Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Livingsocial provides a social book tracking service, with some similarities to GoodReads. I started there before I found GR (GR is better). Yesterday I noticed that the LivingSocial book page now says they are shutting down the book tracking site. They are putting the shutdown notification at the top of every page, along with a link to the export function, and a recommendation that all their users move to Goodreads.

They have over 2 million registered book users. No idea how many of those are active, and how many may already be on GoodReads.

I thought GR management might like to know that is going on. We start getting lots of questions about importing livingsocial CSV files into GR.

Here is the text of the message on livingsocial:


It's not you. It's us.

First of all, thank you for your enthusiastic support over the past four years. Your continued engagement with our these applications means a lot to us here at LivingSocial, and we're sad that we haven't been able to dedicate the time and effort you deserve to keep this community alive and thriving.

It's not you. It's us. You see — about two years ago — we tried a new idea, which has taken our team and company in a new direction. This community needs tools and products that are fully supported and continually improved, and unfortunately, this is something we just can't support right now.

We know your data is important to you. Before we discontinue the service, we want to give you the opportunity to save it.

Export a CSV of your collection:
Export Collection Export Ratings Export Reviews

We recommend that you import your collection into GoodReads.
1) Create an account on GoodReads
2) Click this link to import into GoodReads
3) Your import should start automatically
Note: Goodreads does not currently support importing ratings/reviews.

If you have any concerns/questions or just want to say hi (or grr!), you can reach us at [email protected]

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/6...

Is Living Social and Visual Bookshelf the same thing?

Yes...they're the same. Visual Bookshelf is the book portion of living social.

Thanks -- I didn't find that when I searched.

For what's it's worth -- for those (like me) that access directly through the LivingSocial web site, there is no mention of the name "Visual Bookshelf". You only see that name if you are coming through Facebook.

I have just moved from Living Social a couple of days ago :-) And I agree, GR looks much much better, although there is one thing I'm going to miss - the possibility of marking books as owned/once borrowed/to be purchased.

While not perfect you can set up non exclusive shelves with those names an add your books to the appropriate shelf

Welcome, Judyta! I moved over from LivingSocial about two years ago. I've never regretted it.

Judyta wrote: "I have just moved from Living Social a couple of days ago :-) And I agree, GR looks much much better, although there is one thing I'm going to miss - the possibility of marking books as owned/once ..."

Not sure if this is helpful, but you can create bookshelves to mark your books as you mention; go to "My books", and on the left click on (edit) next to "bookshelves". At the bottom there is a box and "add a shelf". Exclusive shelves might be useful here - there's a blurb to the side that explains the different types of shelves you can create.

And if this isn't remotely what you want, nevermind. :D Welcome to GR!

I am aware of that and I saw people doing it already, but, to be honest, this solution doesn't make me happy. I don't like having too many shelves and those I have divide my books into categories of a different character. But, well, no worries ;-) I can survive that, GR looks good enough for me anyway.

Thanks for the welcome and for the advice :-)

Judyta wrote: "I have just moved from Living Social a couple of days ago :-) And I agree, GR looks much much better, although there is one thing I'm going to miss - the possibility of marking books as owned/once ..."

You can mark books owned with corresponding purchase data and other such information on the review page.

Judyta -- make sure you post your comments over in this discussion. They are actively seeking former LivingSocial user's feedback over there. If enough people comment on the same issues, it will raise the likelihood that they will make the improvements you want.

OK, I'll have a look at it :-)