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/lit/ - Literature

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15132572 No.15132572 [Reply] [Original]

Jesus Christ, why is this so bad?

>> No.15132574

>>15132572
You tell me.

>> No.15132597

>>15132572
because you don't know how to use it

>> No.15132614

>>15132572
If you ever needed a strong argument for why democracy is an inherently flawed system, just look at goodreads

>> No.15132621

>>15132572
Their sorting system makes no sense. 1 star review with 10 likes = on the top. 4 star review with 20 liked = 5th place.

>> No.15132627

>>15132572
>>15132574
I think it's because it's what happens when a major company creates a site, and puts no money into it.

Grassroots sites like RateYourMusic are great because the people responsible for setting up the site are passionate, so every user feels responsible for making the site as good as it can be.

Amazon's own site, as well as Google, Facebook, Instagram, etc. are good because they put tons of money into having the best sites possible, hiring the best engineers.

Goodreads is completely unresponsive to its users' wants because it's owned by Amazon, and is totally top-down. But it's not a money maker, so not even the company that owns it is paying any attention to it.

The worst part is the ratings, though - there's literally no way to tell if a 4.5 star book is a terrible piece of crap that has a retarded cult following, or if a 2.7 star book is a masterpiece that a bunch of retards accidentally read and voted down. I know somebody that wrote a self-published book, and it's at nearly 5 stars because they got all their friends to give it 5 stars. The one exception is some random guy who read it based on its high rating, then wrote that it was he most awful piece of shit he'd read in years.

>> No.15132630

>>15132614
Whats the alternative to democracy?

>> No.15132648

>>15132572
Harry Potter is better rated than Moby Dick.

>> No.15132666

>>15132648
Maybe we should read Harry Potter in May.

>> No.15132689
File: 182 KB, 735x605, best books of 2019.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
15132689

>> No.15132697

>>15132630
Fascism (pbui).

>> No.15132736

>>15132572
It's incredibly bad. It's a horrible combination of pseuds from Twitter, Reddit and quora

>> No.15132757

>>15132572
It makes a good case of why literature should not be available to the masses.
It all began when books ceased being a luxury item.

>> No.15132786
File: 110 KB, 572x561, best books EVER.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
15132786

Pic is the most popular list on Goodreads, with 196,473 voters.

>> No.15132815

>>15132786
lol it's a good reminder of why talking to most people is so awful and unstimulating.

>> No.15132872

>>15132786
To be fair Pride and Prejudice is a good book

>> No.15132886

>>15132627
>The worst part is the ratings, though - there's literally no way to tell if a 4.5 star book is a terrible piece of crap that has a retarded cult following, or if a 2.7 star book is a masterpiece that a bunch of retards accidentally read and voted down.
You just got to look at a couple profiles of who's giving the ratings, you can see if they're retards with shit taste or not

>> No.15132911

>>15132786
all white women wtf??

>> No.15132943
File: 111 KB, 581x531, 6-11.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
15132943

>>15132911
There are some white men following closely.
Also Mr John Green.

>> No.15132955

>>15132786
>>15132911
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZIpFytCSVc

>> No.15132958

>>15132886
>>15132627
The Epic of Gilgamesh, the very first story written in all of human history, painstakingly restored by archaeologists from broken clay tablets, has a 3.6 stars rating

>> No.15132974

>>15132958
lol

>> No.15133059

>>15132572
It's the expected result when every item is just a "book" (i.e. canonical books and erotica published 1 month ago have the same kind of page), subjected to rating (rating things is retarded), and being accessed by everyone, but having a user base of community college humanities majors, avant teens, females and low-T males.
And lots of reviews/ratings are by those retards who have +3000 books on their profiles, collected, listed and consumed in pure avarice and gluttony like Xbox achievements.

>> No.15133091

>>15132572
women are allowed to post

>> No.15133121

>>15132786
Lists with generic titles like "Best Books Ever(!!!)" are going to be terrible. The most useful lists have fewer voters

>> No.15133126

>>15132958
It doesn't respect wahmen enough.

