Petra X > Status Update

I pretty much ignore all promotional content in GR. Their recommendations "based on my reading" are abysmally off target (possibly even worse than the amazon.com algorithm, if possible). And no use whatsoever for publishers' blurbs and ARC reviews. I read the reviews of actual readers who have some interests in common with mine and offer intelligent comments on good books.

I agree, I rarely go to the book pages anymore. When I do, I just scroll down to see if anyone I know has read/reviewed the book. It doesn't seem to have added much to the site at all.

I don't use it more or less, but what infuriates me most is that the top section showing reviews by friends and those I follow doesn't show ALL the reviews by those people - not even if I click the link to "Read more reviews from people you follow".

Also, the filters don't work. There's a book I monitor for new reviews, and it doesn't update with all the newest reviews. When the final switchover to the new format happened, a bunch of recent reviews disappeared from the listing, and there have been suspiciously few since then.

Fred wrote: "I pretty much ignore all promotional content in GR. Their recommendations "based on my reading" are abysmally off target (possibly even worse than the amazon.com algorithm, if possible). And no use..."

Do you go to the New Book Page much or do you manage to avoid it? I have stylebotted out all promotional material and made the stars and other graphics much smaller, but still, the emphasis on promotional quotes instead of a blurb and the gushing arc reviews often being the only visible ones is something I haven't found a way around.

Petra X Climate change: drought in the rainforest wrote: "Fred wrote: "I pretty much ignore all promotional content in GR. Their recommendations "based on my reading" are abysmally off target (possibly even worse than the amazon.com algorithm, if possible..."

I just click on home and go to my feed as soon as I login. I have developed the ability to tune out ads over the years; an essential web survival skill!

A wrote: "I agree, I rarely go to the book pages anymore. When I do, I just scroll down to see if anyone I know has read/reviewed the book. It doesn't seem to have added much to the site at all."

I think it has brought it much closer to the mobile one. I think they want that one, the Kindle one, to be standard. I just hope they don't mess around with the feed but I can see it being full of ads and recommendations in the near future.

All of the above.

I don't see a whole lot of change for the better or worse, but I never paid much attention to GR promo anyway. Reviews/ratings are still outrageously lopsided and therefore virtually worthless IMHO. The rest is cosmetics, about as useful as lipstick on a pig.

I've mostly gotten used to it, but I still find it garish. Hate the kindle link, hate that I can't find my own activity very easily, hate the "readers also enjoyed" section especially since it doesn't give good recs, imo.

I generally just go right to the filters on books I've read. If it's a book I'm on the fence about, I usually try to skim both good and bad reviews but it's still kind of a crapshoot which is a bummer. Also, sometimes when a review is long the "read more" button won't load properly, leaving the review cut off mid-sentence.

I'm not sure if I've used it less. Maybe? I was busy with a work project for the past couple of months, so I'm just getting back into regularly checking here.

I hate that shelves are now "tags" and it's hard to edit my reading activity, and you have to scroll a lot to get to reviews.

However, if I use my computer, I don't have to deal with it.

What Audrey said.

Speaking of "readers also enjoyed," my library does a program twice a year where they recommend 20 books of all genres and patrons vote on how much they like them, and there's a prize drawing. The latest one just wrapped up, and I was posting a review for one of them, and I noticed that the "readers also enjoyed" section was full of the other nominations -- there was enough of us reading the same set of books that otherwise had nothing to do with each other.

Cecily wrote: "I don't use it more or less, but what infuriates me most is that the top section showing reviews by friends and those I follow doesn't show ALL the reviews by those people - not even if I click the..."

Not only that, if you click on 'likes' so you can see who liked the review, you get comments. The filters for new work for me. I use it all the time to try to avoid the gushing freebie reviews that some of the always featured top reviewers specialise in.

Heart wrote: "I never paid much attention to GR promo anyway. Reviews/ratings are still outrageously lopsided and therefore virtually worthless IMHO..."

It seems every new book almost is 4+ rating. Freebies have exploded into cheap promotion, I can't stand the gushing reviews. I always check the date the book is published and sort the reviews by newest to try and avoid them.

What do you think of it.Has it changed your use of GR?

It certainly made it more frustrating...
These days my biggest annoyance is the inability to shelve 2 different editions of the same book. I wanted to illustrate that I first read Asimov's Foundation in translation, and now I chose the "original" (they say "improved" version but meh...)... and I can't. 😒

I don't use GR less, because I love all the recognition coughlikescough... but it's definitely less satisfying. I feel like the overall design is more "modern" (i.e. app-like) just not very practical.

