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Beta at Goodreads to sell Amazon to us?
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Karin
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Jun 01, 2016 04:04PM
If you, like me, dislike Beta or if you are concerned that Goodreads will become even more about selling Amazon, check out this thread https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... . You may even wish to leave feedback against it.
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I left my anti feedback. Such a waste of space. I will be less likely to look at what my friends are doing if I have to scroll for pages and pages each day.Anyone else suddenly getting daily emails from Goodreads with offers on books on your list? Happily, I found I could unsubscribe from them. But annoyed that they just stared showing up.
i don't see any real difference in terms of selling stuff. The exact same ads and promos are visible on both formats. I like the larger book images of the books we're currently reading in the new format but I dislike the way they are structuring the updates from friends.
I just wish they'd pick a final look and stick with it. It's annoying that in the time since we've all moved over there they will have changed the look twice.
I agree with Jen, I do not like the new structure of updates. I don't seem to get the ones I really want to see anymore.
To be honest, if Amazon wants to include book related ads, that does not bother me at all. In fact, I actually click on some of them and have been exposed to new books/authors that way!In addition, after seeing Shelfari and LeafMarks both fold in a relatively short period of time, I feel like I can do my part to monetarily support the continuation of GoodReads by looking at a few ads from paid sponsors. I would rather do that than have it contemplate being a paid site.
Having said that, I am not thrilled with the new layout. I like the larger book covers but it seems like a bad use of space once you scroll past the few things on the left hand side.
In addition, the one thing I wish they would put on the homepage is a way to click directly to a group. It would be great to have a PBT logo on the left panel there (and the logo of a few other groups I frequent) so I could quickly and easily navigate to my favorite people :)
So,now that I've clicked on the Beta and know I don't like it, how do I get rid of it?
Scroll down and you will see a link to go back to the old site on the left below the content.
I also don't feel like there are more ads and agree with Nicole. If ads pays for the site, then it's something I can live with.However, I hate that the page is focused on friends updates. I keep up with friends reading through the daily email, but I don't really want to follow all their activity. My homepage is set to discussions and I couldn't even see a way to get to that view.
If they continue with this Main Page, I may start to cull my friends list to people that I recognize. As the mod of a fairly big group and someone who does challenges, I pick up a fair amount of friends, but I don't necessarily share the same reading tastes.
I've been on GR since 2010 and they had roughly the same interface and now two "redesigns" in less than 6 months seems odd. Perhaps I'm just becoming a grumpy old lady, but I like the group interactions and discussions over just seeing what my 'commenting' on.
PS, anyone in this group that I'm friends with, I apologize for filling up the friend feed. I used my car trip time on Monday to update my shelves with all the audio and kindle books that I bought since beginning of this year
I am going to try the Beta for awhile as I haven't been enamored with the current home page. I recall GR maybe saying that they would try to make GR more welcoming to Shelfari immigrants. I wonder if this is their effort. I miss the Shelfari shelves and the feeds from my groups and friends.
Nicole wrote: "I feel like I can do my part to monetarily support the continuation of GoodReads by looking at a few ads from paid sponsors. I would rather do that than have it contemplate being a paid site.."
yes, this ^^ Ads may be annoying to look at but they are the necessary evil of a site we get to use for free.
That said, I dislike that they won't let us hide recommendations in the new version. It wouldn't bother me if the recommendations were actually useful but I am currently seeing recommendations based on my having shelved a book that I hated. So yeah, thanks but no thanks.
I don't hate the changes as much as some in the feedback group but I think the biggest issue will be the update scroll. Apparently they are saying that we will be able to modify what we see in the same way we currently can select (top friends, etc). This is critical. The issue of not seeing discussions is a bigger one and based on their responses, I'm not seeing that as a major concern for them. I think I did read that they will be adding it to the new version but just haven't rolled it out in the beta yet. I hope that is true. I agree with JoLene in that if they don't allow us to control our update feed, I will also have to cull my friend list.