>> No.15133136

any good alternatives ?

>> No.15133158

>>15132627
>But it's not a money maker
neither is amazon.com

>> No.15133180

>>15132572
It's hilarious how MyAnimeList is bad and for a lesser art form yet still btfo's Goodreads in every way.

>> No.15133195

>>15133136
rateyourmusic
for books I dunno

>> No.15133203

>>15133158
Really? Jeff Bezos is worth $145 billion.

>> No.15133217

>>15133203
it's from other projects like AWS

>> No.15133250

>>15132786
Order of the Phoenix was the worst in the series

>> No.15133305

>>15132958
FPBP

>> No.15133543

>>15132630
Distributist monarchy

>> No.15133582

I'm thinking about moving to Library Thing.

>> No.15133915
File: 166 KB, 960x685, B664F716-4FBF-48F8-AB31-5709204C9DF7.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
15133915

R8, h8 and masturb8.
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7002468-carlos-eduardo

>> No.15133924

>>15132572
It’s social media. A race to the bottom.

>> No.15133966

>>15132911
Diversity means white woman anon

>> No.15134048

>>15132786
Yes its the normy books did you expect the most famous list to not be about the most popular books? Doesnt prove the site is bad subhuman

>> No.15134068

>>15133217
Lol its definitely not because amazon is worth like 1 trillion

>> No.15134125

>look at good reads review
>"I couldn't even finish the first chapter"
>1 star

everytime

>> No.15134138

>>15132943
Gone With the Wind is good

>> No.15134255

>>15132572
post your profile and stop crying

>> No.15134276
File: 161 KB, 400x290, B56D56256AFD46B49C490C8C8DF88B68.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
15134276

>book has average 4+ star rating
>top review is 1 star

>> No.15134552

>>15134068
being worth some money and actually turning in a profit are two different things

>> No.15134566

>>15132627
>The worst part is the ratings, though - there's literally no way to tell if a 4.5 star book is a terrible piece of crap that has a retarded cult following, or if a 2.7 star book is a masterpiece that a bunch of retards accidentally read and voted down.
This is the same for every x hobby website. To use an example that you also mentioned, RYM users seem to think Kendrick Lamar is the best artist of the past two decades.

>> No.15134887

>>15132572
I use goodreads too, only to track when I read books and to remember the books I still need to buy. After a quick google search I found candlapp.com do any of you guys use this? It seems cool but I'm skeptical about making an account

>> No.15134932

>>15134887
nvm you can't postdate the books you've read I guess I'll stick with goodreads. I don't use that shit to find new books anyway only faggots and pseuds do that

>> No.15134946

Would there be demand for a more RYM-like goodreads? Better algorithms for ratings, etc

>> No.15135336

>>15134566
>RYM users seem to think Kendrick Lamar is the best artist of the past two decades.
He is.

>> No.15135349

>>15135336
"No!"

>> No.15135358

>>15133543
Incredibly based

>> No.15135363

>>15132572
>trying to find book
>go to author's page because direct search is cancer
>they have the same book listed 50 times for each language it's translated in
>makes it look like an author who wrote ~4 books actually wrote 200+
why the fuck? the devs are retards and probably pajeets. who the fuck decided that was a good way to go about it?

FUCK YOU

>> No.15135364

>>15132630
A benevolent dictatorship is the way to go, but unfortunately one doesn't and will likely never exist.

>> No.15135383

>>15132689
>wammenz pandering
tbfair thats the fault of blue haired literary agents, not gr users.

>> No.15135390
File: 184 KB, 2358x623, John Green.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
15135390

>>15132943
Obligatory John Green picture

>> No.15136242
File: 34 KB, 957x734, Capture.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
15136242

>>15133217
>>15134068
Pic related is from Amazon's most recent annual report (Form 10-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission).
>$2.8 billion profit from North America sales
>$3.1 billion LOSS from international sales
>$4.3 billion profit from AWS

>> No.15136304

>>15135390
kek

>> No.15136347

>15 pages in and I couldn’t tolerate the author’s narcissism
>1 star
pottery

>> No.15136356

I just use it for catalogging autism. Same for last.fm Idgaf about the social aspect

>> No.15136549

>>15136242
>>$3.1 billion LOSS from international sales
how does that even happen?

