Looks similar to http://italictype.com
Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads
181–190 of 197 posts
Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads
#182UI is too modern. I really like Goodreads UI. It is like old Windows. It is like that old Porsche. Sure, you have everyone driving new fancy futuristic things. But you also want "old" feel. dunno, I really like Goodreads aesthetics.
Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't find BookWyrm to be confusing at all. I assume most people use many applications without diving into every single feature or learning an underlying API that may be available. Why should BookWyrm be evaluated according to a different standard? I feel like you're conflating your confusion with how the fediverse works with a particular application that you don't seem to have evaluated based on its own merits.
I tend to evaluate a service based on what the service provider advertises as selling points. In case of BookWyrm, the very first feature listed in the home page is that its Decentralized. As a user I'd want to understand how that is an advantage for me - it would seem I can't without getting familiar with underlying protocol. I have nothing against BookWyrm, I'd like to see such initiatives succeed.
You can use BookWyrm without thinking about the federated aspect, and I think many do. The benefits is that you are not signing up to a walled garden and that people from other communities can follow and interact with you.
We have gotten so accustomed to global, closed off services (like Instagram, Twitter etc) that getting to choose from several communities with different rules and themes confuses us. But this is in fact how most forums and other online communities functioned before the age of Facebook etc, only now the communuties have the ability to talk to each other.
Maybe what the fediverse needs is a clearer story. I have found that most people get Mastodon or other ActivityPub-enabled services much more if I do not lead with the decentralized features, but the fact that it is ad-free and without algorithms deciding what you see (and not) in your feed. The interoperability is something they come around to appreciat later on.
Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads
#184This 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.
Can't sign up without providing a surname, either. Literally the first step after the magic login link, and already at a hurdle I'm not going to pass.
Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads
#185I commonly rely on Goodreads for book reviews before deciding if it's worth spending the time to read. Any chance of integrating functionality like this with z-lib.org?
Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you please throw more info on what you are building? Have you written / tweeted about it anytime?
Havent posted publically just yet.. I couldn't find any good podcast exploration platforms or tools. Things like moonbeam are too random and things like subreddits either too inactive or too based on human recs and have a cold start problem. Its a real PITA finding good podcasts. So i figured I'll build a thing for it. The intention is to have something like a book club and what parent was saying for podcasts.
Check out Fathom. https://hello.fathom.fm/
Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads
#187I commonly rely on Goodreads for book reviews before deciding if it's worth spending the time to read. Any chance of integrating functionality like this with z-lib.org?
[deleted]
Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's zero chance I sign up for this if I can't see it beforehand. It's not a good look for something that purports to be more open than goodreads.
From what I can tell, there is literally nothing to show if you don't sign up. The site is entirely social. You have a feed and recommendations which are shared among friends. It's basically like saying there's zero chance you'll sign up for email if you can't see it beforehand.
> From what I can tell, there is literally nothing to show if you don't sign up. The site is entirely social. You have a feed and recommendations which are shared among friends. It's basically like saying there's zero chance you'll sign up for email if you can't see it beforehand.
If people weren't able to understand how email worked before signing up to it, you damn be sure that no one would sign up for it. But email is ubiquitous enough today that people don't need to understand how it works before signing up, because they likely already understand it.
But "social media for books" is different. Show me how the feed looks, show of it looks when people are using it. It's likely I either ignore it because I can't understand what it would give me without viewable screenshots about how it works before, or I sign up and land on an empty feed, getting discouraged from even using it because it's so empty when I first arrive.
Showing people how a product works before asking them to sign up is not a big ask, and something vital especially when trying to get people to sign up and commit to a new social network, when there are new ones created everyday.
People just want to see how stuff works before, and it'll take a couple of hours tops to add to the landing page.
Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
A sign-up wall for a site which should be able to show me public book reviews and recommendations is a non-starter for me (and probably 99% of users clicking the link). I really don't need another social media platform, I would like a book discovery system though.
I don't think reviews or recommendations are the goal of the site, as there is currently no way to add reviews or ratings, nor does the site provide any reviews or recommendations of its own. It's literally "just" a social network to talk about books on.
Most of the confusion would go away if they had read-only access for anonymous users. I suspect they chose to not do this because there just isn't much there yet.
Re: Show HN: A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads
#190This is awesome, but I feel like you're going to struggle to compete if all the content is behind a membership wall.
Totally get the sentiment, but also felt like a membership wall was required for building out a platform that is primarily social in nature. Would be interesting to see what anonymous features we can provide down the road.
I think people are going to be more motivated to join by being exposed to the content. As is, you're just giving away your contact info to someone who might be hitting your inbox 3 times a day.