We are a UK based instance of #BookWyrm - a social network for tracking your reading, talking about #books, writing reviews, and discovering what to read next. Anyone is welcome to join us.
Rambling Readers is back up and running. We believe the previous issue with manually adding new books and importing books from external databases via search results has been fixed. Please let us know if you continue to have problems.
@ramblingreaders The problem with that error is worse than I thought. Now I can't even manually add a book any more. I get the same generic error each time I try. Any news about it?
@gisiger for info, I have raised an issue here: https://github.com/bookwyrm-social/bookwyrm/issues/3351
Apologies for the inconvenience. I try to delay upgrading in the hope that any bugs like this have been ironed out. But it had been 3 months since I last upgraded so I needed to take the plunge.
@gisiger The problem with manually adding books or importing them via the external database search results should now be fixed. Please let me know if you continue to experience any issues.
@ramblingreaders I tried to import a book from OpenLibrary and two other Bookwyrm instances and I always got this generic error message:
Server Error. Something went wrong! Sorry about that. Any idea why?
@gisiger it is possible that it's a bug introduced with the latest version of BookWyrm. I will make some enquiries whether others are having this issue. I was able to reproduce it with a book I tried to import from a random search.
Rambling Readers is back up and running after being upgraded to the latest version as well as completion of various server admin tasks. Apologies for the rather longer downtime than anticipated. This was due to a required change to a web server configuration file that needed some additional tweaking for our setup.
The Rambling Readers site will be unavailable today from 16:00 BST (15:00 GMT) for up to 60 minutes. This is to enable an upgrade to the latest version of BookWyrm and other system maintenance tasks.
@fastfinge sometimes this is caused by errors in the export from Goodreads. However, note that #BookWyrm does not have access to databases held by publishers and ISBN agencies. They are proprietary data and not open. #BookWyrm is therefore reliant on some open book databases, such as Open Library, and users adding and updating book information.
@fastfinge You can put as little or as much information as you want when adding a book, there's no requirement to be comprehensive. Someone else may come along later and add more.
@fastfinge a book is imported into another instance database if initiated by a user, either through the import option available in search results or via the main import function. Databases are not synchronized across instances.
@fastfinge Books across instances are visible in search and can be imported. It would not be practical or desirable to have a single database as that would massively limit the ability to set up and run an instance, requiring substantial storage space. Plus instances want to specialise, like a specific language or topic.
#Bookwyrm has a data quality problem. Specifically: duplication. Not just of authors, but of the books themselves. Most of the books in this screenshot should be editions/versions of the same book. This is not an uncommon occurrence.
@kieranmcguire there isn't a single Bookwyrm database, so this will be a per instance issue. You could contact your instance admin to see if they can help. We would fix this directly in the database if made aware.
@pwaring thanks for the heads-up. We are our own fiscal host on the Open Collective platform so not reliant on the Open Collective Foundation or any other fiscal host. So luckily this will have no impact on us.
OK, so I want a nice book database for cataloguing my provate book collection and chose #bookwyrm. It's nice and available on #yunohost, but it's not under a free license - its "anti-capitalist license" excludes military and law enforcement and hence doesn't allow everyone to use it as a free license should.
@agger@fritjof@kzxpr@fsfe@bookwyrm are you looking to set up a private instance of #Bookwyrm then? That license relates to running an instance, not being a user of an instance.
Hey team. Where’s #BookMastodon at? Looking for the #booklover and people into self improvement really fast. Anyone have any suggestions for anyone into this phase of their life/career? Taking all suggestions. #books #bookstodon
Goodreads is horrible for readers and books. The technical platform is very badly maintained with bugs in the extreme. Amazon mine user data for nefarious purposes, for example, in building concentration camps (ICE).
I recommend anyone who's interested in keeping track of their books in a social way (if one wants; one can also use the platform so that nobody else can see your activity) to use Bookwyrm (https://bookwyrm.social), which is completely open-source and actively maintained by very kind people—you can host your own #Bookwyrm instance, which is BTW built on ActivePub—to whom I donate money to keep the site rolling; no ads, no tracking.
@weirdwriter the current #BookWyrm release is 0.6.6. v0.7.1 is pre release and has had problems and the developers have advised not to upgrade yet. Although some instances have anyway.
I wish I could boost #Bookwyrm posts on Mastodon. I know I can reply to them, but I’d just be repeating the “advertisement” of the original post in my reply: that I started or finished a particular book.
1/ A request: If you have read one of my #folklore books and are on #BookWyrm , would you consider leaving a review?
I have a few reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, but since Mastodon is my main social media platform these days, I'd like to embrace the #Fediverse spirit.
