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Why is Booklikes preferred site
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Jeffrey
(new)
Sep 26, 2013 01:04PM
did anyone check out The Reading Room or another such site. Why is Booklikes the place to go.
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Thanks for asking, Jeffrey. I'm curious, too.
So far I think the main reason people are picking up Booklikes is because of the ease of transfer and the fact that Booklikes is making a clear case that it won't do what GR is doing with shelves and content. In fact Booklikes is going out of its way to present itself as the alternative - and in doing so it's obvious that they're paying attention to what everyone is upset about. In being so responsive it makes GR lack of communication with users seem even more unfriendly.The other sites aren't really the same - or the ones I've looked at so far. For example I looked at my old Library Thing account and was going to change to it - but then remembered I can only add 200 books total for it unless I give them some money.
I'll check out others on the list - there are more. What will be a deal breaker for me will be a site that I can't export data from. I have to be able to both upload my csv backup file from GR, but also get that data back from the new website whenever I want it.
Thanks, Batgrl. I do like the fact that BL puts it all up front about what they will or won't do. And, they are very responsive to emails. I just have to decide if I like this open system where anybody can follow anybody. I've been private/friends only for a while now, and I want to see how much control BL gives the blogger over interaction with the general public.
And, I've been on tumblr a while, and some times it's unreadable with everyone re-blogging everybody's posts. I don't know if BL works like that or not.
And, I've been on tumblr a while, and some times it's unreadable with everyone re-blogging everybody's posts. I don't know if BL works like that or not.
The first people I knew were leaving, all headed to BL, and they also happened to be on the Most Popular Reviewers lists, so they had hundreds of friends and followers. I didn't want to lose contact with them so...
In my infinitely small amount of time left in my day after working reading sleeping tv viewing talking to my wife dealing with fantasy football good reads candy crush my 10 year old twins and their busy lives book reviews information deluge news input cnn, msnbc the stock market fox NY times I will have to look into this site -- and I have been meaning to go to bed before 2:00 am today. Guess its not a good day to not be sleep deprived
I tried LibraryThing, but there doesn't seem to be much user interaction there - I think it is just the culture that LT is for categorizing books for yourself rather than discussing them.I am trying Booklikes because that is where everyone seems to be going, and so far I like it. And yeah, because it can import my books and reviews and shelves. I will have to tidy up, but it will mostly be there for me.
It would be good if BookLikes allowed us to set up some discussion boards. I quite like the format...it's a bit clunky in parts but it looks good and I have 1/2 stars. Don't know how many times I've suggested GR should have 1/2 stars and they've always responded with the same old "it's too hard / nobody wants it" mantra. Doesn't look so hard over at BookLikes.
Ian wrote: "It would be good if BookLikes allowed us to set up some discussion boards."I've heard groups are coming soon to BL, to keep us Goodreaders happy.
Batgrl wrote: "So far I think the main reason people are picking up Booklikes is because of the ease of transfer and the fact that Booklikes is making a clear case that it won't do what GR is doing with shelves a..."Have we figured out if we can export out of BL? Or is the fact that we can sync back to GR good enough...
There's no export or groups yet, but they said that both are high up on the roadmap. In the meantime, once the importing is done, syncing to GR allows csv download from here, as a stopgap. They are certainly aware that those two things are a dealbreaker for some users.
And there's a pretty comprehensive API, so third party options are a possibility (they announced today their first ios app, android and windows phone under development, and I am thinking a booklikes-sync plugin to calibre similar to the existing GR one is not impossible.)
I have to say, I spent a couple of minutes looking at The Reading Room, and it is about the ugliest interface I've ever seen. I just can't do it.Has anybody explored Riffle?
Can I import my books and shelves from Goodreads to Booklikes, guys? I really don't feel like manually adding all my books again.
Moonlight Reader (fka Christine) wrote: "Has anybody explored Riffle?"I just took a quick peek. I like the look of it. Instead of groups they have "questions". You can also create lists.