Audrey wrote: "Speaking of "readers also enjoyed," my library does a program twice a year where they recommend 20 books of all genres and patrons vote on how much they like them, and there's a prize drawing. The ..."

I have noticed this with books with a few readers (10-25) with no recommendations, when I review them very often recommendations come but 90% of them are books that I recently read. I think it is skewed very much by a recency bias too.

I don't hate it. But I'm with Cecily regarding reviews from friends. Why make them separate if you are unable to see all of them? That's the worst part in my opinion.

Still hate it. It does NOT show what I need it to show in a useful fashion. I've actually managed to avoid it for the most part. I come on here, post my reviews, enter new books based on ISBN, and do a quick squizz through the feed, and that's it. I use other sites for reviews if possible because finding legit reviews in GR under all the crap is annoying.

cat herine wrote: "Hate the kindle link, hate that I can't find my own activity very easily, hate the "readers also enjoyed" section especially since it doesn't give good recs, imo...."

Amazon is hoping that Kindle is the way books are going and GR is run by the Kindle division. Ebooks require no warehouse space, hardly any staff, no shipping, just lots more money for Bezos to build an even bigger yacht or whatever his new expensivest in the world ambition is. Reviews and blurbs seem to be more and more those sort of testimonials that turn up in tabloid magazines, 'best denture paste I have ever used', etc.

I'm not very happy with the new page. It takes me away from what I want to look at and gives me what they want. When i check out a book, it helps to see what impressions friends and followers I trust had. Now that is missing. GR, which stood for Goodreads becomes GRRRRR.

Audrey wrote: "I hate that shelves are now "tags" and it's hard to edit my reading activity, and you have to scroll a lot to get to reviews.

However, if I use my computer, I don't have to deal with it."

Is it just a semantic difference that you hate, or is there something I'm missing about the change from shelves to books? I wonder if that will extent to 'My Books'?

How do you not have to deal with this on your computer?

Mimia wrote: "I don't hate it. But I'm with Cecily regarding reviews from friends. Why make them separate if you are unable to see all of them? That's the worst part in my opinion."

Maybe the thinking behind it is, 'they've seen enough adverts reviews to make up their minds whether to buy it or not. If they haven't decided by now, let's move on to another book, another chance to sell them something. This is an Amazon site, what else should be expect?

Petra thinks her bf is almost in love with her wrote: "Audrey wrote: "I hate that shelves are now "tags" and it's hard to edit my reading activity, and you have to scroll a lot to get to reviews.

However, if I use my computer, I don't have to deal wit..."

You have to select "currently reading" or whatever and THEN have another screen to select more shelves. Before, it was all at once.

I don't know how my computer is still on the old style. It's gone back and forth a couple times.

Audrey wrote: "I don't know how my computer is still on the old style. It's gone back and forth a couple times...."

Really old OS? Browser no one has ever heard of? I have W7 on one computer but it's on the new page. I was using Otter and Epic for browsers for GR but Otter won't load the book page now, and Epic is on the new book page sadly. So reverted to 'proper' browsers.

Win 8.1
Chrome 109.x.xxxxx...

Paul wrote: "I'm not very happy with the new page. It takes me away from what I want to look at and gives me what they want. When i check out a book, it helps to see what impressions friends and followers I tru..."

The social element of GR is less important on the new book page. I wonder if this is a portent of how GR is going? Amazon got rid of groups and comments, maybe GR will too. Already friends are called followers...

It looks like Goodreads is trying hard to promote and sell.

In addition, the book page (PC version) used to show reviews by friends first, but not anymore - just horrible. It says “No one you know has read this book. Recommend it to a friend!", even though I know some friends have read it 🤦

Audrey wrote: "Win 8.1
Chrome 109.x.xxxxx..."

I remember you telling me before, my bad.

Petra wrote: I miss the long list of reviews of the OBPage...

Me too! Now, you have to click through to even get half as many; a real PITA. Also, you cannot see all your friend's reviews on one page (seems to be another bug as NOW I cannot even see my friend's reviews at all!) I hear you Maryana!

Hate the new pages with a passion. Rely on amazon to make something less functional and worse.

Phil wrote: "Now, you have to click through to even get half as many; a real PITA. Also, you cannot see all your friend's reviews on one page ..."

