Michael’s Comments (group member since Apr 10, 2011)

Michael’s comments from the Goodreads Interviews group.

Thanks a bunch for your time, Candy :) I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with me about all of this stuff. I'm in the process of posting things online now, but I'll tell you once the finished version is up there....now, it looks kind of like a house being remodeled.

Thanks, and I'll see you around when you aren't wearing your sugary pseudonym!

Note: We finished the interview via instant messages on April 19, 2011. Here's the transcription of that conversation, with the most off-topic bits taken out. The interview ends abruptly because we simply moved into other topics and didn't declare the interview finished until quite a while later.

Bobbert: yo

Michael: wzup?

Okay, I'm taking a sec to look over what we've talked about thus far in the group..

Bobbert: obie kaybie

Michael: Okay, so, Bobbert, tell me, have you ever thought about quitting Goodreads?

Bobbert: Not really. It's never been a nuisance to me, so I've had no reason to quit. It's more mentally stimulating than most websites, so I don't usually feel like I'm wasting time when I'm on it.
As opposed to facebook, for example

Michael: So, Goodreads seems like a more useful space to hang out in? In what ways do you find it more stimulating?

Bobbert: I feel like the discussions are generally more intelligent, and I don't get a ton of unwanted invitations for crap.

Michael: lol, I'm witcha on the second part of that.

Bobbert: I don't know if I'd call it useful, but maybe just say "less useless"

Michael: Do you feel like participating in the site involves any kinds of learning?

Bobbert: I think that hearing different points of view on books than my own forces me to look at them differently. So it's enlightening in the way any book discussion is

Also, because of some of the reviewers I follow, I learn about things I would never consciously seek out to read.

For example, Brian's review of a legal companion where he broke down the Mos Eisley Millennium Falcon hiring into legal terms.

Michael: I loved that review, lol

Bobbert: Yeah! I think it depends which reviews you read, but there's fascinating stuff people are writing on there.

Michael: What about in terms of writing? Do you feel reviewing has had an impact on your writing?

Bobbert: Do you mean reading other reviews has changed the way I review?

Michael: Either that, or writing reviews has changed the way you write...not specifically the way you write reviews, but the way you write in other contexts as well


Bobbert: I don't really write much, but I've recently tried to write more, and I find that it's easier for me to write personal nonfiction... that is, themed and focused writing about myself and my life, rather than the "dear diary, this is what happened today" type of journaling I'd done in the past.

. . . .

Michael: Okay, next question:
What is the most fun experience you've ever had on Goodreads?

Bobbert: Anyway, yeah, I think it's made it a bit easier to focus my personal writing, because I feel like I have to in a review. And reading other reviews has made me think about different ways of writing a review.

Sorry. that was last question

Michael: No problemo, I didn't mean to cut you off

Bobbert: Probably the most fun experience would just be reading really enjoyable reviews. I enjoy poking around, but really good reviews are the best

Michael: What about the most unpleasant experience you've had on Goodreads?

Bobbert: Haters.

I mean, people who comment on reviews with un-helpful, mean-spirited comments

Michael: Have you had this happen on your reviews, or just seen it on others' reviews?

Bobbert: I don't think it's happened on any of my reviews, so I generally just ignore it. But sometimes I'll read on hoping that someone will give them what-for, but they don't generally give up easily

Bobbert: I've wondered why none of my reviews have gotten a response like that. Maybe they're just too much opinion and too little evidence for people to bother with

Michael: I don't know what causes trolls to do what they do. I've only had one or two passive aggressive comments on my reviews, and in both cases, the troller backed off after I'd retorted the first time

Are haters more annoying in WoW or on Goodreads?

Bobbert: WoW, because you can't just ignore or block them. Because it's a physical space, if someone wants to piss you off, they can do any number of things until you just log off
On GR, you can just ignore or block even the most annoying and they'll get bored.
Sent at 7:24 PM on Tuesday

Bobbert: Also, because it's a more intellectual crowd on GR, haters tend to mask their twerpery more

Michael: lol

Bobbert: there's very little of this on GR
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Michael: yes, it's much more a part of the discourse in WoW
Can you think of the worst experience you had in WoW with a hater?