Ella wrote: "Can I import my books and shelves from Goodreads to Booklikes, guys? I really don't feel like manually adding all my books again."Yes. Check under settings. (Link is at the top of the page, shaped like a gear wheel.)
Ella wrote: "Can I import my books and shelves from Goodreads to Booklikes, guys? I really don't feel like manually adding all my books again."You also need to export your books from GR to a CSV file. If you go to "My Books" at GR, scroll down and on the left hand side you'll see an option "import/export", click on that and you'll go to a new page. On the top right is an option "export to csv file". Click that and save it to your desktop.
Go to booklikes and click on the cog in your menu bar. Click on the tab that says "import". Click on "connect" (synchronization). Then click on "import books from Goodreads" and select the csv file you saved earlier.
Just one other thing. I'm not sure if rush hour is over, but they were swamped with people exporting books from GR. It's not a huge file but with the huge influx from GR it took me over a week to get my books there. Just don't get annoyed when your books aren't there 5 minutes after you've clicked import. In the end I just forgot about it and eventually they all showed up.
Ian wrote: "Just one other thing. I'm not sure if rush hour is over, but they were swamped with people exporting books from GR. It's not a huge file but with the huge influx from GR it took me over a week to g..."I have 952 books and, so far, it's taken five (5) days to import just under ½ of my books. I don't know how long it will be before the import process is completed.
Riffle's more like pinterest crossed with listopia.There's no reviews there, just ratings and recommendations (which can have a short note why you recommend it (max 256 char) and a notes tab that I guess is meant for reviews, but nobody seems to use it. No import of any kind.
Riffle's DB has very few foreign books and non-fiction (I have a handful of tried and true books I throw at all these sites, and it had none of them - worst showing so far, by a long shot.) Booklikes, given a couple of days, found all my books, even the foreign ones, and even things like really obscure psychology textbooks in swedish.
Not for me, but if you're a heavy listopia user, you might like it, but as an adjunct to something else to keep a serious book catalog or reviews. It's also probably a good place for the "I'd just like a tip what to read next" crowd too.
Gonna take a look at Slice too (but facebook login only, ugh. I have a fake facebook account for just such uses though :) This looks a bit big brotherish though, it asked for email access to "add books you've bought online", I guess by looking for amazon mails. The combo of enforced FB connection and email access (although you can turn that down) just put me right off. Does have GR import though.
ETA: Heh. Gave Slice a try: No foreign books, little non-fiction. And I managed to completely crash the site by giving it this to lookup: Inky: Seeing Eye Dog
Thanks for the help, guys! I'll start the import soon and try using the new site. ❤
Moonlight Reader (fka Christine) wrote: "Has anybody explored Riffle?"I joined, but have done nothing over there; I'm even more lost there than I am at BL. Agreed, it looks very like Pinterest, which does not compute for me with books.
Honestly, when I came back online after being away for months and discover GR new ownership, I went looking for an alternate. I've been around the block when it comes to type of thing. I saw Booklikes. I like what it offers such as blogging and the ability to reblog and man it something like Tumblr. It still take some getting use to though.
How clean is the import to Booklikes? With all my shelves and books, is there anything special I should be aware of?
UniquelyMoi *Dhestiny* wrote: "How clean is the import to Booklikes? With all my shelves and books, is there anything special I should be aware of?"My books are still uploading, so I haven't checked them out too much, but I have started cleaning up the reviews because the html gets stripped, so there are no paragraph breaks, bolding, italics, spoilers buttons, etc.
Thanks, Sunny! That's part of what I was wondering about. I use quite a bit of html in my reviews.A lot of people post images in their reviews. How are those transferring over? Do they show or disappear?
UniquelyMoi *Dhestiny* wrote: "Thanks, Sunny! That's part of what I was wondering about. I use quite a bit of html in my reviews.A lot of people post images in their reviews. How are those transferring over? Do they show or di..."
I haven't heard anything about images. Most of the people I follow are busy setting up their blog, figuring out the settings, and cleaning up reviews as they come in.
