Tuesday Thingers

Today's Tuesday Thingers question is:
Why LT?

Why did you choose to open and maintain an LT account? Do you/did you use other online cataloging/social networking sites, like GoodReads or Shelfari? Do you use more than one? Are they different or do they serve different purposes?

My answer:

I started with Shelfari; I forget how I heard about it though. I cataloged some books, friended some random people, and then got bored with it. Since I disliked the interface and there was nothing much to do, I deleted my account. Around the same time I heard about LT at a library conference and decided to check it out. Liked it much better. I also use GoodReads, and I actually think GR compliments LT well. To me, GoodReads is the social site and LibraryThing is the geeky site. My library on GR is smaller and I don't tag as much, because I focus on using GoodReads for keeping in touch with friends- most/all of my GR friends are people I know in real life, not the case with LT where most of my friends are people I've met online. Which is not to say I don't love you LTers too. :-)

I decided to stick with GoodReads because when I created an account and ran my address book against its member list, it turned out that a friend I hadn't talked to in several years was a GR member and I saw an opportunity to get back in touch. Then I found a bunch of other friends on GR as well! Now I input books into GR only when I start reading them, to let my friends there know what I'm reading, but I don't put nearly the effort into that catalog as I do on LT.