Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

I just returned to Goodreads Groups a couple of days ago after being away for a year because I needed to take care of some personal matters. I was immediately confused by the lack of email Notifications, and asked about it in another group, where I was assured that the changes are creating plenty of confusion for everyone, not just me! I see here that is the case. 🙂

I always was in the habit of cherry-picking the threads I wanted to follow by clicking “Notify me when people comment”, because I found that getting everything was Just Too Much. Nonetheless, it seems that a massive alteration such as what is happening is bound to create chaos.

Welcome back, Patrick. It is a good thing we are all resilient and just proceed to find a way around the chaos GR creates.

^ Thank you! It is good to be back.

Since about a week I've stopped receiving the daily digests . Is anyone else also facing this issue or am I the only one ?

If you will read the posts ahead of yours, Savita, you will get some information on this. You are not alone. Goodreads has discontinued email notifications.

Sara , I just read the above comments . This is very upsetting ! No daily digests , no notification when someone comments on a thread !! We will all be in the blind ! Book discussions will not be possible ! I will contact Goodreads support soon and enquire if this just a temporary issue, or is it here to stay ?

Savita, I suggest using this page:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/

I’m still getting notifications but only in the app or on the webpage. The email notifications seem to be gone.

Notifications are still operative, it is email notifications that are gone. This should not affect your ability to do book discussions once you have located and joined the thread, Savita. It requires adopting a new procedure if you were relying upon email. Make sure you select the "notify me when people comment" box, as these have been turned off and must all be turned on again.

Thank you so much for your helpful comments , Sara , BlueFlower and Ben . Sara , when I have ticked on the Notify me when people comment box , then will the particular comments ' notifications appear as email notifications or do I have to download the Goodreads ' app ( as has been mentioned by Ben ) .

Savita wrote: "Thank you so much for your helpful comments , Sara , BlueFlower and Ben . Sara , when I have ticked on the Notify me when people comment box , then will the particular comments ' notifications ap..."

Not sure about the app, which I find difficult to use, but the notifications should appear with the number of current ones superimposed on the bell in the top bar of the web-pages. Although that system occasionally glitches too. I believe the emails may be gone for good.

I don't use the app, Savita, but as Patrick says, the notifications will come to the "bell" at the top bar. Click on it and you will see a drop down that contains them.

I too get my notifications via the Bell on the top line of the web page.

I don't care for the app because of the more limited editing tools and because it invariably and weirdly drops a word or two from the last lines of any post!

Sara , Patrick and Ben , after reading your comments it's all beginning to make sense . Plus , in the afternoon , before I had read your comments on this thread , I sent a letter to Goodreads support through their contact form . I got their reply in the evening . I want to mention a few other points which have become clear to me after I had successfully tried out the method described above by you all . These I will mention tomorrow ( since it's too late in the night now) .

So , here are a few further clarifying points I noted in the new system . 1) Goodreads has changed the pattern of the Home web page , and it is the very same page which appears on clicking on the downloaded Goodreads app . As has been noted above , there's a Bell icon on the top right side of the Home page . on clicking on the Bell another page appears which has a bar across its top, wherein there are three options i) NOTIFICATIONS. Here all notifications of those threads will appear on which the member clicked the ' notify me ' boxes of the concerned threads or , in case of the app , the member went to the device Settings > Apps > Goodreads app > enable notifications . ii) MESSAGES . This page somewhat resembles the earlier Daily Digest , but the comments are not grouped according to the various Goodreads Groups , but rather according to the date and time posted . iii) FRIEND REQUESTS .
Going back to the Home page , a bar across the bottom of the the page gives the following options i) HOME PAGE ii ) MY BOOKS . Here the Currently reading books , Want to read books, Read books are recorded , and reading progress can be entered, and , I suppose , review can be made. iii) SEARCH > explore by genre . There's a search option at the top left corner > a chosen book can be clicked for Want to Read > drop down menu offering options for Currently Reading etc . iv ) MORE > options show up - Profile , Groups , Settings etc

But there is no provision of using html while commenting , so , difficult to hide spoiler remarks .

The earlier system was really nice . This will take time to get used to

I am relatively new to goodreads and already confused. I guess it takes some time to get used to the new system :-)

Connie wrote: "I am relatively new to goodreads and already confused. I guess it takes some time to get used to the new system :-)"

If it's any comfort, I was on GR for a couple of years before I had found all the useful things it has to offer!

Savita, the home page in my desktop version is not changed...

@ Connie : It's very much worth waiting to get familiar with Goodreads, and particularly this group which is so well and systematically run .... kudos to our moderators!

