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Goodreads is rolling out an “enhanced” service that really isn’t … Now, after you’ve marked a book as “read” you’ll get an email letting you know all the ways to can further interact with others about this book.

For directions on how to opt out go to this thread. From the replies so far, it seems this is not at all something people want.

NOTE: this is a serial roll-out. They’re starting with just 5% of the members. You won’t be able to opt out until you receive that first email.

Sounds awful. I hope they can the change before they get to me.

Wow, that is horrible. As if we can't already figure out how to interact with people by finding groups.

No more unread emails in my inbox!!

Yuck....

Ugh. I hate getting emails from Goodreads or any other social media I use.

Ugh, I just got my first email on this. I am totally opting out. Perhaps it is helpful for some people, but I typically review a book's page before I read it.

Plus, it seems to be more useful to get this email when you add it to your reading shelf, no?

I got my first email as well ... you can simply click "UNSUBSCRIBE" at the bottom of that email and you are opting out.

Better than having to search through your profile ....

Thanks for providing the instructions. I'll take a look at it first before dismissing out of hand, but it doesn't sound very necessary.

Just got my first e-mail and I immediately unsubscribed.

Boo.

I liked the email. Maybe I'm weird. Mine had links to other books "if you liked that, try this..." though I've already read 2 of 6. Also had reviews and ratings of friends who read the book already and questions people asked about the book. But my book was Lincoln in the Bardo, so maybe it depends on the book. I actually was interested in the questions people asked about it and the answers given and what other people rated it and thought. I try not to read reviews too much before reading the book, I'll look at overall rating and sometimes skim, but I try not to be influenced by things that stood out to others--unless I'm struggling.

Jennifer P. wrote: "I liked the email. Maybe I'm weird. Mine had links to other books "if you liked that, try this..." though I've already read 2 of 6. Also had reviews and ratings of friends who read the book already..."

I'm sure some people will like this; it's just annoying that you can't do anything to prevent that first email by choosing that as an option separately.

Jennifer P. wrote: "I liked the email. Maybe I'm weird. Mine had links to other books "if you liked that, try this..." though I've already read 2 of 6. Also had reviews and ratings of friends who read the book already..."

Mine did not have the "if you liked that, try this" feature! I would have at least found that useful!

Yup. I unsubscribed. I get enough junk emails as it is!

Today I received my first one (it might have come last night after I finished a book) and unsubscribed. I do want to read more by that author, but don't always care for online suggestions for similar books.

I still haven't received one of these! Now, I'm actually curious.

I have no problem with it. It takes all of 5 secs to unsubscribe if you don't want it and like Jennifer I can see the appeal of it.

Honestly, I've been kind of shocked by the vitriol towards admins for rolling this out (not here but in the Goodreads feedback group). Yes, it would be nice to opt in rather than have to opt out but GR is a free service to us and if that means we have to tolerate some promotion of books and authors, that's fine with me.

Jen wrote: "Honestly, I've been kind of shocked by the vitriol towards admins for rolling this out (not here but in the Goodreads feedback group). Yes, it would be nice to opt in rather than have to opt out but GR is a free service to us and if that means we have to tolerate some promotion of books and authors, that's fine with me. "

Jen, I agree! People have blown it way out of proportion. I also do not find the email overly helpful but it is not a huge deal to just unclick it.

Honestly, I find many of the people on the GR Feedback group to be spiteful and mean. Many comments are unnecessarily harsh and judgmental, and many take the position that if the new feature is not helpful to that specific GR member that the whole effort is stupid and a waste of time.

Nicole R wrote: "Honestly, I find many of the people on the GR Feedback group to be spiteful and mean. Many comments are unnecessarily harsh and judgmental, and many take the position that if the new feature is not helpful to that specific GR member that the whole effort is stupid and a waste of time. "

This is why I don't go there anymore.

I agree, this seems like a pretty small feature that takes about 5 seconds to unsubscribe. I took a look at the GR page for it and people were kind of vicious!!

I think it's mainly for more of casual reader who doesn't get book recommendations from friends, maybe finishes 5-10 books per year, and doesn't use all the goodreads tools as much as us here. Personally, I use the books page to find all the stuff that is in the e-mail so it's not super helpful, but others might. Plus if you get one email per book read, for those who only read 10 books per year it might be nice. For those of us who read 75+ books those emails start to look like spam.

I agree with everyone. Even though I find the email annoying because it feels like just one more I have to deal with, it's super simple to opt out. No harm done.

People are very mean about all the improvements. I like some and hate some, but as it was already said, this is a free website so I'm just grateful it exists.

Nicole R wrote: "Honestly, I find many of the people on the GR Feedback group to be spiteful and mean. Many comments are unnecessarily harsh and judgmental, and many take the position that if the new feature is not helpful to that specific GR member that the whole effort is stupid and a waste of time. ..."

This is what put me off of GR for quite a while.

I started getting them as well. I don't mind and it's easy to unsubscribe. I agree with Jen, the site is free --- so if they are doing small things to help sell more books it's fine.

Also, if they don't send it to you at least once, most people wouldn't realize that it exists. I myself tend to actually look at the info on the books' main page after I finish the book so it's not really giving any extra information. The other thing I find funny is that it assumes that you like the book ---- it would be more useful if you gave a 3 or under rating that it steers you in a different direction ;-)