Aussie Readers discussion

Those of us who regularly post on Bookstr will have noticed the deterioration of the site over the last few months.

Yesterday, we got an email:
""We've got news for our loyal readers, and would love to get your feedback!

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.

Change is in the air!

To our dearest Bookstr community,

We hope this email finds you well! We want to first thank you for your support of Bookstr - our mission has always been to ensure that Bookstr is a fun and meaningful place for book-lovers like you to spend your time online. Your unwavering support has made that possible. There is nothing more encouraging than seeing our community grow so quickly! Again, we are incredibly thankful for your participation in our piece of the Internet, and want to continue to bring you a meaningful experience. We’re emailing you today with a pretty big announcement that we’re all extremely excited to share with you!

We’ve been delighted to discover that our news pieces, articles, quizzes, and videos have been a runaway hit! We are incredibly grateful for this success - you have spoken, and we are listening. Our team has been blown away with the support from fans, and we’ve decided to move further toward creating great, bookish content for our incredibly passionate and well-read fans. :)

Over the next month or so, you’ll see some changes on the Bookstr website: some features like quizzes and videos will be more front and center, while others like bookshelves and book purchasing will be phased out. We would like to extend our most sincere thank you to everyone who has used these features, and we hope you’re just as excited as we are about stepping into a new stage of Bookstr’s life!

If you have any concerns or questions, please don’t hesitate to click the button below to share your thoughts and feedback!

Keep an eye open for more information over the next few weeks, we hope you like everything we have in store for you!

Thank you for being a part of the Bookstr community!
Sincerely,
The Bookstr Team

Send us your feedback! ""


Well, I thought, what does that mean for my reviews, and for the ARCs/Giveaways?

I tried to click on the Feedback button (more than once, on different computers) but I just got an error message.

So I emailed (well, replied to that email), wondering if I would actually get a reply.....
"" I’ve posted 1385 reviews so far. Phasing out Bookshelves: what does that mean for posting reviews?? What about Giveaways & Free review copies?? Your Feedback button doesn’t work, BTW....""

and got this reply from Samantha McCarthy:

"" Hi Marianne,

Thank you for your email and your questions! Terribly sorry the form isn't working for you, we've checked and the problem should be resolved! If you would like to submit more feedback you can do so here:

https://goo.gl/forms/VyMTG1WrkylXpzfx1

Unfortunately, reviews are also being phased out. However, in May we will be sending users that have written reviews a document with the reviews you have written, so they won't be lost. Please keep an eye out for an email in the next week or two so you can express your interest in receiving your reviews, along with your bookshelf data.

As for Advance Reader Copies, that program will also be phased out (it was a program that we offered for free to publishers and independent authors), but other giveaways will still be available on the site.

Do let me know if you have any more questions, I'll be happy to help and answer them!

Thanks for being a part of the Bookstr community,
Sincerely,
Samantha""

Where's the "I'm not impressed" button?

I received that first email Marianne and was also unable to submit feedback. Thanks for emailing them - and what a load of b******t that is!! They're taking away the best parts of the site - and what are they doing with it? Nothing that will be of any importance to readers!

I've always said GR was the far better site - proven once again. I'll be leaving there as well....

I just send a scathing response on their Feedback form!

The enthusiasm in that proposal is just so out of tune with what I imagine to be disappointment from a lot of users. Hopefully, it might get them to reconsider. I don't see why they can't have all these features.

As I said in my email to them, the site has been going downhill for a couple of years now - the "so called experts" who are calling the shots obviously have no idea!

I'll miss the giveaways. I got some good ones over the years.

So will I Michael :) I'll probably get booted off the site! Which wouldn't bother me in the slightest :)

Brenda wrote: "So will I Michael :) I'll probably get booted off the site! Which wouldn't bother me in the slightest :)"

So much for 'We'd love to hear your feedback!'

Haha! Well the original email sounded so over the top false it was ridiculous! So they only feedback they want is what will agree with what they are doing!

I really don't have a good opinion of Bookstr! Stupid name!

I agree, without shelves and reviews, what is the point of me visiting the site.

Brenda, I'm with you, Bookstr is one of the stupidest names I've heard.

Never was a member but I have to say that I would not have been tempted to join by the silly name!

The Reading Room was much more enticing :)

It was. I looked at it once or twice but decided I already spend enough time online without adding any more sites to my list:)

I'm with you Phrynne : too much time online already :) though I have added a site or two that I found on GR

I liked it more when it was The Reading Room as well.
I now only go there to try and post reviews, cant be bothered to use the shelf system as a lot of the books aren't there anyway!
Pity it's the only site that Allen and Unwin seem to give away ARC's on (apart from Facebook, which I don't really use) :(

I haven't bothered putting reviews on there anymore since the email. What's the point??!!

I gave them about 5 lots of (negative) feedback!

Did you reply to that form 5 times?

yes, I did! I clicked on a different topic each time, thought it couldn't hurt....

Definitely wouldn't hurt! Doubt they'll listen to us though...

Just tell them how awesome you think these new changes are ;)

I didn't bother filling out the feedback. I don't think it will make any difference.

Me either, but I wanted them to know I'm not happy!

Yes, I think in this case the squeaky wheel will remain just that....

No not yet - I didn't expect it with it being the long weekend :) But other than that, I somehow don't think I will anyway ;)

Their focus is completely different to Goodreads' idea on things Michael. That's why they're failing - for people like us anyway.

