New Navigation Bar on Goodreads

Do you go to prime sign up page now? I have prime so it's an ordinary home page button for me. I found prime was worth it, because I do most of my shopping online (no car) the next day delivery free on everything (instead of taking 5 days for orders over £20) and is really useful especially for sacks of dogfood. Plus you get amazon music which has pretty much all I would ever want to listen to for free.

Vickie wrote: "Honestly it's driving me crazy that people are acting like this is some newfangled thing. I don't even remember there being a home button on the previous layout."

I hate to come off catty but it's *almost* like a younger relation had to hammer it into heads that they had to hit the "G" to go to the homepage when they first set everything up for them and now it's not the G any more where is it, what do I do, I might break it if I click around, and why can't it go back to how it was when young Freddie showed me what to do.

I hate it! I can't navigate back and forth anymore. Why change it,

Eyehavenofilter wrote: "I hate it! I can't navigate back and forth anymore. Why change it,"

If you mean "Where is the Home button?", the goodreads logo works like the home button.

I can't think what else you mean by not being able to navigate back and forth ...

Your new design SUCKS! How do I get to the page that lists the books I am reading? That's the page I go to. Now it's difficult to find.

There was nothing wrong with the old page. If it isn't broken don't mess with it.

You can't make SH.. without IT

The books you're reading are on the home page.

You can get to the home page by clicking on the goodreads logo.

OK, I found something I do NOT like with the new navigation. When you start typing in something to search for, it used to pull up a MUCH longer list of results. Now it looks like it's 5. I'm pretty sure it used to be like 10+ things, right? When I search for an author, if they have like 20 stories, showing only 5 results is pretty crappy. Can we get more results to come up in the search drop down box?

Have you tried going to the Author's page where all their books are listed?

After sitting with it for a minute, I actually like this. It seems to be all neat and organized now. I don't think that it really could've used changing, but if this is the new layout, I can get used to it. I can't speak for how the page actually looks visually if it's a brighter color or not as I can't see that, but sitting with the new navigation bar for a minute it's all good for me.

Vickie wrote: "Have you tried going to the Author's page where all their books are listed?"

OK, maybe that was a bad example. I search by author or title or series name, but if there are a lot of choices, it was a long list of books. Now it's just 5.

First impression: it takes up so much space at the top of the page!
I foresee lots and lots of scrolling in my future...

I miss the viewing the most read books by week, month, and last 12 months globally and by country. Please remember to include this helpful feature:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/most_r...

Thanks,

Leslie wrote: "I am frustrated with the fact that my notifications are now just a source of aggravation - I get them but can't use them as they now send me to a random post in the thread..."

Yes, I've noticed that too. I've had to scroll up about half a page pretty much every time recently.

I will say though, that the order of comments does not change for me; but when I go to My Books, it doesn't retain my settings.

You know, with all the questions and the increasingly testy answers about the Home button/GR logo, they really should have added that into the article. But then, given the demonstrated poor listening skills, I guess we shouldn't be surprised.

Dawn wrote: "You know, with all the questions and the increasingly testy answers about the Home button/GR logo, they really should have added that into the article. But then, given the demonstrated poor listeni..."

Every time someone asks it's like how I imagine nails down a chalkboard would be if it bothered me.

Ilsa wrote: "Actually, I'm slowly getting used to this. It's still a pain and I really hate the change away from originality, but I can adapt, barely.

Not to interrupt you guys, but this is one of the most vie..."

Voted, very nice trees! :D

Where is the home button ?
Went to view 'my books', could not find the button for main page.
Had to get off site, then get back on site!!!

Marlene wrote: "I miss the viewing the most read books by week, month, and last 12 months globally and by country. Please remember to include this helpful feature:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/most_r......"

I was just looking for that feature in the new system and couldn't find it anywhere. Hopefully someone knows where it is and can tell us. I hope it's not gone.

Also really liked to see my name top right side,,, not there....!

Linda wrote: "Where is the home button ?
Went to view 'my books', could not find the button for main page.
Had to get off site, then get back on site!!!"

The goodreads logo is the home button.

Thanks, Vickie!

Goodreads keeps changing things that don't need changing! :/

Meghan, can you please put this bug through to the developers?

When you add a quote, you put in the author and title (title is optional). You click save. This brings up the captcha. But the captcha strips out the title, so when you do the captcha and click save again, it saves the quote without the title that you had previously entered. Assuming you notice this has happened, you then have to go back and edit the quote and re-insert the title.

BTW I have brought up this bug several times, beginning a few months ago, and it still exists.

I do not like this new update, but I know I am going to have to get used to it. Something like this happened to another website I used a lot, and they changed the ENTIRE website. So I don't think this update is that bad, but that doesn't mean I like it. I think it would be best for people to stop "complaining" and "get over it" since GR is not going to pay attention to you, I know from experience. They never do since they simply do not care sometimes. It’s their way or no way. At least, I believe, GR gave y’all a heads up; most websites do not and just change everything without giving a notice to the users, which happened to the website I talked about in the beginning. This is just my two cents.

