What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

Thoughts? Is anyone else bothered there's a quickly and easily accidentally hit button to purchase books? And now movies are appearing as searchable on here as well. I'd rather a brother/sister site for movies.

I only looked at the beta page once and was so disturbed I quickly exited.

Yeah, I really don't like the new beta page. Everything is way too big and it's harder to actually do much on the page, I feel. Maybe it'll help some people but not me, it's overall way too cluttered.

I don't know if it's just me, but I'm also finding it hard to find similar books (not just books by the same author). And I can't seem to see all the different versions of book covers. I'm a very visual person. I need to see that stuff. I hope these changes help somebody, because I find them very off-putting.

hate it - its designed with mobile devices in mind which is ok, but I use my laptop for GR

but re the movie comment - if you see movies listed you can request they be deleted since they shouldn't be catalogued here

I hate it. It's too big, it's hard to find what you want, and it's boring to look at.

" its designed with mobile devices in mind which is ok, but I use my laptop for GR"
Ahhhh. I see.
It's too bad you can't choose which format you see. I use my laptop, not my cellphone for this site.

Paige wrote: "I don't know if it's just me, but I'm also finding it hard to find similar books (not just books by the same author). And I can't seem to see all the different versions of book covers. I'm a very v..."

Agreed, that's also my biggest issue with the new design. I enjoy seeing similar or related books, helps me with recommendations and what to check out next.

If it's for mobile users I can see that, it'd be really useful on mobile devices but it's a headache to navigate on the computer and I'm mainly on one.

It's not scaling correctly, either. I have to read most pages on the web at 130-150% because I have Old Eyes (really I have well corrected nearsightedness and astigmatism, but things get blurry fast when I stare at discussion boards on screens) and the Beta Page cuts off a lot on the fixed left frame when I enlarge to make the page comfortable to read.

I left feedback about the problem they are causing for folks with visual disabilities. They will likely do nothing about it and just push it onto everyone.

"They will likely do nothing about it and just push it onto everyone."
Sad to say, you're probably right.

I'm guessing it's what's causing all the bugs and slowdowns on the site, too. Many changes/edits are so slow that the page freezes first.

"I'm guessing it's what's causing all the bugs and slowdowns on the site, too. Many changes/edits are so slow that the page freezes first."
Grrrr. I never asked for this.

I use my cellphone for accessing the site and hate the beta format. I have zero difficulty navigating around the site with my phone—which I view in full desktop mode. I wish they would move that link to the top of the page. Many new users do not realize it is an option, as It’s buried at bottom of any page. I do not recommend using the GR phone app as it is basically useless (no access to many of the desktop functions).

Why do they always mess with what doesn’t need fixing instead of improving things such as comment notification? Or newsletters. Last week I was receiving the daily digest several times a day (annoying), and haven’t received the daily update for books friends are reading or have added to their shelves since December. (Which is the newsletter I miss most. I know you can see this on your homepage, but I miss the convenience of the daily newsletter.) And the “search” function was on the fritz again a couple days last week. But do they fix these bugs? Of course not... 🙄

Oh, someone mentioned book covers for all the different editions. It ticks me off when they delete certain publisher editions, which then changes my copy to an ugly default edition. Most people prefer to find the cover/pg numbers corresponding to the edition they have.

Heather L wrote: "... I have zero difficulty navigating around the site with my phone—which I view in full desktop mode. I wish they would move that link to the top of the page..."

Now that's a good idea.

"It ticks me off when they delete certain publisher editions, which then changes my copy to an ugly default edition. Most people prefer to find the cover/pg numbers corresponding to the edition they have."

This shouldn't be happening - a unique edition, or a unique cover, shouldn't be deleted. A duplicate record should be merged into its proper edition and then deleted, so that everyone who shelved it has the proper edition on their shelves.

Shouldn’t, but it does—and I know from various groups I am in that I’m not the only one who has experienced this. Last year when I reread To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, I was dismayed to find that my beautiful blue Wordsworth Classics edition had been removed and replaced with an ebook edition. My cover/publisher was no longer listed among “other editions.” It’s not the first time it has happened in the many years I’ve been here.

Another example — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was once replaced by a volume containing both that and “Through the Looking-Glass.” Though they are often published together, they are also published individually, and GR does not count the duo as two books as it should.

There's the Librarians group for that
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/220

Where you can ask for errors on the database to be fixed.

Librarians are volunteers and we try to keep the book records clean and correct, following Goodreads guidelines. Mistakes can be made but in general we (I am one of them) do our best, we don't delete books just to piss off users.

Possible new bug to watch out for:
I've had a book sitting on my To Read list for a long time because it's out of print but I keep my eye out for it at second-hand bookshops and online. I wanted to add it to a list today and that's when I realized it had been removed from my To Read list. Not cool. Just re-added it. FYI.

