Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
Book & Author Page Issues
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The Kite Runner showing as Non-Fiction
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Elizabeth, Good that you noticed that. The Kite Runner is definitely a novel. I assume GR has to make this correction.Edit: Elizabeth, Where do you mean? Where do you see this at the top of a non-fiction list? I cannot find it. Thanks.
You're right Elizabeth, and it is definitely fiction!I also think that GR needs to fix this, I didn't see anything I could edit to change it's status from NF to fiction. Maybe put this in the BUGS section?
Lisa, I had to play around to find it, but if you go into Explore Books, then choose Most Read books, then click through to 'more Most Read books, then click on Non-Fiction in the thin little menu line of genres at the top of the list, it will pull them up, with Kite Runner in the #1 spot.
http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/n...I get The Ancestor's Tale.
I'm doing something differently from you two; I don't know what.
Can you please send a link to that page, where you see The Kite Runner?
Thanks. It's mostly curiosity since I am assuming it's GR who will have to fix this.
EDIT:
NEVER MIND! I got there:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/most_re...
A huge error, yes.
It's very strange because when I go to the book The Kite Runner the top shelves all show as fictional: fiction, novels, etc.
Yes, but when you click on the 'More shelves...' option, and click through a few pages, you see that some people have shelved it as non-fiction.http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/users/...
Yes, But I wouldn't think enough have done that to make it the # 1 top non-fiction book read.
Possibly the algorithm is "get all the books shelved by anyone as non-fiction; now, sort them according to which is most read"?
Hmm...true. Especially since it is only 12 people who have marked it non-fiction. Also, it's showing up in the #1 spot for most read non fiction in all three time slots, i.e. this week, this month, and all time.Ooh, wait, upon further investigation, I think I may have figured it out. It's not based on the number of people marking it non-fiction. The list seems to take everything taged as non-fiction, and then list them in order by the number of ratings.
Example, if you look at the list based on 'all time', you have
1) The Kite Runner 140,564 ratings
2) Eat, pray, love 73,519 ratings
3) The Diary of Anne Frank 56,635 ratings
So if even ONE person marks the Kite-Runner as non-fiction, it's going to go to the top of the list (unless of course something more popular gets marked non-fiction).
Vicki, Good catch. The way it's set up can cause some wacky data, that's for sure.
Maybe this issue should go in the bugs folder in the Feedback group.
This isn't a bug, per se. The system is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. It's user error, in the sense that some people are marking it as nonfiction.,It's also unfixable unless (1) GoodReads mandates categories for books (something which almost no one wants), or (2) GoodReads implements some sort of minimal shelving policy, i.e., a book can't just be highly rated but has to appear on a specific shelf in some minimum proportion to be counted. If the cutoff is 10%, for example, a book with 10000 ratings would have to be on a specific shelf at least 1000 times in order to be listed among the top books in that category. Because of the variance in book rating, the proportion would have to be fairly low, but it would eliminate the odd occurrence where one or just a handful of people put it on some odd shelf.
Michael, I understand it's not a true bug but I thought that's where it should be addressed because it is a bit of a problem. I like your number 2 option actually. I'd rather have a book left off a list than be on a list incorrectly. Just my opinion.
Here is the edition that this is happening with:
The Kite Runner
I don't know how to correct the problem, so maybe some one else with a better understanding of how the "Most Read" stats list works could take a look?