The Extra Cool Group! (of people Michael is experimenting on) discussion

What aspect of Goodreads do you like the most and what do you least like? Probably a question that's been asked in other ways in other forums, but heck with that, I thought I'd ask it here too.

My favourite bit of the GR experience is the discussions which can suddenly sprout from even the most innocuous review; and my least favourite is all the authors who clog up the site, bugging us to read their stuff, spamming us, and infesting the "Most Followed" list when they don't post any reviews. Grr.

I like the simple text layout with just occasional graphics.

I hate it when people reference books with the cover since I can't read it, so I usually just ignore their message. Occasionally I'll mouse-over or click on the cover to see it, but I find it a PITA.

I like having all the authors around so long as they're not too obnoxious. I've met some nice ones & gotten some great free reads that way. It's also been very interesting learning about where books come from. (Yeah, I thought the stork brought them. The true birthing process is messy & unlikely.)

What I like most of all is being in contact with so many others who read. Besides interesting discussions, I've never had such a diverse & interesting TBR pile. With a few keystrokes, I can get a lot of reviews. Very cool.

I like the discussions and the incredible reviews my friends--and strangers--write. I love discovering writers I wouldn't otherwise.

I like some of the groups (like this one, of course and Graham Greene and a few others), but I don't like the stupid polls and the games (Scrabble, or maybe it's a group?) that clutter up my feed. I have shifted my friends around because of Scrabble posting (not a 'top friend' anymore).

As has been said already, the feedback group is great on GR, the quick responses to feedback from the GR team.

I don't like the ganging up that one sometimes sees on threads where a commenter who's made the mistake of posting something stupid or contrary, gets piled on. One or two counter-comments are enough. The rest is gratuitous and bully-ish.

I did however fully participate in Ginnie-Gate. That was differnt imo, a case where a prolific plagiarist needed to be stopped.

What I like:

*discovering books and authors I wouldn't have discovered on my own

*getting to know like-minded people, but also meeting people from around the world who open up my eyes with different views and opinions

*the professionalism and quick response of the GR admins

What I dislike:

*friend invites from people pimping their books, or authors who join just to pimp their books. There's a right and wrong way for promoting yourself on GR.

*drama on threads. I'm lucky that I'm in groups where that doesn't happen often, but it's something I've experienced on other boards I belong to; it's childish and annoying

*people who jump right into a new group with their in-your-face personalities and who enjoy antagonizing members until no one wants to participate in a discussion. (this happens on all boards but I hate it here especially because GR is like my sanctuary where I come for peace and to talk about the best thing in the world: books)

Good: Seeing what people are reading, and their comments/reviews

Getting introduced to books I never would have heard of or picked on my own

Casual discussions on books, and genre specific forums - even if I don't participate often, I still like to read the forum posts

Bad: Authors who are only here to promote their books spamming forums and my inbox. This is not your personal little ad-factory.

People who add 20-30 to-read books at a time, regularly, and don't have the "add to Update Feed" feature turned OFF.

Good:
Discovering new books/authors I never would have before.
Discussions with people who actually read books.

Bad:
Spamwhore authors.

Ugly:
The trolls.

Good: Amusing conversations about books, meeting new people whose opinions and/or drollery I appreciate, learning about books I might not otherwise know about.

Not-so-good: Flaming, a million votes for YA novels before they're released, Goodreads' inexplicable refusal to create a dedicated site FAQ.

The Good: Connecting with people with similar reading tastes. Actually getting to talk about the books I'm reading without putting my friends to sleep. Finding new authors that I might never have read otherwise.

The Bad: Authors who don't get that mentioning their book in every post they make, when it is in no way related to the topic, is annoying. It doesn't get them any readers. It just causes me to add them to my list of "Authors I'll Never Read". It's much more effective to come as a reader and participate as a reader, and let people find out you're an author on their own.

I like being able to talk to other book-readers. I don't meet that many readers in my everyday life. I love being in a large book community, which has subgroups that are in my interest area. I also like the access to so many books and the information about them. I like the ability to organize my reading, my book collection, according to criteria that is important to me. I have made quite a few friends, and it's great connecting with them on here.

