Play Book Tag discussion
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Keeping the team FUN in Poll Tally!
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Can I just say something about those *(% "moving" tags! Eg I KNEW this book had the "xxx" tag but damned if I can find it again. The book has 158 pages of tags and I had saved pg 57 as having it, but alas it's no longer there. So my teammates divided up the pages to search and helped. Member A took pages 1-25; Member B pgs 26-50; etc. Until someone posted: "Found it! ... pg 98, bottom of 3rd column"
LOVED the teamwork and spirit of "we're in this together'!
Also ... while we seemed to post less and less as the game went on ... I really enjoyed the thread where we posted some of those more entertainingly funny tags.I read little to no science fiction, but I'm gonna have to read something that I can use Karin's "space smut" tag!
Speaking of 'space smut'.....Tien found a series of salacioius Vampire Vikings with hot covers! I never had time to read one, but some of the others did.
There were some awesome finds -- both good awesome and bad awesome.
On the 'moving tags' - those Harry Potter books -- moved by PAGES every few minutes it seemed!
What was most disconcerting with the moving tags was where the book was tagged by 98 people as 'xxx' when you picked the book, was still at 98 people tagging when you started reading the book. When you went back to check the tag before posting the review, no longer 98 tags, but only a mere 22! How was that possible???
Book Concierge wrote: "Also ... while we seemed to post less and less as the game went on ... I really enjoyed the thread where we posted some of those more entertainingly funny tags.I read little to no science fiction..."
I haven't added that yet. I am not adding any new shelves until all game results are done. I stopped shelving books the past few weeks as the reading got more intense.
I loved the team camaraderie and think that was the best part of the game. Jade Dragons really worked/played together and we had a lot of fun. It was an opportunity to get to know some of the PBT members better than I had before.
Yes, moving tags was hard, as were disappearing tags!
One of my things was music in our group--I found a number of musical things and also Tien and I were the main picture finders for the group but many of our members found pictures.
Some of you might have noticed I finally started including song links with a few of my reviews since I was intrigued by learning about them in my books (such as the Grand Canyon Suite, and a Scandinavian dragon song, etc, etc)
Book Concierge wrote: "Can I just say something about those *(% "moving" tags! Eg I KNEW this book had the "xxx" tag but damned if I can find it again. The book has 158 pages of tags and I had saved pg 57 as having it,..."
OMG They drove me nuts all year. It was infuriating. Especially when the book had 100 or (400) pages, and the 1 tag might be at the very end - or not there at all.
The big shifts were likely system glitches. Maybe the small ones too.
Did you notice the big glitch in the Industry Tag? (I think it was during the summer.) One day the whole industry tag list shrunk, so up to 100 books were missing - including some that were there since January. I thought maybe I was just imagining it or remembering wrong, but the next time I searched (prob a few days later), the list was long again!
At the beginning, if I found a tag on the list, I would tag the book too, especially if there were a lot of them. (Later we were cautioned not to.) There were a couple times when I went to find the link, and there were zero tags on the list, even though my tag was still visible on my bookshelf.
The tag shifts at the end drove me nuts. On November 2 I checked the tags on my C Harris books (I had about 6), but I didn't have all my review links copied and pasted yet. The next day when I went to post them, every single one was shifted by at least 1 tag (and several pages). They didn't even all have the same tags. It was freaky.
I will never again vote for a game that requires an exact tag match. (Not that I even voted for this game.)
Oh and the phantom tags! Tags that are shown on the tag list, but when you click to see who tagged it, there were NO USERS shown. Most of the time you couldn't even see who tagged it because it would time out.
When we talked about thinking errors (I think Joy reviewed a book about them), I recognized that I was guilty of "Escalation of Commitment to a Losing Cause." As people began reading faster and faster (and shorter and shorter books), I noticed that the point value of each tag was dropping quickly. I tried to read faster, but with every update my total point score dropped. I think the high was 39, and it quickly got down to the teens. Our team had people who were already stressed out (with surgeries, illness, moves, jobs, etc.), and many just stopped playing. Honestly I felt incredibly stupid to keep playing, but I was too stubborn to quit. (I felt even more stupid for caring about points, because I already have more than I'll ever use!)
