The Backlot Gay Book Forum discussion
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Octobercountry
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Apr 07, 2013 08:01AM
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It looks wonderful so far. Great job on getting this up and running! Maybe some things will occur to me as I use it more, but right now I'm very happy. This transition has made me learn some things about the features on GR that I never cared about before and I think this is going to be fun!
Mod
So, my question tonight is, are any of you interested in participating in a "Backlot Forum Kindle Lending Library"? I think I've come up with a way to set up such a system, but it will take a little time and effort. And before we attempted it, I'm curious to know if there are many here who would actually use such a feature, either as borrowers or lenders.
Octobercountry wrote: "As many of you are no doubt aware, many Kindle e-books purchased through the Amazon site are "loan-able." That is, the owner of the book can loan it out, one time only and for a period of two week..."I think it's a great idea. I keep a lendable file that people are welcome to check out http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/...
Mod
Ah, and that's precisely what all those who wish to be lenders would have to do---put together a Goodreads shelf showing the titles they have available to lend out. And I wasn't sure how many people would want to go to the initial trouble of setting up such a shelf on their Goodreads profile page.
Anyone else care to weigh in?
TAGS!Are used to identify groups. They're useful for people searching for groups by subject. Some tweaking could be useful to develop and grow our community.
See a complete list of tags used to identify groups ordered by the number of groups using each specific tag: http://www.goodreads.com/tag/popular/...
We are NOT listed for these tags:
gay - 105 groups
lesbian - 61 groups
lgbt - 39 groups
sexuality - 35 groups
gay-fiction - 31 groups
glbt - 27 groups (a common misspelling of lgbt)
We ARE listed for these tags:
ya - 469 groups
gay-romance - 23 groups
afterelton - just us
the-backlot - just us
gay-books - just us
gay-lit - 1 other group too
Notes:
"ya" with 469 associated groups has a similar, but more popular related tag "young-adult" with 921 related groups.
We're the only group associated to tags "afterelton" and "the-backlot" This is important to identify what is specific to this group and no other. Perhaps "the-backlot" could be changed or expanded to include "thebacklot" and/or "backlot" helping to offer a result depending on what people type into a search box.
There might be a limit imposed by Goodreads as to the number of tags you can associate to a group.
Mod
Most of the genre folders are growing fast, especially as we are adding a new folder for each book review. This is great for the longer book reviews which many of you are posting. However, I wonder if we could add a folder called something like Brief Recommendations under each genre where less prolific people (like me) could add a post which says something like - recently read this, thought it brilliant because ..... (or indeed, recently read this, suggest you don't bother!).If the idea is acceptable, I would be happy to start a couple of these off with some of my recent reads.
Mod
I appreciate the suggestion, but after a consultation with the other moderators, we've come to the conclusion that the addition of "Brief Recommendation" threads under each genre folder would cause a bit of confusion and dilute the discussion.
Please do remember, it isn't necessary to write up a lengthy review if you want to bring a book to the forum's attention. Even if your comment on a book is only a sentence or two in length, it is best to simply create a message containing the book's title and author in one of the genre folders.
You can do a cut-and-paste of the book's summary from the title's primary Goodreads page (so people will know what it's about), and then follow that with a couple of words saying whether you do or don't recommend it. There's no need to be wordier than that if you don't want to write a more in-depth review, not at all.
Then, if anyone else wants to post additional (and possibly lengthier) comments on the book, they can all be added to this initial message at a later date. This way, conversations will remain focused and all comments about any individual book will be very easy to locate in the future.
Would it be possible to add a "help" folder somewhere in this general area?Normally I don't have any problem navigating or changing things on this site, but I've been trying to delete my (duplicate) posting of my review of Stars & Stripes in the "Action/Thriller folder, and I've clicked "delete topic" numerous times (gotten the warning it will remove everything thereafter, then......nothing.) The thing stays there. It's not world shattering, but if we (all) had somewhere to go where the more Luddite-related among us could whinge, it might help L&K, C.
