SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
All About Goodreads
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New GR book page
100% agree, the most useful info is multiple clicks away, where it used to be so easy to find.
Weird, the new book page has been implemented when I log in at home, but not at work. Work has a bunch of info security cruft that might be blocking some things. I'll count my blessings, I guess.I've never heard of CSS (mentioned on the previous page) but I'm curious. I won't demand the time of anyone here on that topic, by the way, since curiosity is likely as far as it's going to go, anyhow, knowing me. ^^;
Anna wrote: "I mean it is a product page on on a site owned by Amazon?I don't care how it looks (I can fix that), or how much they try to push their stuff on me (I can ignore that), but removing book info fro..."
Why did they screw around with the Read dates? I am a chronic re-reader, so that's really going to be strange to experience. I still have the old page, thank goodness, so I haven't seen this. Although I probably just jinxed myself right into the new page!
And Beth, I was wondering about CSS myself. Thanks for asking that question!
I'm not even going to try to explain css, but essentially it's how we tell the website how we want it to look. Goodreads has chosen new fonts, again, for the new book page for example, and I don't like them, so I'm adding a line of css to change the font, and the font size in some cases. I've also changed the background color and the size of most if not all graphic elements, like book cover images, etc.And then getting into less (a)esthetic stuff, you can also change how some elements behave, like if a text overflows or is cut off if it's too long for the field and stuff like that. And like I mentioned above, I hate wasted empty space on a page that's abusing real estate, so I've shrunk the empty buffer space GR has added around each element.
I'm not comfortable recommending an editor (I use the Stylus add-on for Chrome/Firefox myself), but if someone who actually works with css wants to recommend something, please do!
Oh. All of that went right over my head. I'll just soldier on with the new page as it is when it makes its unwelcomed appearance :)
Haha, if you want to see what it looks like, right-click somewhere on this page and click on "Inspect". You'll get a box of code that shows you what kind of css is used in that section :) And if you then move the cursor over that code, it'll highlight that element on the page, so you can see which part it's affecting.And then you can close the scary box by clicking on the X in the top right corner of the Inspect box! :D
OMG. I drop off of Goodreads for three months (real life happened) and I come back in and they've rolled out this monstrosity. Absolutely no feedback taken. Book links to search my library and Abebooks are gone, which was like half the functionality of the site for me. (Hoping someone will tell me I'm wrong and they just moved them.) I HATE the bubbles for shelves; had to add several books this morning and I just added them on the page then went over to my books page so I could use the normal drop down. I just hate it all so much.And I knew there would be other people over here suffering. Hello everyone I hope you're doing well otherwise. If Amazon keeps this up I'm going to start calling THIS the hellsite instead of Tumblr.
We might all need a support group before this is over.And thank you, Anna! I always wondered what "inspect" meant :)
I use the Stylish plugin/add-on. To explain a slightly different way, plugins like this allow you to force different styling on specific websites, either by entering new CSS code yourself, or by copying the code someone else has made. Many of these plugins have repositories of code people have made for specific sites. Stylish has 6 or 7 for Goodreads, but all modifying the old design, so it doesn't work with their new code. Possibly someone has already uploaded a fix for the new site for a more popular plugin than Stylish, but I don't know. At the moment I'm just fixing it myself -- reducing the font, widening the margins, and unhiding the text, but I can't restore things that have been removed.
Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "I'm going to start calling THIS the hellsite"Oh this *is* The hellsite alright <_<
Okay, that's funny (and off topic) - many twitter users call it the Hellbird Site. All social media sites are their own little corner of the hot place, eh.
I think that Goodreads, like may other Sites (Amazon, NetFlix, etc) are trying to go for a one site fits all and thus sizing everything for Smart Phones (the smaller ones).
Another irritant: If you edit your review, to fix a typo or whatever, it takes a while before your edited review will be shown on the book page. More than 30 minutes in my case.
