3 ms·

Craig Mod built his own Good Reads

24 points by natbennett 3mo ago

natbennett 3mo ago
Specifically for his private social media that’s a benefit for his paid subscribers. 5 or 6 days of a few hours a day, with Claude.
lol8675309 3mo ago
Who?
- deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]
- keane 3mo ago
  author at Random House, angel investor, expert on publishing and digital books, former product designer at Flipboard: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=craigmod.com https://hn.algolia.com/?q=craigmod.com https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=craig+mod https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=craig+mod
loeg 3mo ago
If it's only for tracking books you really liked, it's not a Good Reads replacement.
- keane 3mo ago
  Someone might have said similar about (Systrom's version of) Instagram: if it's only for photos, it's not a Facebook replacement.
tolerance 3mo ago
This link is more informative. https://craigmod.com/roden/102/#the-good-place https://craigmod.com/roden/102/#the-good-place Craig Mod is an interesting example of someone who makes a living online through "ethical" content production.
- mjcarden 3mo ago
  From that link... if only Craig knew the difference between 'tenet' and 'tenant'.
- nicbou 3mo ago
  He is also a damn good writer, and it’s fine if he makes money with it. I loved his free posts so much that I bought his book, and it was also excellent. This website can be incredibly hostile to creatives having an income, at times.
neilv 3mo ago
If you want a non-corporate alternative to Goodreads, there's a Fediverse one, BookWyrm: https://bookwyrm.social/ https://bookwyrm.social/ (I don't know how many people are using BookWyrm, but Goodreads itself seems half-abandoned. Maybe most of the publisher attention is on TikTok influencing now?)
- NathanielK 3mo ago
  This looks rad and very user drivrn. I've been tracking with bibliocommons through my local library, but it has it's flaws. I can add books that any bibliocommons library has indexed, but there's no convenient way to search outside my library.
- brandur 3mo ago
  Thanks, this is neat. Goodreads seems to be get so little development attention these days that it's a miracle it still runs. Interesting choice by BookWyrm to hide review ratings by default. I like it — I always felt that on Goodreads literature that's a little more challenging to tackle is reviewed very unfairly compared to easy-to-digest-but-content-light popular books or pulp fantasy. Making the default to have users read the contents of a review instead of glancing at an aggregate number seems like the right answer.
- KPGv2 3mo ago
  I like https://hardcover.app https://hardcover.app and the team behind it is really responsive to the community
protocolture 3mo ago
Doesnt seem to overlap with good reads at all? I find goodreads sucks at book recommendations, but excluding the books that some random twitter replacement didnt read doesnt seem like its going to make it good at book recommendations either. Goodreads however remains fun for keeping me accountable with my reading goals, and nothing else has replaced that. DCC - Yeah this isnt great. Yeah the litrpg genre was infested from the beginning with 20booksto50K people, and then LLM people.
- wahnfrieden 3mo ago
  It’s for his paid community. If you’re in the community, then it’s not a random community and you will have shared interests - and community.
  - protocolture 3mo ago
    That doesnt really make sense. If you are on twitter you are in the "community" but applying this methodology to twitter is unlikely to be a good recommendation engine for the twitter community either.
    - tolerance 3mo ago
      What do you mean? "Communities" on social media platforms vary, common behavioral traits that the platform may engender not withstanding. The platform Craig Mod built looks like the equivalent of getting book recommendations exclusively from your mutual follows on Twitter.
      - protocolture 3mo ago
        Exactly my point. A random sampling of books that a random group thinks are good isnt a good recommendation engine.
        keane 3mo ago
        See also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41756432 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41756432 and https://hacker-recommended-books.vercel.app/category/0/all-time/page/0/0 https://hacker-recommended-books.vercel.app/category/0/all-t... and https://ramiro.org/vis/hn-most-linked-books/ https://ramiro.org/vis/hn-most-linked-books/ – it doesn't exactly mean good but it also doesn't mean nothing
gnabgib 3mo ago
Title: Go Knicks, A Better Goodreads, 'Cheap' Killer Films
SkepticMystic 3mo ago
https://thestorygraph.com https://thestorygraph.com is another alternative
bwb 3mo ago
[dead]
hombre_fatal 3mo ago
I kinda like this guy's post with the quotes and references. It's pretty dense with interesting stuff.