So I've been thinking a lot about game designs, and how to make them more cooperative. For instance, many people wisely decided to focus less on points or winning, and they just focused on the personal challenge to read all 51 tags. It might have been cool if the team got bonus points for getting everyone in the team closer to 51 tags. Or if it wasn't a team game, each individual could get bonus points for hitting certain benchmarks - eg. 20 states, 30 states, to 51. That way we would be rewarded for diversifying our reading of (potentially) good books, rather than scramble to read as many short low quality books as possible.
If we were to switch from the US to international reading, perhaps we could designate 12 regions of the world, and people would get bonus points for reading books from all 12 during the year. [I want to read from each continent next year, and break up the big ones so that there are a total of 12 regions.] And perhaps more bonus points for reading 2 of each region.
I set out, in this challenge, to have fun-And I tell you I had such a blast. I got to know PBT members so much more intimately and we had such laughs. I will admit that I am (or so Theresa thinks) The Dragon Goddess of the Big Board and I was the person on our team who watched
what was posted, and where and tried very hard to keep track of the numbers(Steve Kornacki is my imaginary friend, so this worked out perfectly ). Because I am a numbers gal, I naturally picked this up. However, everyone on the team took their strongest attribute out and helped the team in the best way they knew how. Those last couple days were HELL! And a big thank you to my down-under friend Tien for helping us out and taking the final push of numbers. Like Steve, I had to be dragged away, but it was best, I could not have finished up.
@Nancy-We had the same problem with people having personal issues and Covid-19 and If you look at Nicole's spreadsheet you will see that we had team members that left and never came back. No judgement, something happened in their life (One was a nurse who was on the front lines) and a game was not in the stars for them. What kept us going was the friendships that were developing and growing.
A BIG Thank you to Nicole and Anita. I know when this game was in the design stages you could not have imagined the outcome. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. This was also my first ever Team Challenge, and I loved it.
Theresa wrote: "Speaking of 'space smut'.....Tien found a series of salacioius Vampire Vikings with hot covers! I never had time to read one, but some of the others did. "
uh hm, salacious Vampire Viking ANGELS 🤣🤣🤣
And I only managed one because I really don't think I could handle the rest lol
Joanne wrote: "and a big thank you to my down-under friend Tien for helping us out and taking the final push of numbers. Like Steve, I had to be dragged away, but it was best, I could not have finished up."Teamwork 😘 Honestly, you put in so much work into those spreadsheets, Joanne, and keeping the team up to date of what we're up to & where. You & Joy are champs! 🏆🏆🏆
I just thought to say Thank you too, to the leaders of the Purple Sage. Rachel, Anna, Oliver, Nancy - you guys rocked. It was a great and fun challenge to do. Loved our Motto - Heard it Through the Grapevine. We too strengthened friendships and were compassionate to one another. Which is the whole point. Other than reading books of course - lol. Anyway, it was a great ride. Thank you as always to our mods. I wonder what they will come up with next....
Amen to that! I also just wanted to add that they were a bunch of tags that I know I so clearly earned that couldn’t be counted in the challenge. That would have given me more states. I knew I wanted a place to air that. Like for instance reign of gold is so clearly all about mining, but it’s not on the tag. Sailing, I could have use the stylus see which went to library‘s or at 10,000 doors in January, which went to something in Colorado. Maybe the Grand Canyon? Or voyager, which went to Kansas weather instead. I also read Park Avenue summer which is so clearly about industry. I also was shocked that Hamilton the revolution disappeared off the constitution list. So just saying, I like to think I had 39 states. But it’s all in fun. I’m just not the type of person who reads things just for a challenge, so literally all of these were either on my TBR or something I didn’t quite mind, And was perfectly willing to read. I didn’t force myself to do anything, and I really liked that. I probably read about 60 books for the challenge, technically 59, but you can add reign of gold in there. Out of about 100 that I had read. And I think 35 states is an incredibly respectable number to have covered. Again, I thought the challenge was great fun! I liked the sweetness and the chill Ness and the enthusiasm of my purple friends. You all did a great job. Again, the mods tend to pull it out every time. So it will be fun to see what next year holds in store for us. Kind of glad that we’re getting a break From it in the next two months.