Chuck wrote: "Would it be possible to add a "help" folder somewhere in this general area?Normally I don't have any problem navigating or changing things on this site, but I've been trying to delete my (duplica..."
Is it a matter of clearing your cache? Or did you do something else, because I see only one review for "Stars & Stripes" there. (Sometimes I think it takes a while for things to happen at Goodreads.)
Aussie54 wrote: "Chuck wrote: "Would it be possible to add a "help" folder somewhere in this general area?"Sorry, I was unclear. I had also posted the identical review under the Cut & Run series thread. I put this posting here because I wanted the book to get noticed (I liked it that well.)
Apparently, it takes a moderator to remove a topic, although I could swear I had 86'd a (duplicate) when I moved Bolt-hole from one folder to another.
Life WILL continue in any case. (But thanks for noticing.) XXX
Mod
Looks to me like you've deleted it---however, all the follow-up comments that people made to your original post remain. A moderator can delete the entire thread, but would you like to check with the people who posted, to make sure they don't mind first?
Octobercountry wrote: "Chuck wrote: "I had also posted the identical review under the Cut & Run series thread ..."Looks to me like you've deleted it---however, all the follow-up comments that people made to your origin..."
The idea was dumb to start with (that's what comes from getting mega-hyped over a book. I was hoping to remove the entire folder - including the title.) I can check with posters, but most have discovered that I did a duplicate post in my Cut & Run series thread.
However, just to be doubly sure that no one thinks I am dismissing their ideas, I'll send message to all inviting them to cut and paste any ideas they are wedded-to onto the series thread (and I won't repeat that idea again. Arrrggggh!
Octobercountry wrote: "Rachel wrote: "... where less prolific people (like me) could add a post which says something like - recently read this, thought it brilliant because ..... (or indeed, recently read this, suggest y..."Moderator-of-the-moment (or Fred),
Not to be totally contrary (which, of course, means I'm being totally contrary), but would it be possible to make a "genre" folder entitled something like "Trifles, Guilty Pleasures and Fluff" wherein we could do reviews of books we loved, but on which we don't want to spend a lot of time? It might conflate with the suggestion by Rachel for somewhere to do a "Brief Reccys" sort of thing.
Otherwise, you just know that I'm gonna create another thread in the "Do whatever the hell you want in this folder" folder and call it "Trifles, Guilty Pleasures and Fluff."
Also, just to make EVERYONE mad, someone needs to mention that people seem to be doing duplicative (and triplicative) reviews of the same novels, but putting them under different genre folders. Not only does this dilute the conversations, but it also makes for a helluva lot more places we need to search before reviewing a book (or trying to figure out where to place a comment to a review.) Since I'm also guilty of doing this (although trying to undo dupe review), I figure I can bitch. Sorry.
ETA: Mods/Rockers: Jax and I have removed our total colloquy from the Stars & Stripes thread under the "Action/Thriller" folder. Nothing is left but the "bones," and they are free to be 86d. Thanks for all your help.
*Um* And, by the way, I kinda sorta made a "Trifles, Fluff and Guilty Pleasures" thread under the "Go Batshit Crazy in This Folder" folder. *Oops!*
Mod
Well, people are free to post there of course. But I'm still not sure I see any advantage to placing reviews there, as compared to simply mentioning the books in the standard genre folders, since this dilutes the discussion. Heck, I would say that at least 90% of the books mentioned here on the forum probably qualify as escapist entertainment anyway.
And as was noted in the initial "how to post" thread, no one is required to write lengthy reviews. Just a quick summary of plot (which can be a cut-and-paste from the book's official blurb) and a sentence as to whether the book is recommended is sufficient, if you want to bring a book to the forum's attention.
Regarding the double/triple posting problem. Well, again---the "how to post" thread specifically suggests that people who want to review a book should first do a quick search to see if the book has already been reviewed at least once, so that they can then place their comments on the original thread that has been created for the book.
So---the instructions are clear, but if people don't follow them there isn't much that will be done about it. I don't think any of the moderators want to "police" the forum excessively and delete duplicates. Simply tracking down all duplicates and then requesting that the person who has made them should move them to the appropriate thread would take a lot of time and effort that I daresay none of the moderators can afford.