>> No.15137498

>>15136356
What features are there to set it apart from a well organized excel file?

>> No.15137770

>>15132572
>Uses a 5 point rating system
>Every book has a 3.8-4.4 rating as a result of this
Bravo

>> No.15137789

>>15132630
Men fighting amongst one another to determine who's more powerful. Political power needs to be based on ability to force others to your will.

>> No.15137792

>>15132627
>or if a 2.7 star book is a masterpiece that a bunch of retards accidentally read and voted down
Exactly. Goonan's masterpiece The Foundation for Exploration is rated 2.88. 1-star reviews by a bunch of women and s o y boys.

>> No.15137800

>>15132572
women

>> No.15137889
File: 366 KB, 721x575, goodreads.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
15137889

>>15137800

>> No.15137932
File: 130 KB, 436x395, goodreads2.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
15137932

>>15137800
first 5 reviews

>> No.15138050

>>15133180
i wish good reads had a stat system like mal

>> No.15138063

>>15132572
women being aloud on it at all

>> No.15138089

>>15137498
It is easier to look up what someone else is reading like your favorite author or influencer or whoever you guys worship

>> No.15138098

>>15136549
I'm Mexican and Amazon MX sells very cheap items sometimes, and they especially did so when they were starting out (like in 2015) and were trying to get off the ground. Some months I go I bought a new copy of The Aeneid (Everyman's Library hardcover) for 1.06 USD (!). Sold by Amazon themselves. Competitive prices abroad is why Amazon is having a loss in international markets. AMZ can control their market in the US but it's a different game in the rest of the world. France in particular is not too happy about Amazon so they favour their local libraries instead with some market advantages.

>> No.15138164

>>15137498

It's easy to find books of the same author or genre with the ones you're reading or have read.

Just ignore the reviews though, they are cancer.

>> No.15138676

I don't use Goodreads for recommendations or to discuss books, but I do like being able to track the books I read.

>> No.15138690

Are there any alternatives to goodread? Just anything that doesn't read like a reddit left wing subreddit and I am sold

>> No.15138713

>>15132958
Are you supposed to rate a book based on literary merit, personal enjoyment or some esoteric impression of historical importance?

I read Beowulf because it is historically interesting, but I didn't find the story to be particularly engaging personally, so I gave it a 3 star rating, which reflects my personal subjective reading experience.

>> No.15138763

>>15137498
Predatory pricing and has been Amazon's expansion strategy since the start.
They price stuff well below market rates and just eat the cost via Angel money or these days other revenue sources, in 5 years when all the brick and mortar places have gone bust and Amazon is the first place people check for online orders they jack up the price to market rates

>> No.15138789

>>15137498
You get input from millions of other users instead of looking only at your own lonely list, and it wont all be wiped if you forget to make a security copy.

>> No.15138828

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3009752099?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1
which one of you was this

>> No.15138849

>>15138828
Peak winemom-core.
>not giving a fuck
>cant put fuck on the cover

Who is this absolutely based anon?

>> No.15139050

>>15132572
The tracking system is pretty neat, but I despise the retarded reviews/lists/whateverthefuck. The fact that some people use it as a social media blows me away.

>> No.15139143

>>15138763
>these days other revenue sources
i.e. the cia or wall street

>> No.15139144

>>15132627
lmao rym's top rated albums are OK computer and dark side of the moon

>> No.15139156

>>15138763
What's to stop people from going other places when Amazon raises their prices? "Predatory pricing" is a complete fiction. It has never worked in the history of man and I sincerely doubt it has ever been attempted.

