Comments on: Shelfari: LibraryThing with a New Coat of Paint? http://www.davidlouisedelman.com/technology/shelfari/ Science Fiction Novelist, Blogger, Web Programmer Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:06:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Ashish http://www.davidlouisedelman.com/technology/shelfari/#comment-1288 Ashish Wed, 19 Sep 2007 21:48:20 +0000 http://www.davidlouisedelman.com/?p=244#comment-1288 Shelfari keeps asking me to make a bloody account before I can browse anything beyond their first explore page! Shelfari keeps asking me to make a bloody account before I can browse anything beyond their first explore page!

]]> By: David Louis Edelman http://www.davidlouisedelman.com/technology/shelfari/#comment-1285 David Louis Edelman Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:37:16 +0000 http://www.davidlouisedelman.com/?p=244#comment-1285 Thanks for that, Jason. I may have to check out GoodReads.com -- hanging out on book-related social networks certainly should be part of <em>my</em> job too. :-) Thanks for that, Jason. I may have to check out GoodReads.com — hanging out on book-related social networks certainly should be part of my job too. :-)

]]> By: Jason Pettus http://www.davidlouisedelman.com/technology/shelfari/#comment-1286 Jason Pettus Mon, 27 Aug 2007 13:46:55 +0000 http://www.davidlouisedelman.com/?p=244#comment-1286 As part of my day job, I am quite active at three different social networks for book lovers -- the LibraryThing and Shelfari ones you mention here, plus a third called GoodReads.com. And it's for sure, what exactly you say here -- that in all three cases, there are certain very specific exclusive benefits and drawbacks to them all, making it very difficult to conclusively pick a "best" of them for all situations. GoodReads, for example, contains more user reviews than LibraryThing and Shelfari put together; but the site puts a ridiculously low cap on total review length (about two paragraphs altogether), making the reviews themselves often less helpful than at the other networks. And I definitely and precisely agree with you about the "vibe" you get off LibraryThing versus Shelfari; the former definitely feels like a labor of love, a high-tech anarchist lending library in a basement shop in a big city, while the latter definitely feels like its owners are just waiting at any moment for Amazon to out-and-out purchase them. Again, this doesn't make either one particularly better or worse than the other; just that there are definitely two very different flavors to them, for those who think that all these social networks are essentially alike. I will say what is consistently the best about them all, though, and is why I am so active at them as part of my day job -- it's a great place to meet very smart, very passionate lovers of books, not only simple fans but also lots of authors and also executives within the publishing industry (or at least the young, smart ones). It's a great place to find out about new books you might have never heard of, as well as to argue for great books that others might have never heard of, within generally positive environments full of highly literate (and mostly good-looking) book nerds. Anyway, my two cents. Your fan as always -- Jason Pettus, Chicago Center for Literature and Photography As part of my day job, I am quite active at three different social networks for book lovers — the LibraryThing and Shelfari ones you mention here, plus a third called GoodReads.com. And it’s for sure, what exactly you say here — that in all three cases, there are certain very specific exclusive benefits and drawbacks to them all, making it very difficult to conclusively pick a “best” of them for all situations. GoodReads, for example, contains more user reviews than LibraryThing and Shelfari put together; but the site puts a ridiculously low cap on total review length (about two paragraphs altogether), making the reviews themselves often less helpful than at the other networks. And I definitely and precisely agree with you about the “vibe” you get off LibraryThing versus Shelfari; the former definitely feels like a labor of love, a high-tech anarchist lending library in a basement shop in a big city, while the latter definitely feels like its owners are just waiting at any moment for Amazon to out-and-out purchase them. Again, this doesn’t make either one particularly better or worse than the other; just that there are definitely two very different flavors to them, for those who think that all these social networks are essentially alike.

I will say what is consistently the best about them all, though, and is why I am so active at them as part of my day job — it’s a great place to meet very smart, very passionate lovers of books, not only simple fans but also lots of authors and also executives within the publishing industry (or at least the young, smart ones). It’s a great place to find out about new books you might have never heard of, as well as to argue for great books that others might have never heard of, within generally positive environments full of highly literate (and mostly good-looking) book nerds. Anyway, my two cents. Your fan as always — Jason Pettus, Chicago Center for Literature and Photography

]]> By: tobias buckell http://www.davidlouisedelman.com/technology/shelfari/#comment-1287 tobias buckell Thu, 23 Aug 2007 17:58:38 +0000 http://www.davidlouisedelman.com/?p=244#comment-1287 I signed up for Shelfari first, but when it came time for adding the 'currently reading' widget to my site, LT's was more minimalist and easy to add to the 'look' of my site and was willing to play nice. And I agree with all your thoughts, hence my move to LT when people pointed it out to me... I signed up for Shelfari first, but when it came time for adding the ‘currently reading’ widget to my site, LT’s was more minimalist and easy to add to the ‘look’ of my site and was willing to play nice. And I agree with all your thoughts, hence my move to LT when people pointed it out to me…

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