Poll
Which book do you want for our group to read in October 2012? Theme: Women. Moderator: DC.
Poll added by: K.D.
Comments Showing 1-50 of 57 (57 new)

March, Little Women, March!

Ang Little Women at Secret Garden ay ipinalabas na sa ABSCBN, kaya sa Pride na!

Kung makapag-advertise — Wagas! Ano, to? Brand lang ng sabong panlaba ang peg? Buwahaha! :D
Hoy manahimik ka Angus!
Dapat nating mabasa ang The Little Women kasi required reading muna siya before we read the Pulitzer-winning March by Geraldine Brooks. Hmph!
March, Little Women, March!

Wait. Ang hirap naman. I've read all three many many many moons ago. Although I did give both Little Women and The Secret Garden 4 stars, 3 stars lang ang Pride and Prejudice. Hindi ako maka-decide between Little Women and Secret Garden.

between Little Women and Secret
Garden.
The Little Women na lang! C'mon now, vote for it. I know you want to. *wink, wink*
March, Little Women, March!


Yun na lang di ko pa nababasa. Plus I can still remember Chachic's shocked face when I said I haven't read Little Women yet when we were deliberating for TFG 100. :P

I haven't read Little woman.
pero sounds interesting.
^^...mganda din naman ang Pride ahh.


Pride and Prejudice: We had Jane Eyre recently, so, if ever, we'll be reading another Victorian novel.
Little Women: It's long, if we're to read both parts :P
The Secret Garden: Is said to be aimed at young girls, so maybe some people would be turned off by this?
Admittedly, this is a chance to read books different to what you're used to, so I hope you vote for one that will challenge you somehow :)
Remember: The victor belongs to the spoils. Good luck to those campaigning! :D


pride and prejudice, marami na akong nakitang kopya, madaling makahanap
secret garden, di ko type ending nung cartoon eh. hahaha

My heart swells with PRIDE!
Kaya kayong mga campaigners ng Little Women at The Secret Garden, I belittle you, and off to your weedy gardens!

I liked The Secret Garden too, and if you're nursing a broken heart (yun yon eh), I think this book is a good one to read.
If you feel like being all kilig but at the same time, you like strong minded women, there's Lizzie Bennet in Pride and Prejudice.
But they say that Jo March is like Anne of Green Gables but better...then go for Little Women! Plus it's not as hard to read as P&P. :p

Nararamdaman ko talaga minsan magpapakita na lang yan sa isang event natin. Feel ko talaga. Sya naaaa! :))

Teka, bakit andito pa sa grupo yan?! Di ba pwedeng sipain na agad? Panggulo lang, eh.


Pride, Pride, Pride!


I'm quoting Angus, so that means I also sticking to the 10% rule. Hak hak hak! :D

I voted for P&P :D

I don't think it really is a waste of time because it only takes a few minutes to create a poll. And whenever I broadcast the announcement for a new poll, there are some who reply, saying that they already voted.
Yun lang, it's an exercise in futility, so to speak, but who knows? We might discover the next big star of TFG!

Note: I'm more than willing to personally go through the member list to check who's been active lately or not.

I'm not wishing to undermine your authority, dear mods, but I've looked over some statistics... Please note the following (and choose the appropriate label in the "sort by" drop-down menu, as seen below):

-Around 1,300 members of the group were online after May 2012. http://www.goodreads.com/group/member...
-Around 700 have made at least one comment on the threads: http://www.goodreads.com/group/member...
-Around 300 have less than 50 books on their shelves: http://www.goodreads.com/group/member...
(I'm using 50 books as a benchmark, as that's the standard number you should have should you want to apply for Librarian Status on Goodreads. http://www.goodreads.com/help#what_is... )
Surely you may think to reconsider the 180 necessary votes? :)

DC: Surely, why consider nonentities? And trigger-happy voters? Why let online members who don't care take control of what we read (unless the turn out is 10%, and this is exactly the reason why it's too high.)
KD: I didn't even try to think of your proposal. Too complicated. Simple things are better.

