Catherine's comments (member since Jan 10, 2009)

Catherine's comments from the Goodreads Feedback group.

Ratings and reviews that I place from the mobile site do not appear on Twitter but do appear in my profile on Goodreads. I placed a rating hours ago. Nothing. I want back now and put in a review. Nothing. I put in a status update on the new book I'm reading and it shows right up. Again, I have to wonder of there is a disconnect between the mobile site and how it shows reviews and ratings from the main site and if that could be at least one part of the problem.

I was hoping to do some more investigating tonight but it turns out Twitter was down while my updates would have gone out. Good thing I was reading the whole time. Maybe we can get THEM to put up a fail sign that tells people to go read a good book or come over here for entertainment! It would be funny to see sites team up that way. Might be some money involved too...

I added one tonight, Sky-Jam Choose Your Own Adventure, just gave stars but no other info. It showed on my Goodreads profile but not on Twitter.

I added another book, The Capture, as "reading" and that showed immediately on my profile and Twitter. I wish Twitter had responsive operators like Goodreads so we could try asking them where the problem might be.

Here's one idea, just a thought with no evidence to back it up. Could there be a problem with length of whatever goodreads is posting to Twitter for reviews or read books? Something that is getting the messages rejected? Or maybe a problem with the hashtag?

I agree with Otis 100%. I've seen the issue come up before so I've already thought about it a little. I feel that only impartial reviews reflect the intention of the site. Anyone who reads a book and gives their honest opinion should be welcome. I don't have a problem with stores who's employees read a book and review it, or journalists or bloggers who get ARCs and post their reviews. That's no different than when I win a Giveaway with the understanding that I will read and review the book, but no promise as to what that review will contain.

But reviews that are predetermined skew the ratings system, and reviewers who only interact with prepaid intentions detract from the community. It seems to me that the main purpose of this site is to reflect real, individual experiences with books. I feel that reviews written by people who are being paid to write a positive review regardless of whether they liked the book, or even read it, should not be allowed on Goodreads. There may well be a place for those services, I just don't think that this is the place.

The first review I did tonight did show up, the other 3 didn't. My status updates all showed, as did the new books I listed as "reading" as long as I listed them first and didn't go right from nothing to "read." I thought it might be something with using the mobile site, so I deleted one book entirely from my books and added it again on my laptop, adding the stars, shelves and reviews all in one step. Nothing showed on twitter.

But this time the big difference is that my profile/rss feed is screwy too. It doesn't have the missing items that I added using the mobile site, but it does have the items I added using the laptop (which still have not shown up on Twitter). Which makes the problem much worse because it means even my goodreads friends aren't seeing most of what I'm up to. I'm really confused, so please help, again!

I was thinking of lists similar to Twitter's new function, as a way to see groupings of friends with similar interests however I designate them. For example, I have friends I've met through various Groups who are all Urban Fantasy fans, but may not all be in the same Group or know each other; it would be useful on occasion to be able to somehow see a list of my UF friends. But if the notes about friends were searchable somehow, that could fulfill the same function, and maybe less maintenance for Goodreads. As long as I'd be able to make notes of who's a mystery fan, a fantasy fan, etc, and pull up those results when required, then the notes field would work well for both of my needs. If I had to set priorities, I'd pick a simple notes field first, then the ability to search those notes, then lists.

List would help in some ways. I would love to be able to see all of my friends who like Urban Fiction, for example, so I could easily make recommendations to new friends. But it wouldn't help me remember details about my friends, like who's husband is ill or how many kids they have. I vote for both! I know, I'm such a pain ;)

I've thought this too. I end up making notes in another program if I've discussed kids or pets with someone, or illness!or shared interests, etc. Or just forgetting, which runs against the community building we've done. I can't see how it would work on their profile but only be viewable to each poster, but maybe on our friends page/list within our own profile. That would really be incredibly handy.

Hey, it's working now! At least the two I just posted did. I didn't do anything different than normal and yes, the previous ratings and reviews did appear in my update feed on my profile. Hoping whatever the problem was was fixed, thanks!

Cool! This is the most responsive site I've ever seen. You guys should be winning awards for good service.

The reader I'm currently using gives me a percentage, so I usually use that to estimate a page number. But when I tested another ereader it didn't give percentages. Every one seems to be different. I have the same problem with audiobooks, where I really have no way of guessing page numbers accurately at all. I'm not sure adding more fields is practical for Goodreads, it's a lot more upkeep. Not sure what a good answer is other than to guess a lot, at least until more members are reading ebooks frequently enough for it to be worth the trouble.

