Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative

#211

Post by slightwinder » Mon, Mar 03, 2025, 3:23 PM UTC

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.

I think for a personal level, everything with more than 3 rating-states is overrated. Either you like it, dislike it, or don't care. Nothing more necessary. But on a social site, more nuance can be valuable to get a more fine-tuned result without polishing algorithms.

Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative

#212

Post by ardaiel » Mon, Mar 03, 2025, 4:58 PM UTC

I love the UI personally; I don't see a way to friend or follow other users, although I know that may be coming soon.

My biggest missing feature: I can't see what series a book is in. For instance, if I look up the Three Body Problem, I can see the author, the rating, reviews, pub date, etc; but nowhere does it tell me this is Book 1 of the Remembrance of Earth's Past series. That's pretty big for me; I commonly use these sites to click on the series, and see a full listing of all books in that series, so I know what to read next.

Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative

#213

Post by SergeAx » Thu, Mar 06, 2025, 1:44 PM UTC

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.

I can definitely say there is a difference between 7-star and 6-star movies on IMDb. A 7-star movie on IMDb is worth watching most of the time, while a 6-star movie is a 50/50 chance. A 5-star and less movie is a hard pass.

Re: Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative

#214

Post by bwb » Sun, Mar 09, 2025, 9:08 AM UTC

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.

Ya i do love, like, meh, dislike :). I want personal ratings not a weird public scale that everyone uses differently.