New GR book page

[Woman Reading]

I'm reading the latest comments with trepidation. I sense that my reprieve from the GR marketing pages will die soon. 😢😱😢😱

[Bonnie]

I just looked up a book on GR on my iPhone, as opposed to iPad Mini, and there is the old page!
Cooling waters of relief & repose

[Tomas]

Well, the beta is over, now we have to hope they took some of the feedback and actually implemented it, which I doubt.

And the real monstrosity is likely coming very soon.

[M.L.]

I do not like the new book page. I do not like the new book page. Bah!

[Beth]

I do not like it on my phone
I do not like it when at home
I do not like it though it's free
It is so bad, so bad, you see.

[Anna]

:D

[Amy (Other Amy)]

Beth wrote: "I do not like it on my phone
I do not like it when at home
I do not like it though it's free
It is so bad, so bad, you see."

<3 <3 <3 !!!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

the best thing about this change is the hate fueled poetry we're getting!

[Beth]

You were spared 24 books in dactylic hexameter because I'm lazy.

[Michelle]

Allison wrote: "the best thing about this change is the hate fueled poetry we're getting!"

LOL!

[DivaDiane]

I’m so glad you did that, Beth, because that is what was conjured up in my mind too!

[Amy (Other Amy)]

Update: I found my booklinks (click on the "Buy it from Amazon" button, it gives a drop down with shops - I am having to click the More Options to get to my library search - ARGH!!!), but it appears there is no way to make my notes visible on the front page, which is unfortunate since I use my notes mostly for things that would affect purchase (like "audio is really recommended for this one" or "read X first!"). (Also, the missing ASIN thing is driving me bonkers.)
*bangs head*

[CBRetriever]

Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "Update: I found my booklinks (click on the "Buy it from Amazon" button, it gives a drop down with shops - I am having to click the More Options to get to my library search - ARGH!!!), but it appear..."

I use the wish lists on Amazon for notes where they also used to be available w/o clicking a link too

[Amy (Other Amy)]

I deleted all my book wishlists from Amazon and went entirely with Goodreads years ago. Thinking that may have been a mistake!

I think I can probably get what I want if I redo my settings for my shelves in My Books and show the notes there. Kind of thinking of doing most of my activity from My Books and staying off the main book page as much as possible, but we'll see how feasible that is.

[Rebecca]

Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "Kind of thinking of doing most of my activity from My Books and staying off the main book page as much as possible, but we'll see how feasible that is. "

SAME

[Anna]

Hard same

[Ed]

The new book pages do not even load now on my iPad with Safari. It is an older iPad, but still this is annoying.

[Michelle]

GR is toggling the new and old page depending on which computer I happen to be using. They can't make up their mind.

But on every computer and device one thing is the same, and that's the infernal sign-in. Oh how I hate it! And why do they even bother with the "keep me signed in" option when it doesn't even work?

[Ed]

I have had no problem with staying signed-in.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

The app is fine for staying signed in, but the web browser is infuriating.

[Nadine in California]

I assumed the new book page was optimized for phones, and that's why it looks so bad on my pc. I looked at it on my phone yesterday, and it's just as crappy as on my computer.

[Beth]

The worst of both worlds!

Whether I have the previous or new book page, or whether I stay signed in for two seconds or until the heat death of the universe, isn't consistent from device to device for me. Unfortunately there's nothing that both keeps me signed in and has the previous book pages.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Beth, I cannot express how happy it makes me to see that this travesty of UIX has brought out your creativity! What marvelous sentences you've been writing!

[Ed]

Allison wrote: "The app is fine for staying signed in, but the web browser is infuriating."

I am using web browsers. Firefox, on multiple Windows computers. It keeps me logged in.

[Michelle]

Firefox is bumping me out, too. Firefox, Chrome, Edge and the Kindle app on my fire tablet.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

i believe you, Ed! it just isn't for others. I've tried all three major browsers on 3 different hardware.

[Beth]

Ed wrote: "I am using web browsers. Firefox, on multiple Windows computers. It keeps me logged in."

