I’m building something similar over at https://bookends.app. Still relatively new as well.
Good luck and I wish you all the success!
Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads
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Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads
#52Booqsi looks really pretty and I love that it supports local bookstores! Are there plans to support imports from Goodreads? I know many people who have curated their shelves for years so that might be an important feature for them to switch over. I've been using and loving an alternative, https://www.thestorygraph.com/it has similar vibes to Booqsi and also includes a Goodreads import, AI based recommendations, and s…
Storygraph also doesn't have an api, unfortunately. If they did I'd jump over wholeheartedly.
Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be honest, if you're looking just for book info, ratings, and reviews, Booqsi probably isn't the right site for you anyways. It's specifically meant to be a social platform, not a ratings or reviews site, which is why we don't actually have give users the ability to do either. We built it to be a social platform for you to engage with your community about books, with the underlying motivation that a book recommend…
What's the downside to letting people who are just checking out your site actually check out your site?
No downside, it's just not something the site provides today as part of beta. An anonymous experience is something we're exploring.
Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads
#54I'd recommend to add social login options. It greatly reduce the initial barrier to sign up. Besides the usual suspects like Google or Microsoft, Github, Discord are also very good options.
Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads
#55This is great but I'm not going to sign up just to see what the site looks like. There's no reason for a large part of the functionality (book info, ratings, reviews) to be behind a login wall. As it stands right now Goodreads is a lot more open.
signed up and the rating system is borrowed wholesale from google books and there are no reviews at all; so rating and reviews are not even a feature (yet?). not a good look, i'd love an alternative to goodreads but not even having a basic rating system is kinda defeats whatever purpose this site might be going for
Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads
#56I’m building something similar over at https://bookends.app . Still relatively new as well. Good luck and I wish you all the success!
Looks cool. Good luck!
Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads
#57Currently no account management? Like how to delete the account.
Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads
#58cool, looks nice and easy to use. def gonna try out.
but, this doesn't support indie bookstores if it's using a bookshop, unless it's the affiliate link for a specific bookstore. instead, it's likely an affiliate link for the creator of booqsi. if you're trying to let consumers support indie bookstores, then linking to indiebound with the isbn in the url will let them choose a local bookstore, and not booqsi's affiliate bookshop. example: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781612194196
sorry, but as a former indie bookseller, i get bothered by these tech apps who link to their affiliate bookshop and try to sell themselves as helping out indie bookstores. they're not.
edit: might be a cool feature for a user to choose their preferred indie to link to. if you did that, you could probably market it to the bookstores and they might want to use it too.
Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads
#59I once was part of a now-defunct reading forum in my teens. On the forum, people would package three related books into quests. A boring example would be a dystopian quest pack with three books about three very different dystopian scenarios. But the quests people put together were usually more interesting. I remember a "Weird Magic" quest had books with really unconventional magic systems. I found Motherless Brooklyn…
Oh this is so neat!! Thanks for the idea
Anyone want this? Can have it up in March
Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads
#60This is great but I'm not going to sign up just to see what the site looks like. There's no reason for a large part of the functionality (book info, ratings, reviews) to be behind a login wall. As it stands right now Goodreads is a lot more open.
signed up and the rating system is borrowed wholesale from google books and there are no reviews at all; so rating and reviews are not even a feature (yet?). not a good look, i'd love an alternative to goodreads but not even having a basic rating system is kinda defeats whatever purpose this site might be going for
The goal isn't to be another reviews or ratings site; that's been done before. The goal is to leverage the power of your personal book community to help you better decide what to read next. Drop book recommendations to each other, post about books to your feed and engage in discussion, see what your friend's favorites are by viewing their top 10 favorites shelf, etc.