Goodreads Power User Summit 2016

[Steph, Serious series addict]

I'll definitely try to find out WTH with the new home page. Really hearing no love from users across the board. And like many/most, I want discussion posts back.

[D.G.]

You can tell I haven't been on GR as long as I used to because I just learned of this summit now. This is so sad (considering how much time I used to spend here.)

All good thoughts shared in this thread - specially the home page issue. That just killed GR for me. Now I don't know what my friends are up to at all.

[AH]

D.G. wrote: "You can tell I haven't been on GR as long as I used to because I just learned of this summit now. This is so sad (considering how much time I used to spend here.)

All good thoughts shared in this ..."

I miss seeing what my friends are reading - and even more I miss it when they reach that WTF moment in a book and post about it.

[Sandra, Kindle Operator Licence Required]

Yes & Yes!!!!

[Steph, Serious series addict]

Yeeeesssssss!

Well, I've got no idea what to expect, but I'm here in San Fran and anxious to get this big ball of WTH rollin'! :D It's an all-day thing so I'm bound to learn something. LOL!

[Debbie's Spurts (D.A.)]

Even before the new home page, they were shortening the updates feed, adding content to compete with friend posts on the now shortened display space help plus seemed to not always show content from friends even when you kept clicking to see more posts.

I could click on someone's profile and see they just wrote a review yet never see that review on the feed.

Lots of book sites, apps, and social media options to see, recommend and track books. Many competing book sites lack the membership to have as social a scene and as active with reader content in groups and newsfeed as goodreads used to be. Decrease friend content and interactions, why use goodreads?

[Sam]

I've had one big problem with the friends' feed and it still exists, which is why I'm glad it's less important on the home page now. I don't just get what my friends are reading, but every review, comment, gif they "like" also shows up on my feed. My feed is full of gif-full reviews of books I don't care about by people I don't know just because they are "a friend of a friend". I'm glad that I can skip that now by not scrolling down on my home page.

[Lauren]

D.G. wrote: " All good thoughts shared in this thread - specially the home page issue. That just killed GR for me. Now I don't know what my friends are up to at all. "

Ditto! I refuse to use the new homepage so I'm missing out on my friends reviews and status updates. I'm definitely liking fewer reviews because of this.

[Steph, Serious series addict]

I'm back. And, exhausted! What a quick trip. I'm sad to say I might be getting too old for a 2-night trip from coast to coast. ;)

It was great meeting others - 20 people/4 groups of 5 (mods, reviewers, authors and librarians) - and chatting with some of TPTB. They directed the feedback sessions with some opportunity for Q&A, so not all of my (2 pages of notes) questions/concerns/complaints were brought up. But, I've got some email addresses and will be sharing those unaddressed items with them. They were very receptive to everything that was mentioned (by me and others), now whether or not those things will be changed or tweaked and/or when is another thing entirely. Guess we'll have to wait and see. If I get any feedback personally, I'll be sure to keep y'all updated as well.

I very much appreciate all that was provided by our members prior to the meeting. THANK YOU! I was one of the few who came armed with a list of issues. I wish I'd been able to bring up everything while face-to-face with GR staff, but a great many things were made clear to them while I was there ... most importantly and most frequently mentioned by SOSers, No One is happy with the new home page.

And, guess what?! Two of the authors present are beloved by some of our members: Susan Ee and Gail Carriger. :D I was thrilled to meet Susan face-to-face and had the BEST time chatting with her. Gail looked like a character from her novels; beautifully dressed as if she'd stepped out of Victorian England. :) I managed to build up my nerve to ask Susan for a picture, but didn't get any others while there.

[AH]

thanks for the update. will you be posting pics?

[Lis]

That is so cool Steph. Glad you were given the opportunity to represent and be heard. Meeting the authors such a bonus...

[Josie]

Thank you, Steph! Really appreciate you giving us some insight :)

[Steph, Serious series addict]

Welcome :)

I only have a pic of Susan and I. I'll definitely share once I upload it.

