Amy's comments (member since May 15, 2008)

Amy's comments from the Goodreads Feedback group.

I hate having pages for my shelves - I much preferred the scrolling method.

This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For wrote: "I still say that an option for showing the log of counts rather than the raw counts would help tremendously with they skew."

I'd vote for this....

I also noted problems as Brooke and Lisa described above.

It's happening on all the pages I've tried except the home pages. It made the trivia game impossibly annoying.

I'm getting a security alert that seems to be related to Goodreads. I copied the URL from the Trend Microsoft warning below, if that helps. It doesn't seem to happen on all pages so it might be advertisement specific.

http://www35.glam.com/glamadapt_jsrv.act...

Laurel, I agree that we need more options - some way to make my facebook feed different from my Goodreads feed.

My Goodreads friends are more likely to want to see every to-read book - I think this would just annoy most of my facebook friends.

I use my books for cataloging,organizing, and finding my books.
I rarely use anyone else's 'my books' page; if I do, it's usually to read several reviews in one place on the review view.

Some things I would like to see:

1. The capability of using logical search on my shelves - AND, OR, NOT

2. The ability to select a shelf from a large number of shelves without extensive scrolling (I'd prefer to be able to type the first letter and have only the shelves that start with that letter pop up - but the ability to arrange shelves in order as mentioned by Sherri would be an improvement I could live with)

3. When I search my shelves, I would like the books from that search to stay until I enter another search or choose another shelf.

4. I would like to have options for which shelves are displayed and how they are displayed. Michael's idea for private shelves would definitely be part of this; some of my shelves have organizational meaning only to me; I don't need them to display on my profile, I just need to have them to use when needed.
I think the tiered shelves or subshelves could be used effectively for the visual organization of my shelves on my profile, but I have mixed feelings about whether I would want to use this organizationally for shelving books. I think I would tend to use it in a limiting manner; I'd try to find a place in the tree for each book. I like the freedom of thinking that the tag approach allows (if we have search capabilities to match).

5. I like Joanna's idea of a 'Notes' column - especially if I could type in the note from the shelf view and not have to go to the individual book page to add private notes

6. I might like drag and drop for organizing books of shelves - it would depend on how well it worked.

Thanks, Otis!

I'll vote for the separate tab as well.

I'll vote for the separate tab as well.

A filter would work - or there's room for a tab on the homepage for everyone's reviews, the way it was previously - I liked the short cut as well.

Shanon,
I think your idea could work, too.

Having a link on the book page to the discussion topics concerning that book hasn't been as helpful as I envisioned it would be. For every genuine in-depth discussion, there are about 20 links to groups that only list the book in a "What I'm reading this month" or "What I got for Christmas" format -

It hasn't served as a very useful tool for finding good discussions about the book.

Could this be improved if you were allowed to vote on discussion links on the book page? Just an "I found this discussion helpful" click which would move the real discussions to the top of the list.

Or maybe there's a better way to make these links useful - or maybe they're already useful to others, and I just haven't figured out a way to use them.

Karina,
Did you try using the edit view? It gives you an option for quickly adding multiple books to shelves.

The Top Reviewers idea sounds like it encompasses the aspects of the followers idea that I like. If I'm interested in someone's group activity, it's probably only because I'm already involved in or following a mutual group discussion.

Petra, in my mind posts are anything that I have checked to be included on my update feed. That would include book reviews and personal writing. I have no interest in having private conversations in groups - and in most cases, I have no problem with everyone reading whatever I write. That's why I've selected a public profile. But very rarely, I write a review and then realize that I'm not that comfortable sharing it with my mother or with the future high school students I will be teaching...and yet I would like to be able to keep all of my reviews as reviews here on GoodReads together under one profile. I think the ability to share a review with a select few friends would be nice. But not if it will upset the way everyone else uses GoodReads. I love GoodReads without this ability but think it could be better with some semi-private options added. And maybe I should look at using the private notes option - but this offends my organizational desire to have all of my reviews in one place. And I currently can't share private notes with anyone. In that case I could send the content in a personal message, but that's a lot of extra effort...when I can envision a different way to do things, which would be easier.

But easier for me doesn't always work for everyone else - this discussion has helped me see multiple sides to this issue that I hadn't previously considered. I still like my idea but I can better understand why others might not.

And by no means would I encourage private posts to public groups. It's disconcerting enough to see comments from 'deleted members' in groups - let alone to have whole chunks missing from a conversation. But if group moderators are requesting this ability, I would trust the judgment of the moderators in my groups to use it sparingly and wisely. Otherwise, I would probably leave the groups.

One of my thoughts (not well-formed or well explained) about the ability to select who can see posts is that it would allow the followers option while still allowing those who find it a bit creepy to opt out.

And as for why I would prefer followers to friends in some cases -
Some people consistently and prolifically write really good reviews. I would like to be able to conveniently read those reviews and vote for them. But in many cases, I'm not sure if I'd have much to offer to the friendship. Maybe after I've read several reviews and made some comments, I'd feel more like I was ready to actually be a friend.
It's not that I'm reluctant to share my reading and reviews with new friends. I'm more concerned about overwhelming a new friend's box with reviews or books added that they might not be interested in. My books added and reviews are very mixed - sometimes I go on week-long spells where I only read romance or picture books, which I'm sure don't interest most of my friends who are interested in fantasy or science.

I'd be okay with sending a request to be a follower - I don't want to be creepy or a stalker. But one of the other advantages to the follower option (without a request) is that people who get many friend requests would no longer be inundated with friend requests.

I like this idea. I am fairly certain that I would use it.
I also think it might be useful to be able to select who can see posts - maybe a check-box which would allow you to post for friends only or for friends and followers.

Lisa -
That's been my impression as well. If it happens infrequently, it seems like it would be reasonable to notify members and even provide some sort of forum for discussion or method to dispute changes.

I agree with those requesting some type of notification if GoodReads is going to edit or delete content posted by members - although I don't know if this is a reasonable request. How many deletions or edits to reviews occur on a daily basis?

I noticed this while answering trivia questions - very annoying. Of course, I usually have my computer muted, so I don't know how long this has been going on.