@ Ben : I do so fully agree!

@ Daniela : Yes , yes ! After I had posted the above comments , I realized , belatedly , that on clicking on the Goodreads ' web link , in the next page that appears asking you to sign in ( I am using an android smartphone ) , just above the sign in option it was mentioned that ' Goodreads app installed ' . I had installed the app just that day . So l suppose I was / am directed now directly to the app's home page which I mistakenly thought was the web page .

Aww shucks, thanks everyone.

I don't use emails notifications ever. It's turned off on my account. I log in to the desktop website using my Chromebook computer. First I check the feed. Then I go to the bell notification on the upper right corner. From there I go to one of the two groups I am a member of and just look to see if there are comments I haven't read. When looking at the web page I can see all the folders. For instance, in the Upcoming Books folder I have 1 unread comment in Heart of Darkness, 8 unread comments in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, etc.

Savita wrote: "@ Connie : It's very much worth waiting to get familiar with Goodreads, and particularly this group which is so well and systematically run .... kudos to our moderators!"

Fully agree with this! I am happy to have found this group!

Lynn wrote: "Aww shucks, thanks everyone.

I don't use emails notifications ever. It's turned off on my account. I log in to the desktop website using my Chromebook computer. First I check the feed. Then I go t..."

I do this the same as Lynn--the web page on a laptop--except instead of going to the group pages, I go to the Discussions link under the Community tab, and can see all the unread comments in all of my groups.

I had a mixture of habits, which will now be missing the emails. I have pretty much already made the adjustment, just using the discussions tab more than I used to.

Lynn wrote: "Aww shucks, thanks everyone.

I don't use emails notifications ever. It's turned off on my account. I log in to the desktop website using my Chromebook computer. First I check the feed. Then I go t..."

Thanks for that, Lynn. I am trying to train myself to do those things and am slowly getting better at it!

Kathleen wrote: "Lynn wrote: "Aww shucks, thanks everyone.

I don't use emails notifications ever. It's turned off on my account. I log in to the desktop website using my Chromebook computer. First I check the feed..."

Good idea, Kathleen, to "go to the Discussions link under the Community tab" -- I'm going to try that! I think it will help :)

One more question: when we got emails, Katy usually sent out the monthly polls to vote on the upcoming books. How will we get that now? Is it out yet (I know it is sometime after the 15th of each month)? Thanks for any help!

Terris wrote: "One more question: when we got emails, Katy usually sent out the monthly polls to vote on the upcoming books. How will we get that now? Is it out yet (I know it is sometime after the 15th of each m..."

I have group notifications set to "none," but I've still always been able to get the group notifications under the "Messages" icon (looks like an envelope). There's a red number by the icon when there's something new there. I haven't seen Katy's yet for this month, so maybe she just hasn't sent it yet?

Kathleen wrote: "Terris wrote: "One more question: when we got emails, Katy usually sent out the monthly polls to vote on the upcoming books. How will we get that now? Is it out yet (I know it is sometime after the..."

Ok, that makes sense, and maybe I'm just getting ahead of myself. Thanks, Kathleen :)

Terris, I see that the polls are up, although I did not get a notification. You can just click on polls at the right side of the screen if you're using a PC.

Connie wrote: "Terris, I see that the polls are up, although I did not get a notification. You can just click on polls at the right side of the screen if you're using a PC."

Thank you so much! That really helped. I didn’t know to look there :)

Connie wrote: "Terris, I see that the polls are up, although I did not get a notification. You can just click on polls at the right side of the screen if you're using a PC."

Did notifications for the polls even get sent yet? I did not receive one either. Note the email notifications are gone but I have se3n nothing in my Goodreads inbox this month.

Sam wrote: "Connie wrote: "Terris, I see that the polls are up, although I did not get a notification. You can just click on polls at the right side of the screen if you're using a PC."

Did notifications for ..."

Katy usually sends those and she is traveling right now. I'll look into it. She asked the rest of us to cover, so my fault.

I have a morning music group I play in on Thursdays. Give me a few hours and I will send something out to the Goodreads inbox if I can figure out how to send to all the members.

Lynn wrote: "Sam wrote: "Connie wrote: "Terris, I see that the polls are up, although I did not get a notification. You can just click on polls at the right side of the screen if you're using a PC."

Did notifi..."

No rush Lynn. Lots of time left to vote. I just wanted to be sure they didn't go out and I missed the notification. The email notification change may be contributing to a drop in membership as well, I would think, and I can't think of a better gauge than the polls, so I was watching this month's voting with interest.

