Everything Booklikes & Leafmarks discussion

"Many people are defending the new Goodreads policy against reviewers discussing author behavior by arguing that the topic is beyond the purview of a book review. This is true, but thanks to Booklikes’ focus more on blogging and less on book-related reviews it doesn’t matter." http://www.the-digital-reader.com/201...

I like that!

Yes, great article, isn't it? I love the conclusion as well:

"If you are a reviewer or reader and you value independence and/or not being a second-class member, I think you should look at Booklikes."

Amen ...

Themis-Athena (“Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.” -- Ralph Waldo Emerson) wrote: "Yes, great article, isn't it? I love the conclusion as well:

"If you are a reviewer or reader and you value independence and/or not being a second-class member, I think you should look at Booklikes..."

Great quote. That really is how I feel. All these changes from the UGB to censorship just emphasise that the Reader is not king here. That the authors are the first class members and the readers are second class citizens who will do the grunt work on the data base for free, provide the 'right' sort of reviews to sell books and then buy said books. It's all very contemptuous really.

Exactly!

Petra smells something fishy round here wrote: ""This is true, but thanks to Booklikes’ focus more on blogging and less on book-related reviews it doesn’t matter..."

It's definitely currently more focused on blogging. But, again, I'm expecting the book side to get improved.

And as I confusingly am trying to understand, none of the ratings we give to books on our shelves matter as only shows on our shelf (what shows on book, at this time is, depending on who answers the question at Booklikes, is the bookseller average or an aggregate of bookseller averages) then if you give a review the rating for that review will show with it on that book's edition. If you reblog someone else's review, a duplicate review and rating shows up only on that edition of the work.

I haven't checked to see how true, but, another bookliker posted when
I asked about ratings that what shows on book page is the average rating from whatever bookseller you used to put the book on your shelf. Another said it was amazon's average rating for a book. Not sure how either answer applies to books added to shelf on booklikes by importing my goodreads csv file.

If it is using the average star ratings from amazon, that's good news and bad news. Good news because it should prevent some author attacks because the vocal few that attack reviewers are likely the same ones that have successfully gamed the amazon site ratings. Bad news because useless and will be statistically really off if the imported goodreads ratings are ever rolled into it (two different suggested rating scales.).

Like I said, I'm confused. I emailed a few times and have a question posted in new booklikes official group. One email answer I got did confirm that currently booklikes has ni suggested rating scale (which is odd if the rating in a book page comes from the bookseller because that would mean they do use the amazon rating scale).

Eventually will sort out I guess.

Debbie - barely here - wrote: "Petra smells something fishy round here wrote: "If it is using the average star ratings from amazon, that's good news and bad news. Good news because it should prevent some author attacks because the vocal few that attack reviewers are likely the same ones that have successfully gamed the amazon site ratings. ..."

Cynical much! ;-)

LOL

I think the only thing left for BL on the social side that is quite important are PMs. Then I think they should concentrate on the book pages. I think I would like to see a book page with all reviews for that title more than anything. Secondly an aggregate of ratings.

It isn't a problem to me to be on both sites. I'm happy to chat here (like this) and to use the site to research books. However, I'm feeling just as social at Booklikes and I have friends there that I never would have here so although I don't ever read YA, romance etc. I am reading a lot of rather good reviews of that genre and enjoying that. I'm not liking reviews, nor reading hardly any, nor writing them, nor doing anything librarian. I might go back to contributing, but I can't see it right now.

I hate that it seems this has all become an author vs reader thing. I mean, where would be readers be without authors? Of course we don't hate authors. But the fact that GR started out as a place for readers, then to have a few bad-tempered authors step in and ruin it, just sucks.

I'm liking BL a lot. Like Petra mentioned, I'm 'friends' with people who read completely different genres than I do and I enjoy seeing their adds and reviews.

The book pages can be improved vastly, but I think they'll get to it. Have to remember they are still so new and this influx of members must be a bit overwhelming with all of our demands!

Just added a few dozen to-reads to BL, with more to come in the next few days. Apart from HTML customization, which I hate, BL is fun, user-friendly and becoming the community GR used to be.

I'm pleased and surprised at how quickly booklikes did roll out the group ("discussion rooms") feature. At this early stage, I don't expect the groups to have as many features as here on goodreads.

I don't hate authors either; and it really is a tiny, piss-ant group of authors that are the problem. I actually enjoy most author participation in goodreads (some that would try to do endless promoting on group threads, recommendations, polls and pm's got irritating but even those were few and far between and really easy to block or kick out of groups).

Statistically, in any large group there will be some whack-jobs and outright sociopaths. Unfortunately, those are apparently the ones amazon is catering to at the expense of our book catalogs and content.

I don't hate authors, I just hate this site becoming an Authors Marketplace instead of a Readers BookClub.

You know ironically it was authors that got me reading other authors...that was back in the day when there was discretion on both sides.

I really like the blogger format at booklikes. If I was able to search for books and reviews it would be a replacement for GR

Dawn wrote: "You know ironically it was authors that got me reading other authors...that was back in the day when there was discretion on both sides.

