MetaReview discussion

A place for members to chat...if that's what they want to do.

Thanks for the invite to this group. I'm looking forward to participating!!

Ditto! :)

Michelle wrote: "Thanks for the invite to this group. I'm looking forward to participating!!"

With us, it's not so much chatting as it is gathering together and throwing out random nonsense.

Stacia (keyboard abuser) wrote: "With us, it's not so much chatting as it is gathering together and throwing out random nonsense."

Did you know, if you shave a tiger, you'll find it has striped skin. It's not just its fur. Wow!

Do you know that Polar bears have dark skin and transparent fur? True Story. http://www.polarbearsinternational.or...

Did you know cows moo in different accents according to where they live? The BBC says so!
See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5277090.stm

The only two animals in the world who have black tongues are Chow Chow dogs and polar bears! Amazingly true!!

Hey...does anyone know how to get rid of the mod tag? I know someone explained it over at AA...but I don't remember and I can't figure it out.

It's under settings : moderator posts are highlighted.

I took it off.

Did you know an orgasm can cure hiccups?

Thanks for the invite!!!

Searock wrote: "Did you know an orgasm can cure hiccups?"

I wonder if they tested that on both men and women?

Just realised my earlier message might have been taken as we'll discuss new members. I meant if anyone has any thoughts on whether we should move the group forward or not they could post it here. If you know someone who would be good for a group like this, no need to discuss it just ask them to join.

Honestly...I know we are all quite busy and was hoping that moderators could be rotated so they wouldn't be over burdened....or if RL gets stressful they can take a break without feeling like they owe their first born to the group.

Ian wrote: "Just realised my earlier message might have been taken as we'll discuss new members. I meant if anyone has any thoughts on whether we should move the group forward or not they could post it here. ..."

Ian -- how do you suggest we explain the invite to potential group members? I don't want to come off sounding like I'm an authority or anything. I was thinking something like:

Hey -- we've been friends for a time and I love your reviews. A new group is being formed and is all about reviews as a true resource for discriminating book consumer. When I look at your reviews, they inform. They truly help me make a decision about whether to buy and/or read a book. I know exactly what you liked and didn't like and feel your passion on the topic. I wanted to know if you'd be interested in joining this group. Our focus is the book and how the review assists with the consumer decision. If interested, follow the link. Hope to see you there!

Thoughts?

Stressing the positive. I'm thinking Tom, Laura (Kyahgirl), AnnieOK and JLC right now. See how this goes and I may ask a few others.

I will only do personal messages...I don't think sending the same message to everyone is something I'm comfortable with.

But I will probably say something like...

Hey _____
Me and a few friends have started a group (it's still secret at the moment but it will go public at some time in the future) that will focus on highlighting really great reviews.
Anyway...it's still in the development stage and won't go public for a few weeks but I thought you would be the sort of person we want involve...hence the invitation.

Not sure...like I say I will only do personal invitations and that seems a bit generic...but I really need to think of the person when I'm writing to make it sound less blah.

Okay. I've never invited people to join a group before. I don't mind sending the same thing to multiple people, if it's well crafted. You know I'm lazy and don't want to craft the same kind of thing twice. I'll add something personal to each one, but will start with the same core message.

Hmm... so I didn't stress the secret thing. I will remember to do so.

You know .. I'm stressing about this a bit. What if they don't work out? What if they invite others I'm not okay with? What if ..? See why I never invite anyone? Ha!! I'll think about it some more.

AnnieOk would be good and I'd have no worries about her. She is a retired attorney from Tulsa [or retired from the legal profession]. She and I chat quite a bit - living so close together. I may just start with her.

Gah!

Michelle wrote: "AnnieOk would be good and I'd have no worries about her."

I think she's a friend...I remember asking her a few years ago about ARCs and she gave me a very good explanation on the sort of things I should do to have a better chance of getting them.

I've pulled in Manda. She knows good books and she respects well written reviews. She feels like we do. I've known her for as long as I've been on GR. She's a gem. Plus! She loves GT like we do. Lol

Welcome Manda!

Have you all seen this status update? (with thanks to Vicki for the heads up)

https://www.goodreads.com/user_status...

It's kind of nice when you randomly discover people who say exactly what you want to say, only better.

Ian wrote: "Have you all seen this status update? (with thanks to Vicki for the heads up)

https://www.goodreads.com/user_status...

It's kind of nice when you randomly discover people who say exac..."

It certainly got my 'like'. :)

The comments section from that post is an interesting read too. I sometimes use 2-3 gifs in my status updates and reviews as well but I make an effort to use those that you don't usually see around the reviews in GR and maybe use them in a different context :)

I don't mind gifs in reviews, except when it's ALL GIFs and GIFs that have been used to death here O.O

I've done .gif reviews...I'm sure I've done more than just two but these are the ones I can think of.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I guess for me a .gif review shouldn't be seen as a short cut or an easy way out. If the reviewer is doing it because it's easy, then chances are I will notice that. But if the reviewer is doing it because the images add to the review or bring a new dimension to the review, I'm up with that.

Having said that...neither of my .gif reviews do that.

I don't mind a few GIFs either. They can be great. The reviews I don't like are the ones that look silly on your phone (when you can't see the images). Now that can look really bad.

Hey...any ideas on what I could give a 14 year old girl for her birthday? My maximum is about $100 if the gift is perfect, but I'd prefer to spend $50 ~ $60.

What Ian said. Exactly.
Also Tangled + Tangled always wins some of my internetz.

On a bad day I almost always cringe at:

Hearing this hero say those words makes me...

Insert crying gif.

What's so bad about spelling out that it makes you cry? It's utterly pointless. I probably made this offense at one point or another but sometimes, a person reviews this way everytime it gets annoying o.O

My nieces are 7 and 9 so its Frozen-everything for them nowadays. I'm a bit out of the loop what teens like these days, itunes gift cards? :-)

Ian wrote: "Hey...any ideas on what I could give a 14 year old girl for her birthday? My maximum is about $100 if the gift is perfect, but I'd prefer to spend $50 ~ $60."

Mani/Pedi gift card - or spa like day or thing. iTunes or Amazon gift card. Annual passes to a water park or arcade. Books. My niece was an art crazy kid, so we'd get her special supplies she couldn't afford. Tickets to an art exhibit for her and a friend.

Something I've been noticing a lot over the past 12 months is reviewers on Goodreads posting the official synopsis with a pretty picture of books they have not read as reviews.

I guess the issue I have is it's not a review...it's not even the reviewer's own words it's just a cut and paste of the official synopsis I get if I click on the book.

There was one book maybe 6 months ago in which the first two pages of reviews were not reviews but the synopsis...I think towards the end of page two I actually found a proper review.

Here is an example which showed up in my feed today.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

What do you all think? Is it OK? Have you ever even noticed it? Does it annoy you?

Ian wrote: "Something I've been noticing a lot over the past 12 months is reviewers on Goodreads posting the official synopsis with a pretty picture of books they have not read as reviews.

I guess the issue..."

I like reading reviews (the real ones) even for the genres I don't read, so it is pretty annoying when I see only the official description (since we can't find one ourselves).
I noticed it too. Other than farming likes, I haven't got a clue why people do that.

Irena wrote: "Other than farming likes, I haven't got a clue why people do that. "

I'm presuming that by putting it up early they get a bunch of likes from the "drive-by likers" which will keep their review at the top of the review pages.

But honestly I really don't know how those review pages sort reviews and decide which ones are at the top. I know my friends reviews are the first I see and I'm guessing that reviews with a lot of likes are at the top but there is more to it than that. For example, I've noticed reviews with 30 likes lower down than reviews with 20 likes.