Michelle wrote: "I wonder why the delay."Oh, programmers use this trick all the time. We "cache" a copy of some file or other information rather than asking the database for the newest information every time we refresh a page.
It helps the web page load faster.
This delay already exists for some librarian functions when a librarian updates a book description or combines several editions.
I intend to finally complete the switch to Librarything as a result.Even a reversal of the aesthetic changes probably won't be enough to bring me back - there's been too much removal of features combined with an utter lack of innovation for many years here.
They removed the review edit date from the My Review section, which I think is better, but it's been replaced by a two-click "View all Reading Activity", so Idk, worse? At least you could click on the review date *once* to get to the review, now you have to click twice and you still can't see the info on the page.Good thing you can get straight to the review from the shelf.
lol, I just noticed that ISBN/ASIN isn't on the book page XD Wow, this page is soooooo useful.
Anna wrote: "lol, I just noticed that ISBN/ASIN isn't on the book page XD Wow, this page is soooooo useful."It is on there, but it's one of the many things you have to click to unhide (Book details and editions).
You're right, it is there. On some pages but not all?I had this open when I posted:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
(No book link because I use ASIN/ISBN to find the correct edition and I'm too lazy to go into the editions list to copy it.)
It's shown on another book page. I'll have to keep an eye on how this behaves.
Waaaiiittt. I can see ISBN on all the pages I'm testing, but not ASIN on any?
edit: And yeah I obviously have the details section unhidden as that's where the little info left on the page is :D
Is anyone else getting the 'Unexpected error" message? My laptop and Iphone have changed over but my Ipad seems to be struggling.
Can anyone see the "switch to this edition" link? I can do it from the editions list like before, but I can't see it on the book page anymore.
Phrynne wrote: "Is anyone else getting the 'Unexpected error" message? My laptop and Iphone have changed over but my Ipad seems to be struggling."I keep getting it on one browser.
Anna wrote: "You're right, it is there. On some pages but not all?I had this open when I posted:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
(No book link because I use ASIN/ISBN to find the correc..."
Thank you for the link. Where is the " shelved as ___ by x users"? I don't see it.
It's under the blurb, before pub info.
Beth wrote: "Weird, the new book page has been implemented when I log in at home, but not at work. Work has a bunch of info security cruft that might be blocking some things. I'll count my blessings, I guess."Take a few screenshots while you can.
Is there a way to say "I have read x % | pages" of a Currently-Reading book?Can't find it.
Well I have sent in four Feedback forms in the past hour. (Polite, too!)
😠
I can't honestly claim that mine have been polite, but I haven't said fuck even once! :P
Bonnie wrote: "Is there a way to say "I have read x % | pages" of a Currently-Reading book?"Maybe not on the book page. On the Home page, top left under the banner ad, is the Currently Reading section. There you can "update progress."
That's the way I've always done it, Chris. In fact, I have never updated a book on its own page. But I can completely understand how infuriating it must be, for somebody to not be able to do things the way they have been doing it for years. On the SFFBC discord, Jemppu said that they currently don't have a way to update books that go beyond the limit of books available on the "see more" drop-down on the home page.I've come across that in minor ways, such as a change in how I approach reviewing series books. The way I used to do it is to go to the series' page, rate the book within that list and use the drop-downs to put it on whatever shelves, then go to the book page and switch the edition, then click the edit button to review.
On the current book page, changing the edition creates a new review for that edition. So now I have to change the edition on the book page, then rate, then review it. It's at worst a minor annoyance and I'll get used to it. I haven't counted clicks to see which takes/took longer or anything and it's possible my previous way wasn't optimal even on the previous version of the site, but still. Change bad!
Beth wrote: "On the current book page, changing the edition creates a new review for that edition."Where did you find the change edition function on the new book page?! (Besides clicking through to the editions list.)
That was the way I did it, Anna. I don't know of another.