Bobbert: Just general camping I think

Bobbert: I mean, I've heard of much worse, but just being killed 5 or 6 times in a row combined with people writing obnoxious things to me was enough to make me quit playing
And it seems to be more frequent on WoW

Bobbert: In GR people usually argue because they disagree with you or want to feel smart, but just being around is enough to get camped in WoW

Michael: How hard was it for you to quit WoW?

Bobbert: Not at all. I never really played all that much. There was too much tedium for me to really get into it

That combined with a monthly charge and the annoying players, it was only a matter of time

I would have liked it much more without the other players, which was sort of what sets it apart from other games

Michael: lol

How hard would it be to leave goodreads?

Bobbert: Harder. I wouldn't say it fills a void in my life or anything, but I do definitely look forward to reading the reviews of some reviewers, and writing a review is what I think of as the final step in reading a book.

It's also my most common website to poke around on

But when my wife and I went on vacation for a week, I didn't get on at all and can't say I really missed it much

Michael: So, it's entertaining and you're likely to keep returning, but you wouldn't feel like a piece of your social activities was missing if you stopped?

Bobbert: Not really. There are some people I'd interact with less if it weren't for GR, but I'd just have to call them more

Bobbert: But I'm not as active in comment threads as many.

Michael: What about groups? Are you active in any goodreads groups?

Bobbert: No. I honestly didn't even know there were groups on goodreads
You don't just mean discussions, do you?

Michael: Well, discussion groups, I guess....Like "The Extra Cool Group" that I invited you to?

Bobbert: Well, I guess I'm in that group, but I've probably only commented in threads in it once or twice.

Michael: okay, so you haven't joined any others, then?

Bobbert: no. I really think i use it more personally than many. The reviews I write are mostly for me, same as the ones I read. I don't have many comment discussions that have gone more than two or three responses

Bobbert: hold on. just found a role-playing group. Holla!

Michael: Yeah, there are quite a few of them, although I haven't joined any. Online roleplay like that seems like a sloooooooow process...but I say that having never tried it
I bet you can find some Twilight roleplaying groups, and fulfill all of your wishes to be a sparkly vampire!

Bobbert: Hence the holla

I don't think I have the internet attention span

. . . .

Haha! There's just something about Palin, isn't there? Insane people who don't know anything about politics seem to gravitate toward her like flies to feces, and everyone else--including a lot of conservatives--just wish she'd go back to helicopter hunting and leave politics alone.

Okay, last question: How anonymous do you feel it's possible to be on Goodreads? Obviously, THIS avatar is especially anonymous, but do you know people who maintain a high level of anonymity with their real profiles? Does this affect their interactions on the site?

That's excellent. I've now looked at the image above like four separate times, and it's still making me laugh!

Okay, next question: what is the least fun, most sucky thing you can recall happening on goodreads? On a scale of one to ten, one being dropping something and needing to pick it up, and 10 being the life of a child in an Edward Gorey book, how sucky was this experience?

Likewise, on a scale of entertainment, where would you place the most fun experience on goodreads?

HAHAHA, epic! Did you get a lot of pissed off people? People who loved them? What did you get?

What is the most fun thing you can remember happening on Goodreads?

Oh...my intention is to make it public when the presentation is put online, so the entire interviews can be linked to. So, if you want to modify any of your answers, I definitely won't be making this group public until May 7th or 8th, so you have time to make a few changes. Since the project and the interviews will be viewable online, I'll only quote things you feel comfortable keeping in this thread, so don't worry about keeping the original if you want to change anything....and, I'll be rereading this before I pull any quotes. In fact, I'll shoot you a message of the quotes I'm using so you can make sure you're comfortable with them.

How am I ungrateful, you old bastard? I said all kinds of nice things above. But now, I'm just gonna say your profile picture is stooooopid!

No, seriously, thanks for your insights into goodreads, and into what goodreads is like for you. And, at the risk of redundancy, I'll let you know once the project is posted on the site.

From the people I know, it seems like there's a wish to avoid the commercialism on goodreads, even though it's minor compared to a lot of sites. I think you're right. That could be one of the bigger reasons goodreads has been more successful than LibraryThing or Shelfari.