I'm hoping that posters will follow the procedure set out, so that duplicates will be kept to a minimum---it will help keep the forum functional and easy to use.
Chuck wrote: "Octobercountry wrote: "Rachel wrote: "... where less prolific people (like me) could add a post which says something like - recently read this, thought it brilliant because ..... (or indeed, recent..."Purely as a user, I have to say I am against the Trifles thing. I agree with Fred that it just gets confusing. If someone posts a quicky review in Trifles and then someone posts another review in the other thread, then we have two discussions going on.
We don't want to be militant about the organization. We really don't. It's there to make everyone's life easier. But like Fred, I don't see any need for a place for mini-reviews.
Sure, Chuck, you and I like to go one for pages and pages, but that's not a requirement. And if we separated out quickies from the other threads, then it would seem like you are required to do a full review unless you put it in Trifles.
Make any sense?
Octobercountry wrote: "As for the "Trifles, Fluff and Guilty Pleasures" thread.... Well, people are free to post there of course. But I'm still not sure I see any advantage to placing reviews there, as compared to si..."
Point taken, and it makes total sense. Please note that in reply to Chris (below,) I asked that the "Trifles..." thread I set up, without really thinking about its implications, be removed.
I can easily do my postings within the original parameters of the site. I only wish it were easy to remove these hasty additions ourselves. (Letting out the clutch without fully engaging the brain almost always does nasty things to the forward progress of the greater discussion.)
So now I, of course, ask for another stretching of the site's boundaries, although I realize this is something that would be easy to do by simply accessing the greater GR forums: would it be okay with the members to establish either a folder, or a thread, for books that aren't current, but are of great import (and interest) in gay lit. history?
I know that the AE title was the ongoing "Books We're reading in 201_", but there is a small body of novels that have set up, and formed the basis of, current m/m (or more broadly, "gay") literature that I would like to discuss in the more familiar forum of the people I've gotten to know on this particular site. This is a result of being moved by Harper Fox's new novella, Kestrel's Chance, which SO reminds me of an extremely shortened version of Mary Renault's mega-classic The Charioteer. You see, within the confines of the site's directive, there isn't a way to really discuss, or do a review of, a novel originally published in 1953 within a forum ostensibly devoted to current works.
I'm not expressing myself at all well here, but there are certain "older" novels that have informed the way I see gay life and, especially, the present-day forms of gay lit. I just would like a place to pass these gems along to others who might not ever come across them otherwise. (And, God, that sounds so patronizing, and it's not what I mean at all. Hopefully, someone understands what I'm trying to say.)
Or maybe it's all spinach, and to hell with it. *sigh*
Chris wrote: "Chuck wrote: "Octobercountry wrote: "Rachel wrote: "... where less prolific people (like me) could add a post which says something like - recently read this, thought it brilliant because ..... (or ..."Everything you said makes total sense, and (even though I started a thread with "Trifles" in the title, for myself I meant it as a place to put stories that I liked, but couldn't bring myself to the minor trouble of actually writing a full-fledged review on its behalf.
Given that vapidity, I must agree with you completely. If something is worth reading, and either nixing or praising, it should be in the main body of the site's folders.
Therefore, would one of the Mods (or Rockers) please remove the "Trifles....." thread from the "Everything Else" folder, and I'll try to remain within the parameters as they've been set-up. (While continually trying to stretch the borders of same (see above reply to @Octobercountry.)
The last thing I (and I'm sure everyone else) think the creator's of this site have been is militant or restrictive. I'm just so glad to have a place to go to to give, and receive, ideas for the incredible amount of m/m fiction that is being produced nowadays.
Note:You know things are getting frightfully meta when the word "wrote" is repeated as many times as it is (in the first line of the italicized part of this message.) Dude(s), that's a helluva lotta "writing."
