SciFi and Fantasy eBook Club discussion
General Topics
>
Nominations, Seconds and Errors
date
newest »
newest »
I'm happy with how things turned out.. As I said in the comments elsewhere, we're not building a Mars probe and a few gaffs here and there aren't going to do much damage.
Perhaps I shouldn't comment, but...As some one pointed out in another thread, it isn't rocket science. I believe this is supposed to be an enjoyable group, not a nit picking one. If errors are made...such is life. Laugh and move on.
Seriously, I don't think the issue is that important. At least it really shouldn't be that important to mature individuals.
lol Greg, you were the one I paraphrased in my comment! :-)
Don't sweat the small stuff Geoffrey, us humans are hard-wired to goof up now & then.
Behind you all the way...Geoffrey.I'm sure we can get any books missed, nominated at some point again.
Come on......
Let's have FUN!
Well good. I'm a little emotionally delicate at the moment so I thought I'd do a reality check. I'm assuming most will state their opinions if they're not happy with something - but it's good to test the barometer occasionally.
Your efforts at running this group are greatly appreciated by me and I'm sure the vast majority of other members. I agree with all the comments so far--let's just have fun and not worry about the occasional glitch.
I'm thinking about creating some sort of nomination app to help simplify your work, but it would not happen overnight. If anyone else is interested in helping, I'd be using PHP on the server side, where my strengths lie, so a hot JavaScript front-end coder would be useful. What the heck, anyone artistic talent could help with the visual design. :-)Most of it would be pretty straight forward (as mentioned above, it would not be rocket science), but some thinking would be needed concerning user authentication -- maybe we could leverage the GoodReads API for that?
If I get serious about this (e.g.: you all agree to shower me with wealth), I'll start a separate discussion thread to gather requirements and build a development team. Geez...talk about a busman's holiday. >_<
I might be able to help with the app, depending. I'm mostly a SQL developer with some Visual Studio programming. Not so much PHP or JavaScript. Maybe a standalone app for the desktop would be easier.
I was thinking of some sort of web app where all interested group members could go to make nominations and/or to second others' nominations. It looks like the GoodReads API supports some sort of OAuth login, which would verify they're a member here. I haven't looked at it in depth, yet, so do not know if you can then determine if they belong to this group. But anyway, I'll start a new thread before too long to solicit both ideas and help.
Maybe over-thinking. Too strict, nit-picky, etc. sucks the fun out of things.That said, if you catch a mistake for a poll quick enough that it hasn't seen a lot of activity, I think it's your judgment call.
Asking members to use "add book/author" link for both nominating and seconding does put books in the "books mentioned in this topic display" (for xample, for Dark Fantasy, http://www.goodreads.com/topic/mentio... ) as a double check. If a book mentioned at least twice, may have been seconded. If not mentioned at least twice could just mean someone did not use add book tool (but better than nothing).
Question for you, would it make it easier if nomination threads kept briefer? That is, encourage nominating or seconding books with maybe at most a brief mention of why liked/nominating? And if someone thought a book did not belong, a very plain statement instead of arguing/debating (mea culpa) the fine points; if clearcut not on theme, you as moderator say so. If questionable on/off theme and if someone still wants to second, consider it seconded.
I'm happy to have the poll choose the monthly read. I do not like seeing lobbying for a certain nomination by bashing the other nomination(s) or reaching for arguments to convince the group a nomination should be retracted or not polled.
It's not like the group is going to vote for an unwanted book. Just nominate and second books; don't bury the nomination/seconding posts in extra comments that make it harder for you.
(Yes, I'm guilty of longwinded debate on nomination threads myself; the one where a book was asked to be disqualified because the publisher had caused some confusion ...*ack*...)
I enjoy the back and forth on whether something is an eligible nomination just like I thought the conversation around the Moorcock nomination was fun. I like geeking out over books - just like I like parsing sub-sets of fantasy or science fiction. So, to that degree, I think it's fine to say a nomination should be dropped because it's out of the genre or otherwise ineligible.
Likewise, I think it's fine to say you don't think a book is good enough because of a specific reason - like poor editing or something. But I don't think just saying 'I didn't like it' without a reason is appropriate.
My position is that we should act like grownups - and sometimes that means we disagree. But, we should disagree in a respectful, reasoned manner.
And, have a lot of fun in the process.
Likewise, I think it's fine to say you don't think a book is good enough because of a specific reason - like poor editing or something. But I don't think just saying 'I didn't like it' without a reason is appropriate.
My position is that we should act like grownups - and sometimes that means we disagree. But, we should disagree in a respectful, reasoned manner.
And, have a lot of fun in the process.
Geoffrey wrote: "A comment (OK, several comments) has been made by a member that the Post-Apocalyptic poll and run-off may be invalid because I erred and left a book off. I chose, since we were in a run-off alread..."Isn't this supposed to be fun? I have no problem at all with how you've handled things.
At roughly the same time, I also left two seconded books off the Dark Fantasy poll and decided to add them to the poll but not start it over. In this instance, it was pointed out the same day as the initial poll after 11 people had voted.
So, to different responses to essentially the same type of error on my part based on the polls being in different phases. I am comfortable with my decision and my initial thought around these comments were to reject them out of hand and stand by my initial decisions.
But, I'm a nice guy. And I started to think that if one person is vocal, then perhaps there are others dissatisfied as well. So, is there a wish by anyone to redo either or both polls? And with that, if there are errors in the future, what is my response? Do I follow my best judgement or do I just always err on the side of do-overs? If the usual count from theme nominations is 6 books, and the error correction is a 7th or 8th book, do I simply add them or do I bump books? Do I assume, as with retail, that if one person voices a complaint, there are 10 other people dissatisfied?
I'm not interested in calling anyone out. I just want to make sure that everyone is happy with the group as it's being run. So, tell me all your thoughts.