How about a "books I've read lately" feature on the profile page?

April 28, 2007 2:38 PM

I've got a feature that I'd LOVE to see added, largely driven by the number of "I just finished reading this, what should I read next posts" ... a set of fields on our profile pages where we can add a book that we've recently read/enjoyed (perhaps by ISBN?), followed by a comments box. That way, members could build their "reading histories" over time, and they'd be available to the rest of the community. I realize there are plenty of stand-alone sites that do just this, but I'd love to see it integrated into MeFi, simply because I'd be very interested in checking in from time to time to see what certain posters are reading these days. We all kinda get to know each other over time, and there's an unusually high percentage of very literate people on this site. (Forgive, please, if this has been requested before.)
posted by jbickers to feature requests at 2:38 PM (38 comments total)

A better--and easier--way to do this would be to allow the options of displaying from sites like allconsuming and last.fm on member pages. I seem to remember something similar with flickr being in the works.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 3:24 PM on April 28, 2007

... displaying feeds ...
posted by monju_bosatsu at 3:28 PM on April 28, 2007

Or, upon thinking about it further, what about books.metafilter.com?

For instance, I've just finished re-reading "The Great Gatsby," and am dying to talk about it. But I don't have a question per se, and it's not "best of the web," so there's no real place to start a discussion about it.

Anyway, just a thought.
posted by jbickers at 3:33 PM on April 28, 2007 [3 favorites has favorites]

For instance, I've just finished re-reading "The Great Gatsby," and am dying to talk about it.

You know who else wanted what he couldn't have?
posted by Partial Law at 3:37 PM on April 28, 2007

There used to be a site called Bookfilter that was just for this sort of thing. Perhaps you could drop the guy a note?
posted by jessamyn at 3:37 PM on April 28, 2007

jbickers: "... a set of fields on our profile pages where we can add a book that we've recently read/enjoyed (perhaps by ISBN?)"

A nice idea, but why do we need specific fields per se? Why not just devote a section of your user page profile to books you've read and liked and include links to them, or something similar?

jbickers: "For instance, I've just finished re-reading "The Great Gatsby," and am dying to talk about it. But I don't have a question per se, and it's not "best of the web," so there's no real place to start a discussion about it."

Seems to me MetaChat is what you'd want then.
posted by Effigy2000 at 3:39 PM on April 28, 2007

There used to be a site called Bookfilter that was just for this sort of thing. Perhaps you could drop the guy a note?

Yeah, I'm guessing that there are tons of sites that do something like this (librarything comes to mind). I'd just love to see it integrated into this particular community.
posted by jbickers at 3:39 PM on April 28, 2007

I'd just love to see it integrated into this particular community.

Yeah I hear you, I'm not sure if it's clear that Bookfilter was a spin-off MeFi site with MeFites contributing to it, not just a random book discussion site. In any case it's quite defunct, but I'd be interested to see it back around again since I liked it when it was there.
posted by jessamyn at 3:43 PM on April 28, 2007

Metafacebook
posted by blue_beetle at 3:49 PM on April 28, 2007

I was surprised that there was no Metafilter group at LibraryThing.

That seems like a good place to have such a thing, though.

(I haven't gone and created one on the off chance that I've just missed it.)
posted by mendel at 3:52 PM on April 28, 2007

I'm looking forward to the 'nexus home library catalog' (private beta) projects
posted by acro at 4:16 PM on April 28, 2007

Quasi-related, I've always thought you could tell a lot about a person by perusing their Amazon wishlist.
posted by Dave Faris at 4:21 PM on April 28, 2007

Actually a "metafilter reviews" page has been talked about before. It would be a cash cow for matt, so I don't know why it's not been done yet...
posted by delmoi at 4:21 PM on April 28, 2007

I like the idea of MeFiReviews. Books could be a subcategory, but there are many other things I'd like to filter through the Filter.
posted by isopraxis at 4:26 PM on April 28, 2007

dove.metafilter?
posted by acro at 4:29 PM on April 28, 2007

There used to be a site called Bookfilter that was just for this sort of thing. Perhaps you could drop the guy a note?
posted by jessamyn at 3:37 PM on April 28

Not really. Bookfilter was focused on literary posts or things related to books. It was never really a "Hey! I read this book. Lets discuss it."
posted by vacapinta at 5:15 PM on April 28, 2007

delmoi, I remember that (MeFi Reviews) and would love to see it happen. I'm consistantly disappointed by sites like Rottentomatoes. Not that they suck, but they sure aren't MeFi quality.

This only problem that I can foresee is how to set it up. Reviews with sidebar discussion? Rules to keep us from mucking it up?

I know this was previously discussed, but it's worth thinking about. (It would be awesome!)

