end of book - you've finished - now tweet...

[cybmole]

am I the only one that finds this annoying - & there's no way to disable it.

the notion that the rest of the world needs to know or care that I've finished reading a document on Kindle is just plain stupid.

as is the assumption that all kindle users are now addicted to social networks

K3 lastest firmware now does this with every file, even sideloaded personal documents.

[TenaciousBadger]

i'd say avoid going to the very last page of the book.

Originally Posted by cybmole

K3 lastest firmware now does this with every file, even sideloaded personal documents.

really? i haven't noticed with mine

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by TenaciousBadger

i'd say avoid going to the very last page of the book.

really? i haven't noticed with mine

1. there's no way to know that you are on the last but-one page. the 100% marker is not reliable as that can span several pages.

2. it definitely happens with non-amazon books that I have converted & loaded via USB. I have not tested every conceivable document type though.

a "feature" like this should be user-configurable.

[DMSmillie]

All you need to do is press "page back" and you're back on the last page of the book.

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by DMSmillie

All you need to do is press "page back" and you're back on the last page of the book.

sure , but why have it there in the 1st place.

are social media users so stupid that they have to be told when & what to tweet ???

[abookreader]

I'd venture that most Kindle users don't utilize it. Heck, most of us don't even keep our WiFi turned on.

I'm not sure it hurts anything to have it there, I never go that far on the pages, but I really wouldn't vote to put it in as a feature.

I agree though. I keep some work and private documents on my digital readers sometimes and all the social networking and logs flying around gives me a bit of a creepy feeling at times in regards to reader privacy.

[DMSmillie]

Originally Posted by cybmole

sure , but why have it there in the 1st place.

are social media users so stupid that they have to be told when & what to tweet ???

Given how popular things like Facebook and Twitter have become, I expect those who use these things find it a nice feature to be able to go straight from reading the book to writing about it on their Facebook page, or tweeting about it. Particularly if they're using their Kindle while out and about, and can connect there and then, on the Kindle itself.

I don't use these tools myself, and I entirely agree that it would have been nicer to have the option to switch that page off. But I guess unlike some I don't see the existence of that page at the end of a book as a major invasion of or blight on my reading experience - I simply page back - one click and the page is gone. I'd feel quite differently about it if I had to follow a series of links to get away from that page, but that isn't the case. Hardly even takes a moment's thought or effort.

[Yolina]

I can't help seeing it as a kind of "well done, you've managed to read a whole book, now brag to your friends about it". I'm usually able to avoid *that* page though .

[DixieGal]

That sounds terribly invasive. A lot of the ipad apps want to "connect with your Facebook friends" in order to, i assume, share your scores or whatever. But i keep that under control by not having my FB login saved. If the app tries to do that, it can not connect. CAN YOU UNSELECT SOMETHING IN YOUR KINDLE SO THAT IT DOES NOT STORE YOUR LOGIN ID, THEREFORE BLOCKING ANY AUTOMATIC REPORTING?

[DMSmillie]

There's nothing that forces you to enter your FB or Twitter login info - it can't report anything if you simply don't enter it. To enter that info, you have to choose to go into the Settings Menu on your Kindle and type the info in then tell it to link your FB and Twitter accounts. So nothing to unselect - simply don't enter the info in the first place.

[DMSmillie]

Adding to my post above -

When you get to that add-on page after the last page in a book, it says:

You've finished. Before you go...

Tweet/share that you finished this book

Rate this book

Customers who bought this book also bought:
[list of links to other books purchased by customers who bought the book you just finished]

To do anything, you have to actively click on one of the links.

If you click on the "tweet/share" link:

You get a popup box which has a "pre-typed" message:

finished book_title by author

(with the actual title and author)

You can edit the message if you want before clicking on SHARE (there's also a CANCEL option). Additional text in the popup box informs you that a link to the book will be appended to your message.

If you click on SHARE, but haven't previously entered your FB/Twitter login info, it pops up a message saying you have to enter that info in order to use this feature, and provides a link to the settings page (it says there'll be a link back from there). Again, there's a CANCEL button at this point.

I'm not about to create a Facebook or Twitter account simply to see if this feature "auto-shares" to my account even if I select CANCEL, but seems to me that, short of Amazon doing silly things for no apparent good reason, it'd be pretty well impossible to accidentally post details of what you've been reading.