@ Amy, like you I did not read any books I did not want to read. And I found some gems that were tagged and had been on the shelf for a long while. Although I did not hit every State, 95% of my books were 3 stars or better
Well we need to tell you that Purple Sage coming out of the box that first week with every single team member reading and posting, taking an immediate big lead absolutely acted as a cattle prod to Jade Dragons! I am not exaggerating! Plus Anna's ability to power through those long series....scared us! It made us all buckle down, strategize, and read hard! It felt like it was forever before we took the lead. And we clung to it, determined not to slip back.We never had 100% team member participation, as Purple Sage did. Some of those participating were steady readers, some peaked at beginning, end or middle. Life and other reading intervened. Tag search was absolutely a group effort, which clearly was a universal necessity. @Amy - the tags that were so obviously missing (that Bert Lahr should have had a Broadway tag) or made no sense...crazy!
As a team, from the beginning we set small goals throughout the competition, and that really helped, especially when pandemic hit. We set up monthly themes...first inspired by all the cowboy romances tagged Rocky Mountains or Westerns which led to setting up February is Cowboy Romance Month....as a thank you to NicoleR for providing us with that tag, knowing how much she loves her cowboy romances. We made sure that the covers had hunky cowboys on front 😁. Even JoAnne read one! I think she is still in recovery.
It rollercoasted from there. We had buddy reads. We set small number gains to reach. We searched and searched for tags. We talked and laughed and shared avatars and images. Co-moderator Karin and Dragon Goddess JoAnne inspired and amused us with music clips and quotes. JoAnne and her invisible friend Steve gave out Jackie Paper awards (from Puff the Magic Dragon) for daily progress. We had a virtual Red Carpet ... or imaginary one really.
I would say that we brought the silly to the game to keep the team inspired.
My personal goal was to read one for each state...and I squeaked that in, barely. So happy about that. My # of books is behind for the year, but thanks to Proust, the number of pages read is far beyond past performance! The challenge brought me awesome reads I never might have found, and I have a whole bunch I never got to now in my TBR.
I thank all for keeping this fun!
I will say I read one book that I really wouldn't have picked up otherwise - it was the first in Katie Ruggle's Rocky Mountain K-9 series. And I liked it so much I ended up reading all 4! And I'll certainly read more of her books in the future.Also helping to do some tag searching, I ended up reading books that looked good to me, but I wouldn't have otherwise picked up. The Gown comes to mind, which I really liked.
And I fully enjoyed my paranormal/urban fiction guilty pleasure when we had the Witches tag. My next door neighbor who follows me here on GR asked me how I could read that many paranormal romances. I tried to explain the Poll Ballot challenge - I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm nuts!
And I think that was the best part of all - we all had this challenge in common, even on opposite teams. Something that was just for us and didn't have anything to do with the IRL election or covid. It was a really nice escape for me this year!
And even though I'm hardly one of our "power readers", even I got to walk the Red Carpet a couple times. It really made my day practicing my pageant wave and trying not to fall off my high heels.
Amy wrote: "Amen to that! I also just wanted to add that they were a bunch of tags that I know I so clearly earned that couldn’t be counted in the challenge. That would have given me more states. I knew I want..."Yes, this happened a lot! Once all of the counting and checking is done and official scores tallied, I plan to go back and shelve all of my game books with the shelf of the game (I did for most of the space ones that had lots of tags already because it was already one of my shelves).