Chrome for me, for all devices. No consistency.

[Mel]

*checks My Books on phone*
What the F*CK is this shit!?
*checks on desktop PC and sighs with relief*

So I hope they aren't changing the My Books page as well, because that is my one lifeline of sanity. But apparently I've lost the ability to view the desktop site on my phone, period. Tried different browsers, but even requesting the desktop site it reverts to this new nightmare.

Just me, or anyone else?
(Sorry if this turns out to be a technical issue that should go elsewhere, I just assumed it was a further related rollout.)

[Anna]

I have the normal My Books on my iOS devices, I hope yours is a glitch!

[Chris]

For those who can't stay signed in, maybe you have a blocker like uBlock Origin? I turned it off for Goodreads.

[Anna]

I have two active adblockers and I get an occasional sign-in problem, but not so frequently that I'd need to rage about it. Yet. It's weird though, when it hits, it lasts for like five minutes asking me to log in every time I refresh or open a new page, but then I'm fine for a week or two. So I can live with it, but it's not great.

I'm not sure if I get it equally often on all browsers, but I'm pretty sure it's happened at least once on Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Waterfox (legacy Firefox). Both laptop and iOS devices.

[DivaDiane]

I think I signed in 15 times yesterday. Every time I went back and tried to post (or work on a post).

[Beth]

Chris wrote: "For those who can't stay signed in, maybe you have a blocker like uBlock Origin? I turned it off for Goodreads."

I have never used an ad blocker (often to my frustration, especially on the phone), so that isn't the issue here.

[Becky]

I still have the normal book page on my laptop, but the new one on my phone browser (Safari) and I hate it. I can't figure out how anything works or even where anything is. Everything is hidden. Reviews are completely useless on the new book page. I don't want to have to click into each one to read it.

It's not intuitive to click on the "Currently reading" bubble to change the shelf, and then all of a sudden the rest of my shelves are "tags"?

HATE. IT.

I am with everyone else who said that managing my books/shelves/reviews will now be from the My Books page. It takes AGES to load, but at least is fucking still usable.

[Chris]

Beth wrote: "I have never used an ad blocker (often to my frustration, especially on the phone), so that isn't the issue here."

Perhaps it's your cookie settings. I could see GR using a cookie to keep track of who you are instead of the login.

[Anna]

Becky wrote: "I am with everyone else who said that managing my books/shelves/reviews will now be from the My Books page. It takes AGES to load, but at least is fucking still usable."

This is why I have a bookmark/link to a shelf that only has a few books (Currently Reading for example), which loads fast, and then you can navigate to the shelf you need, or search, without having to load All first.

[Jemppu]

This thread has range. From poetry to GR hacks.

[Becky]

Good idea, Anna!

[Anna]

Next week on This Is How You Goodreads Without Losing Your Shit I'll be showing you my handy secret group hack!

[Becky]

Anna wrote: "Next week on This Is How You Goodreads Without Losing Your Shit I'll be showing you my handy secret group hack!"

*Hey Siri - set reminder...*

[Anna]

I lied!

1) I cannot claim not to lose my shit re: GR
2) That episode is out tonight!

So I have a secret GR group with only one member. (That's me, in case someone couldn't figure it out.) It's like any other GR group, you create* it and then select "This group is secret." That means no one can see the group anywhere, they can't try to join, they can't see you're a member. You can do whatever you want in the group. I use it to organize all my GR stuff, like this:

https://i.postimg.cc/8zKW5KzM/My-Good...

(I turned off all my stylesheets for this screenshot, holy fuck that's ugly. And obviously I edited the link section a bit to hide some of my secrets :P)

The top row is nothing but links to different GR shelves, the ones I use the most. Conveniently the shelf I have at the end (Out) is one where I know there will never be more than a couple of books, so that's my go to when I need another shelf, because it loads the fastest.

