Georgette Heyer Fans discussion
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Issues with Goodreads
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That’s very interesting to read, Carol. I have recently been noticing a few issues with the search function, both when I use “add book” in a post and when I use the “search books” bar. Sometimes they will only show me a couple of editions, usually ones without a cover image, even though I know that many other editions exist. Your description of what’s going on makes that experience make more sense to me.
I've also noticed issues. The Spanish language edition of the book comes first or audio book, book with no cover images, or something other than the hardcover or mass market paperback edition you would expect. I can find it and choose it but it's not the first choice.
The books discussion page (as opposed to the group discussion page) may make it clear a small proportion of what is wrong. (your page should show instead of mine, but if mine shows I definitely haven't read books that are most popular in Arabic) this should show the most popular edition of a book - & it doesn't.https://www.goodreads.com/topic?discu...
Edit: Clarification.
Thanks for explaining! I wondered why I could not find a great many of my reviews, though it clearly said I'd reviewed a given book. I wanted to update the review, but it had vanished and all I could see was the "Review this book" link.
killing GR softly, aren't they? - looks like it. probably too much work for too little profit (aka book sales).
Sherwood wrote: "Thanks for explaining! I wondered why I could not find a great many of my reviews, though it clearly said I'd reviewed a given book. I wanted to update the review, but it had vanished and all I cou..."I'm scared to look frankly. I did export my book records to Storygraph before that bug. Of course being a Goodreads feature it didn't work properly & Storygraph possibly can't accept book covers from Amazon. Fortunately I have a blog, which didn't work out for me & I have most of my book records stored there.
sabagrey wrote: "killing GR softly, aren't they? - looks like it. probably too much work for too little profit (aka book sales)."I read somewhere that Veronica Moss (think that's the name) the CEO of Goodreads isn't a reader herself. Quite a few of the current staff either aren't readers or don't use their work membership to record their reads.
Sherwood wrote: "Thanks for explaining! I wondered why I could not find a great many of my reviews, though it clearly said I'd reviewed a given book. I wanted to update the review, but it had vanished and all I cou..."Thank you for the hint ... I'll store my reviews elsewhere if I can still find them. fortunately there aren't that many.
And I never used GR as my book database - it's nobody's business and I don't trust BigTech. (Q.E.D.)
I noticed that Amazon's management of Goodreads has been called out publicly in a recent Washington Post article, especially for buggy software and other issues:https://www.washingtonpost.com/techno...
I kept having issues with the site loading. Seems to be working okay for me now though. I was wondering if it was because I only access it on my phone.
Barb in Maryland wrote: "I noticed that Amazon's management of Goodreads has been called out publicly in a recent Washington Post article, especially for buggy software and other issues:https://www.washingtonpost.com/tech..."
Interesting article Barb. I only used the app when it was in development stage & there wasn't an algorithm. I use the desktop view even when on my phone. Far less frustrating.
I know there has been a lot of controversy about 1★ reviews - would like to see the same attention to the dubious 5★ reviews.
There are things that GR could do to make the group experience better, but now I just think, "Its fine, its working, please don't touch anything!"
Its actually my groups & the friends I have made here that keep me on this bug filled site.
& I found real life book clubs didn't work for me, whereas GR does.
Anne wrote: "I kept having issues with the site loading. Seems to be working okay for me now though. I was wondering if it was because I only access it on my phone."One problem is everyone experiences different bugs. I had years where reviews of people I follow didn't appear in my feed. I think that was fixed accidentally with the latest book page. 😅
Thank you for this thread, Carol, I don't understand the issues at all well (let alone the tech!) but I know I don't like this site and yet I love some of the people here. Barb, I read the article you linked and, even though we no longer use it, the in-person local bookclub I am in was originally started on meetup and one of my favorite members joined before she actually relocated to our town which I thought was a brilliant option.
But I dislike meetup generally, also reddit and tiktok, and just generally don't like the other options.
so the big question is, where do we all go and how soon can we be packed?
There's LibraryThing, which is where I catalogue my books...
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Jackie wrote: "Thank you for this thread, Carol, I don't understand the issues at all well (let alone the tech!) but I know I don't like this site and yet I love some of the people here. Barb, I read the articl..."
Well, I don't like reddit & had my membership cancelled. There was no explanation of what I was supposed to have done but I only posted in two different places there.
I don't think Story Graph is going to be for me. It seems to be mostly for people who like stats (which I do but there was so much wrong with my export that mine are dead wrong) & who need book recommendations. I have 100s of unread books at home & live a 10 minute walk from my town's library - I need more book recommendations like a hole in the head!
I had heard that there weren't much in the way of book discussions at Library Thing, but that it is a far safer place to keep your reading records.