Personally, I will have to think about it very well first.
For one thing, the poll is good, because we get to pull in people! (Poll pull, haha!) Think about it. For the last F2F discussion, we had at least 30 members. 100 people have so far voted on the poll! That means that it has some kind of draw. It could also bring in more people to future F2F discussions!
Noting this also, a poll shows a pseudo-"strength in numbers". Pride and Prejudice won in the voting last F2F; Little Women is leading here.
It would be, indeed, an "exercise of futility" (this phrase is really growing on me) if the poll will not have an effect on the overall choice of the book-of-the-month. As I've said, it has a draw - it can bring in newbies (both for F2F and for the Group in general) to participate.
Wouldn't it also mean something for Pride and Prejudice to be our October book-of-the-month, when the records online show that Little Women seems to have the lead? What would it mean for those who voted online, and truly thought about their choice in hopes to read such-and-such book?
But, huh, based on my own experience, I haven't really known about the poll prior my joining the F2F discussions. Sure, I got the message, but back then, I didn't really think much about it. I only visited the home page, saw the book-of-the-month, but I didn't really check out the poll. (I was more into updating my reading list and editing book info back then.)
Then again, Angus may also be right about the "non-entities". (LOL, as if they don't exist!) 30+ attended the F2F discussion for LOTR 1, while 69 voted on the poll for that month. I'm not sure if there's a gauge to check how many members joined the online discussion for the book. It may be too complicated to think too much about the entire thing, and the simpler things are, the better for all of us.
So far, I still believe that we could find a better way to use this poll, and the overall voting system in general. However, I'm not sure what exactly I'd recommend right now. All I could think of would be to reconsider the poll for its usefulness and effectiveness :)
"Do not ask an elf for advice, for he will say both yes and no."

DC: I understand the conflict, that's why I have a little explanation on the monthly broadcasts, which makes it look like the purpose of these polls is to veto the decision made during the F2F votings. So there, they are not so purposeless as one might think.
Besides, these three books are good naman. Parang ako lang iyan nung Mockingbird, I wanted it so badly to win, pero Remains won the F2F and the total online voters didn't reach 10%. And look, I am perfectly happy with the book that I am moderating.
Sometimes, we have to leave things to chance. Or fate. Or both. :D

Honestly, I think we can do, if we can to increase the participation in the polls (which we can't really force, unless people really decide to be active themselves) is to engage more people one-on-one. Or at least, let them know that there is a poll happening and why it is happening and what their votes mean. Kind of like how DC did it with this one. :)
In the end, though, we can only do so much. :)
There. *throws 2 cents*
Angus: I can do the monthly broadcasts too, if you want it off your task list. Minsan I want to volunteer for the task, pero nauunahan ako for the month. :)

Tina: Thanks! Sige, I think you should be the one doing that because you are like our PR officer. Baka nga hindi bumuboto yung iba kasi nakikita nila galing kay snooty Angus yung message, haha!

Mas gusto ko sana ng Secret Garden dahil ayoko sa mga puro babae ang bida, tulad ng Pride at ng Little Women, pero sige. Makipagsapalaran.

Personally, I'm against discarding the online community's voice when it comes to voting for the books. I was under the impression that Goodreads is primarily an online community.
I also think that you can't exactly blame people for failing to show up for F2F discussions, because plenty of people have things to do and other things to deal with, especially on weekends. For example, I had been about to go to the previous one, but a friend of mine needed my company for something else, and I can't go to the next one because it's invite-only (and also, I probably have other things to do on all of my July Saturdays).
On the other hand, I understand what you're saying with regards to people voting randomly for things that they don't end up discussing even in the online community -- but again, people often have other commitments that pop up, and there will always be valid though no-less exasperating reasons for it. Setting the mark to a number of votes for what is seeming to me an express purpose of quelling the voice of the online community strikes me as, well, unfair.
If it bothers the people who go to the F2F that the books that they read are influenced by those who don't participate in the F2Fs, then I suggest that maybe this poll shouldn't exist in the first place or should be relegated to decide on the book that will be discussed by the online community, thus giving us two venues for both kinds of members you have. So far Tina has said that it doesn't, so I don't know.
That ended up a little long... But anyway, if the purpose of the poll is to include, reading something like this post feels, to me, very excluding instead. /two-cents

And yes, we perfectly understand that people have their own things to do. We don't harbor negative feelings for people who flake out the last minute (nanghihihnayang nga kami becasue we love meeting people). And what about the members who give 3-4 hours of their lives for the discussion, members who cross out other appointments just so they could attend, members who have to leave their kids to their moms (or in-laws)? I think it's only right that they should be prioritized over other members.
Last year, this online poll is the sole tool used in deciding the books of the month. Threads were put up monthly, and sadly, kahit nga active members eh hindi nagpaparticipate (I can attest to that because I moderated two online discussions last year, at para lang buddy reading ang nangyari dahil dalawa lang kaming nag-uusap.) I think this is also the reason the rules on choosing the books of the month changed.

