I Want to Fix Goodreads • Hacker News Board

Re: I Want to Fix Goodreads

#51

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg » Sat, Sep 12, 2020, 8:49 PM UTC

Jemaclus wrote: post #10

My problem with Goodreads isn't the recommendations engine. The recommendations are fine. I'm actually skeptical that any ML recommendation engine is going to recommend better books than my friends will. The only thing I expect from a recommendation engine is discovery , by which I mean finding new things that neither I nor my friends have read that look interesting. Whether they're good is another story altogether..…

I'm glad the recommendations work for you, but I agree with the blog post author and echo their experience. I think Goodreads recommendations are awful. All of the other recommendation engines I use regularly (Facebook, Twitter, Amazon shopping, Amazon Prime, Google, targeted web ads, Netflix, Steam) work significantly better than Goodreads does.

Re: I Want to Fix Goodreads

#52

Post by anonreader123 » Sat, Sep 12, 2020, 8:54 PM UTC

Paul_S wrote: post #40

anonreader123 wrote: post #18

I am a Goodreads employee. this is a burner account. i could be fired for posting. we love Goodreads and we know it is bad today. we are working to fix it. there are very few of us. we are trying. we are making big changes soon.

Do you recommend books based on ML or do you hand pick books you want to promote because you think they should be promoted or have been paid to promote them?

only ML. no promo -- nothing sneaky -- we hate sneaky

Re: I Want to Fix Goodreads

#53

Post by buttscicles » Sat, Sep 12, 2020, 8:55 PM UTC

50 wrote: post #19

Haven't used it myself since it's in beta but I have been keeping my eyes on this for a while: https://beta.readng.co/ , https://twitter.com/readngco

Hi, I'm building this! Thanks for sharing.

It's pretty basic right at the moment and we've a lot left to build (largely a reading list only, we've got more in the works) – but here's my profile as a preview, since our marketing site & messaging needs a bit of work: https://beta.readng.co/user/joe

Re: I Want to Fix Goodreads

#54

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Sep 12, 2020, 8:59 PM UTC

acchow wrote: post #48

anonreader123 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to be specific but I would get fired if they saw. but we read EVERY post about us. we are being ambitious and big changes are coming. biggest challenge is there is too much to do and we have so few staff.

How many engineers?

[deleted]

Re: I Want to Fix Goodreads

#55

Post by rexpop » Sat, Sep 12, 2020, 9:00 PM UTC

anonreader123 wrote: post #18

I am a Goodreads employee. this is a burner account. i could be fired for posting. we love Goodreads and we know it is bad today. we are working to fix it. there are very few of us. we are trying. we are making big changes soon.

> i could be fired for posting.

Yikes, that's rather dramatic! Especially since all you've said is "we're working to fix it. changes soon." That's a pretty harmless statement, I would think.

What gives you the idea that such statements put your employment at risk?

Re: I Want to Fix Goodreads

#56

Post by SECProto » Sat, Sep 12, 2020, 9:01 PM UTC

anonreader123 wrote: post #18

I am a Goodreads employee. this is a burner account. i could be fired for posting. we love Goodreads and we know it is bad today. we are working to fix it. there are very few of us. we are trying. we are making big changes soon.

Can we have half stars or quarter stars? I read a lot of books, and choosing full-star 1 to 5 makes the ratings pretty useless for people who read a lot. My internal rankings are:

1 hated it/was offended/didn't finish

2 disliked it/likely didn't finish

3 finished but it was a struggle

4 finished/enjoyed/had some issues

5 finished fast/really enjoyed/may or may not have still had issues.

If I look back at the 30 to 50 books I read in a year, it's really difficult to get any sort of ranking out of them. I've only got two choices for books I liked (4 or 5) and two choices for books I disliked (1 or 2). Having half stars would help my ratings relative to one another.

Re: I Want to Fix Goodreads

#57

Post by ericmcer » Sat, Sep 12, 2020, 9:02 PM UTC

One interesting facet of all these recommendation and ratings systems online (Yelp, Goodreads, Rotten Tomatoes, etc.) is that they don't provide a key value that in person recommendations do.

When a person recommends a restaurant they are attaching blame for the restaurants performance to themselves. Its performance is a reflection on them and their credibility. It is very hard to replicate this on the internet, a place where people can suggest things with very little responsibility.

If I strongly suggest a movie to someone and the movie sucks, I can be blamed for that. I don't know how to replicate that comfortable eschewing of responsibility that in person recommendations provide.

Re: I Want to Fix Goodreads

#58

Post by rexpop » Sat, Sep 12, 2020, 9:05 PM UTC

Is this a good thread under which to have a more general discussion about data ownership and access? Goodreads is a Schelling point for book reviews, reading lists, and personal catalogs, but the API leaves something to be desired, not to mention the UI. Why shouldn't the Goodreads database be accessible to other applications? Why shouldn't the data be stored locally, or on our "own cloud"?

Why can't we fix what's wrong with it? It's maddening that sites' UI is locked down, unfixable.

Re: I Want to Fix Goodreads

#59

Post by Nemo_bis » Sat, Sep 12, 2020, 9:06 PM UTC

There are many Goodreads competitors. To the others already mentioned, I'll add https://inventaire.io/ , which is fully free software and based on open data (Wikidata).

It's useful if you want to have full control on your own book catalogue while not having to produce all the data yourself.

Re: I Want to Fix Goodreads

#60

Post by Infinitesimus » Sat, Sep 12, 2020, 9:08 PM UTC

rexpop wrote: post #55

anonreader123 wrote: post #18

I am a Goodreads employee. this is a burner account. i could be fired for posting. we love Goodreads and we know it is bad today. we are working to fix it. there are very few of us. we are trying. we are making big changes soon.

> i could be fired for posting. Yikes, that's rather dramatic! Especially since all you've said is "we're working to fix it. changes soon." That's a pretty harmless statement, I would think. What gives you the idea that such statements put your employment at risk?

It might be the general fear present in some Amazon corp offices? (PIP stories, etc.)