Hayley’s Comments (group member since Jan 07, 2012)

Hayley’s comments from the The Dusty Bookshelf group.

"Anyone else with reviews or shelves created prior to September 21, 2013 that will be deleted under the revised policy will be sent a notification first and given time to decide what to do."

Anyone who created shelves or reviews before 21st of September 2013 that go against the new/updated policies will, from now on, be notified before deletion so they can choose whether to delete, rename or what.

It won't bring back the already deleted reviews & shelves but they have stated that notifications will now be sent out.

After all the hassle of last year (or was it the year before) I don't blame them for this as long as it's done properly and in line with their rules (after all the updates and amendments they've made). This is not a site for online battles to be made with the recruitment of trolls, the finding and posting of personal information - including people's home addresses, in order to intimidate or just try to get the better of them. This is a site to talk about books and the world around books - any moves to take actions against trolls and bullies is not a bad thing if done properly to prevent innocent people paying for it.

They have stated that they understand they amde a mistake and will start notifying people who's shelves could be deleted with enough time for those people to change the shelves or move them. So that's not a bad thing now :)

From what I can take from the announcement including the updates (sometimes I'm not strong enough to go further down to the comments) it's a case of making sure people review for the sake of a book rather than 'oh the author did/said a bad thing on twitter/whatever so let's mark down' - which I recall happening last year. It talks about authors and reviewers being better educated on the guidelines, better visibility on how to flag concerns to the GR staff and hopefully working better to prevent the sort of harassment that ahs happened on here in the past (cos I'm sure most of us have read of at least one of those incidents :O )

Who reviews a book just to talk about the author's behaviour in a way that isn't book related? Especially if it's negatively impacting the book's rating? It's unnecessary and unwanted in my opinion.
As to the shelf thing - "We are deleting shelves like "author-is-a-jerk", as they don't fit our guiding principle that the book page be about the book." - that sounds a bit OTT as it's your own shelf but can make sense - I'm sure some people ahve terribly named shelves or more public ones that everyone can see.

As for the lack of warning - they have apologised to the few people that did happen to and have said that "Anyone else with reviews or shelves created prior to September 21, 2013 that will be deleted under the revised policy will be sent a notification first and given time to decide what to do."

Honestly, I don't see this as a bad thing overall.

Thanks Jessica :)

It would appear that 'Books from the decade you were born in' is currently in the lead... Let your thoughts be known and vote for which one you want ;)

I've been searching through (read: rearranging) my bookshelf to get ready for next month's read already :D

I'm not sure which scary books I'd give out but I'm thinking of buying second hand ones and dropping them around certain well-visited areas with a note explaining they need a home ;) The cathedral helped me out last time I wanted to disperse books... not sure how they'd feel about this but it's worth a shot... maybe the castle too :D Oh this could be fun!!

As explained by Neil Gaiman

So who thinks this may be a good idea ;D

I think I shall save the rest of the Hamish Macbeth series for later... I'm going to revisit John Wyndham - I have a load of his begging to be read :D

They do have a whole different story in them when you first pick them up, don't they? I bought one of my copies of Count of Monte Cristo and it has a random message on the front page (will dig it up when I get home) and two or three of my books were given as prizes at a school, with name and date and school!

Another good find is when a book has underlinings at points that someone has found important to them, and notes scribbled in pencil in the side - not because it was a school book but just to show what someone else found relevant or important when they were reading it :)

The price of second hand books do help as well ;) There's the South Bank book market that's always a fab trip :) Nowhere near as gorgeous sounding as a book market in Dhaka though :P

So, just because I'm curious, I was wondering how many of the books you have are second hand? I'm not asking for exact numbers, more like a rough percentage.
Also, where do you normally pick them up from? Are they from charity bookshops, library sales or just given by friends/family?

I'd say about 50% of my books are second hand. There's a shelf in the office reception where all second hand books are 50p. Add on the fact my sister passes on books she doesn't like and there's the largest second hand book shop in England not far from me... well it gets a bit easy ;)

Okay folks - I'm not sure how to link it so it shows up with the discussions but the poll for November's theme read is up... if you scroll to the bottom of the DB home page!

So it would appear that I should have waited until December to start my hamish Macbeth books... as they appear to be classed under 'cozy mysteries'... oh well, there are 28/29 of them, I'll just have to save borrowing a few until then ;)

Yeah, I read the first 2 pages already and somehow Robert Carlyle doesn't embody the lanky, gangly, red-head that's being described ;)

Sounds like a good choice there Darcy :)

Wow, it sounds like everyone's getting sorted here :) Whilst I won't be joining in I shall instead be starting to read a whole new series - The Hamish MacBeth series by M. C. Beaton :) Thankfully my library has all of them in eBook format!

This month's theme read shall be 'Next in a series' and/or 'Revisiting an author' :D

They sound pretty self-explanatory so I shall wish you all good reading :D

I'm sorry to hear that Amanda & Darcy :( maybe put aside a weekend of your own for a private Read A Thon or lock yourself away in your room in time for the next one ;)

And I am finished with the Read-A-Thon until next time ;) I may not have been able to start imemdiately on Saturday morning but this was one heck of a book to read for the weekend :D

I shall figure out how to put up a poll for these selections. Darcy, maybe tehre are certain books that are labelled as being 'Inspirational' such as The Alchemist or Life of Pi? I'm not too sure but I know I was told those ones were :)

Tanya: Next door has been gutted, I was a bit in shock and had to escape to my grandad's for spoiling and I may be going to bed early to catch up on missed sleep - but I am back at home, have the book handy and have started reading, thank you :)

This book has started well, but I am only 38 pages in so who knows where it'll go :)

Darcy: Thanks for the follow & the tweet, I am now following you back :)

It's the 24th here but I was up from 1:20am to 3:16am with a fire next door so I need a bit more caffeine in my system before brain does anything remotley clever - like take in information :S
Enjoy reading :D

Okay so November's is either Obscure Books, Books from the decade you were born in or Inspirational books (Uplifting, feel good, fun and/or happy reads)...
People's thoughts on these would be gretaly appreciated but most of my weekend will be spent curled up with a book for the Read A Thon ;D