Amber wrote: "Susanna - Censored by GoodReads wrote: "Crap, I have the "new and unimproved" taskbar.

And the number of times "the goodreads symbol is the home page link" is repeated just reinforces the need for..."

The Amber who commented on post #586. Similar/same writing style. Prob same person.

Meran wrote: "Amber wrote: "Susanna - Censored by GoodReads wrote: "Crap, I have the "new and unimproved" taskbar.

And the number of times "the goodreads symbol is the home page link" is repeated just reinforce..."

Following that logic you could also say that the 80 people who have all asked variations on "where is the home button now?" are all the same person, and they have created all those accounts just to annoy Lindsay and Vickie.

Just want to say that there was a certain amount of confusion typified by an internet explorer page that would load with about 30 toolbars in my dad's past. But these days he's far outstripped my knowledge when it comes to the iPad and says things like "need a device that allows multiple log ins" and I can build computers.

If he had found this thread he would be going crackers about people of his generation playing the old and confused game when work computers started to show up in offices 30 years ago (unless you worked in science and then they have been around since the 60s) , and the internet started to spread 15 years ago, so all this is no longer even remotely newfangled or even the property of the young.

Vickie wrote: "Gail wrote: "I don't see the home button I use it to check my reading challenge also what my friends are reading"

Click... On... The... Goodreads... Logo..."

Thank you!

I'm having a problem with the search function. At home, where I'm forced to be on dialup, the search box starts trying to find matches to the first four letters/numbers I've entered. When I keep typing the rest of the search terms and hit the search button, it dumps everything after the first 4 giving me usually useless results. For example: I was trying to find Garrison Keillor, but the search kept giving me results for 'Garr'. The only way I could get it to search correctly was to go up and replace 'garr' with 'garrison' in the search url. I don't need the search page to try to out-think me and it shouldn't ignore the rest of the search terms just to give me instant results. A way to turn off the instant results function would be useful.

This 'update' completely ruined the site for me. At work we are using an old browser and basic features like 'search' no longer work. Thanks for shutting out those users who are forced to use old browsers.

Marlene wrote: "I miss the viewing the most read books by week, month, and last 12 months globally and by country. Please remember to include this helpful feature:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/most_r......"

I couldn't care less.

Bargle wrote: "I'm having a problem with the search function. At home, where I'm forced to be on dialup, the search box starts trying to find matches to the first four letters/numbers I've entered. When I keep ty..."

try author's name inverted: e.g., Keillor, Garrison

Jane wrote: "Bargle wrote: "try author's name inverted: e.g., Keillor, Garrison "
That may help when doing a name search, but it also cuts off the number if I'm doing an ISBN/ASIN number search.

Still, thanks for the suggestion. I'll try it on my next name search.

Jane wrote: "Marlene wrote: "I miss the viewing the most read books by week, month, and last 12 months globally and by country. Please remember to include this helpful feature:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/most_r......"

I couldn't care less. ."

Even I think that's rude.

Meran wrote: "Amber wrote: "Susanna - Censored by GoodReads wrote: "Crap, I have the "new and unimproved" taskbar.

And the number of times "the goodreads symbol is the home page link" is repeated just reinforce..."

Then it wasn't me unless the other Amber has the same avatar I do.

Learnin Curve: Uh...don't go there! LOL. Re: "Following that logic you could also say that the 80 people who have all asked variations on "where is the home button now?" are all the same person, and they have created all those accounts just to annoy Lindsay and Vickie. "

Sounds like I might have liked your Dad. Re: "If he had found this thread he would be going crackers about people of his generation playing the old and confused game when work computers started to show up in offices 30 years ago (unless you worked in science and then they have been around since the 60s) , and the internet started to spread 15 years ago, so all this is no longer even remotely newfangled or even the property of the young. "

Bargle: WTF are you doing STILL using DIAL UP? Where are you, stuck in the Dark Ages?!

Oh my dad is very much still with us lol, literally, he's very active on goodreads. I'm assuming he read the blog post when it first came up, clicked about a bit to find where everything had been moved to and carried on as usual.

Didn't understand you when I posted then, Learnin Curve. Sorry.

I think the command to force everyone to look at a recommended book must have come from your Amazon overlords, because I notice whenever I search for anything over there the results are always filled with sponsored crap.

Just know that every book you or Amazon try to force down my throat is a book I will never read, never buy.

The same way that when GR Authors try to spam their books here on the site, whether via Listopia or in groups or however, these authors are immediately blackballed by me.

Lobstergirl wrote: "I think the command to force everyone to look at a recommended book must have come from your Amazon overlords, because I notice whenever I search for anything over there the results are always fill..."

I suspect there's some truth to this. And I, too, will not buy or likely even read things forced on me. I can find my own books, thank you.

