All About Books discussion

Shirley wrote: "Evelyn wrote: "Can I ask that we go back to linking the title of the book instead of the cover in our posts? I am only on an iPad and so covers show up as blurry little rectangles. If I enlarge t..."

I've noticed this too but nearly ninety percent, the person who has posted the images has also written the title as well.

I have an issue linking the title to the book on Good reads if I use my Android app. I hope it's OK if I just write the title in this case. If I'm at a PC then I will of course create a proper link.

What happens when you try to link it Ellie? Just curious. Occasionally that happens on my Android phone too (especially when the page won't fully load). But luckily for me it usually works.

Ellie wrote: "I have an issue linking the title to the book on Good reads if I use my Android app. I hope it's OK if I just write the title in this case. If I'm at a PC then I will of course create a proper link."

No problem at all Ellie, in this case we still see the book you are reading and can search for it ourselves. The problem lies much more with people just linking the cover, in which case people on the app have no way of knowing the title at all.

Self-promotion here

Are we doing a bookmark swap again this year?
And when I ask this question it really means I want a swap and am fully prepared to stamp my feet, and hold my breathe until I get one. ;)

@amber lol:)

Bette BookAddict wrote: "@amber lol:)"

:D

amber wrote: "Are we doing a bookmark swap again this year?
And when I ask this question it really means I want a swap and am fully prepared to stamp my feet, and hold my breathe until I get one. ;)"

Well, we couldn't have that, could we now! ;) Shirley, I believe you are being black-mailed. It's a downward spiral from here.

Another self-promotion here

This is the second one today - a different one from my post comment 558.

Jenny wrote: "amber wrote: "Are we doing a bookmark swap again this year?
And when I ask this question it really means I want a swap and am fully prepared to stamp my feet, and hold my breathe until I get one. ..."

Well it would be a clever way to be rid of me Rumpelstiltskin style. ;)
Although looking at Wikipedia I'm not sure if that variation is used in Germany, or if it's a later change.

Plus I think I'm blackmailing Laura because she set it up last year. :)

What is a bookmark swap

It's a super awesome Christmas event where AABers send each other bookmarks.

amber wrote: "It's a super awesome Christmas event where AABers send each other bookmarks."

Any kind? Like ones I pick up at the local library or do people go all out and handcraft a masterpiece to exchange?

Not really either of those things. A couple of people did make theirs I believe, but most people bought theirs.

amber good point! I confused it with our recommendation swap there for a second.
Well Laura: over to you ;) (I am inclined to yell 'hell yes, lets do that again', but that would kill the suspense for you amber ;))

Loving the Rumpelstilzchen image in my head!

@Jean, thanks, I think it has been taken care of already. Was it the same member though Jean?

Yes, thanks, it has now. Two different "members" so I went to bed last night feeling very grumpy. Both were by people who had joined the group, plus three or four other groups, with their first (only?) posting being to push their own book. Don't they realise how sad this makes them look?!

Am I the only reader who gets "Rumpelstiltskin" and "Rip Van Winkle" mixed up?

amber wrote: "Jenny wrote: "amber wrote: "Are we doing a bookmark swap again this year?
And when I ask this question it really means I want a swap and am fully prepared to stamp my feet, and hold my breathe unt..."

Ha ha, yes I believe it was Laura! I guess we could do another, depending on how much interest there is.

Jenny wrote: "amber good point! I confused it with our recommendation swap there for a second.
Well Laura: over to you ;) (I am inclined to yell 'hell yes, lets do that again', but that would kill the suspense f..."

Here I am. We can definitly do it once again. I'll set it up by the end of October to see who's interested

LauraT wrote: "Jenny wrote: "amber good point! I confused it with our recommendation swap there for a second.
Well Laura: over to you ;) (I am inclined to yell 'hell yes, lets do that again', but that would kill ..."

YAY!

Jenny wrote: "amber good point! I confused it with our recommendation swap there for a second.
Well Laura: over to you ;) (I am inclined to yell 'hell yes, lets do that again', but that would kill the suspense f..."

Jenny I'd started to think maybe you just remembered that Shirley was my sender last time and that I was missing the joke. :)

Jean wrote: "Yes, thanks, it has now. Two different "members" so I went to bed last night feeling very grumpy. Both were by people who had joined the group, plus three or four other groups, with their first (on..."

Jean I've never mixed them up because in my house Rumpelstiltskin came with a long feminist lecture on the stupidity of any girl who would marry a man who threatened to kill her if she didn't do something a few pages before the proposal. The ending of Rumpel in the book I had as a kid had him stamping his foot into the ground until something happened, but I can't remember if it was the one where he makes a big cavern and falls into it never to be seen again, or the one where his foot gets stuck and he pulls himself in two trying to pull free.

