top friends only

This gives you some input on what types of updates you see, and who you see them from. Hope this is helpful!

In a new development that apparently just started on Tuesday afternoon, in any new discussion thread that you create in any group, the "Notify me" box no longer works. Even if you check it properly, the program will uncheck it after you close the window. (This was reported to me by a fellow moderator whose information I know to be trustworthy; but I also confirmed it by creating a test thread. :-( ) It appears that (at least so far) older threads are not affected yet.

I have not reported this to the Goodreads management as an accidental glitch that they might wish to correct; but at this point, I have no reason to believe that it actually is one. It seems to be the latest in a series of unannounced policy changes, all of which underscore the reality that, in order to stay abreast of all developments in your groups, it's very important to check the group home page regularly, or at least to frequently click the "speech bubbles" icon on the Goodreads toolbar.

Barb and I have now begun the fourth and final book of the Sheriff Bride series, Sheriff Bride Rob's Story, this one written by Joi Copeland. (All of these are short books, a bit over 100 pages each.) Although I was intrigued by the premise of the series, in my estimation both the actual writing and the production of the books themselves is amateurish. But Barb enjoys them more than I do; so I'm enjoying her pleasure in the reads. :-)

One more tip (again, from a Goodreads friend, and shared with her permission), this one dealing with how Goodreads calculates the time when you were "last active" on this site"

"There is another site glitch that is affecting the personal profile status of its members. This glitch is in the area where it states when you joined GR and when you were last active on the website. Those of you who actively log on and off every time you visit the site, shouldn't be affected by this. Those of you who use the App or who stay logged in on the website itself, without ever signing back out when you leave the site, will see this issue.

Those who are affected- It is only showing the last date that you actively log on. So even though you have been consistently on the website, your last active status may show that you were last active back in September, October, November, or even further back; depending on when you last actively signed into/out of your account. This began back in June-Aug of 2024. As some members are showing they were last active back in June, even though they've been on the website consistently since June. To avoid this affecting your accurate account status, moving forward, just log in and out of your GR accounts every time you visit the site. This will reset your status for you and keep it up to date as long as you're logging in and logging out. This will also cut down the likely hood of your accounts being hacked as well.

This is also true for Moderators. As on the groups you moderate, after (60) days of not being active on the site, it will show your last active date of logging into GR on your group's homepage next to your profile picture. Which will in fact affect if your members think you're currently active on the website or not.

Below, I'm passing on another tip (also from a fellow Goodreader, and shared by permission) dealing with the Goodreads phone app, and how you can, if you want to, access the Goodreads desktop version from your phone instead. (A caveat: I'm not familiar with the app from personal experience, though I've often been told, by people who are, that it's less functional than the desktop version.)

"If you are using the Goodreads App, then don't.
The App makes it very difficult to navigate groups and communication on here, among other things. If you are on your phone, uninstall the App first. Then go to the Goodreads website and log in directly onto the site by phone. After you log in scroll to the very bottom of the page to ensure that you are on the desktop version and not the mobile version. Once you do this, you will be able to navigate this site as if you are working at your desk or your laptop.

If you are not currently using the App, still check to make sure that you are on the desktop version and not mobile version when logged in. Once you switch to desktop, it will stay that way every time you log in and out. If you are currently on the desktop version, then you will only see the option "Mobile Version" if this is the case then don't change anything because it means you're already using the desktop version. If you see "Desktop version, click on it. This will then put you on the desktop version.

If you follow these steps correctly then you will be able to see all things on this site as if you were on your laptop or PC.

Save the Goodreads website as a shortcut to your home screen on your phone. This way you'll always have quick access to the website and log on and off as if you were still using the App."

Here are some tips for coping with the gutting, last year, of Goodreads' former notification system (from another Goodreader, but shared with permission):

To receive notifications on your reviews:
After writing and posting your review, place a comment in your comment section, then click the notify me box before posting your comment. It is the only way you will receive notifications when someone leaves a comment on your reviews.

To receive notifications on your own status updates:
Once you post a status update, immediately go to your profile page. Locate your status update. Click "See Status". Once there, click the notify me box and then place a comment on your own status. This will ensure you will receive notifications if someone leaves a comment on your status updates. Same thing goes for when you post pictures on your profiles or in your group's photo section.

To be able to follow updates on a friend's review or status update:
You will need to like their status updates or reviews from your updates feed page first, and also post your initial comment to their status and reviews from your updates feed page as well. This is the only way that the notify me box on their postings will stay checked, and to ensure you get regular updates on their postings whenever they or someone else leaves a comment there.

To stay updated on group posts:
Sometimes your notifications will not come through. This is not going to be corrected by GR. No matter how many times you adjust your settings for groups. To make sure you are up to date on all group happenings you will simply need to make sure you are reading all group emails sent to you by your moderators.

You will also need to begin to make an effort to go directly to your groups' homepage(s) whenever you are on the platform. From the homepage, click on the discussion board link. This will show you every group section's new post and thread in that group. Simply click on the red numbers of the threads that you are following. You will see every new post in that specific thread.

Unfortunately, the notify me box is no longer working on Polls. Only the creator of that poll will see when you comment. You are no longer able to get a notification after you post a comment on a poll and check the notify me box. Once you leave the poll page, that box becomes un-checked. There is no work-around for this. If you want to stay informed on comments on polls, or videos posted in your groups, you will manually have to go to that poll yourself, in order to view them.

Make sure that you also are logging in and out on whatever device you use, every time, when logging into GR. This is the only way that GR will track your profile activity properly and keep you up to date on your most recent activity.

These steps are the only way you will continue to make sure that you are an active and informed member of your groups and this community platform as a whole.

For whatever it's worth, Amazon will actually let you download its Kindle app to your PC for free, so you don't have to buy a Kindle device. I've had my app for years; type size isn't a problem, and I find reading in that format easier than I'd expected it to be. (Fitting it into my schedule is a lot harder!) But since dollars and cents is the only language the book trade understands, I only purchase books in print format. So I use the app almost wholly for freebies, to have something to read when my Internet access is down. :-)

E.G. wrote: "I have at least 40 ebooks stacked up on my e-reader (I'm a sucker for a freebie or 99c deal)."

I don't read much in electronic format; but if I did, I can see how freebies and 99-cent deals would be enticing to load up on!

Thank you, Patrick!

Apparently, I forgot to mention the two books from the Sheriff Bride series that Barb and I finished this summer on this thread (though I did list them on my tracking post)! The series is a tetralogy, with each book written by a different author; the heroines are four sisters who wind up becoming the peace officers of a small West Texas town in the 1870s. So far, we read the first two installments, Sheriff Bride by Teresa Ives Lilly and Jo's Story by Brooksie Cox. My actual ratings for both books would be in the two-star range (I rounded up in the first case), and they're at the low end of the action spectrum; but they're quick reads, and all of the heroines are proficient with firearms.

I also didn't list the book I just finished reading by myself, Helsing: Demon Slayer by Liane Zane, which is the opener for The Dragon's Paladins, a projected spin-off series from the author's Elioud Legacy trilogy; but that was because I wasn't certain whether or not the lady co-protagonist would prove to be an action heroine. But though she's not one to start with, she most definitely grows into that role!