Crazy for Young Adult Books discussion

Hello Crazy for YA Group!

We have an amazing opportunity to give Goodreads some feedback!

I've been invited to a summit that Goodreads is hosting in October. They are looking for feedback from Goodreads users as to ways that can better the site and our experience (whether mobile or computer).

I definitely have my own feedback as do all the crazy for YA Mods but I'd also love to take our member feedback so I'd love to hear from you guys!

How can Goodreads be improved?

I'll make a running list below and bring our feedback with me when I go mid October!

Feedback List

1. If possible I'd like to be able to read the spoilers!
2. I'd love if replies were in more of a thread style. I think it would be easier to keep track of conversations, rather than having "Sarah Louise wrote: "blah blah blah"
3. the < spoiler > option should work in general updates instead of just reviews.
4. the 'default' shelf wasn't "to-read" when adding books but was able to be customized to whatever shelf you want as 'default'.
5. when I add a book I have previously read to my currently reading shelf it no longer shows when I last read it. I do a lot of challenges and I need to know the last date I read the book.
6. exclusive shelf for "Did Not Finish" books. Sometimes this tag appears as a genre and it should be removed

** msg 26 (update!)

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Wonderful idea! I'll post some things here as I think about them.

Cell Phone
1. If possible I'd like to be able to read the spoilers!
2. It would be nice when I go to a thread that's been around for a long time (some years) and be able to scroll to a page rather than have to scroll through YEARS to get to where I want. Like sometimes I have to go back just ONE page but I can't do it, or I can't figure out how.

Computer

Vicki wrote: "Wonderful idea! I'll post some things here as I think about them.

Cell Phone
1. If possible I'd like to be able to read the spoilers!
2. It would be nice when I go to a thread that's been around f..."

I'm not sure about your phone, but on mine in the top right corner, there are three vertical dots. If you click on them, you can select "Newest comments first," so you don't have to scroll through thousands of comments. :)

Anna (Adventures with a Book Nerd) wrote: "Vicki wrote: "Wonderful idea! I'll post some things here as I think about them.

Cell Phone
1. If possible I'd like to be able to read the spoilers!
2. It would be nice when I go to a thread that's..."

Cool, I'll give that a try! :)

Vicki wrote: "Anna (Adventures with a Book Nerd) wrote: "Vicki wrote: "Wonderful idea! I'll post some things here as I think about them.

Cell Phone
1. If possible I'd like to be able to read the spoilers!
2. It..."

I hope that it works!

I'd love if replies were in more of a thread style. I think it would be easier to keep track of conversations, rather than having "Sarah Louise wrote: "blah blah blah"

Oh! Also, this one is a little random, but I'd love to be able to remove multiple books at once from my to-read shelf. I know there is the little "x" on the right of each book, but once you click it you're sent back to the top. It's just frustrating. Lol

Yay! Thank you guys!
I have the list started!!

Trisha wrote: "1. If possible I'd like to be able to read the spoilers!
2. I'd love if replies were in more of a thread style. I think it would be easier to keep track of conversations, rather than having "Sarah ..."

You can do #3 with the Batch Edit button. :)

Bookbuyer wrote: "Trisha wrote: "1. If possible I'd like to be able to read the spoilers!
2. I'd love if replies were in more of a thread style. I think it would be easier to keep track of conversations, rather than..."

Thank you soo much for that! I just figured out how to do it and it's going to really come in handy when I clean out my tbr shelf.

Trinity wrote: "Bookbuyer wrote: "Trisha wrote: "1. If possible I'd like to be able to read the spoilers!
2. I'd love if replies were in more of a thread style. I think it would be easier to keep track of conversa..."

NP. It was like a god send when I figure it out. You can also remove the book from all your shelves instead of just your to read if you want. :)

Trinity wrote: "Bookbuyer wrote: "Trisha wrote: "1. If possible I'd like to be able to read the spoilers!
2. I'd love if replies were in more of a thread style. I think it would be easier to keep track of conversa..."

Just a hint. I find that it works best if you don't remove more than a 100 at a time or it can give you an error message. :)

Ah okay thank you! :)

Trinity wrote: "Ah okay thank you! :)"

NP. :)

Bookbuyer wrote: "Trisha wrote: "1. If possible I'd like to be able to read the spoilers!
2. I'd love if replies were in more of a thread style. I think it would be easier to keep track of conversations, rather than..."

When I try this I get the message "“to-read” is an exclusive shelf. You cannot remove a book from its exclusive shelf, but you can move it to a different one, such as “read”." :(

False alarm! LOL It works if I click "remove from all shelves." Thank you so, so, so much!

Np. :)

Yay! I love that we are sharing tips and tricks of Goodreads!

Maybe that is a tip/thing for Goodreads alone! They need to offer easier ways to figure out how to do certain things...

Maybe an easier to read Help section?
maybe be description how to find things?

they should make it so that the < spoiler > option works in general updates instead of just reviews.

It would be nice if the 'default' shelf wasn't "to-read" when adding books but was able to be customized to whatever shelf you want as 'default'. :)

I have another thing. I recently found that when I add a book I have previously read to my currently reading shelf it no longer shows when I last read it. I do a lot of challenges and I need to know the last date I read the book. I hope they can fix this. :)

They should make an exclusive shelf for "Did Not Finish" books. Sometimes this tag appears as a genre and it should be removed

Beatrice wrote: "They should make an exclusive shelf for "Did Not Finish" books. Sometimes this tag appears as a genre and it should be removed"

I second! Or maybe they could make your options, "to-read," "currently reading," "read," or "did not finish."

