Marquise > Status Update

Goodreads is the perfect platform for my book reviews, I tried Instagram and YouTube last year but you’re 100% right there is no where quite like Goodreads.

Indeed it's hard. Hence my very limited, almost nonexistent, online presence. I hope that you find a site that you like.

I don't think it's just long-term familiarity that keeps me away from other platforms. I watched a video not long ago that went through the features of something like thirteen reading apps, and not a single one made a positive impression. Gameified by default, tracking-only with no social aspects, difficult to find friends, etc. As little as I put myself forward or get interaction on my reviews besides likes, having zero social contact does not appeal. May as well keep spreadsheets and not bother with the internet at all.

Hear, sweetheart, take my opium pipe and forget about your troubles for a while.

"den of depravity" - but that's the fun of GR, that's where you find the best literary friends!! :-)

Left Coast Justin wrote: "Hear, sweetheart, take my opium pipe and forget about your troubles for a while."

Do you think Elon reads reviews of his bio? If he's gonna think the worst of me (calling me a 'fake' whilst a gazillion scammers are on his site... the audacity!), then I'mma think the worst of him too.

Anyway... thank you for the pipe. <3

Meredith wrote: "Indeed it's hard. Hence my very limited, almost nonexistent, online presence. I hope that you find a site that you like."

Oh, Merry, you would need a sighted person to manage your online presence. Most socials are visual and favour the visuals. The text-based ones are the minority.

Even for book reviews, the biggest reviewing accounts across all platforms are visual. They simply favour that format because people now are trained to get all their info visually by the internet.

Laura❄️📚 wrote: "Goodreads is the perfect platform for my book reviews, I tried Instagram and YouTube last year but you’re 100% right there is no where quite like Goodreads."

Sigh... and this site's admin doesn't value its uniqueness like we do. Imagine how much better this would be if they cared. :(

Starting to sound a lot like Churchill on democracy. The worst possible site except for all the others we have tried.

Beth wrote: "Gameified by default, tracking-only with no social aspects, difficult to find friends, etc..."

Yeah, and on sites you only want for promotion, like Twitter, they either flag you as fake or leave you alone posting into the void because their algorithm buries you deep and nobody sees you unless you're a big account and 'verified' (paid).

I'm having to reconsider leaving. :( Maybe the best is just to make big changes by dialing down on/cutting back certain things, and still use this platform.

My friends simply aren't following me, and I get that, it's exhausting to follow everyone elsewhere. Time-consuming, and you feel spread out thin. I don't want to make them feel overstretched. :(

Meike wrote: ""den of depravity" - but that's the fun of GR, that's where you find the best literary friends!! :-)"

Hehehe, yeah! I call it so humorously. 😂

Fred wrote: "Starting to sound a lot like Churchill on democracy. The worst possible site except for all the others we have tried."

Sir Winston was right on this, 100% right!

I'm still smarting over my suspension. A gazillion trillion Indians and other foreigners are on Twitter passing themselves off as "American" to talk politics and scam, and here I am trying to create a honest account for my bloggie . . . and they tell me I'm not a real and authentic account for a person but a fake and boot me out.

Me! A fake! 😭

How I will make my current readings, after all? This site is unique in his genre. Despite that all his weaknesses.

In spite of all the bugs and upgrades that turn out to be downgrades, I like it here. :-)

Yes, everyone has a substack and a blog and it's just not possible to follow everyone everywhere, no matter how much you like them. GR keeps it all somewhat manageable. Hope you keep a presence here, you are utterly charming.

This place makes me crazy sometimes but I agree with all your points... GR is like a toxic relationship that keeps sucking me back in 😅. AND, most importantly, you all are here ♥️

You can build a following elsewhere, but the quality of your following will depend on the platform itself (and everything it entails). It'll also take time.
Now if we could all pool together and buy GR back from evil amazon...

It's like family, as much as you don't want to see everybody all the time,we're all here.

I actually didn't realize people use Goodreads as legit social media until following you. I only use it to review books and read others' reviews, mostly my friends'. I hope you find somewhere (here or elsewhere) worth sticking around!

If it was just about book tracking, a notebook or a spreadsheet would be infinitely better. And so many of the alternatives are app first type things, and using a phone for input is complete non-starter for me. As for blogs, google murdered them when it killed reader. The idea that I'm going to maintain a folder of 8 zillion bookmarks that I check regularly is absurd. Plus, blogs are more like the feed aspect of GR, they don't fill the the database function well, which as someone for whom it is extremely rare to read a new release is at least as important as the feed. (Even worse than new releases is advance publicity. I aint gonna remember that shit exists X months from now when it's actually available, just get out of my face.)

