Recently there was kind of a discussion, with one user being a bit mean towards the other regarding the latter posting a link to Amazon.

While I do not agree with how they brought the discussion, I think it would be great to read everyone’s opinion about what should be link, and if linking to specific websites should be forbidden.

For example, we have Open Library, BookWyrm, Inventaire, etc, if you only want to link to a book’s information, and while it is harder to find a replacement to a web site where you can buy books, users can always search for it if they want.

What are your thoughts?

  • @xarvos
    16•3 years ago

    BookWyrm is a secondary source, so I don’t think it’s a good idea. Personally, I’d link to:

    • The book’s website, if there is (which usually just links to amazon)
    • Wikipedia page
    • OpenLibrary

    As for where to buy books, I’ve recently heard of Libreture, which have DRM-free books (see other DRM-free book source), though its database might be lacking because it’s rather new.

    • ghost_laptopOPM
      11•3 years ago

      What do you mean that it’s a secondary source? It crawls data from Inventaire and OL but it also has it’s own database, for example there are books that are present there but not in OL and I think at some point OL will start crawling data from BW, too.

      Wikipedia doesn’t have a lot of information on books if they are not super well known ones, so I don’t think that’s a good idea, but it can work sometimes.

      Having links to Libreture and the other DRM-free options would be awesome, too, maybe we could create a thread with some recommendations and link it to the sidebar.

      • @xarvos
        2•3 years ago

        for example there are books that are present there but not in and I think at some point OL will start crawling data from BW, too.

        I thought it only takes book from OpenLibrary, because the last time I checked the only way to add a book was to add it on OpenLibrary. Maybe I just couldn’t find where to add it directly to BW and/or it has developed much since then.

        • ghost_laptopOPM
          1•3 years ago

          I don’t remember if this was added more or less recently, but yes, it doesn’t have that much metadata as OL yet but I don’t think that matters a lot in this community.