[justinberding]

Totally get the sentiment, but also felt like a membership wall was required for building out a platform that is primarily social in nature. Would be interesting to see what anonymous features we can provide down the road.

[pessimizer]

I suspect the anonymous features are how you get more road. I assume that 99% of people, even with an interest in an alternative to Goodreads and Librarything, are going to bounce when faced with registration, and since they haven't seen anything, won't remember anything.

If you're going to demand registration, I think you have to make a good value proposition off the bat. Probably in the form of a specific practical way the site can be used as an application, with the social thing as a bonus. Right now it looks like a site that after I spend a lot of time entering my books into for the dubious benefit of seeing a picture of them on a virtual bookshelf, will be a ghost town abandoned within a year.

Maybe make the database tools very general and flexible, with easy exports and reports, and push that first? I think of Goodreads, Librarything, and for a slightly leftfield comparison Boardgamegeek, as database-first sites that build community on the fact that they provide free, specialized, and sometimes publicly accessible databases to hobbyists.

[kevmo]

I think people are going to be more motivated to join by being exposed to the content. As is, you're just giving away your contact info to someone who might be hitting your inbox 3 times a day.