I have started taking the steps today to remove myself from Goodreads, as it is owned by Jeff Bezos. Instead, I have joined The StoryGraph, a black-owned alternative that works very much the same way as Goodreads, except it distances itself from Amazon products, and it is much more user-friendly.
Quote: "The StoryGraph is a social cataloguing web platform for books, serving as a competitor of Goodreads (an Amazon-owned social cataloguing platform). The StoryGraph received awareness after Book Riot covered the platform's assets, including more personalized recommendations for readers, customized ratings options (including half-star and quarter-star ratings), and its non-affiliation with Amazon. The StoryGraph uses a freemium model, with some features only available in the paid subscription plan."
"In January 2024, the app was so popular that the large number of new signups caused their servers to crash. It was back up and running within a few hours."
Should you choose to sign up at The Storygraph, the site offers the ability to transfer all your previous data by exporting it from Goodreads and importing it to your new Storygraph account - including all your previous reviews!
I have done so, and even though they asked you to give it 48 hours, it was finished integrating most my information in less than 30 minutes. I have no problem with adding the rest of it manually; the import function either way decreases the amount of work significantly.
This also means that I'm going to have to replace all my IG story highlights to change the links from Goodreads reviews to StoryGraph reviews, but it's going to be worth it in the long-run. I'm also going to message the friends I have on Goodreads and let them know that I am switching platforms, and I will give them a couple of days to respond before I finally delete my account entirely.
So, if anyone wants to join me there from now on, here is my profile.
🤘🏻 OJTheViking - 2024 🤘🏻