[Sandra, Kindle Operator Licence Required]

Yay!

Fancy the others not going prepared? And lets hope they can tweak the home page!!!

[Debbie's Spurts (D.A.)]

At this point, I'd even be happy with a really strange, weird, buggy or clunky home page if it meant user content and discussions came back as priorities over mini book advertisements (preferably with filter options we used to have even if they don't add ones requested like the now defunct Leafmarks gave us) or at the very least if goodreads stopped trying to make their feed look like other sites.

Summit discussions that were not public aside, any book site wanting to compete with goodreads has a huge list of publicly made complaints and suggestions over in feedback and other groups they can (and some do at least in the beginning) use to lure readers over.

[Steph, Serious series addict]

Sandra wrote: "Yay!

Fancy the others not going prepared? And lets hope they can tweak the home page!!!"

Yeah, let's hope.

[Vivian]

Sounds like people were able to give some feedback and hopefully we'll see some positive changes in the near future!

[Sandra, Kindle Operator Licence Required]

*fingers crossed*

[Steph, Serious series addict]

And toes!

[Steph, Serious series addict]

I was looking over my notes and two questions/requests were answered at the summit:

1)
Q: 1/2 star rating option?
A: I was told by an employee, "Otis has said it's never going to happen."

2)
Q: "Increase or remove arbitrary limits including 5000 friends, adding 100 books to a listopia, popular books by date, and most read authors.”
A: Apparently these are required b/c of background capabilities and they won’t change. Something about how too many of certain things cause background programming issues, so they have those limits.

[Steph, Serious series addict]

A pic of Susan Ee and I @ Goodreads : https://www.goodreads.com/photo/user/... :)

[AH]

nice photo. looks like you had a lot of fun.

[Steph, Serious series addict]

Thanks :) We did. So happy to meet each other.

[Sandra, Kindle Operator Licence Required]

Yes, I've heard Otis make that comment about half stars, quite a few times.

Very nice pic of you and Susan.

[Steph, Serious series addict]

Thanks :)

[Nairabell]

Love the pic! Sounds like you had fun although it's a shame they didn't allow enough time for you to ask all your questions.

[Steph, Serious series addict]

Thanks :D

It was a good time, but yeah, I would've loved to be able to address everything while face-to-face. That said, I did have a LONG list of stuff and they listened to as much as they could while keeping to their schedule. So, I can't complain ... too much ... I guess. >;)

[D.G.]

Steph wrote: "A: I was told by an employee, "Otis has said it's never going to happen."

Otis needs to be reminded of big sites that have gone bust when they don't address the needs of their customers. Right now, he's very complacent because GR is the big game in town but he will only have himself to blame if some other site comes along to kick his butt.

I guess he doesn't care, as he made his millions already...

[Steph, Serious series addict]

Could be. Seemed like it was a question they'd heard often and didn't want to discuss. Not sure what the big hang-up is with it, but I've stopped hoping for 1/2 stars here.

[Sandra, Kindle Operator Licence Required]

I seem to remember something like they couldn't afford the server space & memory, maybe something like that.

[Steph, Serious series addict]

They didn't go into details when we mentioned it. But could be the case.

[Erin *Proud Book Hoarder*]

D.G. wrote: "Steph wrote: "A: I was told by an employee, "Otis has said it's never going to happen."

Otis needs to be reminded of big sites that have gone bust when they don't address the needs of their custo..."

He has weird reasoning on it. He said it will never happen because his research show people have issues with half stars or numbers higher than five when developing the site

I disagree with him but that's what his theory is. It's not for lack of caring, he just thinks it's a bad system

Here is his full statement of it GR still links to from 2010

[Steph, Serious series addict]

Thanks for that, Erin. I'm not sure that I get why adding ½-star option would reduce the number of ratings shared. But, whatever. I'll just continue to include my ½s in my review section.