UniquelyMoi *Dhestiny* wrote: "Thanks, Sunny! That's part of what I was wondering about. I use quite a bit of html in my reviews.A lot of people post images in their reviews. How are those transferring over? Do they show or di..."
Images disappear, formatting too.
BL have 5 exclusive shelves "read", "planning to read", "wishlist", "currently reading", "favourite".
My books from exclusive shelf "let's add all books" now is in exclusive "planning to read" Not that bad.
More about shelves. They first import books then shelves and at last reviews. So if one your shelves are missing and reviews too don't worry, they are going to show up.
BTW They added all my books even these without IBSN
When Amazon bought Goodreads I created memberships at BookLikes, LibraryThing, and Reading Room. I didn't like Reading Room's terms of service so I deleted my account there. I tried LibraryThing for awhile but didn't really like it, the interface was old fashioned and although there were groups there were no moderators tools and you couldn't delete your comments or make group shelves or do polls or anything much. They were really more like old style bulletin boards.Even though BookLikes doesn't have groups yet I liked the interface, I liked the blog feature, and I liked the way the shelves look. Also half stars and the staff seems very responsive. Most of all I liked the Terms of Service, which very explicitly state that our content is ours to control.
Why is everyone choosing to head to BL from GR in the first place? Just because amazon purchased GR? Just confused..
Jaclyn wrote: "Why is everyone choosing to head to BL from GR in the first place? Just because amazon purchased GR? Just confused.."Because of this:
Important Note Regarding Reviews
When Amazon purchased Goodreads most people who headed out went to LibraryThing, but that site is out of the stone age and the locals are a lot less friendly and social than we are used to here, so I think people were looking for something a bit more like 'home' and BookLikes is willing to add features etc. to please us. Because it wants to do exactly the same as Goodreads, build itself up really big and ... have Amazon purchase it. But that's years down the road.
"Because it wants to do exactly the same as Goodreads, build itself up really big and ... have Amazon purchase it. But that's years down the road. "They're not there yet and you can't see the future.
It's a good alternative for now.
Internet is always evolving and because of the success of Goodreads there are others working on sites with similar functionality.
Goodreads had a nice run. If it's deteriorating now so what. Perhaps another person will learn from this and not make the same mistakes with their site.
We'll all be searching for it and helping them.
They just added a scanning app for iPhones (and are working on Android and windows apps too). Wheeee!!!!
~♥*Marianna*♥~ wrote: "Goodreads had a nice run. If it's deteriorating now so what. Perhaps another person will learn from this and not make the same mistakes with their site.We'll all be searching for it and helping them."
Provided they let us, which BookLikes seems to be doing, yes. BL still has a long way to go, but I'm beginning to appreciate some of its features that I don't have here on GR already -- and I'm sure they'll eventually catch up with the rest. Let's just hope they never become attractive enough for a corporate bully to swallow them up ... or if that ever happens, there'll be yet another alternative in the interim!
I'm afraid the only thing that IS going to make Ammy sit up and listen (if they ever do at all) is the loss of our precious data -- because it's the only thing that is going to affect their bottom line. They lost mine once, when I stopped posting reviews on Amazon.com (and its international affiliate sites) and actively deleted the several 100 reviews I'd posted there. I'll have no qualms about pulling the plug on them again, as soon as I've determined once and for all that BookLikes is the preferable alternative.
~♥*Marianna*♥~ wrote: "They're not there yet and you can't see the future. ..."As you say, I can't see the future. Maybe some other way of earning vast amounts of money might open up for them. But it does rather seem that internet companies, just as real life ones, are bought up by the big boys. With book sites, LibraryThing is partly owned by Amazon and Shelfari and Goodreads wholly owned. Amazon is going to want any site that is both the target market for its main product and got data which they might be able to link up with a real-life name and address (through Amazon sales, Facebook links etc) and therefore is a very valuable product in itself. BookLikes major revenue stream is as an Amazon affiliate.
I wonder where they get their data from if it isn't Amazon, it could be Ingram (where Amazon also purchase data from)?