It's all very frustrating. I have a friend who's reviews go out fine. None of mine do. I even checked the box that let's my to-read listings go out, and that happens within minutes. All of my comments post just fine. But no reviews or books posted to my "read" shelf show on Twitter at all. I've tried adding them directly to my read shelf. I've tried putting them on my currently-reading and then moving them to read. Nothing. And reviews really are the most important part. I will have to try Djrmel's work-around.

I'm sorry to keep hammering on this. If it was just a fun link to another site I wouldn't bother you guys with it. But I really think it provides great, free PR to Goodreads, which should make it more of a priority than otherwise. As I mentioned, I've only been using Twitter for a few weeks, but have had 3 new friends join since then because of my updates or mentions.

I knew you'd know, you've never failed me! Thanks :)

Rivka, do you know where I can find that page that shows all of the shelves on Goodreads and the matching books counts? I stumbled across it once and changed some of my shelf names to match the most popular versions (sci-fi, scifi, etc), just to try to be consistent with the consensus, plus it was pretty interesting generally. But I have no idea how to get back there. Another Goodreads hidden gem!

I think it's just to help get people excited to read a new book and drive viewing of your reviews. The review is the most important part.

I just added several books to my "read" shelf. They were not on any of my shelves previously. I added the books to "read" and several other shelves and added a review all in one step. The reviews appear in my Recent Updates on my Goodreads profile, but did not get pushed to Twitter.

I have the box for adding "to-read" books unchecked on the apps page. Is this causing the problem? I've heard others saying the same thing on this thread but have not seen any improvement. Sorry if I missed it somewhere, but I searched the forums for Twitter and didn't see anything.

I'm wondering if it's acting as all or nothing on the shelving, since status updates seem to be consistently posting but reviews seem to be consistently a problem, according to the above thread. I really want my reviews to be published to help raise Goodreads awareness. Three of my Twitter friends have joined Goodreads because of my participation there. Help!

Jonathan,

I recently started using Twitter as yet another way to find other readers and most of all to follow authors. Sometimes they mention how they are doing with a book, what their writing process is, or progress with publication. It's like having a behind-the-scenes look. Check out Neil Gaiman's account, if you get a chance, for a sense if it. His account is @neilhimself and I think you can go to http://www.Twitter.com/neilhimself to see. He talks about his work and travels, booksignings and offers, and his family and interests. It's fun, I'm a Twitter convert! And he writes back to fans pretty often, as most of the authors I follow do. They're grateful for appreciation of their work and very gracious and warm. It turns them into real people for me and not just distant book-producing entities.

I also wasn't sure at first if I wanted to follow many readers. Seemed redundant with goodreads. But bloggers and publishers run a lot of contests, if you're into that, and it is yet another way to connect with people with similar interests. I've been surprised at how much I'm enjoying it. Let us know what you think!

I just started tweeting in the last few weeks and one of my favorite things has been following some of my favorite authors. They are so gracious and I get a fan-girl thrill when they reply to my tweets. It can also be fun when they comment about their writing process and progress, like a behind-the-scenes peek.

I'm not sure if their feed is necessary here. On the one hand, it would be fun and handy. On the other hand, much of what they tweet is not about books. Although blogs often aren't either. I'd also be concerned about the goodreads server capacity. Maybe if it was like the blogs and only showed a limited number? At very least I'd love to see Twitter account names, I've tracked a few down but it would be great to have them easy to find here on goodreads and very appropriate.

I'm so happy to now be able to use the mobile site to add reviews and to easily add books to any of my shelves! What a joy! These things really make my goodreads experience faster and more enjoyable, and allow me to participate more fully and to provide more complete information. No excuses now, gotta get my books shelved and my reviews completed! But I'm still thanking you guys very much ;)

Yes, especially since most people only read an ebook once, but play games over and over. Which is relevant here because games or apps that are free with a small advertising banner get lots of views. I use a free Twitter app and a few of those really lame ads have caught my eye. Amazon should encourage that kind of advertising. I haven't opened my laptop for days, but I've been on Twitter and goodreads many times a day; they're missing the boat.

That said, yay for the recent mobile site updates! Not sure how recent because I kept going to the full site to post reviews or add shelves to books by habit, but those functions work wonderfully well on my iPhone using the mobile site now. Thank you! Now all I need for easy daily book updating is the ability to say "Yes" I like a review. I'm sure there are people clamoring for groups and friends updates, which would be cool, but you've got the meat of things working great and I'm really enjoying it. Thanks again!