Re:Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative
by stared on Monday March 03, 2025 @05:22AM
(#43240319)
To me, even 5-star system is broken by design, with a pressure to rate everything 4 and 5, especially if these are known to be classic books.
I rarely give 1 or 2 - in vast majority of cases it means I stop reading them, out of respect for my time.
What is nice, but underused (since most platforms want us to be excited, because of sales and adverts) is some kind of slider with mean at 0, for expected quality.
Even better, tags to choose from "awesome", "insightful", "well-researched", "funny", "cringe", "inaccurate" etc. I mean, there are tags, but I mean ones explicitly displayed next to rating.
I rarely give 1 or 2 - in vast majority of cases it means I stop reading them, out of respect for my time.
What is nice, but underused (since most platforms want us to be excited, because of sales and adverts) is some kind of slider with mean at 0, for expected quality.
Even better, tags to choose from "awesome", "insightful", "well-researched", "funny", "cringe", "inaccurate" etc. I mean, there are tags, but I mean ones explicitly displayed next to rating.