24 points by natbennett 3mo ago

Specifically for his private social media that’s a benefit for his paid subscribers. 5 or 6 days of a few hours a day, with Claude.

lol8675309 3mo ago

Who?

deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]
keane 3mo ago
author at Random House, angel investor, expert on publishing and digital books, former product designer at Flipboard: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=craigmod.com https://hn.algolia.com/?q=craigmod.com https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=craig+mod https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=craig+mod

loeg 3mo ago

If it's only for tracking books you really liked, it's not a Good Reads replacement.

keane 3mo ago
Someone might have said similar about (Systrom's version of) Instagram: if it's only for photos, it's not a Facebook replacement.

tolerance 3mo ago

This link is more informative. https://craigmod.com/roden/102/#the-good-place https://craigmod.com/roden/102/#the-good-place Craig Mod is an interesting example of someone who makes a living online through "ethical" content production.

mjcarden 3mo ago
From that link... if only Craig knew the difference between 'tenet' and 'tenant'.
nicbou 3mo ago
He is also a damn good writer, and it’s fine if he makes money with it. I loved his free posts so much that I bought his book, and it was also excellent. This website can be incredibly hostile to creatives having an income, at times.

neilv 3mo ago

If you want a non-corporate alternative to Goodreads, there's a Fediverse one, BookWyrm: https://bookwyrm.social/ https://bookwyrm.social/ (I don't know how many people are using BookWyrm, but Goodreads itself seems half-abandoned. Maybe most of the publisher attention is on TikTok influencing now?)

NathanielK 3mo ago
This looks rad and very user drivrn. I've been tracking with bibliocommons through my local library, but it has it's flaws. I can add books that any bibliocommons library has indexed, but there's no convenient way to search outside my library.
brandur 3mo ago
Thanks, this is neat. Goodreads seems to be get so little development attention these days that it's a miracle it still runs. Interesting choice by BookWyrm to hide review ratings by default. I like it — I always felt that on Goodreads literature that's a little more challenging to tackle is reviewed very unfairly compared to easy-to-digest-but-content-light popular books or pulp fantasy. Making the default to have users read the contents of a review instead of glancing at an aggregate number seems like the right answer.
KPGv2 3mo ago
I like https://hardcover.app https://hardcover.app and the team behind it is really responsive to the community

protocolture 3mo ago

Doesnt seem to overlap with good reads at all? I find goodreads sucks at book recommendations, but excluding the books that some random twitter replacement didnt read doesnt seem like its going to make it good at book recommendations either. Goodreads however remains fun for keeping me accountable with my reading goals, and nothing else has replaced that. DCC - Yeah this isnt great. Yeah the litrpg genre was infested from the beginning with 20booksto50K people, and then LLM people.

wahnfrieden 3mo ago
It’s for his paid community. If you’re in the community, then it’s not a random community and you will have shared interests - and community.
- protocolture 3mo ago
  That doesnt really make sense. If you are on twitter you are in the "community" but applying this methodology to twitter is unlikely to be a good recommendation engine for the twitter community either.
  - tolerance 3mo ago
    What do you mean? "Communities" on social media platforms vary, common behavioral traits that the platform may engender not withstanding. The platform Craig Mod built looks like the equivalent of getting book recommendations exclusively from your mutual follows on Twitter.
    - protocolture 3mo ago
      Exactly my point. A random sampling of books that a random group thinks are good isnt a good recommendation engine.
      - keane 3mo ago
        See also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41756432 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41756432 and https://hacker-recommended-books.vercel.app/category/0/all-time/page/0/0 https://hacker-recommended-books.vercel.app/category/0/all-t... and https://ramiro.org/vis/hn-most-linked-books/ https://ramiro.org/vis/hn-most-linked-books/ – it doesn't exactly mean good but it also doesn't mean nothing

gnabgib 3mo ago

Title: Go Knicks, A Better Goodreads, 'Cheap' Killer Films

SkepticMystic 3mo ago

https://thestorygraph.com https://thestorygraph.com is another alternative

bwb 3mo ago

[dead]

hombre_fatal 3mo ago

I kinda like this guy's post with the quotes and references. It's pretty dense with interesting stuff.