I really like the blogger format at booklikes. If I was abl..."

Sorry to butt in, but the best way is to search the tags on the right hand side of your dashboard. :)

Petra smells something fishy round here wrote: "I don't hate authors, I just hate this site becoming an Authors Marketplace instead of a Readers BookClub."

+1

Petra smells something fishy round here wrote: "I don't hate authors, I just hate this site becoming an Authors Marketplace instead of a Readers BookClub."

Exactly.

What I liked about GR was the freedom for reviewers to say whatever they wanted. I'd find more books to read here thanks to my friends' updates than whatever Amazon recommended to me. Because the recommendations of people whose judgement I trust is worth more than an algorithm.

It's a shame that GR is feeding us this crap about reviews that aren't "relevant." Reviews are opinions. Whether they're relevant or on-topic is for the reader to decide, surely.

BL is far from perfect, but what I'm loving so far is their willingness to take their users' feedback on board, and keeping the emphasis on the social interaction.

I'm an author, but I'm a reader too, and I hate what's going on here on GR.

*nods frantically*

"Relevant" and "off-topic", Lisa, are the way they have of not being specific but covering all bases when they want to delete something, anything, for any reason.

I detest what's going on here too.

I've danced back and forth with the idea of deleting my shelves after the manual imports are done. But I never intended my book catalogue to be "data". I catalogue for my own use, but also for the benefit of my friends. I will not deny them that information.

Jennifer (Your site, your profit, OUR content) wrote: "I've danced back and forth with the idea of deleting my shelves after the manual imports are done. But I never intended my book catalogue to be "data". I catalogue for my own use, but also for th..."

Your choice of course Jennifer, and I respect it.

I won't work for Amazon for free if they aren't going to treat me with at least a bare minimum of respect. I will invest my energy and intelligence elsewhere.

Josephine wrote: "Dawn wrote: "You know ironically it was authors that got me reading other authors...that was back in the day when there was discretion on both sides.

I really like the blogger format at booklikes...."

Thanks!!

I don't think that our reviews will show on Amazon, only on Kindle's Goodreads site (which is Amazon, I know). I think I would remove my reviews if they went on to the Amazon site. I might anyway...

I love blogging on BookLikes. That element was always missing here unless you were an author.

Lisa wrote: "It's a shame that GR is feeding us this crap about reviews that aren't "relevant." Reviews are opinions. Whether they're relevant or on-topic is for the reader to decide, surely."

One would think a truly irrelevant review would be completely ignored, and thus fall quickly from view. What they (STGRB and now GR) don't like is reviews that deal with subjects highly relevant to many readers, but which STGRB would rather not have discussed.

BookLikes has a lot going for it, but for me it won't be able to replace Goodreads unless or until it starts to display large numbers of reviews in an easily accessible format on the book page. I like the social networking aspect of GR, but the primary reason I come here is to look for new books I want to read and see what other people have to say about books I've already read--most of the reviews I read are not written by my friends.

Just use both sites Emma, I think most of us are.

Yep, that's what I am doing, at least for now. I doubt I could bring myself to delete all my reviews on GR, but in the future I might stop posting new reviews here, or post a teaser/link to full review on BL.

Emma wrote: "Yep, that's what I am doing, at least for now. I doubt I could bring myself to delete all my reviews on GR, but in the future I might stop posting new reviews here, or post a teaser/link to full re..."

That's exactly what I'm doing. I haven't been able to delete my reviews here yet - I just haven't gotten to that point quite yet. But all new reviews have just one sentence about whether I liked or disliked the book and then a link to my BL full review.

I'm linking too. I figure my various tag lines help explain why. Nobody has asked what's up.

I am really enjoying the blogging at Booklikes. It feels different than writing just a review. I think it gives one much more latitude to say what you like. It's just more fun.

Jennifer (Goodreads lies, cheats and steals) wrote: "I'm linking too. I figure my various tag lines help explain why. Nobody has asked what's up."

I've got about 5 people who've asked "what's with the censored?" and "why are you reviewing with a link?"

Anyway the news spreads...

Randee wrote: "I am really enjoying the blogging at Booklikes. It feels different than writing just a review. I think it gives one much more latitude to say what you like. It's just more fun."

I find it's making me review more, which is great.

I have accounts in BOTH BookLikes and Goodreads. My BookLikes account I use as a complement (not a replacement) to my Goodreads account.

Susanna - Censored by GoodReads wrote: "I find it's making me review more, which is great. "

Same here. I particularly like that you can have drafts of reviews that are still work in progress.

I find I spend much more time over at BL these days than I do at GR.

Susanna - Censored by GoodReads wrote: "Randee wrote: "I am really enjoying the blogging at Booklikes. It feels different than writing just a review. I think it gives one much more latitude to say what you like. It's just more fun."

..."

I'm enjoying the blogging aspect as well and while I read slow, I do like that you can save as a draft and come back to it. This is my first experience at the blogging thing, and it's fun.