If I delete all my favorite/preferred genres, will the genres list and the recommendation in the dropdown go away?


Staff please answer.

Meghan, characters are an absolute hot mess. There is a tremendous bug, I guess.

Let's say you have ten recurring characters who are in multiple books of a 4 book series.

When you go into "edit book" and add characters, choosing a character from the list on the right is supposed to add that unique, already-existing profile to the book. Instead, it creates a new profile with the same name.

You have no idea this bug exists unless you then go to the book page and click on the character you have just added; if it were working properly it should then bring up all books in the series where this character features. But it only brings up the book you just added the character to, because it created it anew.

This is the opposite of how it's supposed to work; selecting a name from the right hand column suggests the character profile is already in the system and that is the profile you are choosing.

This has been broken for so long it's ridiculous. Since the characters and settings were redone/recoded.

Lobstergirl wrote: "If I delete all my favorite/preferred genres, will the genres list and the recommendation in the dropdown go away?
"

Don't think the staff give a hoot. But that's what I did. Of course, you can't not have a favourite genre - it won't let you unclick everything - so I put "none" in as a custom genre and unclicked the rest. Now the advertising space comes up blank and takes up only a 1/4 of the screen and not 3/4 of the screen.

Elentarri wrote: "Don't think the staff give a hoot. But that's what I did. Of course, you can't not have a favourite genre - it won't let you unclick everything - so I put "none" in as a custom genre and unclicked the rest. Now the advertising space comes up blank and takes up only a 1/4 of the screen and not 3/4 of the screen. "

Thanks. I did use Adblock which removes the recommended book and it tells me there is an "error loading featured books in genre" - so basically the dropdown is the same size/width, but it's empty white instead of containing content. Is that what you see, empty white with no content, or did the dropdown itself get narrower?

@Lobstergirl: The dropdown has an empty white square with no content. It is a bit narrower since there aren't all those listed genres and giant book cover pictures.

Thanks.

This "Click On The Goodreads Logo" secret reminds me of those video games back in the day, like "Leisure Suit Larry", where they hid stuff around the screen and you had to find your way to the women and treasure by mouse hunt.

<< hmmm.... maybe I should make sure I've moused over ALL of the "New Layout" - Who knows *what* could be buried in there ... >>

Duane wrote: "This "Click On The Goodreads Logo" secret reminds me of those video games back in the day, like "Leisure Suit Larry", where they hid stuff around the screen and you had to find your way to the women..."

LOL! :)

Wow, GoodReads users are pretty vicious... an update comes out and there's no "Okay, I like this about it, this not so much," but instead it's a beeline to "I hate it! There's nothing good and you've ignored everything else I wanted! I haven't seen it yet, but I know I hate change!"

I'm sure GoodReads is not perfect, but it would seem pretty disheartening, not to mention discouraging, to a team who does put some kind of work into the user experience if looking at the feedback comments is like opening a box of hornets.

There's a way to give constructive critique without belittling comments towards people themselves. Things like "Why don't you ever learn?" or sarcastic "We needed this, but I guess the GoodReads team is just going to ignore us because they feel like it" - are these helpful? Everyone's experience is surely different, but in mine, stuff like this would just make me bitter at the ungratefulness of people for whatever work you have actually done.

Re: comments about homepage button - Clicking on the main logo of the website takes you to the home page... this is the same for millions of websites nowadays. Is the struggle really so real, everybody?

Re: " " confusing interface - Honestly, the old one was more bloated, and this design has consolidated a lot of things that seemed redundant.

Re: " " change - How many of you actually quit Facebook after their gazillionth interface update? Many of you, yes. But I have yet to find a book site with nearly as good usability as GR. So if you know any, toss in all suggestions here. (Also, if I were GoodReads team, seeing competition mentioned in positive light on my own page would light a fire under me much more effectively than hearing the majority of my users hate everything I do...)

Re: " " options to keep old versions - maintaining outdated versions to be available for users bogs down a website, where the backstage crew has to spend time and resources making sure ALL the versions that EVERYONE wants stay functioning and ready to use. This then takes away time from progress that they could make and good ideas/innovation that could be introduced. Yes, you are slightly less comfortable and it feels good to have a cry about something unfamiliar, but there was a time when people generally thought seatbelts were a superfluous annoyance too.

On the boycotting books advertised by Amazon idea - that's awful. The authors didn't decide that, their publishers and/or Amazon did. As a reviewer I try and do what's best for the authors.

Vickie wrote: "On the boycotting books advertised by Amazon idea - that's awful. "

So is shoving HUGE adverts down our throats. I'm perfectly capable of using the search function, the lists, the new releases section, recommendations and all those other options to find the books I want WITHOUT having useless, random advertising taking up 3/4 of my screen.

adblock?

I only see a small recommendations box under my reading list with enough space for 3.5 books in it on my home page.