The WSJ Online does the LibraryThing
A big feature release is coming soon. Until then, sorry for covering all these press mentions, but they're starting to snowball, I hope.
The Wall Street Journal's Online Edition just did a long, sympathetic article on LibraryThing, "Social Networking for Bookworms" by Aaron Rutkoff. It's public-access for thirty days via that URL.
Not to lick the hand that feeds me, but Rutkoff did an excellent descriptive and analytical job, covering a lot of the site and getting past some of the entertaining canards—"it's about who has the biggest library!" and "it's about dating!"—to what's really going on. The nod to the Long Tail was also nice—just what you'd expect from the WSJ.
I'm also learning to restrain my big mouth, avoid controversy and stay "on message."* I do want to say, however, that the article plays up tags more than I'd want. In the interview as always I try not to claim too much for them. Yes, I'll show out where tags can help over formal, professionally-determined classification, but I make of point of noting that tags don't solve everything and, ideally, they support each other. This is, however, a subtle and not very interesting point. So it tends to get lost and, at least in some eyes, I end up looking like a tag-drunk Web 2.0 twit. That's at least 1/3 wrong.
Oh, and Abby has a last name! As for the two nameless programmers, their identities will shortly be revealed.
*I did, however, swear unintentionally during the interview. The reporter was nice enough not to quote me or to refer to me as "Tim Spalding, an exceptionally foul-mouthed programmer and bibliophile, hostile to subject tags, librarians and apple pie, who runs a dating site."
The Wall Street Journal's Online Edition just did a long, sympathetic article on LibraryThing, "Social Networking for Bookworms" by Aaron Rutkoff. It's public-access for thirty days via that URL.
Not to lick the hand that feeds me, but Rutkoff did an excellent descriptive and analytical job, covering a lot of the site and getting past some of the entertaining canards—"it's about who has the biggest library!" and "it's about dating!"—to what's really going on. The nod to the Long Tail was also nice—just what you'd expect from the WSJ.
I'm also learning to restrain my big mouth, avoid controversy and stay "on message."* I do want to say, however, that the article plays up tags more than I'd want. In the interview as always I try not to claim too much for them. Yes, I'll show out where tags can help over formal, professionally-determined classification, but I make of point of noting that tags don't solve everything and, ideally, they support each other. This is, however, a subtle and not very interesting point. So it tends to get lost and, at least in some eyes, I end up looking like a tag-drunk Web 2.0 twit. That's at least 1/3 wrong.
Oh, and Abby has a last name! As for the two nameless programmers, their identities will shortly be revealed.
*I did, however, swear unintentionally during the interview. The reporter was nice enough not to quote me or to refer to me as "Tim Spalding, an exceptionally foul-mouthed programmer and bibliophile, hostile to subject tags, librarians and apple pie, who runs a dating site."
posted by Tim at 1:03 AM
11 Comments:
Oh, Tim - and here we all loved you for being a profane match-making programmer with a weird book fetish!!! ;)
- Congratulations on the good press! The rate seems to be picking up - as also the quality and prestige involved. I'm glad. You all deserve it.
Incidental thanks for the 'similarly tagged' authors feature: one of those things others just can't match.
Will look forward to announcements....
I should say, too, how nice it was to read something with the also-increasing accuracy you mentioned. The tag-and-official classifications issue IS interesting, but I can imagine how it might seem fairly peripheral on an early acquaintance with the site. :)
Congrats, Tim! I just stumbled across the WSJ article before checking the LT blog this morning - what a good way to wake up! A very good article indeed.
- Jeremy (jbd1)
It's a very positive article that will hopefully develop positive interest. The misspelling of 'zeitgeist' and glossing over Abby's last name was kind of irritating.
Congratulations on the WSJ article - it's one of the best I've seen.
"A big feature release is coming soon."
I've been wondering about this: "Saturday June 24, 2:30pm (Eastern). I'm improving this feature today. Thank you for your patience."
Any connection?
(P.S. Whatever you're doing, it hasn't interfered with my ability to add/change cover photos.)
I thought the article was great, good advertising, Congrats,
Kate.
I found your website through the WSJ article. Congrats!
JLP
PS - I'm going to mention your site to my readers today.
Well deserved coverage Tim. Congratulations and look forward to see the new enhancments.
Just wanted to add a congrats - i will be forwarding the article to some friends, who will hopefully 'see the biblio-light'.
ps: the slowdown on the site due to extra traffic hasn't been too bad, at least for this user
Today's bookslut.com mentions the WSJ profile of LT, calling it "the MySpace for people who are over 16 and can spell".
very glad to have found this site due to the wsj article.
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