What I dislike about GRs: Not too much. But there is a bit of cliqueishness and elitism at times that bothers me. Sometimes there is a group mentality going on. Everyone must read certain books and must not read others. I dislike the cattiness and mean-spiritedness that I see in some reviews. If you don't like a book, fine, but it should never be a personal attack against people who like a book or the writer. Generally, most groups are well-moderated to prevent overt ugliness between members, but it can happen at times. Thankfully, the climate here is a lot more mature and nicer than the Amazon forums. I wish that some authors weren't so aggressive at promoting their books at times, but I usually can blow it off.

So far my favorite things have been the ability to discuss books with other interested people and not being a solitary reader any more. The best of these has been when a successful author (whose many books come out in hardcover/TPB and not just eBooks) has also been an active participant in the discussions. Access to authors is unprecedented, IME.

Another favorite is book recommendations and quick access to all an author's work with real reader's opinions vi à vis paid book critic reviews.

Least favorite, certainly author spam. The best groups force these to be somewhere I can ignore. I'm also on a campaign to get GR to add a [series:xyz] tag. The programmers say too hard. I say get a different programmer. I don't like the cover links as well as a text link either.

I think it is fantastic to have the opportunity to discuss an author's book with him/her. It's cool when they join a thread and field questions from the readers. I admire writers who take the time to get to know their readers on a personal level.

Yeah, that's one thing I forgot to add. Having authors join in on discussions, especially when it pertains to their book. Gives you a bit more insight into the novel and their reasoning.

That's not something you can really get elsewhere without maybe going to a book reading/signing.

What Bee?

"Sorry, that group is secret"

I don't like authors who over pimp themselves. I gotta say, "Yes, I am looking for a good time!" first.

I love reviews, books, talks, thoughts... Most addicting site ever.

What the hell?

I'd like to amend my ugly list and add that Bee.

Oh yes. Big-time Ugly: that Bee.

Are they serious with that bee? It's got to be a joke, right? Please somebody tell me it's a joke...

it wasn't a joke, but it never went anywhere. It's not meant to be for the site, but for a T-shirt or something. It won the poll and we've heard nothing about it since.

Oh good. I get tired of everything having to be so cutesy.

Stacey wrote: "People who add 20-30 to-read books at a time, regularly, and don't have the "add to Update Feed" feature turned OFF. "

I dislike that this setting can't be set by the GR member on the receiving end. I love seeing what books people have added to-read, but I don't want to force my own to-read on others. It would be best if the got to decide if they wanted to see this or not, instead of me.

Also, in the account settings the option is worded as: "Add a book to your shelves" which leaves me to believe that if I un-clicked that, then ANY book (not just to-read books) will be taken off my feed. Hmm...

Is there GR merchandise? I'd love to buy a T-shirt and promote the site. But it would have to be kewl and not something cheesy.

Tressa wrote: "Is there GR merchandise? I'd love to buy a T-shirt and promote the site. But it would have to be kewl and not something cheesy."

http://www.cafepress.com/goodreads

this is pretty funny: http://www.cafepress.com/goodreads.16...

Thanks. I'll pass on the thong. The designs are sort of blah.

oh, so the bee made it to a bookbag...

yeah, the designs are all pretty boring.

Ala wrote: "Good:
Discovering new books/authors I never would have before.
Discussions with people who actually read books.

Bad:
Spamwhore authors.

Ugly:
The trolls."

Like.

I've never run into an incident where an author or publisher badmouthed or threatened a reviewer. That's certainly not the kind of publicity/reputation an author wants to have. I admire authors who deal with bad or lukewarm reviews with some class.

sounds awful.

and hypocritical besides
(not to mention bullying, etc.)

The good: discussions with other reviewers about books, even when we disagree.

The bad: spamwhore authors

The ugly: authors responding to negative reviewers. I saw one cluelessly respond to a one-star review. The response itself wasn't that bad, but it included a long list of completely irrelevant books by the authors' friends that the reviewer "might" enjoy--most of which the reviewer had already reviewed, and reviewed negatively.