Paige wrote: "Possible new bug to watch out for:
I've had a book sitting on my To Read list for a long time because it's out of print but I keep my eye out for it at second-hand bookshops and online. I wanted to..."

I found one the other day that i read had been removed.

That is NOT good. That's the kind of thing I would never even catch because I have so many books shelved.

Lobstergirl wrote: "That is NOT good. That's the kind of thing I would never even catch because I have so many books shelved."

The only reason that i caught it is because i was looking at another book by the same author. Otherwise i would never notice either.

sorry. I feel like an idiot but how do I delete posts I've made?

Vickking wrote: "sorry. I feel like an idiot but how do I delete posts I've made?"

I deleted that post for you. Generally we don't delete posts (except in certain cases) but if you would like a mod to delete a post for you (a post which contains information about a book you're searching for), you can request it by posting in the "How This Group Works" folder.

Other bugs showing up today:

- books aren't combining
- books you've already voted onto listopias are still showing up with a "Vote for this book" button when you click on "Add books to this list."

Don't know if it was caused by a bug, but a lot of books I had moved to a certain author folder got removed.

ETA: moved to another author I think.

Has the disappearing books bug been reported to GR? That's a massive bug.

Lobstergirl wrote: "Has the disappearing books bug been reported to GR? That's a massive bug."

Yes, they didn't disappear as far as I know, just got moved. I sent a message to Support about it.

What is an author folder? Do you mean a shelf you created and named?

Lobstergirl wrote: "What is an author folder? Do you mean a shelf you created and named?"

Yes, I didn't put that well. I'm a librarian here on Goodreads and created an author listing that has now gotten fouled up.

Oh, so not a shelf. You created an author record and moved some books to that author record, and then another librarian made edits to the author record you created?

Lobstergirl wrote: "Oh, so not a shelf. You created an author record and moved some books to that author record, and then another librarian made edits to the author record you created?"

Yes, though Super Librarian Emily says the 'Goodreads Mass Editor' (whatever that is) may have done it and not a specific librarian. I'm hoping it can be undone.

Anyone else have trouble signing in today, or just me? I seriously just had to reverify my email, reset my password (I used the same one), and do Captcha multiple times. :headdesk:

Just tell me I'm not the only one and I won't take this so personally. If they start requiring a phone number for this site, I'm done.

It took me half an hour to log in. The stupid “captcha” wouldn’t load properly. I finally turned my phone off for five minutes, restarted it and tried again—then it finally loaded the “captcha” correctly. I hope it’s not going to require that on a daily basis. PITA!

Oh—it did not require a password reset, it was only the “captcha” giving me a headache.

When logging in from work, the Captcha kept making me select over and over again even when I had done it correctly. Finally got in after 4-6 attempts.

Bargle wrote: "When logging in from work, the Captcha kept making me select over and over again even when I had done it correctly. Finally got in after 4-6 attempts."

Were you too fast, perhaps?

I had to do captcha over and over as well. It was frustrating on top of the other issues.

Kris wrote: "Bargle wrote: "When logging in from work, the Captcha kept making me select over and over again even when I had done it correctly. Finally got in after 4-6 attempts."

Were you too fast, perhaps?"

Perhaps, though since others are having problems as well, I think not.

Paige wrote: "I had to do captcha over and over as well. It was frustrating on top of the other issues."

So much for the checked “keep me logged in” box. Left the site for a few hours and it wouldn’t let me back in. Made me go through that “recaptcha” garbage at least twenty times. Frickin’ annoying!

Error messages are frequent.
Lots of them.
Keep me signed in doesn't work.
Etc

Many timeouts (page takes too long to load). The page times out about 50% of clicks. You can get it to reload properly by clicking the stop load button, but when you do that you lose all the red "new" indicators.

Well it actually let me back in tonight without having to sign in again or go through captcha hell. Progress! Crossing my fingers they’ve got the bugs worked out.

Are notifications down again?
I see nothing for 17 hours now.

Jaye wrote: "Are notifications down again? I see nothing for 17 hours now."

No problems here.

Well I just got a notification that someone is following me, but when I looked at their page they started following me 2 days ago.

Ok, this is just weird. GR completely switched the way this page works.

https://www.goodreads.com/work/shelve...

When you look at the Top Shelves for a book - the way it used to be (a few weeks ago? no idea when they changed it), the hyperlinks would be for the people who shelved the book. You'd click on "7 people" and those people's avatars would show.

Now the hyperlink is the shelf name. So it takes you to a "shelf" that no longer has anything to do with the book you're looking at. Suddenly you're looking at a bunch of books someone shelved as "adult" or "marginalized-author" or "owned-copies".

OK, so new hiccup. I went to check out reviews for a book I read when I was a kid and for which I had previously laid down a review for. I could not find my review. I even looked for a key phrase I remembered using in that review. Nope. Nothing. Gone.

So, you know...watch out for that.