I don't tend to think of GR as "social media" but then I don't actually use social media. You could argue I use 2 apart from GR, (tumblr, (very much not dead, but it's cool if everyone goes on thinking it is) and youtube) but I do not use them interactively. The lock in though, that's a definite social media issue.

No one can fake you, Marquise, you’re one of a kind in the best way. ☺️ Though honestly I feel ya, why do you think I only have GR and an extremely small YouTube channel?

Have you looked into Substack? I know a lot of indie authors and people in general are using that now.

Fátima wrote: "In spite of all the bugs and upgrades that turn out to be downgrades, I like it here. :-)"

That's everyone's feelings, including mine. I do like it here, but . . . ah, well, best not to go over my laundry list of complaints again. :)

jrendocrine at least reading is good wrote: "Yes, everyone has a substack and a blog and it's just not possible to follow everyone everywhere, no matter how much you like them."

Exactly! That's the crux of it.

I mean, if I have 20 favourite reviewers and another 30 I like a lot too, and if I leave and have to follow them all outside of GR . . . sweet mamma, how on Earth am I going to find the time to follow 50 blogs/booktoks/booktubes/bookstagrams/bookwhatevers?

Impossible. Just plain unfeasible.

jrendocrine at least reading is good wrote: "Hope you keep a presence here, you are utterly charming."

Hehehe, turns out I might be bribed to stay . . . somehow. ;) Thank you, dear J!

Jenna ✨DNF Queen✨Here, Sometimes... wrote: "This place makes me crazy sometimes but I agree with all your points... GR is like a toxic relationship that keeps sucking me back in 😅. AND, most importantly, you all are here ♥️"

GR holds us hostage because it keeps all our beloved people hostage too. 😅

Sigh. The number of times I've tried to leave, I must look like a complete . . . uh, whatever I look like to outsiders, don't wanna know. 😅

Morphing_kashi wrote: "Now if we could all pool together and buy GR back from evil amazon..."

I suspect they wouldn't sell. They may be bastards, but they're not dumb bastards, and they know the minute someone else owns this site, it'll be Amazon's mega-competitor and punt it out of orbit.

The majority of regular readers hate Amazon.

Charlton wrote: "It's like family, as much as you don't want to see everybody all the time,we're all here."

Y'all are like my Swiss relatives, then? 😅 Insufferable but give great chocolate as gifts. 😅

Maya wrote: "I actually didn't realize people use Goodreads as legit social media until following you..."

Really? Heh, I do suppose I use these updates more regularly than most.

This site is social media, though, always has been and still is even though they're slowly killing the 'social' aspect.

Daniel wrote: ".I don't tend to think of GR as "social media" but then I don't actually use social media."

It used to be more like social media back in the day when I joined, it was very obvious it was social media but books-exclusive, which is maybe what makes people think it isn't since they're used to thinking of social media as all-topics-inclusive.

Funny, but I used to not consider Reddit 'social media' either, in the beginning, and it pretty much is. The concept (and looks and function) of social media evolves so much. Currently, it's all apps based, as you noted, when back then it was platform/site-based.

Sarah wrote: "No one can fake you, Marquise, you’re one of a kind in the best way. ☺️ Though honestly I feel ya, why do you think I only have GR and an extremely small YouTube channel?"

Yeah, I'm thinking of just giving up on the idea of other social media and just limit myself to my website and here. I am in danger of replacing one stress with another stress if I go about social media building any further.

"Have you looked into Substack?"

Yeah, I have. I like their simplicity and manageability compared to blogs/websites. But . . . it's also starting from scratch there, dear . . . 😭

Luís wrote: "How I will make my current readings, after all? This site is unique in his genre. Despite that all his weaknesses."

Yeah. Many have left, and I envy them that they found their niche elsewhere, but I am learning the hard way that I don't have anywhere else to go that fits my needs.

tbh I'm never leaving this site lmao

Noah wrote: "tbh I'm never leaving this site lmao"

Even when it gets nuked? ;)

One of us…one of us….

Scott wrote: "Just stay… 🙂"

How much are you offering? 😅

Morts. wrote: "One of us…one of us…."

I'm trying to leave on a lifeboat, drat it, but keep bein' dragged back to sink with the Titanic because y'all don't want to leave this wreckage. 😅

It's hard to leave when you can't find the door.

That’s the problem — as many issues as GR has, there seems to be nothing that beats it in terms or community and convenience. And the powers that be know it, I bet. They know we will take their crap for the sake of convenience and old friends.