The next one I was going to look at was https://literal.club/ It has an app, book clubs & one of its backers is from Spotify - so hopefully that means the site has adequate financial resources. I won't bother exporting my GR book records again though - I will start from scratch & gradually add my GH reviews, which are the most important ones to me.
I would like to stay here as far as groups go & just migrate to another group when this site becomes unuseable - or crashes for good.
I'll check out literal soon.
Unlike some of you once I had GR figured out I loved it - but a lot of what I loved has gone.I keep my own stats in Google Docs as I don't want to trust a book site again. & I find Tumblr has members who do Quotes which is a good sub for the long gone from GR Quote of the Day - but Tumblr has a big problem with porn spam.
Jenny wrote: "Is this the place to mention that the first entry you get when searching for Penhallow (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...) is actually about The Unknown Ajax? It's headed Penhallow righ..."Sorry, you slipped in there Jenny!
For bad GH records this is the place. For anyone else's bad records go to;
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
I've marked that record as invalid, Jenny. It may take a while to completely disappear.
Another thing the out of control new bots are importing from Amazon is second hand booksellers records. (& I have to say that one is a Lulu! 🤣) One way you can tell is if the format is paperback or hard cover but the identifier starts with B instead of an ISBN (starts with 978 or 979)
Carol she's so novel wrote:Unlike some of you once I had GR figured out I loved it - but a lot of what I loved has gone
this is so sad!
I mean, it seems unnecessary besides a big shame.
AHH The books are now showing correctly but my discussions list is not my discussions list at all. Very weird and random books. I love the book clubs here and having all my reviews in one place.
I haven't joined so long ago - for the groups and the group reads, and I enjoy them. It has never seriously come to my mind to use ANY software or online portal to have a database of my books. If I wanted one, I would use - paper and pencil. I have been in the business too long, I think, and have seen too many good applications and excellent portals sold and destroyed.
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Do you have a template? A simple table doesn't give nice options for searching, grouping, etc. Of course, there are functions and other tools, but when I think of creating (by myself) such a table (template) I feel discouraged.
I tried software like Calibre, but it has so many options, and simple import from GR isn't enough to do it usable to me - so I gave this up.
Besides, the imported table from GR is so far from perfect. Many data are in the wrong columns.
Mela wrote: "Do you have a template? A simple table doesn't give nice options for searching, grouping, etc. Of course, there are functio..."
Mine are very simple. Since Goodreads deleted Most Read Authors without any warning I created my own from when I had read 4 or more of their books (rather than 2 or more)My other stats are a separate sheet of things that are important to me - & with Google Docs I can turn them into pie charts.
I love Goodreads but keep noticing buggy things as well. Especially the editions in other languages. I have recommendations based on books that I apparently read in Spanish. I've been exclusively using this site to keep track of everything and not really interested in trying somewhere else. It took me sooo long to put everything in here already back in 2014. The only other place I have an online shelf is my local library site, but that only works for library books.
I do have a Google Docs of all the books I own and have on my shelf downstairs. That way I can tell which Heyer ones I already own and which ones I still need ;)
I just want to keep track of all the books I've read and want to read and my reviews AND enjoy some book clubs. I fixed my problem with the groups. That was user error and not GoodReads bug.
I was wondering how much non-librarians could see!
There have always been issues, but things worsened after a decision I agreed with last June. Due to the number of poor quality records & copyright infringements (it was amazing that Goodreads/Amazon hadn't been sued) it was decided that only Goodreads Librarians, Goodreads authors (they may only be able to enter their own books) & Staff could enter book records. Unfortunately they did this when librarian participation had declined in the Librarians Group & they quite obviously underestimated the number of books that weren't being added by Amazon bots. The backlog quickly became unmanageable, so they advanced what they were originally intended to do after proper testing.
They unleashed some new bots.
They have pretty much destroyed large sections of the database. I think they have stopped them overriding edits done by humans but I'm not sure about that. At one stage they were adding PROOF copies of authors works, they add other things that Amazon sells like tee shirts & games. they deleted or marked invalid book records. You name it - the bots have done it.
The long time moderator of the librarians group left last December. With her departure I think that was the last customer facing member of staff who was around before the Amazon takeover in 2013. I think all the developers are new. They have probably been trained on websites that work properly - not this creaky, old site. Every time they fix something, something else breaks.
& I know Jaclyn (the new Librarian group moderator, but she has been with GR for quite a while) values the volunteer Librarian workforce, but I don't think management does. A lot of long time librarians have either stopped helping or restricted their edits. I'm still doing my own stuff & some Georgette Heyer. But Critterbee & I spent hours fixing the GH listings up a few years ago - I'm not doing that again. Plus her books are coming into public domain - & public domain publishers can be a nightmare!
Ok, rant over. 😁
But any questions about the Goodreads database please ask here.