I was checking out Booklikes, and I don't really like it... It doesn't feel like goodreads does, but anyway I created an account just to see if I could understand it better, and it doesn't let me import my books, I already tried 5 times, and it's not working. I don't know what's the problem. I guess that's a sign I shouldn't replace goodreads.

Did you create a CSV file here?

Susanna - Censored by GoodReads wrote: "Did you create a CSV file here?"

Yeah, I have everything, the problem is when I try to import it on booklikes. It starts, and then finishes within 2 minutes, but nothing gets imported.

Erika wrote: "Susanna - Censored by GoodReads wrote: "Did you create a CSV file here?"

Yeah, I have everything, the problem is when I try to import it on booklikes. It starts, and then finishes within 2 minutes..."

Have you tried to contact BookLikes support about it? They are very responsive.

Erika wrote: "Susanna - Censored by GoodReads wrote: "Did you create a CSV file here?"

Yeah, I have everything, the problem is when I try to import it on booklikes. It starts, and then finishes within 2 minutes..."

It takes a while for all your books, folders and reviews to show up on your page even though it looks like it's done. I had over 3000 books and everything didn't show up for at least 30-40 minutes. I thought I had done something wrong and tweeted BL and they walked me thru the process.

It might turn out to be a good alternative for me. I'm kind of excited about blogging at Book Likes. Some of my bookseller friends write blogs, but I've never been good at blogging, I typically lose steam quickly. I'm hoping a blog based mostly on reviews of books I enjoy will keep me interested at Book Likes.

There are some challenges/memes rolling around that help make you post. When first on booklikes, I started doing the 30-day book challenge (start whenever you feel like it, not just a certain month) where you'd answer one question a day. Questions like - best book you read last year, book you've read more than 3 times, etc.

I got to know new booklikes friends much better by seeing and interacting with those posts. Learning each other's beloved books was fun even if not always easy questions.

A new 30-day Playlist is going around. I'll pop back here and edit this post with some challenge links in case anyone is interested. Just links I currently found, not necessarily the original poster's ( saw some done many years ago so it's been around)

Original 30-Day Book Challenge ( a post with the tumblr list at bottom): http://donealrice.booklikes.com/post/...
30-Day Playlist: http://rosepetals1984.booklikes.com/p...
Others I liked: http://donealrice.booklikes.com/post/...-

Off to do my "Waiting on Wednesday" challenge post about an anticipated book...

I find that I go to Booklikes first, with anticipation, and come to Goodreads second, with more of a sense of duty. So I guess that Booklikes is replacing Goodreads for me in a sense, even though they are very different. I still like to look things up here, and there are a few groups I have responsibilities to, but my energy is elsewhere.

Until another site can compete with goodreads book and series data, this will still be my goto research site even if no longer a member or not logged in.

(Frankly I think that will be the site that sees an influx of goodreads members, let's us shelve specific book editions regardless of bookseller while also showing/tracking series info, and provides a means for members to help maintain data even if not exact same librarians program as goodreads uses or if changes go to staff for review before going live.)

I don't see BookLikes as a replacement for GOODREADS, but rather as a supplement.

I'm buying my ebooks elsewhere than on kindle where possible; but, just looked at one a friend recommended saying it was not an indie but currently only on sale on the kindle—the kindle shopping page irritated me to death because I had to wade past several screens of the most "helpful" reviews to get to the book info I wanted (publisher name). The main amazon site doesn't even make you do that (at least not yet).

(The publisher site did match the amazon price on ebook so I was able to buy and download to my nook.)

I have now decided that except for checking book descriptions for downloaded works I don't remember clearly, I'm not even looking at book pages directly from my kindle anymore. Not like the good shelfari series information is still there or anything above the fold other than "helpful" reviews voted and/or selected by data scientists as most "helpful" ... Blech!

Just as well because I do want to remember to use purchase links from sites I want to help (meaning that I've started being good about rotating between charities, booklikes and fictfact purchase links to buy books just like I used to for goodreads). I was only unable to move on of this month's preorders from amazon to nook (a self published book author chose not to offer in a nook supported format).

I use fictfact to supplement goodreads because I read a lot of series (goodreads does not do series reminders or show series info in "my books" unless included in book titles--which is an optional policy, that is, to put series info in title field). I also used it when I was on Visual Bookshelf and when I briefly tried LibraryThing before settling on goodreads.

Booklikes could very well become a supplement to fictfact for me because I read so many series versus standalone books.

Does anyone know if we can download our data from goodreads and upload to another site like booklikes?

Yes, you can download a csv file and upload it to BookLikes.

Cool. I'm trying to do that now.

Jennifer wrote: "Cool. I'm trying to do that now."

It may take a while for all your books to upload, so don't despair if you don't see them arriving within a few seconds (or minutes). Also, you'll probably get an "upload concluded" message before your upload is really sorted (e.g., before all books have actually been placed on the corresponding shelves). So before checking your shelves and starting to edit, just give things some more time to sort themselves out after you've gotten the "upload finished" message.