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group discussion
topic:
unsolicited praise >
LOVE LOVE THE PROGRESS BAR
Is it actually a progress bar? Because on my page I see it's all text: x amount of pages and then my comment. I love the new progress feature, I've been really looking forward to it, but it would be cool if there was a visual indicator too to make it look a little more appealing.
Oh, I see it! I had deleted the number of pages. D'oh. Thanks, Cyril! :) It's awesome! What do you think of the color of the bar?
I have been looking forward to this feature and the wait has been worth it!
I do have one concern...for us audiofiles (shameless plug), how are we to easily indicate our progress?
If we're designating the book correctly as an audio edition, then we don't get a "number of pages" which is used as the base for which the progress percentage is determined.
This wonderful progress bar stresses the need to have a field for "total minutes" for audiobooks. Further, while not needed for the progress bar, we would still like to have a field for "narrators name" as well. The ability to search for titles by narrator would be awesome.
We audiobookers know of the debate of whether listening really counts as reading but we are not the ugly step-sisters of Goodreads and feel strongly about having equal consideration.
To semi-quote John Merrick (The Elephant Man), "We are not animals, we are human beings, and Goodreaders like everyone else here!" :-)
Seriously, any suggestions to help us with the progress bar calculation and consideration in adding these additional fields is greatly appreciated.
Thank you for the progress section. I wasn't so much excited about the bar but about having the ability to add comments on the book as I was reading it (especially with some of the very long books I read).
I tried putting in a comment today without the page number, since I rarely look at that or care about them, and the feature just kept spinning/hanging.
I know it's brand new but would you please add an enhancement to allow for comments without a page number and, or allow for text in the page number section? I'd like to say "just started" rather than page 28...
Thank you again for adding this, I think it will be a lot of fun.
The drop down menu has a general selection and I typed info in without putting any page numbers in for any of the books -- at least on my home page that worked.
This is definitely a cool new feature, but, like Grumpus, I would love to have an alternative for audibooks. For now, I will do as Dottie suggested and put it in the comment section.
And, I also second the request from Grumpus to have a listing for narrators of audiobooks.
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?
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.
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.
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!
Oh, I had no idea we could do that! That's awesome, Otis! And they can comment on my statuses. Very neat.
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.
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.
Maybe a plethora of choices could be offered. How is the cd separated up? By chapters, or some other way?
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?
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.:-)
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.
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.
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 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.
Brooke, But then you have to remember to continually update the progress bar. Will you remember to do that? ;-)
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!
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.
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 :-)
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.
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!
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.
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?
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.
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.
