Goodreads placing sponsored ads within Recent Updates feed

[faithbw]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Advertising in feeds is not going to go away regardless of what you do. It's going to happen at Goodreads eventually. The "testing" is to determine how much, not if. I suggest either getting used to the idea or closing your acount there.

Originally Posted by shalym

I use the Goodreads recommendations a lot--I look at the ads on the sidebar, and have purchased books because of them. Putting ads directly into the feed is wrong, however, and the only way to make it stop is to make the authors not want to place ads there.

Shari

I don't think I would even mind advertising in feeds if it was really obvious that it was an ad. For instance, when reading an article online, there is usually at least one ad placed within the text. It's a little inconvenient but I know it's an ad and I can either look at it or ignore it right way. It took me a minute to realize that update was an ad, especially since one of my GR friend had actually shelved that particular book. I don't mind ads (I even end up buying or shelving books mentioned in some ads). However, I don't like ads-as-updates. I take updates and book recs from friends differently than books recommended in an ad.

I don't want to punish authors so I don't give the actual book a rating but this now begs the question of how much authors support this. Did authors actually push for this type of advertising or was a it something that GR/Amazon created?

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by shalym

Putting ads directly into the feed is wrong, however, and the only way to make it stop is to make the authors not want to place ads there.

I see nothing inherently "wrong" with it (and I use my Goodreads feed all the time). As long as new windows aren't opening and voices aren't coming through my speakers unbidden, I've never seen internet advertising I can't easily ignore. It probably helps that I've never really considered advertising to be "the enemy."

Have at it, though (even if the whole thing feels a bit Don Quixote-ish to me).

[faithbw]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I see nothing inherently "wrong" with it (and I use my Goodreads feed all the time). As long as new windows aren't opening and voices aren't coming through my speakers unbidden, I've never seen internet advertising I can't easily ignore. It probably helps that I've never really considered advertising to be "the enemy."

Have at it, though (even if the whole thing feels a bit Don Quixote-ish to me).

The day that happens is the day I leave. God are those annoying!

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by faithbw

The day that happens is the day I leave. God are those annoying!

Freaks me right out when invisible people start talking to me out of the blue. I've taken to leaving my speakers turned off until I want them on for something specific.

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

As long as new windows aren't opening and voices aren't coming through my speakers unbidden...

Methinks I see some sence-ism going on here...how are they supposed to advertise to the sight impaired (challenged??). I would think they are just as annoyed at audio invasion as we should be at visual invasion.

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by shalym

NO. If an author chooses to try to make money with *intrusive* advertising, they deserve to be "beat up". If enough authors realize that this is a BAD THING, then the advertising in the feed will go away.

Shari

You are assuming that the author is making this choice. In most cases of advertising, it is the PUBLISHER who makes these decisions. Also, did you miss the part in my post where you have a choice to leave a COMMERCIAL website?

[Fbone]

I'm not seeing any yet. Do you filter your feed or leave it set to all?

[mitford13]

According to GR staff it hasn't gone wide yet, though they recently expanded the test group.
I got added on Monday.
(I do some filtering, top friends and following.)

[Atunah]

I hadn't seen it until now, so wasn't sure how it will be. I just noticed it so I must have just been added to the test group.

It says because you read such and such book goodreads recommends. The recommendation is actually quite a good one, based on the book I read. And many of my goodreads friends really liked it and I hadn't even heard of it.

But, its on my feed twice in a row. Double. I'll keep an eye out for it and if they keep doubling it, I'll mention it.

Now interesting is that its apparently based on what I read. At least that one I had is. Are they all based on what one reads? Because, doesn't that mean they use the shelf "read" goodreads gives you? The one you can't change. But what happens if you create your own read shelf, call I read it and make it exclusive and move everything from the default read shelf into it. Would there still be recommendations? It would of course mess up challenges and such things. Just a thought.

So far its not bother me as much, but it might. I like the recs better overall if they stay on the right based on my shelves. Not sure if I like them in the feed in the long run.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Yeah.. I'm a "shrug" too. For me, Goodreads is a "free" tool to help me keep a record of the books I've read and my subjective ratings. Don't use it for much else.

It sounds to me that a simple database -- or something like Evernote would do just as well for this. Obviously I don't know what the whole point of Goodreads is supposed to be. I don't quite understand someone else, besides the seller of books, needing to stand between me and my reading.