I agree with Vicki that I would be nice to pick the page you want on the thread for the mobile version, and I really like the idea of the threads being more conversation like. Sometimes it can get very jumbled if a lot of people are replying to different people.

Cell Phones:
1) I think the android version should be updated to be more like the apple version because some of the features aren't there, like following a thread.
2) When I am looking at comments on a thread, two or three words will disappear from a reply (this is only on the Apple version), which makes me have to guess what the person said.

Computer:
1) I hate that it automatically notifies me via email when someone replies.
2) If you make a comment on someone's review or update, it doesn't notify you when the person replied. I think this should be an option to see replies on comments.
3) For giveaways, I don't like that it automatically checks that I want to read this book because I typically will have to uncheck it. I would prefer it to be unchecked, and then check it if I actually want to read it if I don't win it.
4) Also for giveaways, it would be nice to just press one button to enter. Currently if I am looking through the giveaways, I either have to go back three times to go to where I was, or create new tabs for each giveaway I enter. It should just be "Enter Giveaway" and then it enters you into it without going to three other pages.
5) Live updates on threads would be nice. I hate that I have to refresh the page to see if someone commented before I clicked post.

Beatrice wrote: "They should make an exclusive shelf for "Did Not Finish" books. Sometimes this tag appears as a genre and it should be removed"

When you edit your bookshelves there is an option to make it an exclusive shelf. I created a DNF shelf and made it exclusive so that it doesn't count as read and mess up my reading goal.


@Ashlyn, you can change those notification settings if you go to Account Settings --> Emails. Mine is set up to email me if someone comments on my reviews or the same review I commented on. Everything else is set to notification only. I really like it that way. And I agree on the live post updates, especially when playing in the game threads!


I know everyone's been asking for half stars so I don't really need to say it, but personally I would love some emojis on the browser version for status updates and the comment boxes too =)
See that boring smiley??? I need a cute emoji instead!

Anna (Adventures with a Book Nerd) wrote: "Beatrice wrote: "They should make an exclusive shelf for "Did Not Finish" books. Sometimes this tag appears as a genre and it should be removed"

I second! Or maybe they could make your options, "t..."

Exactly! :)

Farren wrote: "Beatrice wrote: "They should make an exclusive shelf for "Did Not Finish" books. Sometimes this tag appears as a genre and it should be removed"

When you edit your bookshelves there is an option t..."

I don't mind counting DNF books as read. I have a dnf shelf but I want it like Anna mentioned so it won't mess up in the genre section.

I think it would be great to have an easier to access help area. After seeing this relatively tiny cross-section, maybe it could be a forum type help section. Members and Goodreads people could post to help answer questions. If it is searchable, that would give Goodreads help with answering questions and a way to communicate with users when they want to know what should be fixed/changed.

Also, I second seeing spoilers on the app. The last one is kind of silly, but I kind of wish I could choose to see the web version of the site from my mobile app.

Oh, and reply to a comment on the app.

Diane wrote: "I think it would be great to have an easier to access help area. After seeing this relatively tiny cross-section, maybe it could be a forum type help section. Members and Goodreads people could pos..."

If you are on the internet browser on your phone, you can switch to desktop version. This is what I do when I am on my phone. It isn't from the app, but it still works for when I need it to.

Farren wrote: "Beatrice wrote: "They should make an exclusive shelf for "Did Not Finish" books. Sometimes this tag appears as a genre and it should be removed"

When you edit your bookshelves there is an option t..."

Thank You!!!

Phone app:
1. Being able to add book links or covers in comments
2. For the comment section, it should have pages so that I don't have to scroll down to read the latest comment amongst thousands of them.
3. Being able to search for discussion groups or lists

a different rating system. maybe half stars


if you do a year shelf. would be better if 2017 was first instead of 2009.

help button on main page

^ yes! I would love to be able to organize the order of my shelves! I think Goodreads does it by how many books are each shelf? It drives me crazy when the shelves aren't grouped how I like. Lol

Sarah Louise wrote: "^ yes! I would love to be able to organize the order of my shelves! I think Goodreads does it by how many books are each shelf? It drives me crazy when the shelves aren't grouped how I like. Lol"

Do you mean on your profile page or when you are in your shelves?

Bookbuyer wrote: "Sarah Louise wrote: "^ yes! I would love to be able to organize the order of my shelves! I think Goodreads does it by how many books are each shelf? It drives me crazy when the shelves aren't group..."

Profile page.

Ah, yeah. At least they let you have a featured shelf. :/

I wish we can tag more people on "Recommended by" instead of just one person.

On the bookshelf page, it would be nice if we could see more than just the main author. I read a lot of books with illustrations, and it is a bit annoying to have to click open the book if I want to check who the illustrator was again.
But I have also read books co-authored, or books a lot of authors. It just seems easier (and fairer) if we could see them all. Either by showing them all, or by having them hidden by a collapsible field (with a more button or an arrow).

Quick update:

So I got back from the Summit yesterday and I have to say - They are an AMAZING group of people at Goodreads!

You should have seen their faces as me a a few other MODS started talking about Challenges! lol

They heard all our suggestions and frustrations and TRUST ME when I say they are working on so many new updates to help us!

And we gave them a lot of great suggestions so I anticipate a lot of great changes coming our way!

Thank you guys, for sending me there with a great list of things members wanted! They were amazed but excited to hear we had a list!

Thanks for representing us, Trisha! :)

Thank you so much, Trisha! I'm looking forward on these updates they're going to work on. Hopefully, a lot will be improved. :D

The summit was awesome and it was great meeting you in person, Trisha! They are working on some great stuff from the author side as well, can't wait for them to roll all the new features out :) :) :)