If you select "Rate this book", you get a small popup box with 5 stars (you can select as few or as many as you want), with buttons to CANCEL, SAVE & SHARE, or SAVE.

If you just select SAVE, as far as I can see, it simply saves your star rating, and now displays it on the "now you've finished" page, alongside the "Rate this book" link.

If you select SAVE & SHARE, you get the social media popup box, with the pre-typed message:

just finished book_title by author and gave it x stars"

with the same options as described above.

[FF2]

Originally Posted by DMSmillie

Given how popular things like Facebook and Twitter have become, I expect those who use these things find it a nice feature to be able to go straight from reading the book to writing about it on their Facebook page, or tweeting about it. Particularly if they're using their Kindle while out and about, and can connect there and then, on the Kindle itself.

I don't use these tools myself, and I entirely agree that it would have been nicer to have the option to switch that page off. But I guess unlike some I don't see the existence of that page at the end of a book as a major invasion of or blight on my reading experience - I simply page back - one click and the page is gone. I'd feel quite differently about it if I had to follow a series of links to get away from that page, but that isn't the case. Hardly even takes a moment's thought or effort.

I was doing so well and then for some reason flashed on the ol' "slippery slope" idea. That will be next - forced clicking to avoid a tweet - if we don't start objecting NOW!

I guess we have voluntarily entered Big Brother territory. It will be hard to retreat or maybe that should be retweet (I don't even know what that means). I don't have a facebook account unless one of my so-called friends has managed to create one for me. I do use Twitter since it provides pretty accurate traffic info for my area (and the occasional npr headline-link).

[dwig]

Originally Posted by cybmole

am I the only one that finds this annoying - & there's no way to disable it.

the notion that the rest of the world needs to know or care that I've finished reading a document on Kindle is just plain stupid.

as is the assumption that all kindle users are now addicted to social networks

K3 lastest firmware now does this with every file, even sideloaded personal documents.

I think today's (2011-03-06) Non Sequitur comic explains everything :

http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2011/03/06/

(For those that aren't regular readers of the strip, the two characters are regulars. The little guy in the space ship visits frequently from another planet and the drain pipe is his portal.)

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by DMSmillie

Given how popular things like Facebook and Twitter have become, I expect those who use these things find it a nice feature to be able to go straight from reading the book to writing about it on their Facebook page, or tweeting about it. Particularly if they're using their Kindle while out and about, and can connect there and then, on the Kindle itself.

I don't use these tools myself, and I entirely agree that it would have been nicer to have the option to switch that page off. But I guess unlike some I don't see the existence of that page at the end of a book as a major invasion of or blight on my reading experience - I simply page back - one click and the page is gone. I'd feel quite differently about it if I had to follow a series of links to get away from that page, but that isn't the case. Hardly even takes a moment's thought or effort.

I actually agree that it's likely a fun thing for the twatters and facebook users out there. I don't use either because, well I just don't get the attraction. A comedian the other night described twitter as something along the lines of twitter being a way to gossip about people and facebook as a way to stalk and spy on people. hehehehe....

But I just have the activation turned off and actually have never noticed, I'll certainly look at a few books. But it's nothing to me if it's there. But consider this, obviously this might be the first step toward ads in our ebooks. I imagine both twitter and facebook are PAYING to have this level of access. Publishers might also be ponying up some cash for the feature as well. I just sense it's an on going revenue stream for Amazon. Me? Like I mentioned I just don't have it activated.

[cybmole]

[QUOTE=snipenekkid;1430999. But consider this, obviously this might be the first step toward ads in our ebooks. I imagine both twitter and facebook are PAYING to have this level of access. Publishers might also be ponying up some cash for the feature as well. I just sense it's an on going revenue stream for Amazon. Me? Like I mentioned I just don't have it activated.[/QUOTE]

yes, I think that is why it bugs me. I like my reading to be an ad-free experience. and to have it appear at the end of books which did NOT come from amazon is a tad worrying.

I saw powerdvd software go down this same slippering slope with "rate / rabbit about" this movie options that kept popping up - until I reverted to version 7 & thew away versions 8 & 9!

PS what do you man by "don't have it activated" - the page seems to be always there even if , like me, you have no social media accounts & have not changed any settings since previous firmware.