I REALLY REALLY REALLY WANT TO READ a book on "elements" (fire, water, air, earth)I usually read science fictions, murder mysteries and political thrillers so getting a good fantasy novel which is interesting and at the same time LOGICAL and hence persuasive gets totally tough for me.
I would strongly appreciate any good recommendations from you guys. Thankyou :)

Hi Mods. Lots of self promotion going on this morning on multiple threads. I referred the poster nicely to the rules and offered some advice regarding where better to promote his work but unfortunately this seemed to be completely ignored and the poster has since posted on further threads.

I have deleted my replies and look forward to you deleting the threads!

Is there a way to take away the group from the featured groups? All this self promotion started with it. Perhaps contacting a moderator of the feedback group?

dely wrote: "Is there a way to take away the group from the featured groups? All this self promotion started with it. Perhaps contacting a moderator of the feedback group?"

Hi dely, we are looking into this, hopefully we will get this sorted soon.

Heather wrote: "Hi Mods. Lots of self promotion going on this morning on multiple threads. I referred the poster nicely to the rules and offered some advice regarding where better to promote his work but unfortuna..."

all done, Heather

Thanks very much! Was a bit frustrating this morning especially when I tried to explain as the promoter seemed genuine in being new to goodreads.

Shirley wrote: "dely wrote: "Is there a way to take away the group from the featured groups? All this self promotion started with it. Perhaps contacting a moderator of the feedback group?"

Hi dely, we are looking..."

Thanks ;)
I have deleted my previous message, when I was talking with the self-promoter; it hadn't anymore sense to leave it there.

Shirley wrote: "dely wrote: "Is there a way to take away the group from the featured groups? All this self promotion started with it. Perhaps contacting a moderator of the feedback group?"

Hi dely, we are looking..."

Is the upside of being a Featured Group evident in the number of new members we have posting in our normal threads? I can count as least six new people joining in on various discussions. It's hard to decide, isn't it? Do the self-promoters warrant losing all those good new AABers?

Bette BookAddict wrote: "Is the upside of being a Featured Group evident in the number of new members we have posting in our normal threads? I can count as least six new people joining in on various discussions. It's hard to decide, isn't it? Do the self-promoters warrant losing all those good new AABers? "

I don't know if you are asking me or Shirley :/
However, yours is a good point. This morning that member has written the same thing at least 4 or 5 times, it was really annoying, so I didn't think about what you pointed out.
In other groups there are folders for self-promotion but it also happens that a new author doesn't look into them and doesn't read the rules so they post everywhere. I really don't know how to avoid self-promotion, it isn't easy.

I thought I'd let everyone know they have finally changed the featured groups. They usually do it every week or two, but for some reason this time the same groups were up for over a month.

amber wrote: "I thought I'd let everyone know they have finally changed the featured groups. They usually do it every week or two, but for some reason this time the same groups were up for over a month."

Thanks for the news! Hopefully the self-promotions now stop or at least decrease.

Bette you're in the Aussie Readers group right? There're at the top of the list now. You'll have to tell us if it has the same effect over there.

amber wrote: "I thought I'd let everyone know they have finally changed the featured groups. They usually do it every week or two, but for some reason this time the same groups were up for over a month."

Hahaha! We were still being featured when I looked about an hour ago.

I posted in the thread for FGs a couple of days ago asking if they were ever going to change the groups because the same ones had been up for over a month. Maybe the person who's in charge of them saw it and changed them. I know when my other group was featured it was only up for a short before they changed to a new set of groups. This is the longest the FGs have gone without changing since I've been following them.

dely wrote: "Bette BookAddict wrote: "Is the upside of being a Featured Group evident in the number of new members we have posting in our normal threads? I can count as least six new people joining in on variou..."

Dely, I think I was just making an observation. I totally get the constant annoyance that self-promoters cause in our group:)

I've been thinking about the worry Jenny mentioned about having a lot of group members leading to people voting for BOTMs and not taking part in the discussion. One of my other groups has a rule that for your vote to count you must either have X many group comments or have taken part in the current book's discussion. AAB might want to think about having number of comments rule. Because we have visible voting it wouldn't be hard to check that the winning book was voted for by people who take part in the group. From what I've seen over the years most people follow the rule and don't vote until they have enough comments. You would only have to check the votes for the winning book and maybe the second runner up, so it shouldn't be too time consuming for a mod. Plus most of the people voting are people you would know on sight. If Jean, Bette, and dely voted for a book you wouldn't have to check to know they qualify to vote.

amber wrote: "I've been thinking about the worry Jenny mentioned about having a lot of group members leading to people voting for BOTMs and not taking part in the discussion. One of my other groups has a rule th..."

