We’ve officially made it through a full month of our Open Alpha without any major breakages, always a good sign! As we move into November, here’s what we’ll be focusing on:

Transition to Open Beta

This is largely a shift in terminology from “things will break” to “things might break”, but it’s an important one. “Open Beta” is a much more familiar stage for most people, and reaching it means we’ll feel ready to start promoting the site more intentionally and expanding our reach.

To make that happen, November will be dedicated to bug fixes, performance improvements, and quality-of-life updates across the site.

Donations and Premium Tier

No one loves hearing about a new subscription, but running a site like this takes a lot of time and money. Our goal is to make any paid tier genuinely worth it as something that adds value to your experience and does some good. Here’s what we’re planning for the initial rollout:

• 25% of profits donated to book-related charities

• Paid users nominate and vote on which charity receives the donation each month (or quarter, still TBD)

• Polls: create polls on your feed to get opinions from friends and followers

• Review Updates: reread a book and want to revise your thoughts? You’ll be able to post an updated review that keeps your original intact while showcasing your new one alongside it

And of course, adding a premium tier does not mean we'll forget about the normal, free version of the site. We have tons of features in the pipeline that we'll begin adding once we are sure the core functionality of the site is stabilized.