Making Connections discussion

Hey Everyone,
So I haven't been in Making Connections for a while now as I have focused on other groups and other things here on Goodreads. Upon looking at the threads in this group, I was shocked and taken aback at what's become of it that leaving me to ask...what happened to this group?

There are countless authors spamming their books and asking for reviews in threads and in the wrong topics. There's authors just posting about their books without making any contribution to any other topics. I've seen this in other groups and it's sad and a poor use of the site. If the authors doing this just opened their eyes they would notice that they aren't reaching readers they are just spamming their books like every other person on here.

Hi,

Honestly, I’ve been wondering if this site still contains real human beings… Every post I reply to barely answers back… Or I don’t really know how it works…

I honestly stopped coming to a lot of the groups I am a part of. I only socialize on like...2? Maybe 3? I will probably leave this group soon, but I have a feeling a lot of it has to do with how Amazon operates Goodreads...and the fact that bots have become all the rage.

I see your point, although this group does have moderators who have posted recently.. what would be your suggestions to improve it?
I too have left a few groups, but they have maybe one moderator who hasn't been active since 2018 or something! Another group I liked, and tried hard to sorta revive had 4 mods listed but 3 of them hadn't been active for years, and also set their profile private so when I tried to reach them to ask if I could be set as a moderator to help.. even for a while.. I couldn't reach any of them. I sent GR a note and their response was to make ME the moderator WITHOUT telling me! lol I had already stopped visiting the site, but nobody told me! So.. is it bots? or just getting the right mix of mods and ppl? 🤷‍♀️

I've thought of starting a group and see what happens... but I also wonder how much influence the social feeds of Instragram, booktok, etc have to do with it all???

Any thoughts Please?? It's kinda up to us to help make the groups work, and GR is definitely the most influential..🌹 Feel free to msg me if you like.

The ones I left I checked to see when the last time ANYONE had interacted on them and most of them were pre-COVID, so I left those. Some I left because my interest in that particular topic was no longer there. I do think active mods make or break a group. One of the groups I'm in, we have new constant topics to talk about and we have become friends in a way that I hadn't been in other groups.

Agreed!! active mods make or break a group! I did notice that also about the covid timeframe.. I guess ppl were stuck at home and eventually forgot about them. I also see tons of groups with 1 or 2 ppl?? and nothing in there.. I wish we could influence GR to clean those out! I'll take recs from you for the active groups anytime! 🌹

Liz~In~Colorado wrote: "Agreed!! active mods make or break a group! I did notice that also about the covid timeframe.. I guess ppl were stuck at home and eventually forgot about them. I also see tons of groups with 1 or 2..."

The two I'm in most are Horror Aficionados and Apocalypse Whenever haha.

I honestly don’t know how to change anything. I’m a new author since March. I’m trying to learn how to navigate in this new world and they send me here to GR BUT, everything and everywhere I go seems like controlled by automated systems… I post genuine comments but the answers are always awfully similar or simply non existent… No idea if I’m doing the right thing or simply wasting my time trying to connect with people.

Artz wrote: "I honestly don’t know how to change anything. I’m a new author since March. I’m trying to learn how to navigate in this new world and they send me here to GR BUT, everything and everywhere I go see..."

I PROMISE there are real people out here! I can understand your frustration though. I know there is a Beta reading group, but that has been having issues lately as well.

BookishDramas wrote: "Jurassic Jemma and the Trail of Evil

4 stars 3rd book in the series
A gripping and emotional finale with a fierce heroine..."

I flagged this. How are you going to come onto a thread that literally talks about authors just hawking their books and hawk yours? Are you serious right now?

Liz~In~Colorado wrote: "I see your point, although this group does have moderators who have posted recently.. what would be your suggestions to improve it?
I too have left a few groups, but they have maybe one moderator..."

Let's all agree that activity and honest contribution in threads in groups such as this one are dying if they aren't dead already. It's sad, I remember back in the day when mods were not only ontop of things but groups were hopping and every thread was active. Now, you go into a group and most active people are just commenting in one thread while every other person is just spamming their books without any thought.

What should be done about it? Well, Goodreads needs to change the moderator rule. If a mod hasn't been active in a certain amount of years and they are the only ones controlling that group or there's multiple inactive mods they should be removed and the group goes up for listing so to speak in hopes of a new member to take on the role.
They should look way more into authors hawking their books and posting in incorrect threads but then again I suppose you need a mod who will be on top of things for that and that's a rarity in 2025 on this site.
I don't even like talking about my new books on GR because of all the mindless authors who ruin it for the rest of us and for the fact that there's more authors than readers so I wouldn't be reaching anyone anyway. It's just sad and ever since Amazon bought Goodreads, they've improved on some things but one thing has had a massive decline and that's the Groups on here. Fix them, clean them out, do something.