I'm with Karin....once the game is truly over I want to shelve all the books with the tag I used for the game. I got so tired of those tags moving around that I made a folder and filled it with screenshots. I promised my dog, Oliver, I would do everything in my power, and read any piece of crap with the correct tag, to try and make him president of PBT. I knew Karin was in reading overdrive in so many categories that the only way I could get any traction was to hold back books from the very beginning. I probably had about 175 to post in the final days. I took a shower and washed my hair the night before and spent all Tuesday at the computer, still in my pajamas at 5pm. I had a spreadsheet that I updated every time Nicole updated the Google doc with an extra column with my "held" books. My husband asked me if I was recreating the battle of Midway.....
It was lots of fun and I'm glad I had a chance to get to know members of the team better. I know I got way too over-invested and I'm looking forward to a slower pace in 2021, reading things I actually want to read. I also want to get back to reading other members' reviews and commenting.
Really enjoyed this challenge! It was also my first time participating in a team challenge. It has to be one of the most creative challenges I have seen on GR! So, kudos to the mods for thinking it up!Our team had great fun using our individual skills for the good of the team. Overall, I ended up reading more books so far this year than I have ever read before.
Amy wrote: "I’m just not the type of person who reads things just for a challenge, so literally all of these were either on my TBR or something I didn’t quite mind, And was perfectly willing to read. ..."
As much as I tried to do this too, I must admit toward the end of the challenge, I was looking in my e-library to find specific books for high value tags. I tried not to read anything I did not think I would enjoy, though.
If I had to pick one thing to suggest for future challenges, it would be to change the rule about requiring the loading of single user tags. If there are too many pages of tags, they just will not load no matter how often or when you try, and it is a GR system-wide issue.
I loved our team camaraderie and getting to know the team members. It was lots of fun and I hope to participate in more of these type challenges in the future.
I wanted to add public kudos to two more members of Purple Sage. Hilde developed a wonderful group spreadsheet that she updated throughout the game. Doughgirl kept us on track with how many ec points each book read for a tag was worth as the game progressed. I've been updating our group shelf with every book the team read and for what tag since this started. I'm still catching up on the books posted the last day, mainly for my own sense of completion.Purple Sage was a wonderful team to be on and I enjoyed playing the game with all of you.
Yes - Hilde and Doughgirl! Kudos to you both!
Rachel N. wrote: "I've been updating our group shelf with every book the team read and for what tag since this started. ..."No surprise that this was my job over in Jade Dragons, as well! :-) I finished updating our last ones last night.
I want to mention that LibraryCin was not only our librarian, but also co-moderator with Karin and I. Cindy is also the one that organized us initially and the group set up. I didn't have a clue! Huge credit and thanks to Cindy.I don't envy either Team Librarian!
I settled down for a long winter's nap (3 days), but I'm back for a few minutes. (Is anyone else catching up on sleep now that the game and elections are over?) I want to say that I'm really proud of the Purple Sage team, and all the members who pushed themselves to contribute as much as they could. I'm especially appreciative to those who made the process fun for the team, and who kept everyone else going. Also kudos to those who those who came back after some unexpected obstacles. Our team is full of warm and compassionate people and I'm proud to be a part of it.
Did anyone mention Jenk and Ellen? They're among our unsung heroes. They were both strong consistent performers who racked up impressive numbers and jumped in to help others, find tags, add to lists, and to offer encouragement. Jen was especially helpful with a returning member who needed help finding tags.
Everyone knows that Lynda (OM) and Annapi were our heaviest hitters and our driving force. Anna was also our best tag finder by far. Rachel, Amy, BnB and others were really strong in community building, Booknblues with strategy. DG and Hilde with tech. Linda C, Nicole, Cheryl, Charlotte, Nikki, Punxsygal, Joni, Linda, AJ and others really helped the team. Nikki kept reading despite an international move! Sabrina really pushed hard at the end to get her books posted. Thank you everyone!