I don't mind if BookLikes do go the Amazon route eventually, so long as the journey's good.I must have some faith since I thought this group up mustn't I?
It's worth remembering, Amazon does not have near the hold on book sales in Continental Europe as it does in the US, so it's not our automatic go-to even as a lookup service, and certainly not to buy. Also I've never even seen another kindle apart from mine (ancient and US bought), but here (Scandinavia) practically everyone has a tablet of some kind.As for BL: You can choose where to get the data from yourself when you look up a book, in the search bar, click the logo on the left, and choose a different store. Click the "Manage" at the bottom, you can even choose which stores are available in that search box. The store you set the data from when you search also seems to determine which "buy" link is present on the book if you click on it in your shelves too.
http://blog.booklikes.com/post/344083...Oh my...they aren't wasting any time. Groups are on the way...PM is on the way.....exclusive shelves are on the way.
If they can do it and get things a little more stable it will be awesome.
But I also notice they have a page selling Amazon books...:S. Are they affiliated with Amazon as well?
I thought I read they were a partner... probably meaning affiliate sales?
Maggie wrote: "But I also notice they have a page selling Amazon books...:S. Are they affiliated with Amazon as well?"That is their major revenue stream - as it was Goodreads. I expect they hope to get bought out one day (it won't be soon), just as Amazon have bought up Shelfari and Goodreads and own part of LibraryThing. No one is going to turn down millions.
So basically…the only way this won’t happen again is if someone filthy rich and passionate about readers having an uncompromised platform creates one and resists the buyout…*sigh*
Sock Puppet Confessional wrote: "No one is going to turn down millions."There must be some people out their who have morals and values, dammit! My poor optimistic heart is cracking.
Also, I just posted a review on BookLikes and it showed up perfectly on Goodreads! That's a nice feature.
I am still not sure that I am going to move. While I understand the issue from the people who want to move, I am not so sure its the best decision for me.But I appreciate that this group is here so I can keep in touch with those of you who I have relationships with, who do move.
Mahlet wrote: "So basically…the only way this won’t happen again is if someone filthy rich and passionate about readers having an uncompromised platform creates one and resists the buyout…*sigh*"Not necessarily. There might be a competitor, or there might be an alternate revenue stream. Barnes & Noble or a group of publishers could do it. Or - the absolute best alternative - have a pay site.
That could work by having free basic subscriptions and ones with much richer features for say $25 a year, $100 for lifetime (LibraryThing has this) and additional revenue from being an Affiliate of Amazon and all other booksellers.
People always make a fuss about subscription sites, but if you aren't paying for something, then you are being sold, or your data. Nothing comes for nothing. I think people after seeing GR turn from a readers site into an authors and selling one (which it very definitely is becoming) might be a bit more inclined to pay for a subscription to keep a site independent.
What we need is programmers to set up something like that.
This is one of the reasons I am liking BookLikes so much. 
If you can't read this go to http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/...
I like how responsive the site owner was straightaway to that Petra person (view spoiler). No one from GR has bothered responding to the many concerns on that huge Feedback thread and Customer Service Kara just pops up to close yet another thread. I don't really blame Kara, presumably she has her directions from higher-ups but she is the face we see, the others are quite invisible to us, they don't want us to see them. So I am loving this aspect of BookLikes.
I agree, GR is turning into a marketing site. Which would go over better with me if they would just be honest and tell us that, instead of trying to jolly us along and keep giving us the false fine, fine routine.
I joined because I had a friend recommend it and I liked the interface. I am staying because I like the responsiveness of the staff and the ease of importing from GRs. I'll keep an account here too because GR has features I still like and groups I'm in but booklikes is a good alternative. :)
Yay! I now have 531 books at BL, and my shelves are there. The import moves slowly, but it is moving.
Sunny wrote: "UniquelyMoi *Dhestiny* wrote: "How clean is the import to Booklikes? With all my shelves and books, is there anything special I should be aware of?"My books are still uploading, so I haven't ch..."
My paragaphs are fine; links/italics etc haven't transfered, though.
