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text 2013-09-21 14:17
Dear Goodreads, I am sorry to say I have to split up with you….

 

Dear Goodreads,

 
I’m writing this open letter to you because I feel that our relationship in the past year or so has been a tad rocky. It’s just not working. You see, I think we’ve moved apart and we want different things. You want to focus on the author and money aspect, and the data mining, which of course your mummy, Amazon, is behind. And I can understand why. Truly, I do. But I want to focus on being a reader, and I want to catalogue my books the way I want to. Please don’t tarnish me, along with other genuine readers, over recent blow-outs and dramas by a minority have instigated drama from ignorance, or plain good old fashioned cynical ‘bad publicity is good publicity’.

 

I thought I was loved deeply, especially when you sent me that special email that I was one of the special few, well, the 200,000 members that are the Top Posters, and you thanked me for my contribution. We helped you and the site to be what it is today. Some of my favourite books I discovered on your site, some of my all time favourites, and I truly thank you for that, and for the wonderful people I’ve met there. But your announcement today was literally the straw that broke the camel’s back for me.

I have a confession: I had signed up to LibraryThing *who are laughing behind your back by the way* but I felt their UI sucked (psst LibraryThing, if you can improve it you will definitely get more users, and you can laugh even more).

 

Goodreads, how can I trust you when you delete shelves and reviews willy nilly and without warning. You tell me the reviews were deleted because they weren’t in the spirit of Goodreads?

 

What is the spirit? Did some of you drink some bad spirits when you thought this up? Because you’re definitely being possessed by some shortsightedness, and you’ve probably been influenced by Scrooge before he was visited by the ghosts and gained his epiphany.

 

So it is goodbye. I will still keep my account open but I won’t be posting anymore reviews.

 

I am going to flirt with BookLikes who looks mighty fine right now, though, things are going slow. I hope you change your mind. If not, I have a list of other sites to use.

LibraryThing, please get your act together on a good UI because we could be making sweet, beautiful magic.

 

 

Yours Sincerely,

 

 

A very sad use-to-be-a-Top-Poster Goodreader user

And for any readers who are considering to moving to other sites, here are a list of social reading sites. If you have any suggestions, please comment below because I think after today’s announcement, Goodreads is not a trusted place where you can post reviews or catalogue books reliably and safely.

 

And let’s hope the drama stays there, although I suspect that a lot of members will feel like I do. Goodreads is going to face a similar and slow dying fate like Myspace as long as Goodreads continues to practice their spirit of censoring and deletion of anything they deem will hurt their bottom line in the longterm. Because they need the power users who help made the site it’s today, even if some reviews or posts/shelves may upset some.

 

http://www.shelfari.com/

http://www.librarything.com

Note the above sites are either owned or partially owned by Amazon.

http://booklikes.com/

http://www.libib.com/

https://www.rifflebooks.com

http://weread.com/

http://www.thereadingroom.com/

http://www.bookglutton.com

Source: thebookpushers.com/2013/09/20/dear-goodreads-i-am-sorry-to-say-i-have-to-split-up-with-you/comment-page-1
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