Am I the only one who has gone to post a review here who started to put [Poll Book...? Okay, I only got as far as the [ . Time to break that habit :)
Karin wrote: "Am I the only one who has gone to post a review here who started to put [Poll Book...? Okay, I only got as far as the [ . Time to break that habit :)"I did that with the first book I posted after the game LOL.
Karin wrote: "Am I the only one who has gone to post a review here who started to put [Poll Book...? Okay, I only got as far as the [ . Time to break that habit :)"I've just been noticing the absence of [Poll Tally] at the start of almost all the threads!
Karin wrote: "Am I the only one who has gone to post a review here who started to put [Poll Book...? Okay, I only got as far as the [ . Time to break that habit :)"Well I posted a Bingo, but I started to add Poll Tally too. 🤣
The Purple People mentioned that we really should have had a more public shout out for Ellen and JenK who were extraordinary above and beyond enthusiasts and readers for our team, and deserve acknowledgement. Along with Lynda, Nancy, and Rachel, and Anna, and Margie, and Fran and Sabrina too, and Hilde, (forgive me if I forgot anyone, everyone contributed....) they really led the movement and kept it going. I am proud of what I contributed, 59 books, but these folks all far surpassed me in an impressive way..... Really everyone on both teams deserves Kudos... Wild ride that was....
We have given many honourary titles to the incredible team we have in Jade Dragons who did many amazing things in the background that might not have been observed by the general public, and it's great to see how Play Book Tag includes so many talented people :) !!
This, and Bingo, were the first challenges I have participated in. I am so wowed by the amount of help and goodwill I got from everyone. I have learned all kinds of new skills. This was so much fun and I'm looking forward to learning what next years challenges will be. The amount of books read by everyone was amazing. To all those who kept track and monitored the game and the 2 teams a great big THANK YOU. You all did a wonderful job!
Cheryl, you were a great contributor too! Glad you liked both challenges!
I'm assuming Readers of the Purple Sage had some pretty entertaining times as well. The fun was what made Poll Tally 'sing' for Jade Dragons, and I think there could be a benefit to the teams sharing some of the team building aspects of the challenge they experienced - successes and failures - frustrations and hilarity. I know many participate in team challenges in other groups. Who knows, maybe some of what our respective teams experienced can lead to better team work in other challenges and groups.
I'm not talking sharing any individual or in depth strategy here. Those are personal to the individuals and the teams IMHO. If you share it that's your choice.
I'll start off and then toss the baton to others - Jade Dragons and Purple Readers.
Somehow I ended up as one of the three moderators for Jade Dragon. We even have a moderator avatar - a three headed dragon! I suspect my lawyerly skills and experience managing boards, rather than my natural tendency to take charge, was the impetus. I knew right off that we needed to make this fun if *I* was going to survive my very first 10 month long team challenge, while spending the first 6 months reading Proust.
Jade Dragons - the name was my suggestion - we had about 6 ideas we voted on and it won. Turned out my instincts for it were good - which was that it would provided wonderful images for our group, a literal treasure trove of vocabulary, images and concepts to play with, and was just a wonderful powerful image. I mean, dragons breath FIRE!
We picked a motto: May Your Reading be Evergreen (Evergreen was another option for team name).
Karin found us a song - Tatu the Reading Dragon sung to Puff the Magic Dragon
Next thing you know, we have personal dragon avators, dragon buddy reads, dragon treasure hunts, even dragon lairs. And then the dragon avatars started showing up in all different guises. You think those you saw with our reviews were all there were? HAH! Not by a long shot!
Almost immediately we found ourselves with a Dragon Goddess of the Big Board and her assistant Steve from MSNBC (and later Thor the Viking), a Dragon Mistress of Avatars, and later a Dragon Wizard, among many others.
And more....