I've also been trying to leave Amazon kindle for a while Marquise, also owners of GR, but I have yet to find anything that comes close. Australian Kobo (US Kobo has more selection and better prices, but they won't let me use) is a sad place for the most part as are the other ebook sites I've tried, and I've tried them all. Local library ebooks are the go, just a poorer selection. Thanks.

For what it's worth, I have no intention of leaving Goodreads, imperfect as it is, although I can understand why others may choose to do so.

Nor do I bear any ill-will towards Amazon, per se, although I choose not to post any reviews on the Amazon site.

I am an Amazon Prime member and I have purchased over 500 Audible audiobooks since I joined in May 2018. Also untold quantities Nespresso coffee capsules, ordered one day, delivered the next!

I discovered "Fantastic Fiction" and "Goodreads" at about the same time, while I was looking for reliable, accurate sources of information details for my databases of books. I joined Goodreads in October 2011 and I still use both sites - Goodreads multiple times every day and Fantastic Fiction daily.

Before I finally retired, I had a very limited and erratic presence on Facebook, connecting mainly with fellow Bunnings workers. I closed my Facebook account when I established myself on Goodreads, which I treat as my sole "social media" connection.

I try to limit the number of my "Friends" to about 100 (currently 109) and I "Follow" about 40 (currently 37) GR "Readers".

I cherish my regular interaction with every one of them.

I have been collecting Digital books for over 25 years and I still maintain two separate databases, one for E-Books and one for Audiobooks, with about 7,000 books in each.

Serious eyesight problems these days mean I listen to audiobooks exclusively and these are the only books I have entered into my Goodreads "My Books" collection (currently 6,824 audiobooks in total).

Have you heard of the Byzans app? It's a very small community, I believe, but you can talk to whomever, wherever and it's very reader focussed. Many buddy-reads etc too but I mainly use it to connect with people on books that I feel like chatting about. The same for specific genres I feel like chatting about or asking for recs. I'm not on it often. Whereas Goodreads and co are social media sites centred on books and reading, Byzans is more like a very extensive, truncated groupchat.

Fred wrote: "It's hard to leave when you can't find the door."

Good point, Fred-sensei... Do sinking ships have doors?

Terence M [Quot libros, quam breve tempus!] wrote: "For what it's worth, I have no intention of leaving Goodreads, imperfect as it is, although I can understand why others may choose to do so."

500 audiobooks since 2018! You're a dedicated reader, Terence.

I do harbour some hard feelings towards Amazon for how difficult they make it to buy books outside of the US (and outside of their ecosystem). I do understand there's legal restrictions that aren't within their control, Amazon didn't create the copyright laws, but some of their restrictions are of their own making for monopoly reasons.

I have a small budget for buying books, it's enough to cover my niche reads, and Amazon gives me a free book after I reach a certain number of points through my purchases (similar to airline miles-per-point for a free flight/hotel), and that's another plus. But . . . they know I'm not in the US, and when I want this or that $3.99 book so desperately they won't let me. :(

GiGi wrote: "Have you heard of the Byzans app? It's a very small community, I believe, but you can talk to whomever, wherever and it's very reader focussed..."

No, but the point is that it's still starting from scratch and leaving your friends behind.

John wrote: "I've also been trying to leave Amazon kindle for a while Marquise, also owners of GR, but I have yet to find anything that comes close."

Yeah, I feel the same about Kobo.

You're American, right? Perhaps you could ask a relative or friend still in the US to either lend you their address or open an account for you on Kobo/Amazon, and use it. That's the only way I have 'round the Amazon geolocking thing: I use my Cub's US account to purchase geolocked books on Kobo and Amazon.

Nataliya wrote: "And the powers that be know it, I bet. They know we will take their crap for the sake of convenience and old friends."

Oh, indeed they do, which is also why they bought this site and won't sell it back to anyone wanting to improve it.

I've seen people throughout the years propose ways to sabotage and boycott and sign petitions and everything under the sun to hurt Amazon in the wallet and thus force them to backtrack. It never works, people leave, more come next, and life goes on.

Twitter's userbase have a similar issue, for the same reasons GR does: their competitors aren't quite the same nor offer exactly the same.

Maybe someday someone'll design a new and better/different website.. we shall see.

TL *Humaning the Best She Can* wrote: "Maybe someday someone'll design a new and better/different website.. we shall see."

We'll all be six feet under by then, at this rate...

Scott wrote: "What would it take? Remember, though, the grass is ALWAYS greener over someone else’s cesspool!"

This:

Hang out with us my love! ;)