>> No.15139166

Name a better intro to a review
>bartleby..."i would prefer not to..." read this one, of the 6 tales w/i the piazza tales, in high school. could be i read them all, just don't recall, but bartleby made an impression. "i would prefer not to." HA HA HA HA! ginger nut, "he's a little luny.......all those dead letters...

>> No.15139251

>>15139156
Not that anon, but once the main competitors are gone, you can do whatever you want.

>> No.15139260

>>15139251
What is stopping new competitors from arising?

>> No.15139278

>>15139260
You fucking their ass if they ever try to get momentum, it's monopoly 101

>> No.15139282

>>15135390
Also the description to twin peaks

>> No.15139291

>>15139278
Explain to me how that works. Suppose I own a lawnmower factory and I lose billions of dollars selling at a loss until all other lawnmower manufacturers are out of business, at which point I jack up the prices higher than what the competition used to sell them at. How do I stop other people from opening a lawnmower factory and selling lawnmowers cheaper than I am?

>> No.15139307

>>15139291
>>15139278
Also, what is stopping consumers from switching other cheaper methods of lawnmowing?

>> No.15139315

>>15139291
Buying out their clients, cutting them off from suppliers, rooting them out of their home territory etc.

>> No.15139322

>>15139315
How am I forcing people to sell their business to me? How am I cutting off suppliers? How am I forcing them out of their territory?

>> No.15139328
File: 12 KB, 452x92, 48693784573987.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
15139328

>>15132572
fixed the picture, anon

>> No.15139355

>>15139144
>pop music is popular
Umm, citation for this?

>> No.15139360

>>15139307
This question is more important than you might realize. Suppose Amazon drives all other online retailers offline and then jacks up their prices. What is there to stop people from going back to real world retailers?

>> No.15139364

>>15132572
if you think goodreads is bad, you either have shit taste or are using it wrong.

1. You have shit taste: the recommendations goodreads gives you are based on your own reading metrics
2. You are using it wrong: who would read books recommended by masses of white w*man or based on reviews of the same?

My goodreads is both based and redpilled

>> No.15139376
File: 99 KB, 695x631, Capture.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
15139376

>>15137932
cherry picking

>> No.15139377

>>15132630
>>15137789
Kenshirism?

>> No.15139393

>>15139322
>How am I forcing people to sell their business to me?
By being a broader, more easily accessed and more renowned company.
>How am I cutting off suppliers
By offering deals they can't refuse, like very high paying contracts that would consume their entire production
>How am I forcing them out of their territory?
Generally by buying out land near where they set up and aggressively going after their biggest demographics
If you want more do research into how the railroad and oil monopolies of the 1900s worked

>> No.15139418

>>15139291
Spend 5 minutes learning about supply chains, IP, branding.

>> No.15139421

>>15139393
These are more vagaries. I'll just buy out the worlds supply of steel and every piece of land that looks like it could host a lawnmower factory just to prevent other companies from making lawnmowers. That makes total sense and you're clearly a very good thinker. What does it even mean to be a broader, renowned, and more accessible company when it comes to compelling other people to sell me their business? Does that make my money worth more than their potential earnings or something?

>> No.15139427

>>15139418
Yes of course, the brilliant "buy out the worlds supply of steel and coal to prevent the construction of lawnmowers" strategy. You belong on Wall St.

>> No.15139454

>>15139427
>>15139418
Even if you had the trillions in capital to feasibly make that happen, it only takes one single supplier to refuse in order to ruin your dastardly plan and waste all that money. This is so stupid.

>> No.15139465

Go look at their newly release 2019 top books in each genre. Holy fuck the cancer. As a B&N employee, I know that they sold well, but holy fuck some of the book are such shit. Especially the nonfiction. All the girl power bullshit. Jesus Christ, you'd think women were still kept on chains and sold for cattle the way these cunts bitch and moan about society. Time to reign them back in and legitimately treat them as property. I truly believe that is in the best interest of everyone involved. Not happy that I read those lists. If you want to lose a little more faith in humanity, take a looksie at them.

