Quote:
Originally Posted by Quoth
I decided after using Goodreads for a while that the whole idea of telling the world about all the books you read and want to read is bonkers.
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Well, you can have your account be private. Or employ a user name and email that can’t be traced to you and then who’s to know? I personally wouldn’t/don’t link my GR account to Amazon, as Jeff’s got plenty of data from me anyway and neither site seems to put what they know about me to use in ways that would help
me. There is nothing, nothing in the thousands of books I’ve listed as read at GR that would lead any sentient person, much less less algorithm, to conclude that I’m interested in cowboy romances. The people who pay to have their books promoted are being cheated if my experience is anything to go by.
I admit that I’ve thought it would be nice to be able to conceal the occasional book I’m logging from my public profile. And I’m not talking about porn in general or some of its more extreme variants, just the odd guilty pleasure - so I can see where that would be a dealbreaker for some resulting in either a private profile or an alternate persona. I also admit that GR has become less useful to me over time, as marketing has crowded much of the useful intel off my first screen. I’m much more likely now to log and go, instead of seeing what my cronies have been up to. Still, it’s there, it’s handy enough for my purposes and I’m not motivated to move on.