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Goodreads has no incentive to be good

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121–130 of 245 posts

Re: Goodreads has no incentive to be good

#121

I anything actually good anymore? - Goodreads: Broken recommendation system, meh UI, review wars - Google Search: Pointless - Reddit: Overtly user-hostile, poor UX, tiktokified - YouTube: Mainstream, ad-riddled, tiktokified - Yelp: Cluttered-UI, favors jerks, hostile to businesses - Gmail: Oh yeah we're gonna delete your emails if you don't log in after a while - Netflix: Shrinking catalogue, worse quality shows - In…

I feel like this is overly cynical. Facebook is still the best social network for certain age groups. Instagram (and Facebook) engagement is dropping but it's (they're) still one of the best mediums for getting the word out about events (for me anyway). Reddit is fine as long as old-reddit still works, though with losing API access the mobile story is about to suck.

Re: Goodreads has no incentive to be good

#122

I anything actually good anymore? - Goodreads: Broken recommendation system, meh UI, review wars - Google Search: Pointless - Reddit: Overtly user-hostile, poor UX, tiktokified - YouTube: Mainstream, ad-riddled, tiktokified - Yelp: Cluttered-UI, favors jerks, hostile to businesses - Gmail: Oh yeah we're gonna delete your emails if you don't log in after a while - Netflix: Shrinking catalogue, worse quality shows - In…

RateYourMusic is a pretty nice site for finding movies and music. I wish that Goodreads was more similar to RYM.

Sonemic has been pretty good about not turning RYM into an affiliate link ridden landfill like Goodreads.

Re: Goodreads has no incentive to be good

#123
post #81

I anything actually good anymore? - Goodreads: Broken recommendation system, meh UI, review wars - Google Search: Pointless - Reddit: Overtly user-hostile, poor UX, tiktokified - YouTube: Mainstream, ad-riddled, tiktokified - Yelp: Cluttered-UI, favors jerks, hostile to businesses - Gmail: Oh yeah we're gonna delete your emails if you don't log in after a while - Netflix: Shrinking catalogue, worse quality shows - In…

Absolutely. May I add one more? - Hacker News: filled with old ~men~ people shouting at clouds, reminiscing about how things were better in the good old days.

People like you are destroying the fabric of society.

Re: Goodreads has no incentive to be good

#124
post #81

I anything actually good anymore? - Goodreads: Broken recommendation system, meh UI, review wars - Google Search: Pointless - Reddit: Overtly user-hostile, poor UX, tiktokified - YouTube: Mainstream, ad-riddled, tiktokified - Yelp: Cluttered-UI, favors jerks, hostile to businesses - Gmail: Oh yeah we're gonna delete your emails if you don't log in after a while - Netflix: Shrinking catalogue, worse quality shows - In…

Absolutely. May I add one more? - Hacker News: filled with old ~men~ people shouting at clouds, reminiscing about how things were better in the good old days.

I'm not old but it's fairly obvious that most internet companies have refocused from an exceptionnaly long growth centered phase towards extracting value from their user base in the last few years. As a consequence things have gotten measurably worse for said users.

We should be seeing competitors emerging right now but sadly years of lax competition laws enforcement and extreme concentration of wealth amongst said companies make that unlikely in the short term.

No shouting at the cloud required here.

Re: Goodreads has no incentive to be good

#125

I anything actually good anymore? - Goodreads: Broken recommendation system, meh UI, review wars - Google Search: Pointless - Reddit: Overtly user-hostile, poor UX, tiktokified - YouTube: Mainstream, ad-riddled, tiktokified - Yelp: Cluttered-UI, favors jerks, hostile to businesses - Gmail: Oh yeah we're gonna delete your emails if you don't log in after a while - Netflix: Shrinking catalogue, worse quality shows - In…

You forgot to mention Stack Overflow.

Re: Goodreads has no incentive to be good

#127

I anything actually good anymore? - Goodreads: Broken recommendation system, meh UI, review wars - Google Search: Pointless - Reddit: Overtly user-hostile, poor UX, tiktokified - YouTube: Mainstream, ad-riddled, tiktokified - Yelp: Cluttered-UI, favors jerks, hostile to businesses - Gmail: Oh yeah we're gonna delete your emails if you don't log in after a while - Netflix: Shrinking catalogue, worse quality shows - In…

RateYourMusic is a pretty nice site for finding movies and music. I wish that Goodreads was more similar to RYM.

letterboxd is also alright for finding movies to watch and critique of them. OTOH you need to play whack a mole against the meme accounts and their 4 words long super popular "reviews".

Or just find a way into RED and PTP.

Re: Goodreads has no incentive to be good

#128

I anything actually good anymore? - Goodreads: Broken recommendation system, meh UI, review wars - Google Search: Pointless - Reddit: Overtly user-hostile, poor UX, tiktokified - YouTube: Mainstream, ad-riddled, tiktokified - Yelp: Cluttered-UI, favors jerks, hostile to businesses - Gmail: Oh yeah we're gonna delete your emails if you don't log in after a while - Netflix: Shrinking catalogue, worse quality shows - In…

I find that grilling out with friends and family is good. Books are really good, lots of interesting stuff to learn on the non-fiction side (and I honestly think the new AI stuff is making it even easier to learn things!), still more interesting fiction that I haven't read yet than I could ever read in a lifetime, not to mention re-reading books I already love. Similar thing with movies and tv; just finished the new…

> I honestly think the new AI stuff is making it even easier to learn things

ChatGPT is the closest thing we have to A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer from The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson

Re: Goodreads has no incentive to be good

#129
post #54

Has a good cross-media site ever been done, for books, games, shows, movies, and music in one place? Or is there anyone else who has that vision? I could see myself spending a lot of time on a site where I could maintain one profile/habit for all of them. Each of those alone I enjoy, but I've never been able to make it a regular thing to go to a site for just one of them. I love movies but I'm not so much of a cineph…

I believe https://sonemic.com/ is heading down that path.

For context, I am an _extremely_ happy user (and paying subscriber) of Rate Your Music . I find the genre classifications, album descriptors, user reviews and ratings incredibly useful and they have greatly enhanced my music discovery process, and my understanding of the music I come across.

Re: Goodreads has no incentive to be good

#130

I anything actually good anymore? - Goodreads: Broken recommendation system, meh UI, review wars - Google Search: Pointless - Reddit: Overtly user-hostile, poor UX, tiktokified - YouTube: Mainstream, ad-riddled, tiktokified - Yelp: Cluttered-UI, favors jerks, hostile to businesses - Gmail: Oh yeah we're gonna delete your emails if you don't log in after a while - Netflix: Shrinking catalogue, worse quality shows - In…

This is overly cynical. And what's the hate for tiktok?

Google search is worse, twitter is becoming worse, but not unusable. I learn so much educational stuff from youtube/tiktok and connect with musicians on instagram, etc. These platforms can be useful if you want them to be.

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