RE: GoodBook.reviews - Steem Powered Book Reviews 📖
I have been summoned by @techslut, so I am here with thoughts.
The thing that makes Goodreads great, and made Shelfari great (before it was integrated into GR after Amazon bought both) is the underlying database of books that allows you to to use it to keep track of current and future books. Now, getting the database is not an insignificant cost, but it would allow you to do so much more. As someone who runs a wiki that's partially about books, a built in database would be a tremendous boon.
What makes GR terrible is that they suck at making data accessible to users. I can't use it to see which books are coming out this week unless some user made a list. Considering every book has a listed release date, that's bonkers.
So, yeah. Reviews are great. Awesome. But reviews built on a books database, so each book has an identity that allows you to see all the reviews for it is so much more powerful. And while you could crowdsource that, it would take serious critical mass to make that feasible.
I would also look at litsy, which I don't personally use, but is a significant player in the field.
@didic, that's what I said... Great minds think alike I guess ;) I've noticed you around while curating #book stuff but never stopped in to say hi... So hi! :D What Discord servers do you hang out on?
@sambillingham Yeah, we definitely need a database. You could add books details as reviews are posted for each book to make it easier to implement. Doing it this way would also be cheaper as you could just look up book details in the Google or Amazon api. I'd also cut down on the complication of multiple editions that Goodreads has by making only one listing per book.
The main problem with a database for this project would be if you wanted to store it all on the blockchain. Book listings need to be updated as new editions come out and Steem doesn't let you update older posts. Would it be possible to only store the book listing details on your side until a review is posted then transfer the listing data to that post? (not a developer, so not totally sure).
@carn Hi! The easiest way to find me is in all the servers mentioned in this post by @ladiesofsteemit, and also in Isle of Write. Of those, @TeamGirlPowa, where I'm a mod, is probably the one I'm in most often. I also found and joined your server just now, and will have a better look tomorrow.
As to the database/blockchain compatibility issue, I'd make each edition a separate database entry, because in the ISBN database, they already are. But I'd connect the entries, using the (some method someone who actually understands how this would work could figure out).
You're both hitting on an interesting point. Linking reviews across individual book editions to an overarching book will be tricky but should be possible.
I naively had no idea you could buy this data off the self. It was actually cheaper than I expected. I would really like to be able to add "keeping tack of current and future books" once the site is a little more mature.
Do you know where the information originally comes from? Do publishers, authors or users upload the information about books that are yet to be released or is it pulled from an external resource?
Feels a bit of a catch 22. Lots of books in the database but no reviews or all books have reviews but only a handful of books listed.
I do plan on having individual book pages that list all reviews and rating from users. you're 100% though, getting a critical mass so that the book you are looking for is already there with a review is a challenging endeavour .
I appreciate you taking the time to give feedback. I hope to have a version online we can start playing with soon.
When a publisher wants to publish a book, they buy an ISBN number from an affiliate of The International ISBN Agency. They have the original data.
As a reviewer, having the book available as a thing to review - without existing reviews - would be far preferable to having to add it manually. I also run book review contests, and can foresee this being very useful for that.
After ISBN has been purchased for the new book does that information get listed anywhere?
100% agree I'll look at what I can do. Might not be ready for the initial beta launch but hopefully, before the grand opening it would be ace to have this. A really simple 'review this book' button from the book page and it throws you right into the review with all the associated information setup for you. 🤞
Not by the agency, but multiple companies use their data. Amazon is basically built on it. There's an ISBN Search engine. But as to how companies get the data, I have no idea.
Thanks for all the info. I'll see if I can find a way to get new ISBN numbers as they are registered, I think you would need this to keep the database of books up-to-date.
Once you have a large enough database, users can totally carry the load of adding books. And if the platform becomes big enough, publishers will add books, like they do in GoodReads.