Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

I assume this has come up before, but I couldn't find anything searching.

I went to go add Fast's and Gibbon's Spartacus novels to my list, and Fast's has a persian edition stuck as default.

Is there anyway to change this? I went to try separating it and recombining it, but evidently its the most popular edition?

If it is the most popular edition, then it will be the default. There is no way to change that, unless enough people add another edition to make it the most popular.

Sigh. I figured that. Does anyone know if it has been suggested with the addition of International support, that they could have it that the most popular edition in your default language as the default edition?

Allen wrote: "Sigh. I figured that. Does anyone know if it has been suggested with the addition of International support, that they could have it that the most popular edition in your default language as the def..."

I don't recall that being suggested, but I would like that to be the case.

Right now, there is no way to change the default at all (although doing so is on the to-do list, as I recall). I don't think it is possible to make the default different for different people without huge changes to how GR stores data. However, it is likely that we will at least be able to make the default an edition in the language it was first published in before too long.

rivka wrote: "However, it is likely that we will at least be able to make the default an edition in the language it was first published in before too long."

I like this idea better than defaulting to the user's language (even if that were possible). My native language is English, but it's still sort of awkward to browse titles in English when I'm looking for something to read in Spanish. I don't always know what title the work was published under in translation.

I have also come across this quite a few times. I was looking at a book with a default of Kindle ebook when I decided to check the forums for this change default option.

Sorting default book versions by the number of people who add it is a bit unrepresentative of the truth. I know many, many users who don't bother to check the exact editions and just add whichever one is the default into their library, whether or not they own that version. This would continue to unfairly give advantage to whichever book was mistakenly or not first placed as the default.

I would suggest that the default book should have an option to be changed. (ebooks for example, should never be the default.) I recommend that defaults should be either the mmpb or paperback versions, this way when the user clicks on the link to buy from Amazon, ebay, or wherever he/she is directed to the most common edition.

I was wondering the same thing when I looked up Sinuhe by Mika Waltari.
سينوهه پزشک مخصوص فرعون

How does the Persian version get to be the most popular anyway? It even had "setting: Iran, Islamic Republic of" which I deleted because it was just wrong.

Mayakda wrote: "How does the Persian version get to be the most popular anyway?"

Until recently (when Iran started blocking GR access), we had a huge number of GR members in Iran. Well, we still have the members, I suppose. They just can't access GR anymore. :(

I wondered the same thing when I saw that this edition of Pride and Prejudice was #4 on this Listopia:

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/26...

I voted on that Listopia a long time ago, and I certainly don't remember voting for a foreign language edition.

*cough* Excuse me?? The entire COUNTRY of Iran has blocked goodreads??? WOW. That's just sad for them!

Well, the government restricts access for the entire country. China does this sort of thing as well.

Wow... Just wow... I mean, you EXPECT that kind of thing from China, but Iran? I dunno... it didn't strike me as the type. I guess that goes to show how much I know about Iran, eh?

Lobstergirl wrote: "I wondered the same thing when I saw that this edition of Pride and Prejudice was #4 on this Listopia:

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/26...

I voted..."
Is that supposed to be Darcy? I would never have guessed that's P&P based on the cover. :)

Rivka, wouldn't the number of Persian language readers (at least before Iran blocked gr) have to be at least half of the total users? Just seems amazing.

I don't think anywhere near that. They just seem to have been especially fond of certain books.

I just noticed the same thing about The Egyptian by Mika Waltari. Isn't there a way to set the English edition as a default, so everyone could understand which book is in question?

I see a lot of books that do not have a language specified. Would make it difficult to tie any sort of default searches or anything to a specific language; although, I guess could program in something to either assume no-language=U.S. English or just to always include the no-language books in the results.

I think the search feature should add "language" to "title" "author" etc. options. I think I've seen that on feedback group threads before.