(I didn't expect to spend this much time on GR during my mod-cation <_< Allison, is it legally permissible to move my mod-cay to another time, does GR fucking shit up count as force majeure?)edit: To clarify, I don't want to move it to another *time*, I want to move it to another *date* :D
Beth wrote: "That was the way I did it, Anna. I don't know of another."But how did it then create a second review?
edit: You don't have to explain, I just thought there was something on the new book page that you'd clicked that did it.
Anna wrote: "I can't honestly claim that mine have been polite, but I haven't said fuck even once! :P"LOL!!!
Now that the new book pages don't show or let you edit the book's position on your Want to Read list, does anyone have any ideas about how to manage the order of a really long Want to Read list (1200+)? If I wanted to move something from, say, #445 to near the top of my list, I used to just go to the book's page and change it. Now it seems like I'll have to scroll all the way down the Want to Read list to find it and change it here, but if I don't know where in the list the book is how will I ever find it? Is this the thing that finally pushes me to that other site people talk about?
I hardly ever use the position, in fact only for this group's TBR Cleanup challenge, for some reason. But if I did want to use it to separate my top/next TBR from my whole TBR, I'd most likely create a new shelf called Next or something like that. If you only have say 20-30 books on it, it'll be easier to scroll if you still want to sort it by position, or just use the shelf as an indication that this is the top of your TBR.But of course also message GR to tell them you miss this function!
Anyone know how to make/find a URL for your own review so you can paste it into a post using the coding provided in the 'some html is ok' option?
From the new book page? Scroll down to the My Review section and click on the date.
Anna wrote: "Can anyone see the "switch to this edition" link? I can do it from the editions list like before, but I can't see it on the book page anymore."There's now a "review this edition" option in the My Review section. Arrow right from your review, if you're looking at an edition you haven't shelved.
edit: I quoted myself because I kinda expect that's where "switch" will also be if we get it.
Most recent feedback (of many):
Where is the book rating calculated for Friends only?
Is it somewhere I can not find it, or is it gone?
If the former, please make it easier to find.
If the latter, please bring it back.
Also, please group rating/review for Friends and for Following, separately instead of mixing them together.
Also, how are those being sorted?
Anna wrote: "From the new book page? Scroll down to the My Review section and click on the date."Thanks! Clicking on the date worked - could they have made it less intuitive???
Nadine, yeah it's not great! You can also do it from the shelf, there's edit and view on the very right, that take you straight to your review.Phrynne wrote: "Is anyone else getting the 'Unexpected error" message? My laptop and Iphone have changed over but my Ipad seems to be struggling."
I'm *still* getting this on Safari (macOS), which I only use with the mod account. Doesn't matter much most of the time, but kinda hard to add books to the mod shelf when you can't get to the book page :S Works on my iOS Safari though.
I am not getting the new page layout, but I have signed in (despite the "stay signed in" box checked) about 10 times today. It can only be a matter of time
Anna wrote: "Phrynne wrote: "Is anyone else getting the 'Unexpect..."
I received a reply from Goodreads this morning with some ideas to try - I will let you know if anything works!
DivaDiane wrote: "I am not getting the new page layout, but I have signed in (despite the "stay signed in" box checked) about 10 times today. It can only be a matter of time"Every time I try to do anything I have to sign in again. This happened while I was writing reviews and lost my text a couple of times before I started copying it before I tried to post my review. What a mess.
SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
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I don't care how it looks (I can fix that), or how much they try to push their stuff on me (I can ignore that), but removing book info from the book info page? I hate that.
I *hate* that the only date I can now see on the book page is the last time I edited my "review". For example if I read a book in 2015, and it wins a group poll in 2022, I'll add the group shelf tag. That edits the date, making it look (to me) like I read/added it in 2022. Maybe the review date has always changed, I never paid attention to that, because I could see added/started/finished dates on the book page. Now I can't. I *hate* it. Especially since there's plenty of space in the review box on the book page, why the F aren't the dates there?!