You can't see them all no matter what you do if there are a lot. It annoys me that I can't click on 'see review' but have to click on the dots and then the weird 'see all reading activity'. Also a weird discrepancy. You add tags to your book, not put the book on shelves, but the page says, 'shelved by' not 'tagged'.

Maryana wrote: "It says “No one you know has read this book. Recommend it to a friend!", even though I know some friends have read it..."

I haven't had that experience (yet) but have noticed that reviews are not always in the order I expected. There seems to be a bias towards authors reviewing books. No doubt because the majority of them give other authors 5 stars or when being out-there, 'only' 4.

I use it about the same, but I interact with users more to get their opinions because the reviews shown are too biased towards the positive.

Iris wrote: "I use it about the same, but I interact with users more to get their opinions because the reviews shown are too biased towards the positive."

I have modified the fluffy reviews a bit. They are by the same reviewers all the time, so I just blocked all of them. So I probably don't see the top 6 or 7 reviews of some genres (mostly fiction, mostly romance, fantasy, that sort of thing). I don't have anything against the reviewers, just the reviews.

Petra X has made plans! wrote: "... the fluffy reviews a bit. They are by the same reviewers all the time, so I just blocked all of them..."

It had never occurred to be to block reviewers for that reason. It's not enough of a problem for me to need to, but a good idea to have in reserve.

Cecily wrote: "It had never occurred to be to block reviewers for that reason. It's not enough of a problem for me to need to, but a good idea to have in reserve.."

I buy a lot of books outside the genres I read, so I rely on reviews to see what is good in fiction, especially romance and fantasy. I can't rely on the ratings because so many arcs are put out it is always over 4 and so I only want to see reviews by reviewers who don't gush over every freebie. I have my friends of course, but there are many books they don't review, so this works.

My review scale of 1 to 5 is 95% a rating of my enjoyment, and I'm often a mood reader. A 3 from me is moderate enjoyment, will most likely continue the series, and nothing greatly annoyed me incl minor editing issues. I don't rate my dnf's. Sometimes I rate up a star for favorite authors/series and will usually state that in my brief review. I don't have many 1 stars because I often don't waste my time completing the book and dnf it.

Petra X has made plans! wrote: ". . . and so I only want to see reviews by reviewers who don't gush over every freebie...."

I don't gush over every freebie. 😉 And most of my reviews are either 1.) for my personal use; or 2.) posted elsewhere.

Retaliation against negative reviews is still a valid threat here, so I understand reviewers' hesitation to post them, especially for DNFs. I personally think it's a disservice to my fellow readers if I don't at least make some comment about why I didn't like or finish a book, but that's just me. No author is paying me to promote their book against my better judgment.

Shawnie wrote: "My review scale of 1 to 5 is 95% a rating of my enjoyment, and I'm often a mood reader. A 3 from me is moderate enjoyment, will most likely continue the series, and nothing greatly annoyed me incl ..."

That's a good way of rating for info for booksellers like me. I really only want to know if people enjoyed reading the book. Sad you don't rate DNFs though as 1 and 2 star ratings are as important on the overall rating as the more positive ones.

Heart wrote: "I don't gush over every freebie. 😉 And most of my reviews are either 1.) for my personal use; or 2.) posted elsewhere...."

Heart, with an av. rating of 2.69 you are far from being a gusher!

Petra X has made plans! wrote: "Heart, with an av. rating of 2.69 you are far from being a gusher!..."

Oh, goodness, is it that high? I'd best get to work. . . . .

The new page has had little effect on me. I don't love it and found it irritating at first, but once I figured out how to accomplish what I wanted to, I I forgot all about it.

L wrote: "The new page has had little effect on me. I don't love it and found it irritating at first, but once I figured out how to accomplish what I wanted to, I I forgot all about it."

I think that is exactly what GR intended. But I do note from all the comments, there isn't the outrage and hatred people felt towards the new book page when the old one was still available.

Petra X has made plans! wrote: "I think that is exactly what GR intended. But I do note from all the comments, there isn't the outrage and hatred people felt towards the new book page when the old one was still available."

Although some folks appear to have an unbounded supply, for me outrage is a limited resource. I prefer to reserve mine for things that, in my opinion, really matter.

L wrote: "Although some folks appear to have an unbounded supply, for me outrage is a limited resource. I prefer to reserve mine for things that, in my opinion, really matter ..."

Some people love being outraged, they constantly look for ways to be offended and to escalate those feelings. But generally, it's not worth it over books as they don't answer back (unless it's a particularly prickly author) and there is no opportunity for display, which is part of outrage these days, it's no longer a private emotion.