Supernatural Fiction Readers discussion
Suggestions for SFR Group Improvements
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Micheal
(last edited Sep 19, 2011 01:31PM)
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Sep 19, 2011 01:31PM
Didn't want you all to think I deserted you. Internet was down and was finishing a new manuscript. Hope everyone is doing well
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Glad to have you back, Michael. Best wishes with the new manuscript!
When she started the "Book news and updates" thread recently, L.M. mentioned that the Group Members Who Write folder is "littered with hundreds of posts" relating to updates on books --special offers, new formats, new printings, etc. The idea of the new thread is to have a place for, as it were, "one stop shopping" for members who want to keep up with that news. But if you're an author who already has a thread for your individual work, I don't mind you posting your updates about it on both threads! The idea is to make the news easily visible to people, so giving them two different ways to access it makes pretty good sense, IMO.That said, that folder has 204 threads, but only 57 books are listed on our "written-by-group-members" shelf. Of course, some of those threads are general things not related to one particular writer. And if you have more than one work you want to let us know about and they're not part of the same series, or they don't have some convenient common handle for grouping them together (like "short fiction by X," or "blog posts by Y") it arguably makes sense to have different threads for them. (I have two myself, one for my novel and one for short stories.) But it's perhaps possible that some of us could combine some of our threads, to make it easier to find our individual information by having it in one place.
I'm just throwing that out as a suggestion, not as a command, and hopefully to start some discussion! What do the rest of you think about this? What do you see as the pros and cons of centralized vs. scattered information? How many of you who aren't writers use that folder to learn about books and publication news? And do you find it easy to use?
I just posted a statement on our group template under "rules." It's not really a change, just verbalizing what's common sense and what we've mostly been doing ever since we started! It says, "We only have one rule: treat other members with the same civility you want to be treated with. Friendly disagreement is fine, but name-calling, insults, deliberate rudeness and abuse will not be allowed."New members will see this automatically the first time they post, but I thought I'd mention it here, so those of us who aren't new will be aware of it. If anyone can suggest better wording, I'm open to suggestions!
I'm really confused. I can't find the group members how write folder or at least not the right one. I found one from 2009 that has been frozen. Can you tell me how to get to the group members who write folder?Thank you!
Deb, the "folders" are just headings that organize the discussion threads into groups. If you just want to browse that folder and see what people in the group have written, scroll down on our group home page where it says Discussions. The folders are the headings in slightly darker print, and the threads they include are listed under them, but slightly indented. (Only a few discussion threads are shown on the homepage for each folder, usually the ones with the most recent activity; but each of the folders has a link for "all topics" to see the rest.) Group Members Who Write is the sixth one down, just below Other Authors/Works. If you want to post a discussion thread in that folder, just click on the little "new topic" link at the top of the home page, right beside where it says Discussions. That will take you to a page where you can post your comment, and then click on a pull-down menu to put it in the appropriate folder. Sorry for the confusion, and hope this helps to clear it up! If you have more questions, don't hesitate to ask.I don't actually remember any threads in this group being frozen (and certainly no entire folders!). Can you post the link to the page where you encountered that notice, or tell me what you clicked on to get there? Thanks for letting me know about that!
Werner wrote: "Deb, the "folders" are just headings that organize the discussion threads into groups. If you just want to browse that folder and see what people in the group have written, scroll down on our grou..."Hi Werner,
Here is the link for the folder I found frozen:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...
Thanks for your response. I will read it carefully.
Deb.
Thanks, Deb, mystery solved! That link is to the short, one-post introductory thread I put up when I started the folder, inviting authors to post there about their work. I just froze that single thread (because it existed only as an invitation, not for any discussion), but not the entire folder at the top of which it appears. So any writer in the group can start a discussion thread about his/her work any time (and quite a few have, so far). Hope that makes sense!
