Café Quito: 'pub' thread for general discussions Showing 1,401-1,427 of 1,427

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

If you are at all a Booker fan then you really cannot miss the chance to go to the pop up Booker library in Waterstones Piccadilly which closes next month.

[Ruben]

Thanks so much! Is there a better city in the world for book lovers?! I will let you know what I find!

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Sorry. I misled you the Booker library is unfortunately closing this weekend.

[Ruben]

Thanks again to all - I visited almost all of the shops you mentioned (only the Booker pop-up library at Piccadilly I must have overlooked in my rush) and spent my entire daily allowance on the following eclectic mix:

- The Mussel Feast by Birgit Vanderbeke
- The Others by Raül Garrigasait
- How I Came to Know Fish by Ota Pavel
- Winterberg's Last Journey by Jaroslav Rudiš

and new titles:
- Woman in Blue by Douglas Bruton
- The Most by Jessica Anthony
- The City Changes Its Face by Eimear McBride
- Three Summers by Margarita Liberaki

(I also saw Free by Lea Ypi in the Oxfam - R.C. did you leave it there?)

[Alwynne]

Ruben wrote: "Thanks again to all - I visited almost all of the shops you mentioned (only the Booker pop-up library at Piccadilly I must have overlooked in my rush) and spent my entire daily allowance on the fol..."

Sounds like a perfect day! I thought the Vanderbeke was very powerful so hope it works for you, and picked up a copy of the Liberaki a while ago but haven't had a chance to fit it in. It looks very promising.

I'll check out the rest of your list now...

[Roman Clodia]

Ruben wrote: "I also saw Free by Lea Ypi in the Oxfam - R.C. did you leave it there?"

Haha, I didn't - that's a book I could imagine re-reading. The Eimear McBride is one of my favourites of the year so hope you love it.

[Sam]

Ruben wrote: "Thanks again to all - I visited almost all of the shops you mentioned (only the Booker pop-up library at Piccadilly I must have overlooked in my rush) and spent my entire daily allowance on the fol..."

Three Summers is the discussion book for July at the NYRB Classics group, if you decide to read it first.

[Paul]

Looks like Goodreads are removing the option to send direct messages to other people. Which feels bizarre. There’s a lot of people here I communicate with where GR is the only way I have and it seems more sensible than sharing emails. And mods use it to contact forum members as well.

[Sam]

Getting rid of links and pics too. This isn't going to bring in any new members. I'm getting the feeling there won't be much of a Goodreads soon.

[Erin]

Paul wrote: "Looks like Goodreads are removing the option to send direct messages to other people. Which feels bizarre. There’s a lot of people here I communicate with where GR is the only way I have and it see..."

Sam wrote: "Getting rid of links and pics too. This isn't going to bring in any new members. I'm getting the feeling there won't be much of a Goodreads soon."

What the actual heck? These features is a big part of why I'm still here! I don't even mind if they don't add any new functionality, but why take stuff that works away? Are they trying to get rid of people??

[Paul]

Does sometimes feel Amazon would prefer it if no one used it and posted reviews on Amazon instead.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

I saw that too.

Authors use that feature to offer ARCs as another example.

[Paul]

Well that - at least in terms of blasting lots of people - is I think what they may be trying to stop. But as platforms go the spam level on Goodreads is very low.

[Erin]

Paul wrote: "Well that - at least in terms of blasting lots of people - is I think what they may be trying to stop. But as platforms go the spam level on Goodreads is very low."

I've never even gotten a single spam message on GR...

And if that's what they're trying to prevent allowing people to set their preferences to only accept messages from friends would solve that.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

I have only ever had messages from Friends like that.

[Bella (Kiki)]

Erin wrote: "Paul wrote: "Well that - at least in terms of blasting lots of people - is I think what they may be trying to stop. But as platforms go the spam level on Goodreads is very low."

I've never even go..."

I've never gotten a single spam message, either. It's no doubt because I have my profile set to private, but I've also never encountered anyone who got a spam message.