Lynn wrote: "Sam wrote: "Connie wrote: "Terris, I see that the polls are up, although I did not get a notification. You can just click on polls at the right side of the screen if you're using a PC."

Did notifi..."

No rush, Lynn. I went into "polls" on the home page of "Catching up on Classics" and found the voting page already posted.
But thanks so much for your help in this crazy time and with its silly (& inconvenient) changes! Sometimes it's nice to just be able to have a place to ask questions and see if others are feeling as confused as I am! I have learned a lot from all of the suggestions and comments here. Maybe this "old dog" can learn a "new trick" after all!! ;)

Sam wrote: "Lynn wrote: "Sam wrote: "Connie wrote: "Terris, I see that the polls are up, although I did not get a notification. You can just click on polls at the right side of the screen if you're using a PC...."

Yes, Sam, I think watching the vote count may give us a clue about how these new changes are affecting participation :/

My apologies to Lynn and the entire group for not getting out the newsletter. We all miss Katy when she is gone and this month will make us appreciate her as we should!

I have sent out the letter, but it has no links, just information. Along with the general mess Goodreads has created for us, I'm sure this was not a good time for me to err as well. Thank you, Terris, for bringing this to my attention!

Wow, I love when everyone comes together like this! Thanks Sara.

Sara wrote: "My apologies to Lynn and the entire group for not getting out the newsletter. We all miss Katy when she is gone and this month will make us appreciate her as we should!

I have sent out the letter..."

No problem at all, Sara! And so nice of you to step in for Katy while she's away :)

Does anyone want to read a classic together? Down for anything as basic as Crime & Punishment or whatever you'd like. Just want to discuss.

may wrote: "Does anyone want to read a classic together? Down for anything as basic as Crime & Punishment or whatever you'd like. Just want to discuss."

I am interested. How do you plan to go about it?

may wrote: "Does anyone want to read a classic together? Down for anything as basic as Crime & Punishment or whatever you'd like. Just want to discuss."

That is what we do in this group: Read all the classics. We actually read Crime and Punishment in August this year.

If you want to read a book with the group, I suggest you nominate it here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

Right now the Old, New and Long Read Nominations are open and you can vote for a short story.

You cannot nominate Crime and Punishment as we just read it, but many of Dostoevsky's other books are possible nominations.

This link will get you to the Dostoevsky section of our bookshelf:
https://www.goodreads.com/group/books...

may wrote: "Does anyone want to read a classic together? Down for anything as basic as Crime & Punishment or whatever you'd like. Just want to discuss."

I admit to some degree of presumption, but hope I am being too far out of line.

This can be a tad delicate, as I am not 100 % sure on the details of this group. As I understand this group there are books nominated and voted upon for group reads. Smaller buddy reads are also possible, but I think, in this group buddy reads tend to be around other nominated book.

You may want to skim some of the other discussion in this group for example: Updates to the Nominations Process, or any of the others in the Welcome section.

Part of the general discussions that can be as interesting as particular book groups is the question of what constitutes a classic.

Any book can be read by a small group of members as a buddy read at any time that works for those members.

Crime and Punishment was read by the group recently, but you can still comment on the thread there if you wish to read the book, you will be pleasantly surprised by how many people many comment and join in the discussion with you.

As J-BlueFlower said above, we are currently taking nominations for classics that will be read as a group in January 2025.

Please join us.

Quick question. Is it just me, or has the order of items on the main group page gone kind of bananas the last couple of days? Didn't the nomination threads and the challenges (Buffet/Bingo) and Question of the Month used to be a lot higher on the page? At the moment I'm seeing the historical threads for New School/Old School/Short Stories ahead of all those things. Was the change intentional? Thanks.

Wobbley wrote: "Quick question. Is it just me, or has the order of items on the main group page gone kind of bananas the last couple of days? Didn't the nomination threads and the challenges (Buffet/Bingo) and Que..."

We are working on cleaning up old folders, so things might change around for the next few weeks until we get the old folders cleaned up and moved.

We are working on end of the year housekeeping, Wobbley. It will all be straight in the end, but gets a little wacky while the moves are actually going on. Thanks for asking, though, wouldn't want anyone to think it was a permanent situation.

Gotcha. Thanks for the super-quick responses!

Hello! New to this group as I'm looking for readers familiar with the classics. Can you help me identify this book?

I have an illustration (from an advent calendar using book covers) representing a book that I'm trying to figure out the title of The image is a blonde boy wearing a brown shirt with brown pants or shorts with a blue bandana or blue collar of his shirt playing a red snare drum with two drum sticks. What's the book he's representing? Stumped! Thank you!