Jim and I were recently discussing our group's Group Members Who Write folder, which, like Topsy in Uncle Tom's Cabin, wasn't raised but "just grew." :-) At the moment, it has 252 threads, some of which are just announcements for giveaways that have now expired (some of these are the Miscellaneous folder, as well), some of which could be combined, and some of which aren't titled clearly enough to enable someone browsing the threads to know what it's about. All of this makes the folder harder and more intimidating for people to browse in, and (if you're an author) tends to bury your post beneath a long and confusing list. We'd thought about doing some pruning, and last night I deleted a couple of announcements for expired giveaways (including the one I posted last month). But it's a daunting task, made more difficult by the fact that sometimes I don't know if a particular post is the only one you have there about your work (in which case, of course, I don't want to delete it).So, here's what you need to do to help us, between now and Sept. 20! If you're an author who's posted in that folder (or haven't yet, but want to), please make sure all of your obsolete threads are deleted. Also, please make sure all of your threads are clearly titled with your name and the book(s) you're posting about, and make sure you consolidate your threads as much as you can. That is, if you're running a giveaway for a book you've created a thread for, put the announcement on that thread --don't start a whole new one for it! If you do a blog, don't start a new thread for every post; just make one thread for your blog, and post about new installments there. (Same goes for short stories, or novels in a series.) That'll be a big help to us!
Starting on Sept. 21, Jim and I will feel free to do any deleting or thread consolidating that still needs to be done. We may re-title some threads (in this folder, and perhaps others) to make the subject of the discussion clearer. We're also thinking of creating an archive, where we can file promotional threads that have been inactive for over a year.
I'm an author myself, so none of this housekeeping is intended to make things harder for authors in any way! Instead, the intent is to make our group page a user-friendly resource that publicizes your work in the way that most efficiently reaches readers, and maximizes the Goodreads experience for everyone. (It's partly required by our sheer growth as a group --up to 1.068 members now!) Thanks for your cooperation; it's much appreciated!
As I mentioned in my previous post, back in September, Jim and I had discussed the possibility of creating an archives folder, where we could store some of the many promotional threads from the Group Members Who Write folder which haven't had any activity for a year or more. (The idea of this is to make that folder less daunting to browse through, and to allow the current threads to show up more easily.) I just wanted to give everyone a heads-up that I'm ready to create the archive now. It will be accessible from the group page, just like the other folders are now, and all the threads in it will still be just as clickable as they are now.If you're an author with a thread in the archive, you can add a relevant comment or update to it any time, and then move it back to the regular folder (or I'll move it). Another tip: if you consolidate your threads as much as possible, for instance by creating a "Short fiction by [your name]" instead of a new thread for each story, the single thread will be more apt to be updated on an ongoing basis, and so less likely to ever be removed to the archive!
Besides creating the Archives folder, I've recently done some more housework with our folders, moving some threads around, deleting a couple of folders that seemed superfluous, renaming a couple, and creating a new one, "Supernatural subgenres." The aim of the whole process is to make topics easier to browse and to find. Hope you all like the new arrangement! (And your suggestions are always welcome.)
I think that if comments made to the group or by the group showed up in our notifications people would respond. This is a great premise for a group and with movies, games, and television, plus books galore there should be lots of discussion. When I'm notified of a comment on murder and monsters, it is so easy to answer and keep up to date. It also takes me to the last comment without scanning one hundred pages. Can we do that here ? I am sure there would be lots of cross over fans. Just an idea. Pam
Honestly, I joined this group a while ago, but I don't think I ever got notifications before...I agree, notifications increase responses.
Pamela wrote: "When I'm notified of a comment on murder and monsters, it is so easy to answer and keep up to date. It also takes me to the last comment without scanning one hundred pages."Pamela and Amelia, I get the same type of notifications for this group, and for all of my groups. That's the default setting in my preferences for group notifications. Just now, I tried to find the link one can click on to edit notification preferences, if it's not set for the default, but couldn't find one. :-( My suggestion to you (and to anyone else who may be having the same difficulty!) is to ask a question about it in the Goodreads Feedback group, or to contact Goodreads' technical support at the "help" link on the very bottom of this page. They should be able to get you receving SFR group notifications!
No, I got a notification for this thread, and the introduce yourselves thread Pamela commented on, but haven't received notifications before. I don't seem to get any on other threads though. I'll check my settings.
Amelia, actually, the Goodreads program is set up to give you notifications of posts in two ways. The daily bundled updates from your groups, which show all activity in all threads whether you've commented on them or not, is one way. But for any thread that you've actually commented on, they also send you a separate, individual notification the next time anyone else comments there. That probably explains the two notifications you received. (After that, they don't send you any further notices for that thread until after you've visited it again.)
This isn't really a suggestion for an improvement in this group, just an announcement of something I hope will be an improvement! :-) In the past several days, I've been doing some end-of-the-year folder clean-up and reorganization. The main change is that we now have two new folders, for "Movies and TV" (https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group... ) and "Group member's blogs" (https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group... ). Hope these prove to be helpful!
