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April 22, 2024

#170 - There's not really much community...

On showcasing our community features, the V1 Book Clubs launch, and ongoing performance improvements!

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#170 | 22 April 2024

There's not really much community...


...is what people often say about StoryGraph on social media when recommending us to their friends and followers.

And while we still have a long way to go — easily find and invite friends, commenting on reading activity and reviews, public lists users can save/follow, and more — I'm hoping our new-look community page will start to change that perception:
Desktop view of the new StoryGraph Community page. There is a heading up top in green reading "Community" and underneath is a horizontal navigation tab bar with the options: News Feed (which is the currently selected option), Buddy Reads, Readalongs, Book Clubs, and Similar Users.
And for our "I love StoryGraph because it's quiet and there's no noisy social stuff" users, keeping that feel for them will always be a priority!
 

Since last time...
 

V1 of Book Clubs officially launched! 🎉

In the last couple issues I've shared most of the highlights of the feature, but here's one big mystery feature I hadn't yet implemented since I last wrote to you:
A screenshot of the "Suggested Club Reads" pane. Underneath the section heading are three books, listed vertically. The cover is on the left-hand side with the title and author beside the cover, on the right.
That's right! We're using Rob's machine learning magic to suggest books tailored to your club's tastes, and the recommendations will keep getting better the more meetings you organise via StoryGraph! ✨

There was one last lil' extra touch I added before going live:
Screenshot of the top of a book club meeting page. By the date, there's an expanded dropdown menu. The title is "Add to calendar" and the options are: Google, Yahoo, Outlook, iCal.
Click and add your upcoming book club meeting to your calendar. 😍 
 
You can read more about the feature on our Roadmap blog.
 

Next two weeks


Work has already begun on a bunch of performance improvements and the move towards distributed database architecture.

I also need to finish up work on the public readalongs page and develop the equivalent for buddy reads!
 

What I'm reading


I've always wanted to read an awards shortlist and form my own opinion and ranking in advance of the winner being announced and, in typical Nadia fashion, I've decided to do both the Women's Prize 2024 Fiction shortlist and their inaugural Nonfiction one. To that end, I'll be starting Laura Cumming's Thunderclap today (as I have just under eight weeks to read 12 books 👀 😅).
Screenshot showing the first book pane in my StoryGraph Up Next queue, Thunderclap. The book cover is on the left, showing a man's face peering through what looks like a tear in a brown canvas. In the middle of the pane is all of the book's information: 272 pages, first pub 2023, and the tags nonfiction, art, biography, history, and medium-paced.
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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