Goodreads Is Broken • Hacker News Board

Re: Goodreads Is Broken

#161

Post by prepend » Sat, Sep 07, 2019, 10:02 PM UTC

qrv3w wrote: post #77

> The recommendations suck, the lists suck — it’s like, 100 lists telling me to read The Handmaid’s Tale and Harry Potter. I had the same experience with GR and also Amazon.com which constantly peddles the vampire romance books when I am looking for recommendations for horror/fantasy. Both Amazon and GR strategy make sense because best-selling books sell the best, so they should recommend them to increase profits. Ho…

I applaud you for putting a site together, and I like the design look, but when I clicked on the best list of fiction from 1900-2019 Harry Potter showed up in five versions at the top of the list.

This is a hard problem because popular != good. But I would like to see data on whether recommending popular books works best. I’m sure amazon and goodreads have this data, but they are horrible at recommending.

Re: Goodreads Is Broken

#162

Post by nefitty » Sat, Sep 07, 2019, 10:04 PM UTC

icebraining wrote: post #109

inapis wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I face this problem with Netflix, Spotify and Youtube too. These algorithmic recommendations just need one improper dataset to throw everything out of the window. For weeks, my spotify is overloaded with instrumental songs. Youtube keeps on repeating the same stuff. Netflix believes that the only thing I watch is science fiction. I'm dying for human curation.

Criticker is automated, and I find its recommendations amazing. (Not affiliated, just a happy user)

Criticker has never failed me. I've been using it for years. I did hop over for a few years to a site called Jinni with really high quality UI. They closed their consumer facing services and provide their service to content providers. Criticker is still there crushing the game.

Re: Goodreads Is Broken

#163

Post by ravar » Sat, Sep 07, 2019, 10:14 PM UTC

qrv3w wrote: post #77

> The recommendations suck, the lists suck — it’s like, 100 lists telling me to read The Handmaid’s Tale and Harry Potter. I had the same experience with GR and also Amazon.com which constantly peddles the vampire romance books when I am looking for recommendations for horror/fantasy. Both Amazon and GR strategy make sense because best-selling books sell the best, so they should recommend them to increase profits. Ho…

I am really impressed how well this site works without javascript. This is refreshing compared to all the sites that display nothing with noscript.

Re: Goodreads Is Broken

#164

Post by jamespetercook » Sat, Sep 07, 2019, 10:17 PM UTC

qrv3w wrote: post #77

> The recommendations suck, the lists suck — it’s like, 100 lists telling me to read The Handmaid’s Tale and Harry Potter. I had the same experience with GR and also Amazon.com which constantly peddles the vampire romance books when I am looking for recommendations for horror/fantasy. Both Amazon and GR strategy make sense because best-selling books sell the best, so they should recommend them to increase profits. Ho…

The design of your website blew me away. It’s brilliant.

Re: Goodreads Is Broken

#165

Post by qrv3w » Sat, Sep 07, 2019, 10:17 PM UTC

Noumenon72 wrote: post #123

dgellow wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO it’s not readable, though you disagree on this point.

It must be somewhat hard to read, because no one has yet noticed the missing word on the front page ("get a list of suggested books to read"). But I like it.

Haha, missed that. Thanks!

Re: Goodreads Is Broken

#166

Post by basch » Sat, Sep 07, 2019, 10:19 PM UTC

k_vi wrote: post #56

basch wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a shame https://telegra.ph doesnt have the ability to save/send yourself an edit link. Being able to only edit your story on the computer you made it on is a big turnoff.

You can use @telegraph on Telegram to save/edit on your account.

nice. clunky but it works.

Re: Goodreads Is Broken

#167

Post by bobcostas55 » Sat, Sep 07, 2019, 10:20 PM UTC

If you're looking for recs, check out librarything. In general it's worse than goodreads on almost all dimensions, but their recommendations algorithms are great. You can import your goodreads list, so it's no big ordeal.

Re: Goodreads Is Broken

#168

Post by StavrosK » Sat, Sep 07, 2019, 10:25 PM UTC

CydeWeys wrote: post #157

StavrosK wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm fully aware I'm the minority, but I only read DRM-free books. What's a good ebook reader I can get these days that has good bang for buck?

I only read DRM-free books, and I just use a 5-year-old Kindle Paperwhite. You can use Calibre to convert ePub to mobi, and then view it just fine on Kindles. You can also get a used Kindle Paperwhite for pretty darn cheap. I wouldn't recommend going to earlier Kindle generations prior to the Paperwhite, because they didn't have backlights which makes reading in low light conditions (like bed) a lot less pleasurable.

I already have a Paperwhite and it's quite good, but the plastic degraded and is now sticky, the CPU is slow and doing anything takes a while, and it doesn't have the very handy buttons earlier versions used to have. I was wondering if there was anything available nowadays that was much better, basically...

Re: Goodreads Is Broken

#169

Post by corobo » Sat, Sep 07, 2019, 10:40 PM UTC

qrv3w wrote: post #77

> The recommendations suck, the lists suck — it’s like, 100 lists telling me to read The Handmaid’s Tale and Harry Potter. I had the same experience with GR and also Amazon.com which constantly peddles the vampire romance books when I am looking for recommendations for horror/fantasy. Both Amazon and GR strategy make sense because best-selling books sell the best, so they should recommend them to increase profits. Ho…

Awesome! Indeed feels like a better selection of recommendations

The only tweak I’d make? Link to UK (etc, but UK for me) Amazon too! Mainly because I’m lazy but also you could then set up a UK affiliate tag. I buy a lot of books, get your slice!

Re: Goodreads Is Broken

#170

Post by xbkingx » Sat, Sep 07, 2019, 10:44 PM UTC

rhizome wrote: post #97

inapis wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I face this problem with Netflix, Spotify and Youtube too. These algorithmic recommendations just need one improper dataset to throw everything out of the window. For weeks, my spotify is overloaded with instrumental songs. Youtube keeps on repeating the same stuff. Netflix believes that the only thing I watch is science fiction. I'm dying for human curation.

You also have to account for payola.

Which is why the author of the article didn't find the upcoming release for the book she searched. Searching for a book we can't make money on? Pffft GTFO.