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January 29, 2024

#164 - If you enjoy using the app...

On 1-star reviews and a lil' teaser of upcoming new features! 👀

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#164 | 29 January 2024

If you enjoy using the app...


..please leave us a review on the App Store or Play Store!

Y'see, when we have periods of downtime due to a surge in users, we tend to get an influx of reviews that look like this:
1 star review which reads: it literally just opens to a blank screen. great concept if it actually worked".
1 star review which reads: Used to love tracking my progress and books read. But it's broken more than it works lately. Not worth the hassle.
1 star review which reads: Unfortunately the latest update has caused the app to not open at all. This is very disappointing on an app that I have thoroughly enjoyed over the last year.
And even after all of the issues have been resolved, these reviews and ratings are often never updated... 🥲

And down goes our average rating... 😭

So, yeah...if you've enjoyed using the app, a review in your respective app store would go a long way! 🙏🏾

Thank you so much!
 

Since last time...
 

Since the new types of reading challenges and book clubs aren't done, I figured I'd tease a lil' something from each new feature!

First up, for book clubs, you'll be able to add images to your club's About/Welcome page, as well as add images to your meeting agendas (which will be great for in-person and virtual meetings alike)!
Screenshot of a fake book club page. Top left is the StoryGraph logo and to the right is text that reads: "TSG Book Club, Run by nadia, 1 member". Then there's an "About" heading and a box underneath. Inside the book are jokey-words around how fun the club is. Then there's text reading "What to look out for:" and a photo of me, Nadia. The caption underneath the photo reads: "The shay individual who runs the club!"

We'll see how this goes and maybe give everyone the ability to add images in other places in the app!

For book-specific reading challenges, we've got a sweet lil' modal for you to see any extra notes a host may add to a specific prompt:
Screenshot of the top three books in my example challenge. The first one is Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart. It's got an "In Progress" label up top and an 'i' icon alongside it. When hovered, text pops up which reads: "Click to read notes host added to this book."
Screenshot of a modal overlayed on the reading challenge screen, which is greyed out in the background. The modal features the book cover, title, and author, and information about when the book won the Man Booker Prize, and links to articles and interviews.
Rob and I did more planning towards our upcoming database re-architecture and I automated away a particular error case during Goodreads Imports that previously meant myself or Abbie had to send an email to the user in question!

We also went live on Instagram last night for our quarterly Founder Q&A! 😁 
 

Next two weeks


Hopefully I'll be finishing up all of my outstanding work and getting back to the Plus Advanced Stats transition! 🤞🏾
 

What I'm reading


I'm reading the debut novel of StoryGraph's earliest user (outside of myself and my mum, we don't count), Erica Dansereau. Even better, I'm reading Come Forth As Gold as part of a StoryGraph readalong, hosted by Erica herself! 😍

Have a great week,

Nadia

P.S. Know somebody who's an avid reader or would enjoy following along with this journey? Please do forward this email to them! Thank you. :-)
 
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