>> No.15139475

>>15139465
lol u work at b&n

>> No.15139519

You idiots need to realise your business 101 bullshit doesnt work. No one can compete with amazon for the next 50-100 years until the bloat starts to set in and they miss a few important technologies.

>> No.15139613

>>15139475
Did. Till I was furloughed. Will be changing jobs once this virus shit blows over. Still getting paid for now which is nice though.

>> No.15139621

>>15132697
So, communism with borders?

>> No.15139665

>>15139519
People said the exact same thing about Ebay and AOL, but the minute they stopped being the most efficient at what they did, other companies took over their markets. Amazon is at the top because it's the most efficient at what it's doing, and the minute that stops is the minute other companies will take over its market. It's the minute you'll forget all about Amazon and start complaining about the new company because you will never learn. You have no business calling anyone an idiot with your Reddit tier economics.

>> No.15140014

>>15139519
>No one can compete with amazon for the next 50-100 years
Why is this a problem?

>> No.15140176

>>15139454
>>15139427
>>15139291
(obligatory indication that I am another anon)

I don't know if you people realize the full extent of how long Amazon has been operating at a loss, coupled with the unprecedented success it has shown only fairly recently in today's market. For years, Bezos admonished investors to hold onto the wheel, and wait for the long-game. Laymen generously accuse corporations of suffering myopic tendencies that lead to ruin, but what if a technologically adept company used all its resources to recursively amass capital great enough to be laid out like some monumental tarp, suffocating plains of grass to make mere road-building a trivial task?

The main stake they hold, AWS, drives so much of the internet that its profits are used to subsidize their other commercial operations, ventures, and buy-outs that work toward building a vertical infrastructure the world has never seen. There are no middlemen in Amazon. They have their own distribution system more advance, wide-spread, and efficient than governmental/commercial messengers. The corporation has consolidated such capital that they can do things no other businesses can without being suicidal.

Simplistic arguments entirely miss the point:
> How do I stop other people from opening a lawnmower factory and selling lawnmowers cheaper than I am?
Your assumption is that they can. They cannot. Local businesses cannot bear the brunt of minimal (or even red) margins.
>>15139307
> Also, what is stopping consumers from switching other cheaper methods of lawnmowing?

There is none. The consumer is so brain-dead and ignorant of the horror of a sub $2 priced 10 piece chicken nugget that they can only shut-up and enjoy their meal. Only decades later did people realize that Napoleon outclassed his rivals with inventions like canned food enabling logistical miracles.

Amazon is a 21st-century faustian deal whose corpse will scar the fabric of society as many have already realized with social-media. Every single remotely promising has at one point desired to work for Google or Amazon. There's a reason why a person making 400k is distinguished from the person taking his order. Is this difference just and deserved? No. If that person held a pebble of sensibility, 'aidos' would be appropriate.

>> No.15140257

>>15140176
You're dreaming of a company with more capital and control than most countries on earth. We're talking about a platform which allows people to sell goods. The moment anyone can do this more efficiently than Amazon, the empire is destroyed.

It's not a bad thing for a company to do what nobody else is willing to do. The investors chose to risk their money for years while Amazon operated at a loss in the hope that it will eventually turn around by utilizing the economy of scale which allows them to operate at a lower cost than any other competitor, and amazingly enough it worked out for them. Anybody can try what they did at any time and the only thing that's stopping people is the lack the willingness to take the risk or the skill to manage their company as well as Amazon has. Only government interference can prevent competition and I haven't seen Amazon change any government laws toward that end.

>> No.15140535

>>15138098
why do i pay $20 for an item a mexican gets for $1?

>> No.15140643

>>15139519
Has been said about every business that has been on top.

>> No.15141019

>>15135364
so... it's not the way to go

>> No.15141400

goodreads blows so much fucking dick. letterboxd for books fucking when

>> No.15141405

>>15141400
that website is clearly worse, userbase-wise.