On preview, what isopraxis said too.
posted by snsranch at 5:19 PM on April 28, 2007

0451191153
0751538914
0385420536
1879967111
0529064634
0874869226
0352339705
posted by yerfatma at 5:59 PM on April 28, 2007

Dude, if you're reading all those other books, you really don't need 1879967111. You could write it yourself.
posted by vacapinta at 6:14 PM on April 28, 2007

I've got a feature that I'd LOVE to see added, largely driven by the number of "I just finished watching this, what should I watch next posts" ... a set of fields on our profile pages where we can add a porno that we've recently viewed/enjoyed (perhaps by UPC?), followed by a comments box. That way, members could build their "viewing histories" over time, and they'd be available to the rest of the community. I realize there are plenty of stand-alone sites that do just this, but I'd love to see it integrated into MeFi, simply because I'd be very interested in checking in from time to time to see what certain posters are viewing these days. We all kinda get to know each other over time, and there's an unusually high percentage of very perverted people on this site. (Forgive, please, if this has been requested before.)
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:30 PM on April 28, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

"Cat Maiden Upskirts: The Meow-Mix Mix"
posted by orthogonality at 6:42 PM on April 28, 2007

You do realize your profile page has a freeform text field, right? Because you can just put your booklist there now, if you want.
posted by Rhomboid at 6:49 PM on April 28, 2007

Of the whopping three post on my blog, two are "Books/Comics I've Read" lists - well, books and comics I've remembered to add. Feel free to check them out!

*Pastes Adsense code into source, begins planning retirement, rubs palms together, cackles wildly*
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:29 PM on April 28, 2007

OMFG, I would love a BookFilter that was integrated into MeFi proper. PLEASE DO THIS. This is one of the few communities on the internet whose members are both numerous and serious enough to make this work. The feature that jbickers describes would also rock- AskMe is my #1 source for book reccomendations.
posted by gsteff at 12:01 AM on April 29, 2007

What we really need is the MetaFilter External Authentication API, so that anyone can build these toys for the community to enjoy.
posted by chrismear at 12:12 AM on April 29, 2007 [2 favorites has favorites]

I know this is the kind of thing that when it gets started there's no real good place to call halt, but I too would love to see something along those lines here.

The user base here is very literate and the book recommendation threads on askmetafilter are pretty strong. Just like askmetafilter is superior to Yahoo Answers because of the user base, a book filter here would have a similar advantage.

Well, that's assuming there is a similar interest level like there was for askmetafilter.

You got my vote.
posted by BigSky at 12:32 AM on April 29, 2007

Following up on delmoi's broadening of the request to encompass a reviews.metafilter.com, that could also be a repository for travel/restaurant information that's so frequently sought on AskMe.
posted by Doofus Magoo at 3:32 AM on April 29, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

yup-- reviews.metafilter.com -- for media, travel, products, etc....
posted by amberglow at 10:45 AM on April 29, 2007

This all sounds good. I would certainly appreciate the above mentioned kinda features.
posted by ClanvidHorse at 12:55 PM on April 29, 2007

Filters I Would Like:

- Review
- Travel
- Chat
- Event (essentially for non-web Projects: plays, concerts, shows, etc.)
- Deal (tagline: we have cameras)

kthxmatbi
posted by Rock Steady at 1:35 PM on April 29, 2007

I am unconvinced that reviews.metafilter.com would work-- I don't see that the community here is big enough to sustain restaurant and travel reviews. Am open to being argued with/proven wrong about this.

Books, OTOH, I think would work, and be awesome.
posted by ibmcginty at 4:50 PM on April 29, 2007

There's a difference between a review filter and sharing lists of favorite media. I don't have any strong feelings one way or the other about reviews.

What I think is a good idea, if there is enough community interest to ensure participation, is profiles having listings of favorites. It would be a little like Library Thing except the focus is on the discussions in metafilter and askmetafilter. If someone's comments interest you, then you could look at what they are reading, have read, perhaps movies, whatever. I think that's what jbickers is talking about.
posted by BigSky at 6:40 PM on April 29, 2007

Hmmm.

The BlueOrganizer extension is growing in popularity. If not them, someone will create a product where that sort of functionality will become a common element in many people's browsers. The rss feed off of that to the profile page would pretty much do it.

You couldn't have conversations about anything, but if you were interested in what people had read, or what CDs they wanted to buy, there wouldn't be anything more to it.

I don't know if this is the kind of site where people would invest the time to work on their profile pages like that. It seems like something people would be more likely to put on a blog or a myspace page. We'll see.
posted by BigSky at 9:49 PM on April 29, 2007

Um, has someone gone and made that Librarything group yet?
posted by roll truck roll at 11:42 PM on April 29, 2007

Metafilter's own Metacritic. That would be great if there was some way to control "Your Favorite Band/Book/Movie Sucks" noise.
posted by yeti at 7:01 AM on April 30, 2007

I think books.metafilter would be interesting if it worked like ask or metafilter with posts consisting of reviews, discussions, or people seeking recommendations.

If it were to exist though, I would hope it would be moderated so things like "Kilgore Trout sucks" would be removed but "I don't like Kilgore Trouts novels because they are too whimsical" would stay.

It might be slightly more useful, more likely to bring in other mefites if it was something like media.meta and consisted of reviews, discussion and recommendation requests in music, moves, and books.
posted by drezdn at 8:57 AM on April 30, 2007

Um, has someone gone and made that Librarything group yet?

Yup.
posted by jbickers at 11:24 AM on April 30, 2007

I'm in on the librarything group. They do the book site thing pretty well, so unless a within-Metafilter feature would do a better job, I'm inclined to let LT handle my books management. Now, a insider's city guide or reviews, that might be nice, especially since we're so spread out geographically and so many of the AskMe questions/answers could fit under that umbrella, and the only other city guide type sites I know that have decent information -like tripadvisor- are written by visitors and tourists rather than people who live there. MetaPlaceRaves or whatever would be great. Or music, I'm hopeless at finding new music.
posted by tula at 12:26 PM on April 30, 2007