Thanks a bunch for letting me interview you, and I'll contact you--the real you, not your Liberty account--when I've posted the finished project. You've had some great insights, and this has been a lot of fun!

Do you have any last thoughts, or any questions you want to bring up before we officially conclude this sucker?

It sounds like you do a lot on Goodreads. What goes into managing your group? How large is it? Also, what do you do as a Goodreads Librarian? What kind of responsibilities does that come with?

The thread length isn't something anyone else has mentioned so far, and I think that is a barometer for status. It's interesting that, other than the "Best reviewers" list, there's not a whole lot of status markers that very many participants on this site pay attention to. Or, at least, not the people I've talked to about this stuff. It seems like there's a bit of ambivalence to status, although people tend to like getting votes.

Thanks for letting me interview you! This has been very helpful. I plan on posting the finished project on Goodreads, and I'll let you know when it has been posted so you can see the spiteful ways I've misquoted you.

I suppose I should ask if there's anything else you want to bring up about goodreads as a social space, or any questions you have for me?

That's a trend I've noticed too as people write more reviews on here: it seems to take a while to start developing a unique voice. Do you feel like noobs or people outside of the community get treated differently from others? If so, how?

And, how would you compare this to noob treatment in WOW?

Wonderful. Okay, I have one last long-answer question for ya. Do you feel like for some people on this website, there are ways of showing status or adeptness in the space? One example suggested in another interview is being included on the "Best Reviewers" list, but I'm curious about whether or not you've noticed any other ways people can show their skillz or status on goodreads.

Okay, two short answer questions: How many different groups are you active in?

The second one: How many goodreaders have you now met IRL?

That's true... In WoW, there's no way to forget it's for profit. Here, even reading the "about us" section of the site doesn't give you a sense of how goodreads makes money. It's pretty clear they want to be seen as a bunch of book lovers, and they want that to look like the reason for the site.

Okay, I probably didn't follow the bee thing as closely as I thought I did, since I don't remember the "not a democracy" comment....which would be especially humorous in a voting thread. Hmm. That does shine a different light on the mascot competition. I may be giving them more credit than I ought to because the mascot as a whole was something I was ambivalent about, so my reading of it was that a bunch of the potential mascots were discovered as copyrighted, and people got angry in the thread because of insults leveled at the bee and because the poll was still up and running, and then eventually the poll went away and there wasn't a mascot.

So, do you feel that goodreads could improve their public relations by acting a little less like regular site participants? How can that relationship become clearer and less awkward?

So, how many friends do you have on goodreads who you met here? Of those friends, do you interact with them all on occasion? What kind of interaction do you have with them?

Question part 2: As you read reviews or look at people's profiles, are there things people do or say that seem noobish? Have you noticed any visible any behavioral differences between experienced goodreaders and new people?

With the friends who are still around, do you interact less because your interests have grown farther apart? Why has your interaction with them lessened?

Also, how often do you normally log onto goodreads? How much time would you estimate you spend on goodreads?

I mentioned some of my thoughts on the bee thing in message 16, as far as how the site's controllers handled the reactions to the poll. But, I'm also curious about whether the situation reveals different philosophies within the community...different ideas of how conflict should be resolved.

Do you feel that the bee situation created resentment that persists? What about the bee situation brought out such a strong division between goodreaders?

Ha, I love the comparison with kindergarden! So, you don't believe the social aspect of the website encourages conformity as much as cooperation?

Aha, jumping back to something we only skimmed over: you said only a few of your better goodreads friends from early on have left the site. Do you know the reasons why any of them have left? I'm curious about what causes people to either just not come back, or to consciously decide to leave the website.

No problem; I've been having a hard time keeping up with all of the interviews at once. I hope you don't mind that we may take longer than the week I said it would? It looks from the other interviews that are farther along like it takes roughly 30 messages total to get through the questions.

Okay, new topic: think back to the first set of friends you made here on goodreads after joining the site. I'm thinking of the people you interacted with quite a bit, not LITERALLY your first friends.

How many of those people are still active on the website? How many of them have drifted away? Do you know the reasons why any of those who aren't here anymore left?

Wax philosophical on why people keep returning, and also why people decide to leave the site.