SOS: Serious Overload of Series discussion

Have y'all seen Goodreads' announcement re: notifications? I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t getting any email notifications, so I went hunting for answers. I first noticed the ‘Notify me when people comment’ box had been moved above the comment box AND was unchecked for EVERY thread in my group, including those I created and previously checked.

Then, I found a discussion elsewhere on GR re: this issue. They linked to the above help notice.

Another joyous change, this notification change also seems to pertain to PMs. As far as I can tell, all notifications, other than the rare few mentioned above, are only available in the poorly designed and difficult to use notifications tab on the menu header bar. It’s awful. You can’t sort. You’re shown every post made, to any thread, in order of posting - most recent first - in every group where you’re a member. Of course, you can modify that list of groups and choose which you’d like to receive notifications. But, I've modified my list to include only my groups and still see every post made to every thread in every group which I belong. If you belong to a handful (or more) and want to follow posts within all - good luck! It’ll be a dead convo by the time you even know there was one happening. Anyone working at Goodreads who finds this format a simpler, more helpful way of receiving notifications must not be a member of any groups.

➼ I’ll give you a tip: Go to each of your groups, scroll midway down the main group page to the beginning of the DISCUSSION BOARD list and click on “unread”. (Example for my group, SOS: Serious Overload of Series) Bookmark that and now you have a simplified way to quickly and easily see what you’ve missed in groups where you’re a member.

The whole “We’ve simplified the way we notify you about activity on Goodreads", really translates to GR making it easier, simpler for them. Once again, less convenient at best, more problematic at worst, for THE PEOPLE WHO USE THIS SITE. Those of us who haven’t left for one of the many other similar sites that have been created over the year because of reasons like this one.

Odis wrote, “Our mission is to help readers discover books they love and get more out of reading.” In 2007, that was exactly what I found here. I joined 15 years ago, created my group one year later. I have stuck with GR throughout all the whackadoo changes, selling to Amazon thereby becoming more of a sales site instead of a reader-focused site and remained determined to do so because of all the time I’ve invested into my group. But, with every change comes more headaches for users and, more importantly to me, more hassles for group moderators. Each change feels like they are slowly putting the squeeze on groups and the moderators who run them. If the end goal is to end the discussion group portion of the site, TPTB should come out and say it. Share with the class. Stop with the death by a thousand cuts. We’ve helped grow Goodreads these past fifteen years. We’ve nurtured and grown our online groups, which in turn has kept others participating on Goodreads in addition to or as a result of our groups.

Otis also wrote, “We started in my living room, motivated by the belief that there was a better way to discover and discuss good books, and that we could build it.” They built it. We came. They sold it. We stayed. They’re continuing to break it, piece by piece. With each change, each “made simpler” modification, they make it harder and harder for those they initially drew here, those who shared their dream and wanted to be a part of it. If they’re not careful, they’ll eventually lose all of us who wish to share and discuss in a way Goodreads apparently no longer values and barely supports.

Who am I kidding? TPTB haven’t valued groups in a very long time. I just keep hoping they will, but maybe it’s only a matter of time before that bubble bursts and the opportunity to continue hosting my book group on a site that once promoted group creation and book discussions is no more.

(Otis’ message credit: https://www.goodreads.com/about/us)

Thanks for listening

Oh my god, I'm so happy it's not me losing it!
I came here today to find out why I wasn't getting any emails anymore.
While I might not be as active as I want to be, I always keep an eye out for new challenges, etc., but with the October ones, I nearly missed them :(
I was checking my spam mails and found nothing, and I was so sure I didn't delete those emails by mistake.

WHY THE HELL would they change this???? I mean, they need the community so they can push books at us. Why would they take away one of the reasons we would come back to the site (or app if you're using that instead)? It makes 0 sense!

As you've said, I'm now bookmarking the unread topics link, so I'm sure I don't miss anything good.

Idiots... seriously, they're shooting themselves in the foot with this change... :(

Thanks for making the post, Steph! I'm glad I found it (and it's not a 'me' thing, but a 'they' thing lol)

You’re welcome & 😝 agreed! As you can tell from my post, I’m not at all pleased with this change. I can’t see how it improves anything for the users. It’s awful for moderators and anyone trying to stay on top of a very active thread or group. At least we can check ‘unread threads’, which takes the sting out a bit. *sigh*

Hi y’all. Another thing to help you monitor new group posts and make sure those notifications appear in your notification list (bell icon):

- Go to your profile, click edit
- Go to Account & Notifications under acct settings
- Click on Notifications /Choose which notifications you want to receive from Goodreads
- Scroll down to groups listing and check those you wish to follow; you’re not leaving any group you uncheck here; unchecking here will only keep you from receiving notifications for new posts for that group

https://www.goodreads.com/settings/no... << group notification settings

So, my lil notification bell isn’t notifying and I’ve got new posts. 🤨


Anyone else? Got a fix?

They are really making it hard to use this site. I have a book mark that is for every month but I sometimes forget to bookmark what I posted on and I like going and perusing the posts that I'm not on to see what is new too. I just used the bell and it seems to be giving me notifications still as that is how I got here so hopefully it was only down for a little bit.

Try signing out of Goodreads and signing in again. But read all your ones that you didn't get first. because you will never get notified of things that were posted in the past.

A couple of us in the McHalo group figured out that this might work, but now she thinks it may only work once. We're still trying to figure it out, so please let me know if it works

I tried to find out in the Moderator's Group and they gave me some ideas, but they were having trouble with it, also. I can look for their answer tomorrow, but must sleep now

Thanks, y’all. I’ve got new-unread (ex: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/unrea...) pages set in a reminder, so I think I’ve caught all new posts in my groups. I’m just thrown by the apparent total lack of concern for a feature (group communications) that used to be important to TPTB. *sigh*

I did notice that in some threads I was following the 'Notify me when people comment' was unchecked again... so might be it as well?

But yeah, I'm so happy we got the 'New posts' at least, it's on my bookmark bar, and that's pretty much the one I always check.

I think all of mine have remained checked 'notify me', but I wasn't getting any notifications via the bell. I did log out and back in, which has fixed it for the moment. But, like I said, thankfully, I have the 'new-unread' page saved to check routinely. That catches everything, too.