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Site looks great - really great - on a macro level, but when you get down to it, it doesn't really have the content I'm looking for. There's extreme misuse of

Site looks great - really great - on a macro level, but when you get down to it, it doesn't really have the content I'm looking for. There's extreme misuse of the space on the page. When I was looking at Code Complete (a book I've been trying to get my hands on for a while), there is very little content about the book. The synopsis is cut off (!) and there are no reviews. But if you were trying to save space, why on the hells are there over 9000 books following in "quoted discussions"? You need to switch what you're truncating here. Also, I would suggest at least copying Amazon's ratings for some measure of book quality. For reference: http://www.hackerbooks.com/book/code-complete-a-practical-handbook-of-software-construction/0735619670 http://www.hackerbooks.com/book/code-complete-a-practical-ha...

thibaut_barrere 16y ago
Hey - I understand what you mean, really. I really want to work on this specific page, and I'm actually frustrated to have released it this way :) Here's what's planned: - instead of cutting the book description like it's done currently, you'll be able to expand with a click - I'll do the same on books and quotes, because hundreds of books are not useful in the "suggested books list", definitely - and I want to focus more on getting the actual quotes to the front (eg: allow to read the actual quotes by HNers etc) because I feel it brings significant usefulness I'm mixed on the Amazon ratings, both because recent API changes made it unpractical to really use the content (it's now an iframe that must be used as is, and refreshed every 24 hours), and because sometimes the reviews are fake as well. So I'll try to bring more value by letting users know what people think on HN and SO. Would these points make the site more useful to you ?
- TheSOB88 16y ago
  Definitely yes, though I don't know why it would be necessary to trim the synopsis at all in most cases.
  - thibaut_barrere 16y ago
    Thanks! On the synopsis: well in some (too frequent) cases, the synopsis was just several pages long, so the related books and quotes were really, really hidden. I need to find a better middle ground. But in all cases, thanks for your critics, it will only help me make the site better.

thibaut_barrere 16y ago

Hey - I understand what you mean, really. I really want to work on this specific page, and I'm actually frustrated to have released it this way :) Here's what's planned: - instead of cutting the book description like it's done currently, you'll be able to expand with a click - I'll do the same on books and quotes, because hundreds of books are not useful in the "suggested books list", definitely - and I want to focus more on getting the actual quotes to the front (eg: allow to read the actual quotes by HNers etc) because I feel it brings significant usefulness I'm mixed on the Amazon ratings, both because recent API changes made it unpractical to really use the content (it's now an iframe that must be used as is, and refreshed every 24 hours), and because sometimes the reviews are fake as well. So I'll try to bring more value by letting users know what people think on HN and SO. Would these points make the site more useful to you ?

TheSOB88 16y ago
Definitely yes, though I don't know why it would be necessary to trim the synopsis at all in most cases.
- thibaut_barrere 16y ago
  Thanks! On the synopsis: well in some (too frequent) cases, the synopsis was just several pages long, so the related books and quotes were really, really hidden. I need to find a better middle ground. But in all cases, thanks for your critics, it will only help me make the site better.