[Bella (Kiki)]

Paul wrote: "Well that - at least in terms of blasting lots of people - is I think what they may be trying to stop. But as platforms go the spam level on Goodreads is very low."

I think it's very low, too. They ought to try a week or two on IG. I got spam almost daily there.

[Bella (Kiki)]

Paul wrote: "Does sometimes feel Amazon would prefer it if no one used it and posted reviews on Amazon instead."

Oh, I don't think Amazon actually wants us to use GR, Paul. I think they just don't want anyone else to own any large site that has to do with books.

[Emmeline]

But they also own this one and it arguably serves a different audience than Amazon.

I think I may have got one spam message in my time here? Despite having a young and female photo for several years and my profile not set to private. But Reddit is full of people claiming they got hundreds of spam mails! Maybe it depends what kind of books you discuss.

[Hugh, Active moderator]

Amazon has never cared about what serious users want or need and never will. This is just another example of that. The weird thing is that there was no on-site announcement, just a direct message from a rather non-official looking account sent to all users that inevitably took a while to reach everyone.

I don't get that many direct messages, but I have had mine set to friends only for years.

Without direct messages I can't see how we'd ever organise another zoom meeting, though a private group might work as a clunky alternative.

[Bella (Kiki)]

Hugh wrote: "Amazon has never cared about what serious users want or need and never will. This is just another example of that. The weird thing is that there was no on-site announcement, just a direct message f..."

That's what I meant, Hugh. Amazon doesn't care about serious readers, but they want to own all the large book sites anyway. I have my messaging set to friends only and always have had, I think, so I wouldn't get spam.

Serious readers usually don't make enough money for Amazon for the company to care about them.

[Margaret]

I haven’t received the message re any changes to GR or any spam for that matter. I would be very disappointed to loose the ability to message or see posted links and images . This place is such an escape from the other platforms.

[Emmeline]

My understanding is they're getting rid of links and pics in messages, not overall.

Though links don't work half the time anyway, so it's probably a moot point.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

No - that’s wrong.

They are getting rid of two things

Direct private messages between two people

Links and images in the messages remaining -which are broadcast messages from group moderators.

[Emmeline]

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "No - that’s wrong.

They are getting rid of two things

Direct private messages between two people

Links and images in the messages remaining -which are broadcast messages from group moderators."

That's what I'm saying. They're not getting rid of links or images in this forum, say, or in reviews.

[Margaret]

Well that’s not as bad as I feared but still disappointing

[Beige]

Sorry for butting in, but I've been back and forth with GR Support for two days now and I nkw believe they ARE removing images and external links from groups. I really can't belive it, but I can't see their explanation any other way, can you?



Here are copies of my correspondence. (view spoiler)[

I wrote:
I've shared your response with other goodreads group members and we are split on what you actually mean by "remaining messages". It's important for us to be 100% clear on what is changing, so let's try this again...

1. Within a group itself in the "messages" & "comments" we type to each other, which are located inside "topics" and "folders" - will we be permitted to post external links and images in those messages?

2. As a group moderator, I understand I will still be able to send a "broadcast to all members" - I assume we will no longer be able to post external links and images in these broadcast messages, is that correct?


GR Support Responded With:
Hi Beige,

Thanks for contacting us. Please note that external links are not permitted to be shared via the messages and comments section as well as the broadcast message sent by the group moderator.

If there's anything else I can help you with, please let me know. Alternatively, I can also suggest visiting Goodreads Help, where you'll find answers to many commonly asked questions about the site.

Sincerely,
The Goodreads Team




I wrote:
Okay, we are getting much closer to 100% understanding. I shared your latest response with a few of my groups and this is the next question:

- Within our group messages/comments we currently aren't able to post an external link into the "a href" html code, but we can copy and paste a URL and it turns into a link, a link where you can see the address before you opt to press.

- With the upcoming change, will we no longer be able to copy and paste a URL and it turn into a link? Will we have to post URLs as plain text?


GR Support Responded:
Hi Beige,

If you are going to enter a URL, even in plain text, the system will still recognize this as an external link so you will not be able to add this.

Sincerely,
The Goodreads Team (hide spoiler)]