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Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads

booqsi.com

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Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads

#61
I seem to be one of the few people here who likes Goodreads and uses it daily. I have no compelling reason to switch, but Booqsi looks gorgeous and fast, so I was interested in trying it out. I know it's early days, but a few things stand out.

Overall, the data seems a bit messy. I tried adding a few books from my currently reading list on Goodreads and ran into some problems. The first book I tried to add had a duplicate entry. Both had identical metadata but are separate records; if I marked one as finished it didn't update the other. Many books seem to be missing editions, alternate covers, subtitles, and other important details. Other times multiple editions seem to be split out as separate titles but with no clue to edition. This gets confusing fast for certain types of books.

It seems difficult to find people to follow. Everything looks to be private by default so I couldn't find people based on the books they read. The "people who read it" feature does not seem to work as expected. It seems it doesn't include books currently being read or books simply put on a favorite shelf without marking it 'read' - either that or I'm locked out of seeing what people I don't follow are reading. I have to follow them first? As it stands, I don't know anyone personally on Booqsi, so I'm relying on following interesting strangers based on reading habits, which I can't seem to do. It's doubtful my friends who already don't use Goodreads very much are going to switch, so I'm looking for Booqsi to be more like a "twitter for books", which it currently isn't without the option to be public.

A couple more books didn't exist and I didn't see an option to add it. I assume some crowdsourcing option like Goodreads is on the roadmap for Booqsi though.

Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads

#62

I'm glad another site for book lovers exists, and I wish you well! But I think it's sad that Librarything has such poor marketing and branding that nobody ever thinks "well, there already is a better, cooler replacement for Goodreads, and it doesn't cost anything". It's been around for 17 years, has 2.6 million users, and very few people know about it.

Agreed. The name "LibraryThing" is like a people-repellent compared to "GoodReads." Names matter.

Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads

#64
Meh.

Reading is a personal experience. I guess I understand the desire to make it more social -- but I'm not sure why I would go to the lengths to do so.

Is it some kind of gamification thing? I guess that's why I never got into Goodreads either.

I might be an outlier -- but I've never seen reading -- authentic, personal reading -- as anything other than personal.

I'm a social creature for sure, but I don't feel the need to share my reading lists. I always feel like social media is for creating a persona -- someone who want to be but aren't -- but want your "friends" to think you are.

This seems like it veers that way -- but I don't know. I didn't sign up -- but I was (obviously) curious enough to take a peek. And that probably says more about me than I care to acknowledge. :(

Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads

#66

I'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.

Definitely. On the roadmap, with Google as one of the first we're rolling out. Not only does it reduce the barrier to sign up, it also helps you discover (or invite) friends.

Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads

#67

I'm glad another site for book lovers exists, and I wish you well! But I think it's sad that Librarything has such poor marketing and branding that nobody ever thinks "well, there already is a better, cooler replacement for Goodreads, and it doesn't cost anything". It's been around for 17 years, has 2.6 million users, and very few people know about it.

I always thought Librarything was also bought by Amazon.

later: According to some pretty stale info on Wikipedia, Abebooks bought 40% of Librarything in 2006, and Amazon bought Abebooks entirely in 2008.

edit: https://blog.librarything.com/2008/08/abebooks-news-the-scoo...

https://www.librarything.com/topic/152033

> At the same time, it's well known that Amazon has an indirect but real stake in LibraryThing—they bought Abebooks, who were our first minority partner. People keep reporting that Amazon has 40%. That's simply not true—it fails to take account of our second funder, Bowker. (I remain the majority; I can't say how the rest divides up.) But this certainly muddies the message. For what it's worth, I want LibraryThing to make more money, and therefore my, Bowker and Amazon's stake to be worth more and more, but with Amazon now holding 100% ownership of BOTH our competitors (Goodreads and Shelfari), we can hardly do so without emphasizing what sets us apart.

Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads

#68

I 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…

Love this idea. Gamification of reading is something people have dabbled with for awhile; would be great to eventually build in something like you mentioned.

Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads

#69

I'm glad another site for book lovers exists, and I wish you well! But I think it's sad that Librarything has such poor marketing and branding that nobody ever thinks "well, there already is a better, cooler replacement for Goodreads, and it doesn't cost anything". It's been around for 17 years, has 2.6 million users, and very few people know about it.

I think the reason is that LibraryThing is significantly less UX-friendly than Goodreads. I use both; I use Goodreads to track what I consider "personal" reading, and I use LibraryThing to track what I consider "technical", but the big reason I have it broken down like this is because LibraryThing is just not as friendly to a user as the alternatives.

Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads

#70

cool, 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 affili…

When you were a bookseller, why didn’t you use bookshop.org? Is there some problem with it?

All of the independent book stores that I know about around me are on there.

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