You are a prince among paupers, Chuck.I am glad you don't think we're being too pushy. When we all decided to do the organization this way, Fred rightly predicted (and I foolishly didn't believe) that there would be issues of what goes where. This is why Fred is the brains of this outfit.
I have considered the creation of a "classics" thread, and I am not outright opposed to it. I have some of the same concerns as the above Trifles folder. And I am curious how one would decide which books go in the "Classics" folder and which goes in the regular folder.
I've done two reviews for old books, Hero and Stone Prince. I certainly wrestled with the fact that I haven't read either of them recently.
How about a compromise? Instead of a separate thread for reviews, which I think work better in the regular threads, how about a thread in the Everything Else folder for "Books That Changed Me" or something. And there, instead of reviewing individual books, we can talk about the books that have had great meaning to us?
As far as your self-deprecating comments about starting forums, no one should feel bad about trying things. That's part of the fun of this Goodreads thing. And I don't think Fred will mind me mentioning that the mods are still figuring it all out as well.
Mod
By all means, feel free to start a thread about classic gay lit that has meant a great deal to you. After all, that's what the "Everything Else" folder is for---I hope that everyone feels at ease in posting all sorts of gay-related topics in that folder.
The inclusion of the "Everything Else" and "Totally Off-topic" folders on this forum are meant to foster a sort of spirit of community here, where people can open up and share about whatever is on their mind. Guess I'm trying to capture a bit of the spirit of the now defunct AfterElton site, which I do rather miss.... I've been meaning to post some completely random things in the "Totally Off-Topic" folder, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.
To Chris and Fred,I was afraid I was gathering the bit in my teeth by continually adding new threads, in areas I found interesting, to the "Everything Else" folder.
I appreciate Chris' worry about what books might be considered for inclusion in a "Classics" thread. Therefore, Chris' idea of simply discussing books that have meant a great deal to one or more of us solves that problem neatly.
Art and meaning, again, as always, reign in the eyes of the beholders (or, in this case, the contributors.)
I have Harper Fox's blessing to make first dibs on Mary Renault's 1953 masterpiece, The Charioteer. We can all take things from there; every man, or woman, for him/herself.
This should not only be fun, but (Oh, no!) a wonderful (trust me) learning experience for the cherished millennials amongst us.
Mod
Octobercountry wrote: "While I certainly can't be considered a millennial (argh, I feel old), I confess that I could use a good grounding in classic gay literature. (Though---if a book is too downbeat or depressing, I'm..."And with that *qualified* blessing, the die was cast.
Now, guys, let's not reject this idea completely out of hand! How about if I (who else?) were to create the teensiest little thread (where no one will pay any attention to it; I do that so very well, don't I?) that discusses the oh-so-very-few non-gay books that I'm beginning to read as a change from my m/m novels?
I realize I could just go to the big ol' GR site, but I do so like talking to my smaller (and you're all so very pretty) group of friends here. *brown lipstick being slathered on*
Any objections? And, yes, I realize "gay" is in the site's title, but maybe I'm reading "happy" books.......*uh, yeah, right*.
Cummon..........pleeeeeeeez!
Mod
No problem at all! I think a forum tends to be more interesting when when it allows for some off-topic conversations and doesn't force the participants to stick to the subject at hand all the time.
So, please feel free to go ahead and start a new thread, if you wish.
Question is, which folder should such a topic be placed into? My original idea was that the "Everything Else" folder would stick to gay-related topics that didn't fit into the genre/author folders, and that the "Totally Off-topic" folder would contain everything that isn't gay-related.
But--- for all practical purposes, these folders are interchangeable. Heck, I've only just now realised that my Invitation to a Wedding Celebration thread probably has been placed in the wrong folder, according to the rules I just set out. So---I don't know what the heck I'm doing...
I was considering asking about the same thing.
Mod
Or----do you think a non-gay book discussion should be its own folder, instead of just a thread placed within the "Everything Else"/"Totally Off-topic" folders? Which way do you want to have it done?
I think a separate folder would work out better. I am guessing by the interest quite a few books will be posted. and those new topics can bury the rest of the topics already on the Everything Else folder.
Mod
