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unsolicited praise >
LOVE LOVE THE PROGRESS BAR
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I second Ken-Ichi's suggestion for mobile page/status updates...my iPhone Safari crashes every time I try to update it via the normal GoodReads page. I guess adding page updates was kind of a can of worms!
As an aside, I see there've been some requests for a more mobile-friendly version of the site, which of course would take a huge amount of work. If an SMS interface were to be introduced for updates, perhaps it could relieve some of the demands for a mobile version of the site, too. For instance, now that there's an ordered to-read list, a user could text "query to-read" to goodreads and get an SMS with 160 characters from the top of her or his to-read list? Just an idea.
Before I've moved those books to the read shelf, I've moved the progress bar to the last page of the book and then when I move the book to the read shelf the progress bar disappears.
Does the progress bar not disappear when you move the book to the "read" shelf?I clicked on a book's page and was scrolling down to read my friends' reviews and several still had their progress bars on, even though the book had been moved to the "read" shelf. Should that be happening?
When you click on "Update Status" from the home page (where it shows what you are currently reading) it should give you a drop-down so that you can choose which book you want to update. It then updates only that book and leaves the others as they were.
Hope that helps... =)
I have 2 books I'm currently reading. I can only update one of them. Today, I updated 'Cry Wolf' & I can't seem to update 'Future Shock'. The only update status link is for 'Cry Wolf' right now. How do I switch between them?
We can see our friends' progress bars from the book's page, so this feature could be very useful for book clubs where all the members are on Goodreads, particularly if they mark the book as a currently reading one and use the progress bar. Thanks. (I"ll have to let my book club members know, in case they'd like to use it.)
If you move a book to the read shelf, the progress bar seems to stay at your last status update. Do you have to update your status to the final page before moving it so the bar will show up as full? And does the update timer keep ticking or am I not understanding it correctly?
Interesting. I'm sure you guys have thought about page/note updates from mobile devices. How about Twitter direct messages would as a good short-term (or even long-term) solution? I think texting "d gr p108 some kind of note" would be a great way for me to use this feature, since having an open laptop anywhere near me when I'm trying to read is a recipe for massive distraction. Jott integration would be cool, too, though it looks like it might require a premium Jott subscription. Grr.I suppose I should be careful what I wish for now...
I too first felt a resistance on using this feature, but now it seems challenging! Especially if more people start to use it and post comments like the "margin notes" as Otis called it.
I also liked the reasons by Stephen (its help to publishers) and by Lisa (book clubs usage)
I'm really liking it as well!
Just a suggestion/question, though: could it be made into some sort of widget for Blogger too?
Otis - this is feeding into my OCD. Can there by an option to turn off the update bar please? I do like it but if I am to read a book more than every two days (!) then there have to be less reasons for playing with Goodreads continually. Thank you.
P.S. I like the color of the bar, and the low-key colors of the site in general. It makes members' photos and book covers pop.
Re: audiobooksThe most obvious measure for audiobooks might be disc number. Of course the reader reads out the chapter numbers where given, but I doubt anyone pays attention to that. Disc (or tape) number would work for physical medium audiobooks.
A few changes in the works:
- Adding update status to book pages
- Adding a page to see all your updates for a given book
- Adding a page to see everyone's updates for a given book
And we still need to address the page vs percent issue.
I personally haven't found much use for the progress bar yet. Mostly because I read at night after I turn off the computer. The computer and my latest book are always in separate rooms. But it will be nice when the latest Laurell K. Hamilton book comes out. Several of my friends buy and read her books almost immediately after they're released. So it would be useful in avoiding giving away spoilers when you and a friend are reading a book in parallel.
I was wondering about a different kind of progress bar. For those of us who give ourselves informal goals of reading 50 or 100 books in a year, how about a progress bar showing how many books we've read so far this year?
Okay I'm in agreement that it is more useful if those within a group reading the same book can see where the others are and gauge how long before a discussion starts or whatever. Now that is a use for this which makes sense to me.
But, I thought it would show if we went to the book's page and saw each under other currently reading.Maybe that's still to come? Because that's what would make the feature excellent!
Otis said he'd make it default to not show on our feeds; I don't think that's been done yet and that it does show on our feeds for now.Dottie,
Yes, we are all linked as friends. But, I thought it would show if we went to the book's page and saw each under other currently reading. Nobody else is using this feature so I cannot check that out.
It does seem to show on my profile page, as long as it's one of the 3 "top" currently reading books.
But I have no real interest in it for myself, so if we can't see it from the book's page currently reading members, I don't have much use for it myself.
That is one thing I love about Goodreads though. Different people like different feature and we can all pick & choose how we use the site. I'm happy that other members are enjoying the progress bar.