Considering that most people chose 'authors acting badly' as their bad/ugly, it seems to be a very minor downside since I've never actually encountered an 'author acting badly' incident (other than the ones linked to from this Group).

I'm waiting for Bret Easton Ellis to jump up and start insuting me. Any day now.

Paul wrote: "I'm waiting for Bret Easton Ellis to jump up and start insuting me. Any day now."

He's still writing it... It's 200 pages long, describing in detail the many ways he would torture and kill reviewers who didn't like his book.

I've seen some authors behaving badly, although it is rare. I've seen an author curse out a person for a bad review on here. It was very ugly and uncalled for. I agree that this degree of bad behavior is quite rare. Personally, I've had very good experiences with authors. I have friended authors and had authors friend me, and there hasn't been issues. My major author issue is when I get recommendations that in no way reflect what I read. If an author is going to take the trouble to recommend her/his books, they should use the compare books function and see what kinds of books a reader enjoys before sending them a PM trying to 'sell' their book. It's not a huge deal. I just PM them back and say that I don't read that kind of book. I get PMs regularly asking for me to review a book, and I will accept if it's to my taste and warn the author I may not get to reading it very soon. It's stayed pretty cordial thus far (and I hope that doesn't change).

For me, one of the most annoying and amazingly common things that authors do is contradict readers opinions in discussion threads they've agreed to participate in. I've seen a few well respected authors do it, and it really leaves a bad taste in my mouth. An example of what I mean (without naming names): say there's a book discussion, with author participation, and someone says the book just wasn't for them. They maybe say they didn't like a particular character, they complain about a plot element, something like that. And then the author comes in and tells them all the ways that they are wrong about how they feel about the book. To me that's tacky - don't tell me how I was supposed to have been affected by something, it comes across how it comes across.

I've been in several discussions with author participation where the author feels the need to address every. single. comment. and say exactly why that person is wrong about their thoughts. This is why I personally prefer when author participation is restricted to a Q&A thread.

I've never participated in such a forum, Dawn (either as a participant or an author), but yes, I can see why that would be annoying.

It reminds me of my rule when I teach creative writing and we workshop a student's story: the student is not allowed to speak while we talk about his or her work. (S/he can afterward). Otherwise, all he does is to jump in and explain and defend. And no one benefits--not the readers and least of all, the writer.

Good:
- Fun and interesting conversations with other book lovers.
- Discovering new books

Bad:
- The 'top reader' lists which seem top-heavy with people who have read more books in a week then seems humanly possible.
- Having to see each and every time a person adds a book. I am sure I am guilty of it too, which is all the more reason to let the receiving member turn it off as a new member has no idea.
- Am I the only one who would be happy to see a 'donate to help us run the site' button? This site is a great service and good be better, I would be happy to help fun that happening.

Ugly:
- Pictures, especially cats, in reviews.. I hate them clogging my feed. I respect that others like them.. I just want to be able to turn them off without having to unfollow the reviewer.

I've been here long enough that I can remember when there were no pictures in reviews, you couldn't post them, only links.

I think I still prefer that.

but times change and this site is no exception...it keeps updating itself, a la facebook.

Too many interruptions by high school boys giggling over a cat with a rockmelon on its head.

Cass wrote:
"Having to see each and every time a person adds a book. I am sure I am guilty of it too, which is all the more reason to let the receiving member turn it off as a new member has no idea."

This isn't an ideal solution, but you can go to the top of your feed, and on the top right hand side where it says "Showing:" click the down arrow and under "Update Types" select "Reviews" instead of "all". Unfortunate side effect of this might be that it would hide more than you want.

yes too much. I do like status updates and comments etc... just not un-reviewed books.

Maybe you can suggest this on the GR feedback forum. I think I tried before, but more voices = more influential.

Good idea. I think I will.

Good: The groups. Absolutely fab.
And the size of my to-read list. I see the reviews and can't stop myself from clicking.

Bad: The size of my to-read list. I see the reviews and can't stop myself from clicking.

Ugly: Nothing so far! :)