Okay eto na last for me: how many months have we been doing the vote during F2F then online poll to see if it will be overturned? 3 months? It's too short of a time to see if it's effective or not or if we need to change it. Maybe we can try something new once we start voting for the 2013 books, but for now, we can stick to this and see if online participation increases with the votes and if F2F participation will increase too. So far, tumataas naman diba? So maybe we just need to wait a little bit to prove if this works, and then try another strategy if we still think this isn't enough. :)
Bow. :)

My last two pesos (wala kasi akong cents, haha!) in the matter: I agree with Tina. Bata pa naman ang republika natin dito :D
(On another note: Hello, Rachel! Nice to see your opinion on the matter. Parang public forum lang!)
At hello, Angus! Hahaha!
I'll concede. Sige na, may oras pa naman eh. Go go go! :D

Interestingly KD, we're having the same issue din at work, so medyo nag-cross apply lang mga pinag-uusapan dito at pinag-uusapan sa office. :)
O diba diba diba. Dumadami naman tayo. And we have 8 days left to vote pa! :)

I'll try to read anything that the group decides is the reading assignment for the month, that's the long and short of it. The thing is, and I have to emphasize this point: I don't really care where the decision on what to read comes from -- if a book appears on our front page, I will try to read it and talk about it with anyone else who cares to do the same, regardless on how it's decided that this is what we are reading. What I object to is that I don't feel comfortable with being given an illusion that I have a say in the matter when in truth, it's skewed to the side of the F2F attendees. If you prefer to have the F2F attendees solely decide on what is going to be read in the following months, believe me, that is all right with me. I recognize that the attendees have a right to it by virtue of setting side their time and putting effort into going to the venue and participating, and I both admire and am envious of that. But being on the perpetually futile end of the decision-making process will probably become very exasperating after a while, which I think might defeat the purpose of the poll.
Basically, rambling aside, my point is that if we are going to hold a poll, then it has to be fair that either the online polls or the F2F can win, so there shouldn't be any bias to one side or the other. Otherwise, might as well just choose the side of the F2F and not have the polls at all. Hindi kasi sya magandang feeling sa side naman ng online members only.
Anyway, I think it's true that this would need a lot more runs to know if it's working or not working, or something. I apologize, because it's also not fair of me to judge it prematurely. What I do like about the polling system is that it reminds the members more often of what we are ending up reading or might read, and if they know the books that are on poll, they can do their own campaigning and I think are more likely to participate (for example, I wanted to vote because I knew all three of these). Looking at everyone's campaign so far -- well, it's pretty fun, and I had some hearty giggles on the war of Little Women vs Secret Garden. I'll do my best to read Remains before the month ends, and I recently put Lord of the Rings and Hitchhiker's in my Kindle to catch up with everything else (so you see, I do read it! But I am sadly very late).
K.D. wrote: "Opps, we still have 2-3 slots for newbies on July 28th. Would you want to join? It's not too late yet. That is if that weekend lakad of yours will not get in the way. "
Haha, I'll have to see first what the gaming group says. May tabletop schedule kasi ako nung araw na yun (I've been trying to set sessions down the past four months, so these dates and appointments are really important to me), but it seems like they want to move it again. I'll probably known within the week. : ) Thank you, though.
Aaaand hello to you, too, DC!

Okaaay, sabi ko nga ayaw ko ng i-pursue ito. I am just posting this to let Rachel, Tina, and KD know that I read the succeeding comments.
I miss the palengke group.

And then...Nuninooo~ Cookies, anyone? :D

Hi mods: Hope it's okay if I make a discussion topic about voting in the poll? :) I'd like to place it in the TFG 100 Favorite Books folder :D When you look at the homepage, the poll is way, way, way down there xD
I'm not sure if this will work in bringing more people in the poll, but I sure would like to give it a try, with your permission :D

Hi mods: Hope it's okay if I mak..."
Hi DC! Sure thing. :) We can use that thread to encourage people to vote in the poll for the coming months din. :)

I sure hope people have some fighting spirit left! It's a clean slate for all those who'd like to campaign for their book of choice :D
Salamat!