THE Group for Authors! discussion

This issue has been going on for months now -

- Rankings are listed strangely; often the reviews are mixed up with the star rankings.
- The rankings appear in no particular order (making it hard to find the most recent additions)
- Some of my books have want-to-read appearing, for some of my books they don't appear at all
- The want-to-read summary figure no longer appears to be registering any additions (although the overall summary figure is increasing accurately)
If the want-to-read ratings are being phased out/ or no longer listed under books - then I have a problem, though I can still access this list by clicking on the summary list - the problem is the list appears in no particular order, without any dates, so I have no idea who has just marked my book as want-to-read. Note - this is a great marketing tool, I can go to the person's site and work out how they found out about my book and focus my marketing efforts on that channel.

- I have several books that have people currently reading them - except, when you click on the summary to list those people, there is actually no one reading them. Or they have completed reading, but the summary figure still includes them in the total figure.

- Every week on particular days a specific number of ratings will just drop off, only to re-appear like clockwork two days later.

The problems with the rankings/list has been on-going now for over a month. And I assumed it was being addressed. But I haven't seen any evidence that the situation is getting any better.
Is there an awareness of these problems? Is there a timeline for addressing these problems?

There are a couple of threads, at least, detailing this problem, maybe in this group and others, Jane.

I, too, am having these problems and a member of the GR staff has emailed me and tried to help. She suggested I cleared my cache and helpfully explained exactly how. I have done this twice now and nothing changes. She also printed her screen for me and it is very different from what shows on mine.

Mine has much the same problem as yours but with several reviews repeated in different places and probably some missing as the numbers don't match those on the dashboard.

I've given up trying to sort it out but my concern is that I don't know who has given a rating or a review, or even if I've had either or both but that they are just not showing.

So long as GR are still recognizing that we, the users, cannot see our pages properly, then I am content to let them sort it out. But I think we need to remind them that although they see things as they think they should, we are seeing muddled and incomplete reviews, ratings and to-be-reads. (I haven't any tbrs.)

Goodreads is much valued by me and, no doubt, many others so I guess that is why we are caring so much.

Jane wrote: "This issue has been going on for months now -

- Rankings are listed strangely; often the reviews are mixed up with the star rankings."

I'm sorry for the trouble with this Jane. Can you please link me to some of the books where you're seeing these mixed up ratings, including pages with fluctuating ratings, so I can have a closer look?

As mentioned in a previous thread, our developers have recently been fine-tuning the way reviews, ratings and to-read shelf additions are displayed in order to improve site performance, and simplify the Community Reviews section of the book page. Unless you have fewer than 30 ratings and reviews, you won't see "to-reads" listed individually under the Community Reviews header – just ratings and reviews.

You'll still be able to check how many users have marked a book as "to-read" by clicking on "Rating Details" near the top of the book page. You can see the total number of "to-reads" at the lower left corner of the pop-up.

Jaclyn wrote: "Jane wrote: "This issue has been going on for months now -

- Rankings are listed strangely; often the reviews are mixed up with the star rankings."

I'm sorry for the trouble with this Jane. Can y..."


The worst offender of my books is To Woo A Warrior - with rankings mixed up between all the reviews and occurring in no sensible order.
- this book also supposedly has 3 people reading it when there are only two

To Seduce A Siren - this book has -2 people reading it. And these non-people have not been reading it for quite some time.

The ratings that drop off - couldn't tell you what time that occurs generally around a Tues/Wed for me (Australia time) and then they seem to right themselves about Friday. One of the books that seems to suffer from this phenomena is To Bedevil A Beauty - It affects b/w 3 to 4 of my books.

Yes, I thought I read that the to-read was being phased out - and as mentioned, yes I can still access the list by clicking on the total number listed below the book - but as it stands this list is useless, as it has no dates, just lists names and photos. Without dates, or listed in a sensible order I have no hope of guessing who has recently listed my book as to-read. Which is a great marketing tool, for following up on how the person found out about my book and concentrating my efforts on that channel.

Also, my overall summary (the collated number of all my books) in regards to-read seems to have stopped working. (or is just not including anyone who taps to-read for my latest published book To Vex A Valkyrie as this is below the 30 cut off mark, but is not recording - to-read in the summary for this book at all. Though there are several people who are listed as wanting to-read it.

Confusion reigns - think we need a magic wand to sort out this mess, if only.

Hi Jane. Thanks so much for all that information - it really helps us when investigating an issue. I've reported the issue with To Woo a Warrior to our engineering team who are looking into these occurrences.

I've also refreshed all of your other stats and this should resolve all your inconsistencies. If this happens again, would you mind clarifying where you're seeing these changes (e.g. author dashboard, author page, book page, or a combination of these)? Some screenshots of the incorrect ratings would also be useful, and you can either post those here or email them to me at support (at) goodreads (dot) com so I can illustrate your problem to the team.

That's valuable feedback regarding how you were using the Want to Read section of your book page, and I'm passing it along to our Author Team for consideration.

I have just notice something similar on The Blue Codex. According to the book status several people have added it to the there read list, but the the bottom of the page hasn't shown anyone since October 2 even though the book status has said several dates since then.

Jaclyn wrote: "Hi Jane. Thanks so much for all that information - it really helps us when investigating an issue. I've reported the issue with To Woo a Warrior to our engineering team who are looking into these o..."

Jaclyn - appreciate your response.

Things unfortunately appear to be getting worse with my dashboard summary.

Whilst the total collated (all my books) - want-to-read ranking appears to be working normally...

My latest book - To Vex A Valkyrie is not recording at a summary level anyone who pings my book; want-to-read. In fact it doesn't even list the want-to-read option at the summary level at all.

Further on this - none of my books are recording anyone - at the book summary level - adding my book to their want-to-read list. I can only see at the overall collated dashboard level that the number is increasing - or go into each individual book (for those that are still listing the want-to-read option) and see new people are being listed as want-to-read

Several of my books - at the book summary level - have people listed as currently-reading them. Though when I click on to see the list of people either the numbers are incorrect or I get the response - Sorry, no users found.

Because I no longer trust any of my numbers appearing at the book summary level I am no longer able to tell if I still have an ongoing problem with a regular drop off of stats that disappear and reappear on a weekly basis - Perhaps the issue has been solved.

Can only sympathise at the time/effort going on trying to put out all these spotfires - perhaps a system wide re-boot is in the offing?

Hi Jane. I'm so sorry you're still having trouble. Would you mind emailing us a few screenshots of where you're seeing these issues so we can have a closer look and so I can report this back to the team? You can email these for my attention to support (at) goodreads (dot) com.