I mainly use the secret group for the collection of links at the top, but also to plan out any posts I'm not ready to post, or sometimes if I'm about to post something and decide not to, I post it there instead and think for a bit, to see if I wanna post it or not. There are tons of posts there I never did post, sometimes I go through them wondering what the heck IS this and where/why did I plan to post it?! XD

And of course it's where I plan my mod challenge stuff, etc. Anything I'm not ready to post for Allison (and now Ryan) to see yet, while I'm still organizing my thoughts. And all the TBRs for challenges/readathons that are not related to SFFBC (those are in my SFFBC challenge thread, obviously.)

I know that some people use secret groups for storing images :) Sometimes it might be easier to upload a pic to the Photos section of a secret group and then link to it, than uploading somewhere else. Worth trying ;)

You can also add books to the group's shelf and give them planned read dates, but honestly that's kinda tedious and I don't recommend it unless you really want to. I used to add all BRs and different group reads, but after I started modding here, I have enough wrestling with the SFFBC group shelf to bother doing it just for me. But it's an option if it's something you want to try, maybe to plan for a readathon or a theme month or something like that. Everything has to be done manually though, so you might as well just plan things out in a thread. The shelf is the part of groups that needs the most work (from developers) to make it remotely functional, so it's really not worth getting excited about.

* https://www.goodreads.com/group/new or go to Community -> Groups -> Create a group

PS. No, this has nothing at all to do with the new book page, not even a little bit :)

[Ed]

Anna wrote: "... So I have a secret GR group with only one member. ..."

I'm a mod in a different group. We have a separate secret group for us moderators to talk to each other. We use it to prepare test posts, and to discuss problems on the main group. It is also useful when there is a new moderator. The moderator can play around with setting things on the secret group in order to learn how this site works before trying to work on the main group.

[Michelle]

That's pretty darned smart!

P.S. What I wouldn't give to read the posts that you decided not to post :)

[Anna]

Yeah we also have one :) But the point of a one person group is that you can use it as a way to navigate GR without having to use the crappy tools GR gives us! I haven't clicked on My Books even once after the home page redo several years ago, I think that's when it started loading super slowly. Whenever that was.

edit: And to store all those secret posts you didn't quite dare post after all ;)

edit2: Like this is a good example, I could've prepared this post in my secret group, and then posted, so I didn't have to keep coming back to edit it, because I posted before I got all my thoughts out!

[Anna]

I timed it. It takes 22 seconds for My Books to load (for me, it depends on the number of books you have), and a couple of seconds (2-4 maybe?) for a small shelf to load. I typically open a shelf in a new tab, so by the time I've clicked over to it, it's loaded if it's not the default (All) shelf. Of course you could also have a bookmark for a small shelf and use that, you don't have to create a group just for that :D But I wanted to tell you what I use it for, and I'm sure there are lots of other great uses I haven't thought of or haven't needed.

So secret groups aren't just for actual groups (2+) who want to hide, it's also for anyone who wants to play around with a group for whatever reason :)

[Ines, Resident Vampire]

Anna wrote: "I lied!

1) I cannot claim not to lose my shit re: GR
2) That episode is out tonight!

So I have a secret GR group with only one member. (That's me, in case someone couldn't figure it out.) It's li..."

This is a great way to deal with GRs many problems, but at the same time it makes me cringe so hard as a usability person. If my users have to go to such lengths to use my site, my usability is just shit (excuse my french, but really, what other word would I use?). (So I cringe because of GR, not because of your way to deal with GR's shi...zzle.)

As a user, I don't bother with sites that are bad like that. I just stop using them. I can already observe myself using GR less and less, even though the groups should keep me on here.

[Anna]

Oh I absolutely agree. GR is the only site where I've had to do something like this, and also the only site I have stylesheets for. The only reason I'm still here are the people, as many have already said.

[Becky]

lol I didn’t realize you were going to do a full tutorial! I have a couple secret groups I use like that. 😄

[Anna]

I've been meaning to do that for years, and I thought heck let's do it :D

[Becky]

I created a G shortcut bookmark to the Topics page after they split the homepage ands made it ONLY feed and no groups. I just created a CR one to link to my Currently Reading shelf, and kicked myself for not thinking of it Sooner. Always in my bookmarks bar, one click away. :)