Goodreads Alternative Riffle Goes Live

[pidgeon92]

Article here:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...goes-live.html

I've signed up. From my brief interaction with the site, it seems like it is more sharing focused than Goodreads. It very much encourages you to follow people, which is something that I don't find particularly interesting.

[Elfwreck]

I signed up, couldn't figure out how to unfollow the people they'd assigned me to or un-recommend a book I'd clicked on by mistake.

Went looking for a way to give feedback. Found their "make a suggestion" forum, which is the only way to give feedback... there is no "contact us" button.

Found the most egregious rights-grab I've ever seen in a TOS, including not only the right to make derivative commercial use of anything you submit to them, but "UserVoice may share as it sees fit information that you voluntarily make public, including information that you post on any blogs, message boards, chat rooms or other similar forums, whether or not such forums are owned by UserVoice."

My blog post got a response from a staff member, who said that UserVoice just manages the forums, not Riffle itself. I pointed out that, with no TOS available on Riffle, I have no way to know that.

[pidgeon92]

I've spent a bit more time on the site, and it's really strange. I don't know where they are pulling their book info from, but of the six books I just tried to add to a list, only four were found, and there doesn't seem to be any way to add a book.

Unfollowing people is easy. Click the People tab at the top of the page, click the following link near the top left, and it will show all of the people you are "following." Below each name is a button that says "following," click it to unfollow.

I'm really surprised there isn't a FAQ available on the website anywhere. Not that I've found, anyhow.

[Fbone]

Twitter or Facebook logins. What if you have neither?

[faithbw]

I keep getting stuck on part three of the setup. When I click next to go to step four, it says that the page can't be found.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Twitter or Facebook logins. What if you have neither?

Then obviously you're not the kind of reader Riffle is looking for.

I can't think of this as anything like a "Goodreads alternative;" there's no way to comment on anything. It's just a collection of rec lists. It may eventually expand (presumably, they won't want to rely on twitter/fb forever), but right now it's counting on the pretty-picture factor of bookcovers to make it seem interesting.

[pidgeon92]

The whole thing is pretty sucky. I find no discernible benefits to this over Goodreads.

[faithbw]

I finally got it to go past stage three after God knows how many attempts. So far, it doesn't look impressive. I still like the setup of Goodreads better.

[danskmacabre]

Looks pretty dodgy, I'll give this a miss.

[jersysman]

Thanks to all who reported in on this. I'll give it a pass. Goodreads is still good in my book and I'll stick with that.

[dordale]

I'm one who doesn't have a facebook or twitter account, so I'll be giving it a pass as well since I can't even get into the site to browse around.
I'll still use Goodreads and hope their purchase by Amazon doesn't add too much bias to their system.

[paola]

I'm keeping an eye on http://join.thirdscribe.com/

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by paola

I'm keeping an eye on http://join.thirdscribe.com/

Ooh, interesting; thanks!

[danskmacabre]

I left Goodreads when Amazon bought it out. So I'm on the lookout for a decent alternative.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

I signed up, couldn't figure out how to unfollow the people they'd assigned me to or un-recommend a book I'd clicked on by mistake.

Went looking for a way to give feedback. Found their "make a suggestion" forum, which is the only way to give feedback... there is no "contact us" button.

Found the most egregious rights-grab I've ever seen in a TOS, including not only the right to make derivative commercial use of anything you submit to them, but "UserVoice may share as it sees fit information that you voluntarily make public, including information that you post on any blogs, message boards, chat rooms or other similar forums, whether or not such forums are owned by UserVoice."

My blog post got a response from a staff member, who said that UserVoice just manages the forums, not Riffle itself. I pointed out that, with no TOS available on Riffle, I have no way to know that.

I've read your blog post.

At least in Europe, they will not be able to claim those rights. Here, the law supersedes ANY Terms of Service or End User License Agreement. If I publish something, somewhere, I have the copyright, and you're not allowed to use the publication in any way, except when I clearly state that you can do so.

I rather can't believe that this would be otherwise in the US. It's impossible to believe that a company can state that they are free to do whatever they want, with anything you publish on whatever site.

Even if you find a site on which someone called "Katsunami" posts something, you can't be sure it's me. It's a made up nick. Katsunami.com is not my site. DJ Katsunami is not me. I can't be sure if Katsunami.com is actually DJ Katsunami's website, though that site seems to be about music.

That TOS is impossible, as this company would practically be able to own the information in the entire internet, by stating that it was posted by one of its users.