Rob’s
Comments
(group member since Jul 06, 2012)
Rob’s
comments
from the The Sword and Laser group.
Showing 1,981-2,000 of 7,205
Bryan wrote: "Thanks, BTW does the ROBerator ever sleep.. you are sure quick on the draw 😉"I generally sleep between the hours of 9pm and 4am EST.
I also happen to be on the computer right now..so I'm more attentive atm..
Tassie Dave wrote: "Ian wrote: "Can we do a poll for the favorite pick of 2018? Bob!"
That's what this thread is. Sort of.
Letting people choose more than 1 book gives a better view of what the book club enjoyed.
..."
I think it's worth having both a poll and a discussion thread. If not for the thread I wouldn't have spent way too much time at work calculating statistics about my S&L reading history. 😁
Ian wrote: "Can we do a poll for the favorite pick of 2018? Bob!I only read 5 of the picks. Some of them late because I had to wait to get it. Lovecraft Country was the only Sword pick I read.
I only listen t..."
Good idea. Here's the poll: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...
Bryan wrote: "Sword and Laser Bookshelf Stats:Overall: 54/124 43.5% (Might get a book or two more in before years end)
2018: 12/12 100%
2017: 4/12 33%
2016: 5/13 38%
2015: 3/12 25%
2014: 6/13 46%
2013: 8/14 57%
2012: 3/12 25%
2011: 4/12 33%
2010: 3/9 33%%
2009: 1/6 16&
2008: 2/6 33%
2007: 2/3 66%
My Goal is to get to 100% for all years by the end of 2019 maybe 2020..."
This got me curious, so I decided to do my own stats.
For context I started reading with the group in August of 2012. I had lurked a bit before then, but I didn't actively start reading with the group until then. In general I try to read all the main picks, and will read an alt pick if I've already read the main pick.
2007: 3/3 (100%) - Average Rating: 4 stars
2008: 2/6 (33%) - Average Rating: 3.5 stars
2009: 4/6 (67%) - Average Rating: 4.5 stars
2010: 1/9 (11%) - Average Rating: 4 stars
2011: 7/12 (58%) - Average Rating: 4 stars
2012: 10/12 (83%) - Average Rating: 4 stars
2013: 13/14 (93%) - Average Rating: 3.5 stars
2014: 12/13 (92%) - Average Rating: 3.5 stars
2015: 12/12 (100%) - Average Rating: 3.5 stars
2016: 13/13 (100%) - Average Rating: 3 stars
2017: 12/12 (100%) - Average Rating: 3 stars
2018: 12/12 (100%) - Average Rating: 3 stars
2019: 1/1 (100%) - Average Rating: 4 stars
102/125 (82%) - Average Rating: 3.5 stars
So apparently the last 3 years have been down from my average of 3.5 stars. There have been a lot of 2 star reads for me in those years, and this year got me my first ever 1 star (Night's Master) and it was almost my first Lem ever.
Breaking it down by rating I have:
5 Star Reads: 9
4 Star Reads: 46
3 Star Reads: 32
2 Star Reads: 14
1 Star Reads: 1
I'm not interested in getting to 100% completion though. At best I'll add another 10 more books to total, leaving me with 13 unread.
Currently Reading (1): Watership Down
Owned and Unread (7): Anathem, Forever War, Princess Bride, Once & Future King, 100k Kingdoms, Empire State, His Majesty's Dragon
Interested but Don't Own (2): Down & Out in the Magic Kingdom, Shadow & Claw
Last call on filling out the survey. I'll be shutting off responses sometime this weekend (whenever I get around to doing a final pass at the stats).
Tassie Dave wrote: "Rob wrote: "This is what happens when I go to sleep while a vote ends :-D"You snooze, you lose ;-)
I assumed it was the middle of the night for you."
Yeah, it was about 3am here..
I was going to re-purpose the voting thread into an announcement thread, but this works too I guess.This is what happens when I go to sleep while a vote ends :-D
Camille wrote: "Tried to vote for “Ninefox Gambit”. Button didn’t work."You mean on the poll page (https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...) or in the message I sent?
David wrote: "Rob, just tested it with my Chrome browser, I definitely get working links in the Message Preview (whether Goodreads [book] links or actual HTML "a href=" links)."I'll just take it as a sign that it wasnt working because of the bad quotes and I should have investigated BEFORE sending it to 24k people instead of after.
Ben wrote: "As someone who follows the group closely, there wasn't anything in there that I wasn't aware of. I wouldn't mind the email being longer if it included cool things that are easier to miss :)"Im not sure what else I'd highlight. I do have a section for special announcements (like the March Madness stuff), but I think if you follow the goodreads group closely, it's going to be hard to add stuff you're not aware of without overrunning it with links.
Bryan wrote: "First off I would like to say thank you for the monthly email, very happy to see it and love that this will be a thing.Maybe a way to support blurb at the end.. Patron, Tom's Books, etc."
I like that idea. Ill add a link to the Patreon
Tassie Dave wrote: "Rob wrote: "Personally I use the form 20190102 so that it sorts in date order. But then I'm a software engineer..so..yeah."I use that form as well for all my computer files, docs, photos, etc for..."
Lol. I was talking about date formats with someone and they are like normal people don't name files that way, you're just a programmer.
David wrote: "However, I do want to say that I **am** able to open the links in the preview window for the "Broadcast to All Members" message. (Right now, using Firefox, but usually use Chrome) "Hmm. I did it in Chrome. It could be that, or maybe I couldn't click them because they were broken.
David wrote: "Rob, hit me up sometime, I've used HTML and GR-style links in these messages before without any issues (I send out bi-monthly messages for a GR group I'm a moderator of with 4k+), and yes, the emai..."Thanks, but I know how to do HTML already. I think I figured out what happened.
It looks like it's an issue with the double quotes. Half of the links seem to have ” instead of ". It's subtle, but once I popped the draft into an html editor it was immediately apparent.
I created a template in Google Docs first and the copy/pasted. However about half of the links I ended up adding on the fly and just typing the html out by hand. I think those are the links that actually worked.
The Mass Spam interface is TERRIBLE. I hit preview and it looked fine, but I was unable to open any of the links in a new tab to test them.
Oh well. Live and learn. Next month I'll copy/paste the draft into an html editor to make sure they links aren't broken before sending.
Hmm. Mine finally showed up and it appears not all of the links are working for me. :(The html looks right. I'm not sure what happened.
What's worse is the voting link doesn't work.
I think next month I'll do away with the html links, and just have direct links so it doesn't happen again.
Tassie Dave wrote: "Just a suggestion Rob. But in future messages it might be best to use country/continent neutral date formats.Like January 2, 2019 or 2 January, 2019
Written as 1/2/2019 it could be viewed as 1st..."
Good Suggestion. I'll make the change for next month.
Personally I use the form 20190102 so that it sorts in date order. But then I'm a software engineer..so..yeah.
Also, I'm glad someone got the message. I did't get a copy, so I was starting to panic..
I've used it on my other group and I get an email. Of course that group only has 625 people. This one has like 24k..
Yeah, Goodreads doesn't provide any feedback.I'm about to send out the first message soon, so people don't miss out on voting for the January pick, rather than waiting until the vote has ended/a winner has been decided.
People will just have to come back to the site to see the winner after the poll ends.
I think this first message is going to be a bit longer than in general, because I plan to link to this thread.
Part of me wants to create another survey, just to get some feedback on the format for this. lol.
For our January pick we'll be doing a vote. It's a short vote and runs until 11:59PM PST on Sunday December 23rdThe choices are between:
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee
China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...
