What is up with metadata? Is it even worth filling out?

[Christina]

I like the theory of gathering the metadata for books and getting data of subject matter, writing style, etc. — but it seems to be an under-cared-for area of Goodreads. Searching for "metadata" in the main help has 0 results. I've seen people say in other threads that it's "fallen by the way-side."

Is it even a thing? Is there a list somewhere of acceptable terms? Can said list be added to? It's really maddening when you add an answer and Goodreads just doesn't save it, with no sort of explanation given. "Dying" might save as a subject, but not "death." What? All seems rather arbitrary.

It's also weird that it's tied to reviews, not book-level editing. Seems like some of it is subjective (a person's opinion of the tone of the book) and makes sense at the reader level, BUT some of it is just subject matter and seems more librarian level. Like if a non-fiction book is about the Civil War, it's not really a subjective thing. It would be nice, as a librarian, somehow to tag a book "Civil War" without personally reviewing it.

[Lobstergirl]

Totally agree.

We have never gotten a satisfactory explanation of metadata. It seems to be an abandoned project.

So much of it is nonsensical, which is why it frustrated people. No one could understand why those particular questions or parameters were decided on.