That's a good point, amber, I will see what the other mods think.

:)

Shirley wrote: "amber wrote: "I've been thinking about the worry Jenny mentioned about having a lot of group members leading to people voting for BOTMs and not taking part in the discussion. One of my other groups..."

Could be a good idea

One way to minimise self-promotion is to vet new members, rather than let them be added automatically. Get them to write why they want to join. I am a member of a group which does that, and although it felt a bit strange to have to apply to join, as it were, I've never seen any self-promotion there. The people who join all seem to be genuine about wanting to read and talk about reading. And it makes it feel a bit more personal if you've applied and been accepted into a group.

Maybe a way to get more members who are serious readers wanting to discuss books is to make the group description and tags more specific. Normally I do more specific searches, but this group had never come up. I I found this group through the 'featured groups' thing, and it was hard to tell what sort of group it was, because the description is so broad. In theory, most groups consist of people who like books and like chatting about them. If the group has a focus on literary fiction and classics (which it seems to) maybe it's good to say it. Then you will attract the people who also like those books.

amber wrote: "I've been thinking about the worry Jenny mentioned about having a lot of group members leading to people voting for BOTMs and not taking part in the discussion. One of my other groups has a rule th..."

That's me always 'chat, chat, chat', lol.

And, amber, your idea is great. We have that rule for taking part in the Recommendation Swap so why not implement it for the BOTM as well?

Gail wrote: "One way to minimise self-promotion is to vet new members, rather than let them be added automatically. Get them to write why they want to join. I am a member of a group which does that, and althoug..."

That's also an interesting point.

Shirley wrote: That's also an interesting point.

Personally, I think Private Groups come across as too selective. AAB as a Private is not really the type of group that we are; anyone is welcome here, not matter what genre you read, how you read etc. Our group description says: "[...]we strongly believe that reading is not just something we do alone, but something that can unite people of different kinds, all over the world!'

If we had a certain genre as a criteria, as readers we would isolate ourselves from book suggestions of other members. Just think how many books outside our normal reading type we all add to our TBRs: book ideas picked up from members who read fantasy when we might read crime, for example.

Maybe we need to take heed of the Groucho Marx comment: "I'd never join a group that accepted me as a member." LOL

AAB is my Home Group as well; the place to come to bookchat, learn, give book advice, learn about book ideas from other members. And chat; I mustn't forget forget, chat.

I wouldn't join any group which is private; it just reeks to me of judgmental/privileged and being sized up to see if I'm worthy enough to be allowed in.

As for BOTM voting, I often vote or suggest a book which I have read, learned from and really enjoyed and which I think other members will find the book equally worthwhile.

I agree with Bette, and would ask the mods to please not make this a private group, with all that implies, unless it becomes a majority view. I for one would not have joined, whereas in fact I joined on the very first day, as many of us did, and have viewed it as my home group ever since. (Have just removed a couple of superlatives so as not to sound too obsequious here :D )

Vetting new members is not the same as being a private group, is it? Or do the two always go together? The one I joined is a private one, so I don't actually know if it's possible to vet without being private.

But I'm not suggesting this group do it - just an observation that vetting seems to minimise self-promotion, so it is always an option if the self-promotion gets really bothersome or uncontrollable. As I said, it did feel weird when I had to apply to join that group - I wasn't sure if I'd be accepted, and I wondered if it would be snobby or exclusive, which I wouldn't like. It actually turned out to be a great group, and I was very glad I applied to join, but I can see how having to apply can have its downsides as well as its upsides, and would put some people off.

Oddly, the private aspect didn't bother me at all - I quite like privacy online, so I liked that aspect of it. It was the applying that got me slightly nervous! And of course, as it was private, I couldn't see the threads, so couldn't get a sense of what the interaction was like. I just figured I had nothing to lose - if they rejected me, I was in the same position I was in before, and if they accepted me, I would either like it and stay, or dislike it and leave.

Regarding genre, I think you can give a sense of what sort of books your group likes without being exclusive about it, but again, my comments regarding that were an observation, rather than a recommendation, as people were saying they wanted to attract people who would join in and talk about books. Sometimes more detail can make it seem more personal. But of course a potential member can see what the group reads are anyway.

Gail, I think you do need to be a private group to vet new members. I'm not sure if it's something we want to do, but it's always good to look at other options available.