My reply to the feedback form I filled in:

Hi Brenda,

Thank you for filling out our feedback form! We at Bookstr want to reach out to you regarding your concerns, and we really do appreciate the thought you put into your feedback.

To address your concerns, namely the reviews and ARCs, it has been an extremely difficult decision process to close those features. They have been our bread and butter for many years, and were part of what made The Reading Room so successful. Unfortunately, as a very small company we've had to make some serious decisions so that we could continue working with the book community online.

Down the road, while we may not have reviews and ARCs any more, we hope that through our articles and videos we can continue fostering lively and interesting discussion on the importance of books and reading, about new and interesting writing that is published daily, and about the importance of literacy and education overall.

Do let us know if you have any other concerns, we are more than happy to discuss them with you.

Thank you again for being a part of the Bookstr community over these years.

Most sincerely,
The Bookstr Support Team

Pfft!

A Public Relations reply. Totally meaningless.

same here, and also this:

Hi there Reader,

We hope you are doing spectacularly! Last week we sent out an email letting the Bookstr community know about some big changes happening with our website! As you are one of our incredible fans that has used our shelving feature and/or have written reviews in the past, we would like to offer you the option of exporting all of your relevant Bookstr data.

If you would like for us to send you a file with your bookshelves and reviews, please click the button below to tell us what information you would like to receive! We will be sending out this data over the course of May and June of 2017, and will safely hold on to your information until July 31st to accommodate late requests. Requests for data exports will be closed on June 30th.

In the meantime, you will be able to continue adding books to your shelves, and writing reviews through to May 1st, which is when we will be closing our shelving and reviewing features.

Please use the button to let us know what data we should send you!

Thank you for being a part of the Bookstr community!
Sincerely,
The Bookstr Team

for what use that is!!!!

I got that one too Marianne... did you receive replies to your feedback forms yet?

Sorry I see you said - and also... duh!!!

Phrynne wrote: "A Public Relations reply. Totally meaningless."

Absolutely - didn't reply to my "concerns" really...

I've just been reading through the discussion above on the Bookstr changes and I am so dismayed. I agree with the comments above that they are taking away all the features that made the site, the reviews section and the ARC giveaways. As a regular user of the site to catalogue my books, compete in the challenge, I actively review my books and I have a good amount of followers as one of their top reviewers. I am so peeved off with them - want to give them a piece of my mind but not sure if will work to make any difference. Sounds like the site is going down the toilet anyway. I really don't see any point posting any further reviews on there anymore as well :-(

I agree that it's a terrible shame; I have lots of followers too Amanda. I'd suggest you do fill in the feedback form and let them know your displeasure. You never know, if they get enough negative feedback, perhaps they won't make their changes so dramatic - like possibly keeping reviews...

And no, I'm not posting reviews now - absolutely no point!

I gave them some negative feedback too, and told them that there will be no value in being a member anymore if they take away the bookshelves and review functions. I mentioned that they will lose members and that readers already have access to a tonne of videos, articles and quizzes.

Really, on a reading site, who needs videos and quizzes? Maybe they should drop these instead of reviews and shelves!

I'll be leaving too!

Brenda wrote: "I agree that it's a terrible shame; I have lots of followers too Amanda. I'd suggest you do fill in the feedback form and let them know your displeasure. You never know, if they get enough negative..."

Thanks for your understanding and advice Brenda, it felt good to vent! I'm going to take your suggestion on board and fill in the feedback form.

Amanda - wrote: "Brenda wrote: "I agree that it's a terrible shame; I have lots of followers too Amanda. I'd suggest you do fill in the feedback form and let them know your displeasure. You never know, if they get ..."

Excellent :) I hope you don't just get a generic response as I and Marianne has! But don't hold back ;) I didn't!!

Tracey and Bette I so agree! I NEVER look at their quizzes etc... who wants that when it's books we're all interested in!?!

Brenda wrote: "Tracey and Bette I so agree! I NEVER look at their quizzes etc... who wants that when it's books we're all interested in!?!"

Absolutely! I got the same generic response too. At least they're giving members the opportunity to download their reviews before they close it off entirely.

But they're already on here for me! I have no need to download them :)

Me neither, but I might just ask them to do it anyway, to prove a point. Make them understand they're removing our content and closing down a function many of us joined to utilise.

You might be right Tracey :) I would love to see EVERY member leave the site!

Haha Michael :)

Michael wrote: "Brenda, you need to request your reviews so you can keep famous one for all eternity. :D"

This is so true!!! My Spook Street by Mick Herron (or as they put it ***** Street by **** Herron) review is also worth keeping for the sake of posterity, LOL

I requested mine, just on principle, and there are 1385 or something like that, LOL. I'm just interested to see how they are going to do that.....

Haha okay I'll do the same :)

So today I had a look at their page and it's officially not showing member pages any more, just all their cr@p: Articles, Quizzes, Lists Videos Galleries and 2 Giveaways via Facebook.
No need to go there again!

Thanks, M, you saved me a trip!

I haven't even bothered to look. I will miss all the giveaways from Allen & Unwin. I really like their books.

Allen &Unwin used to be on Netgalley but disappeared last year. They have great books so it was disappointing- wonder if they'll re-appear now.

Brenda wrote: "Tracey and Bette I so agree! I NEVER look at their quizzes etc... who wants that when it's books we're all interested in!?!"
Agree with you re bookstr. That's what I told them when I filled out their form. Figured I already had my reviews here on Goodreads but it was somewhere to whinge about the changes. Doubt I will go near the site now. Not interested in quizzes and all the other guff.