Don't get wrong, I think the progress bar is a really nice feature and I can see how it could be useful for a bookclub. But for someone with my particular set of neuroses and the number of books I read at a time, its just not feasible to have the bar there - I can't ignore it, I simply must adjust it for each and every book - and remain unmedicated :-)
Lisa -- yes, it's easy to simply ignore and there's nothing wrong with it as far as that goes. I realize others find it more enticing than I do. I just am underwhelmed as I indicated.
About the members of the book club being interested -- the only way they see it is when it feeds on their own home page updates if you are all linked as friends, correct? Or am I missing something? If it became an option to feed this, or if the default become NOT to have it show up on the home page then unless we share it, noone else sees it -- at least I thought that was right.
It's easier, since I'm usually reading during lunch at work (in front of the computer) and at night before bed (with a computer in the room, and I always check my email before turning off the lights). It certainly cuts down on the laughable number of scraps of paper littering my desk and bedroom, which somehow never make it back into the books after I take them out!
Brooke, But then you have to remember to continually update the progress bar. Will you remember to do that? ;-)
I actually find it easy to ignore as it is now.
I am not one of the members that really see a use for this feature.
However, I am trying it out with one of my currently reading books. It's a book for my book club and my book club members are all Goodreads members, so I thought it might have some interest for them. Probably not and I don't know if I'll ever use it again, but it's fun to experiment.
Petra X -- I've decided to ignore it for much the same reason -- it doesn't seem like a necessary to me -- I KNOW how much or little I've read in each book so why keep renewing the info in the progress bar if it's seen by no one other than myself? I could be reading a few more pages instead. This is the first change which was so desired by so many folks which now that it's here -- I just really am not seeing the appeal of it. That's a long way around of saying I want to be able to turn it off option, too..
I want to turn it off. Its driving me crazy. I need prozac or something so I won't keep thinking about it and how many pages I've read. The way I'm going I'm going to need a 12-step for GR.
Sorry it's taken me a while to get back to this. I was on the book page (my review). It may have been an IE thing because I've done it since with Safari and it didn't hang at all.
Probably being not v clever, but where do I find this to use it? I am a new member of this group, which may be relevant.:-)
As an avid audiobook "reader" exactly which hole do I plug into to get this PROGRESS BAR to run?... and if you go back in your book, to re-listen on a chapter or so, will the bar reduce itself to?
Could the bar be broken up for let say hating or loving what you are reading?
Keep all these great and useful ideas coming.
How about an I'm crying now bar?
Maybe a plethora of choices could be offered. How is the cd separated up? By chapters, or some other way?
Hmm. I've just not been updating status on my audiobooks, but I listen to them on CD usually, and percentage would not be very logical for that. So it seems to me that there's not really one solution that will work for all sorts of audiobook listeners (plenty of people still use cassettes, as well.) As I've said, I'm pretty happy to update my paper pages and ignore my audiobook progress, but I'm probably not the only person using CDs or tapes here.
Don't forget percentage for us audiophiles. I'd suggest adding two fields also as an option, one for the page, minute or percentage and the next an optonal field for the number of pages, removing the multiple edition issue.
Oh, I had no idea we could do that! That's awesome, Otis! And they can comment on my statuses. Very neat.
Elizabeth: page number is optional if you add a comment - what page were you on when you had that problem?Grumpus: I like your solution!
Stephen: Yes we keep all page numbers. If you click the timestamp on any status you'll find a page that shows that status, and a link on the right to view all statuses for that person. We're hoping to do a lot more around the statuses soon!
I love this feature.Are you going to remember the page numbers as data points? It would be cool to see graphs of how individuals and all of us read books. I keep thinking of how feedback via Steam and Xbox Live has influenced computer game design - could this end up having a similar influence on books? Imagine anthologists being able to see which story stumped their readers, or publishers being able to see which books went largely unfinished.
Just had this idea for the audiobook issue...what if on the "edit book" page (I guess that limits this to librarians), the wording for "number of pages" was simply changed to "length of book"?Grumpus, I like this idea! It would also be useful for ebooks if it could give the file size.
Just had this idea for the audiobook issue...what if on the "edit book" page (I guess that limits this to librarians), the wording for "number of pages" was simply changed to "length of book"? Then just have a small box to indicate whether the field represents "pages" (which should be the default) or "minutes" for audio. That way the math is not affected in the progress calculations and the text is easily picked up by the box checked.
I've done this with FDR's Folly on my profile under currently reading as an example. The progress bar shown is correct but the verbiage states "page" 352 of 566. Instead, it should read "minute" 352 of 566 which could be compensated for by the check box in the proposed "length of book" field instead of the current "pages" as discussed above.
Whaddya think?