>> No.15141418

>>15141405
never understood this argument. it's like when people on twitter say tumblr is bad. it's literally the same shit, one is just image-based and one is (mostly) text-based. you can choose who you follow/follows you and also what you see on your homepage/feed etc. the userbase is wholly irrelevant in basically every form of social media because you aren't forced to interact with it. I've been on Letterboxd for years and outside of seeing the few retards like brat pitt on the top reviews here and there, it's incredibly easy to avoid anything you don't want to see.

>> No.15141431

>>15141418
yeah I agree with you.

>> No.15141461

>>15132786
>tfw unironically enjoyed ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ while reading it in high school
Well shit I guess I am in the minority here

>> No.15141588
File: 289 KB, 1280x690, 2017_GDP_comparison_by_country_or_US_state.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
15141588

>>15140257
Well there is an impasse in this discussion. What is that innovation? In an ironic sense, this question is the only question is important.

But I believe that a single corporation can possess more influence, power, and resources than many nations in existence combined.

>> No.15141663

>>15141588
I don't know what you're talking about with innovation. What separates Amazon from it's competitors is management because online retail is nothing new. If Jeff Bezos was the CEO of Ebay you would be complaining about them right now instead of Amazon.

>> No.15142015

>>15141663
Logistical achievements are practical innovations in of themselves. Ebay is only akin to Amazon in the most superficial sense. I am trying to explain in detail why I think that Amazon is significantly more than an electronic market-place that you click around with a mouse. In fact, the two are are different on so many levels that this comparison betrays a fundamental lack understanding.

>> No.15142200

>>15137889
why is harry potter thought of as anything more than a fun fantasy series for kids? why do people try to make it more than that?

>> No.15142375

W*men

>> No.15142552

>>15142200
Harry Potter was HUGE. For a lot of people who are now in their late 20s and 30s right now those were the first book they read for fun.

>> No.15142806

>>15142200
I've seen people on the left reference it constantly when talking about politics. It's actually kind of a meme to make fun of them for it because it's like the only they've read.

>> No.15142847

>>15142200
same reason star wars isn't. Nostalgia. It's what the kids which are now adults that use the internet liked when they didn't have any alt options or critical thinking

>> No.15142868

>>15135336
no one cares about your musical taste. go to /mu/

>> No.15142932

>>15135364
>my household doesn't exist

>> No.15142949

>>15140535
Because you'll pay that much and they won't.

>> No.15143207

>>15141461
To Kill a Mockingbird and Pride and Prejudice are both very good books (P&P is one of my top five favorite books), but neither are in the top five for "Best Books Ever"

>> No.15143227

>>15140535
Because they're trying to muscle in on the market there while they already have the US cornered. It's the same playbook Standard Oil used when setting up state monopolies - use the profits from elsewhere to subsidize low price points that competitors can't match.

>> No.15143421

>>15139376
based

>> No.15143441

>>15143227
There's a weird sort of mythology when it comes to companies like Standard Oil. Even at its peak it only had like half the market share and they were even starting to lose that by the time the antitrust legislation hit them. The fact is that Standard Oil captured so much of the market because they were providing a superior product for less cost than anyone else because the owner was ridiculously autistic when it came to managing his refineries. The government put a stop to that and the price of oil raised and the quality dropped. That's the consequence of antitrust.

A "state monopoly" is when the government commissions a business and prevents other startups, neither or which happened with Standard Oil, btw. They got as big as it did because they were good.

>> No.15143672

What's wrong with it?
It's basically just a big blog for readers to collect their thoughts.

>> No.15143765

>>15143672
bitch/lit/ is just mad that their favorite books (or books they've been told are important) aren't at the top of some list or rated highly enough. "omg the reviews are dumb!" yeah show me a similar site that doesn't have this. as a catalog of books/editions it's quite honestly second to none, which is the correct way to use it. with a minimal amount of work you can even find and follow users whose tastes correspond with yours

>> No.15143773

>>15142806
kys /pol/shit

>> No.15144281

>>15132872
yea its good
i dislike anything entirely based on romance of any sort but this was quite good

>> No.15144487

>>15139376
its literally the first 5 reviews of a book i noticed is underrated on the platform