It's very Facebook-y
I don't mind the ads. Especially the image ones, the video ones bother me a bit just because they make my work computer whirr and work harder unnecessarily. But I get they need ad space for keeping the site free.I don't like the new layout, it seems like they're trying to make it look like facebook with more images and the like and comment section- looks EXACTLY like facebook. It seems like they just split up what is now on right side to be on both the right and left, and squish friend updates in the middle.
If I can toggle what I see on the updates I think the new layout would be fine. I really don't want to see giant book covers that my friends are reading or want to read.
I guess I'm in the minority. I actually really like the new design. I didn't mind the old one, though, so I'd be fine if it stayed that way. But, I like that they're continually updating things. I hate when things are static.I do think they should add a way to get to groups more easily and I want to be able to update the status for more than just three of my currently reading books without having to go to the book's page. So, I did post that feedback. But, other than that, I like it.
Nicole wrote: "Scroll down and you will see a link to go back to the old site on the left below the content."On the Beta description page it said scroll down to the bottom of the page. Well, ya know, I kept scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and couldn't find the bottom - the end - of the page. Thank you, Nicole, I found it by scrolling down just a little.
I don't mind ads particularly but do dislike videos when I am reading. I find them distracting and irritating. My other pet peeve is when ads are scattered all around the page so when paging down on my laptop touch screen, there is no safe space and I will eventually touch and open an ad I have no interest in.
I have to admit I barely look at the home page. I come here and use the Community link to get to my groups to get to PBT. And/or I'll click on the Books link to get to my books. That's it.
I never go to the home page ... I sign in directly to my books or my groups. That being said ... I have to agree with many of the people commenting in the Feedback group that we don't really need a BIG colorful list of our own currently reading - we already know what we're reading. What we'd really like is more easily accessible links to our friends and our groups.
punxsygal wrote: "Anyone else suddenly getting daily emails from Goodreads with offers on books on your list? "Ugh JUST figured out how to unsubscribe to the "daily deals". Why did they just start sending those? Plus I unsubscribed twice through the link in the e-mail and it didn't work. Ended up having to go into the account settings.
I don't mind having some ads, but hate the look of Beta. I also dislike the moving ads; I might click on an ad here if it's a still ad, but not if it's in video. One of my pet peeves all over the internet, not just here.I haven't liked Beta anywhere in the internet, so it's not just here.
Jenni Elyse wrote: "I guess I'm in the minority. I actually really like the new design. I didn't mind the old one, though, so I'd be fine if it stayed that way. But, I like that they're continually updating things. I ..."Yes, some people will like it, of course, but I prefer less flashy looking for this sort of thing. Now my TV is one where the colour looks more vivid and prettier than IRL (bought it because it doesn't trigger migraines or any other headaches like many flat screen TV's do), and I am quite happy to enjoy those when watching TV. I've even watched a Disney movie on it 4 times just for the incredible colourwork, especially in certain parts, and the choreography (I am not normally a Disney fan).
I hate the videos too and I will probably be driven to unfriendl people who post videos in their comments because I don't like that either, I prefer book titles in comments rather than covers because some times it's hard to see the book face/name. But I am still trying out the Beta. So far it seems like I am getting better discussion comments but that could be a figment of my wishful thinking imagination.
Nicole wrote: "To be honest, if Amazon wants to include book related ads, that does not bother me at all. In fact, I actually click on some of them and have been exposed to new books/authors that way!In additio..."
I am with you, Nicole. Running these sites is very expensive, especially if they are going to continuously improve it. I really wouldn't want to pay for it, so am totally willing to "accept" their advertising.
I do wish the updates feed worked more like Facebooks in terms of the algorithm - - because I am definitely not seeing the updates I'm most interested in seeing.
The Beta didn't really bother me. But agree with Jen that multiple home page changes in a short time frame seems . . .off.
