The Transition Movement discussion

This topic contains the latest posts by the Group Owner and others, on the New Group Format.

The prior topic contains the posts concerning the exploratory phase of the format change.

Today's date inaugurates the official format change, though I am still struggling to find the optimum way for Group members to interact with this new format.

So in this comment I'm going to try to lay out how I envision the group to now work.

1. The books of interest are on the Bookshelf. I think that any member can add books to this. There are many already defined (by me) shelves for books to be placed on. Other shelves can of course be created, I'm not sure by who.

2. If you go to the Bookshelf, you will see the books already there. These can be ordered by clicking on various column headings. Of course you can also look at a subset of the books by clicking on a shelf name on the left.

3. All books have a "view activity" at the right hand edge of the book's info. If you click on this link, you will see a list of all Group members who have done anything with the book. If a member has reviewed the book, the review will be accessible. If a member has rated the book, the rating will be shown. And if a member has the book on their "to-read" shelf, that too is shown.

Also, if there is a Group discussion about the book, that will be shown. But note that if one tries to initiate a Group Discussion in a certain way, there can be a Discussion shown for the book which is obviously incorrect, since it will be for a different book. This is surely a bug/design flaw in the site's software.

4. So, if there is no Group discussion about the book (or an incorrect one, see above), and you would like to start one, I think this is only way I know of to start one correctly.

1. Go back to the main Transition page, and click on the Discussions: Other Books folder.
2. A list of the topics (ie, other book discussions) will be displayed.
3. In the upper right corner there is a small "new topic" link. Click on this. This takes you to a "Post a New Discussion Topic" page.
4. Type in the name of the book in the topic box.
5. Then type in the book name again in the "This topic is about" box.
6. Make sure the "folder" box shows "Discussions: Other books".
7. Important You must now add some sort of text in the comment box. This can be edited later so don't worry too much about what you put in right now. You might, for example, post something like "I'm interested in reading this with someone else" or "I would to discuss this books with others" ... whatever.
8. Finally, click the "Post" button at the bottom of the New Discussion page.

If you now go back to the book on the Bookshelf, and click View Activity for the book, the new discussion shoud be shown.

UNFORTUNATELY (AND THIS SURELY SHOWS THAT I HAVE NO IDEA OF HOW TO DO ANY OF THIS), UNDER THE HEADING "GROUP DISCUSSIONS ABOUT THIS BOOK" will be shown not only the discussion you have started about the book, but all other discussions started in the folder "Discussions: Other books".

6. SO does this mean that the only way to organize discussions (even a single one) about a book is to make a NEW FOLDER for that single book? I don't know, It sure would help if the site gave some guidance on how these Groups were envisioned to work. Or maybe it would help more if I weren't so stupid.

It would be great if someone could clue me in about this. But I can't figure out even how to let other group members know that I've posted any if this stuff, other than a message to everyone in the group.

I really wish someone would just take over the group, but I doubt that will happen.

Hi Ted,

I am so sorry that all of this stuff is such a burden for you, and it sounds really demanding.

To be honest, I only take part in groups that are very easy and very simple to use. I really have to go with the cliché "Keep it simple stupid". Real life is quite a chore for me at the moment, and I'm having to paddle hard to keep nose above water. When it comes to online groups, I only have time to take part in things that are easy and straightforward. I have actually dropped out of most of the (few) groups I belonged to.

Sorry not to be more helpful..... I hope very much that someone else can give you a hand :O)

I'll try setting up a discussion for the one I've read, Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior, just to see if I can. I did this one other time for another group (and I set up new topics every time I have to get the Goodreads Librarians to correct a typo in a quote, which happens to me all the time!) Let's see, now; name of the book, and put it in the folder called Discussions: Other books....

Done! :)

Jan wrote: "Done! :)"

Caroline wrote: "Hi Ted,

I am so sorry that all of this stuff is such a burden for you, and it sounds really demanding.

To be honest, I only take part in groups that are very easy and very simple to use. I real..."

Caroline, my only "complaint" is that I can't seem to get the hang of how groups really work, the easy way to do things, etc. I'm in a couple groups that have large numbers of members, many of them quite active, with the main moderator super-efficient at doing things. They just know a lot more than I do, and I'm not aware of documents that are available on the site that tell all the things I don't know.

I was certainly trying to make this one easy to use but probably haven't been able to yet.

At any rate, Jan has been able to get a discussion set up (YAY JAN!) so I'm very happy about that.

You totally have my sympathy Ted - I guess it is more on flickr that I have tried to tussle with the complexities of how things work (or don't work), and I know it can be maddening. Basically I'm just apologising for not being able to be more supportive at the moment :O)