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Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative

kaguya.io

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Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative

#101

Post by kreco »

> Would love feedback. What do you think? 1) It looks very nice.

2) However, the UI density is not good for me.

I have a 23" monitor and I can only see 2,5 items of the "Trending Review This Week". I should be able to read 5 of them (even though there are only 3 items displayed).

The "landing screen" is also too big, I should be able to see some content that make me want to have a look and sign-in, not just sign-in to have a look.

3) As a personal opinion I prefer Bad/Neutral/Good rating system + review for the nuance.

Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative

#102

Post by 7bit »

magicalhippo wrote: post #12

> 10-star rating system (More nuance than 5 stars) Does one really get anything meaningful out of saying this was a 6-star book vs a 7-star book? Personally I think 4 levels is sufficient. Either it's rather bad, not bad but not good, good but not great or it's great. Anything beyond that will have to be written in words.

Black Panther has a rating of 96% at Rotten Tomatoes. So whatever the scale is, nothing is really meaningful. I've been in the cinema with about 60 other people and a friend. statistically one of us should have enjoyed it but we both found the movie shit. So no, 10 stars is not more meaningful as 5 stars. 2-4 should be enough to still be wrong about taste once in a while.

Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative

#103

Post by skeeter2020 »

nerdponx wrote: post #18
magicalhippo wrote: post #12

> 10-star rating system (More nuance than 5 stars) Does one really get anything meaningful out of saying this was a 6-star book vs a 7-star book? Personally I think 4 levels is sufficient. Either it's rather bad, not bad but not good, good but not great or it's great. Anything beyond that will have to be written in words.

No, and that's why Netflix switched to thumbs up/down instead of 5 stars.

It's debatable this was the motivation for Netflix. More stars ==> more nuanced ==> more qualitative reviews ==> much more effort and time to decide if you should consume. Netflix is long(er) form TicTok and wants to optimize for continued consumption without friction. I wouldn't be surprised if they drop ratings all together and only offer a personalized AI curator stream. They could do this just based on viewing time and engagement and avoid even the minor disruption of "up/down". Don't make the sheep think.

Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative

#105

Post by vasanthk1125 »

julienmarie wrote: post #100
vasanthk1125 wrote: post #2

Tech Stack Backend: Elixir & Phoenix Database: PostgreSQL with Supabase (originally CockroachDB, big mistake) Auth: Supabase Frontend: Next.js UI Components: shadcn GraphQL API: Absinthe Hosting: Fly.io (Phoenix) + Vercel (Next.js) Storage: Cloudflare R2 + CDN

Why Next.js and not Liveview? Little note: It seems the search is only by book title, not by author and not resilient to typos.

LiveView just has fewer libraries. For example, we use a rich-text editor called TipTap, and I’m not sure there’s anything similar for LV.

Yeah, search is currently by book title and series name. It should handle typos pretty well—Meilisearch allows for up to two—but I still need to tweak it further

Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative

#106

Post by kmfrk »

vasanthk1125 wrote: post #97
kmfrk wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Goodfilms (goodfil.ms), rest in peace, had a great two-rating system with Quality and Rewatchability, because the latter turned out to be a really useful metric. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3082241 One of the main frustrations I have with Goodreads is how limited the API is nowadays, and how there appear to be no measures against brigading and other campaigns. One of the core issues with ratings services. Pe…

I'm curious—what would you like to do with the API?

Ironically, mainly to check for irregular voting patterns like brigading.

Not dissimilar to what Steam implemented, which is basically Bollinger bands for ratings.

Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative

#108

Post by 7bit »

vasanthk1125 wrote: post #47
magicalhippo wrote: post #12

> 10-star rating system (More nuance than 5 stars) Does one really get anything meaningful out of saying this was a 6-star book vs a 7-star book? Personally I think 4 levels is sufficient. Either it's rather bad, not bad but not good, good but not great or it's great. Anything beyond that will have to be written in words.

It just feels satisfying to me—organizing my library neatly by rating, based on how much I like each book. A four-level system just doesn’t have the same impact. Personal preference, I guess.

I would guess that with experience and age preferences change. What's the point of a 10 star rating system if you have a 10 star rated book that you wouldn't rate the same after being ten years older?

Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative

#109

Post by skeeter2020 »

I'm very old for the audience here, but really miss another Amazon acquisition and destruction: CD Now. I use ratings as a discoverability mechanism, and don't need some absolute rating based on unknown foundations as much as linking new content to known content. I find myself re-reading authors every few years because I struggle to find new authors and works that might appeal to my appetite.
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