The Sword and Laser discussion

Goodreads just send out the following:

Hello Goodreads Member,

In the coming weeks, we will be making some updates to how messaging works on Goodreads.

What's Changing?
• Direct messages between individual members will no longer be available
• Images and external links will no longer be supported in messages

While direct messages between individual members are no longer available, you can still access your past messages from your inbox, Group moderators can still send broadcast messages to their group members, and you can still send group invitations to your Goodreads friends. All other public interactions, such as writing and responding to book reviews, remains unchanged.

-The Goodreads Team


In particular to this group, I make heavy use of external links in the monthly newsletter especially for the local meetups as most of those have moved to Discord's events after Goodreads removed their events.

I've tried very hard to keep information both here and on Discord the same, but this will make it harder.

What I might try doing is creating a new thread each month with the links in them and have the newsletter link to that thread instead. But that's more work for me and doing the newsletter each month is already a time consuming thing.

Are there people who use goodreads and relying on the newsletter for the monthly events? Or could I just remove that section?

I will also have to remove the external links from the useful links section. But that section hasn't changed in years and the links are in pinned threads in the group already.

I assume the most important part of the newsletter is the monthly book pick, but since goodreads stopped sending emails to users when they got a goodreads message, I'm not sure how useful the newsletter is to anyone at this point.

If you're someone who reads the newsletter here on goodreads each month, I'd love some feedback. Thanks

I'm primarily a Goodreads person as discord moves faster than I can keep up with. I faithfully read the newsletter, but you're right, it's mostly for the book pick. I don't really rely on the monthly events section, and I'm in the Goodreads discussions enough that posting stuff there (instead of including it in the newsletter) is good enough for me. Thanks for your efforts.

What a cheapo PITA by Amazon.

I read the newsletter but if you have to forego it, that’s fine. I’m perpetually online anyway so it’s more of a belt-and-suspenders thing for me.

I wear suspenders, but people make fun of me.

Tamahome wrote: "I wear suspenders, but people make fun of me."

Eat your veggies so you can grow up big and strong. Then no one will tease you.

"flashbacks, which strike me as boring and sort of corny. They always make me think of those movies from the forties and fifties where the picture gets all swimmy, the voices get all echoey, and suddenly it's sixteen months ago... but I like to start at square one... I'm an A-to-Z man; serve me the appetizer first and give me dessert if I eat my veggies." -- Stephen King

Thank You for the newsletter. I too like the heads up on the Book of the Month selection.

Thank you for your service 🫡

I vastly prefer Goodreads to Discord and always read the newsletter on here, but then I also read all the threads so if you want to just put the relevant information in a thread it’s fine by me

I always read the newsletter and generally keep up with S&L stuff here on Goodreads.

I visit Discord occasionally, but really don't have the time and energy required to keep up with things there.

Stephen wrote: "Thank You for the newsletter. I too like the heads up on the Book of the Month selection."

Same for me