All About Books discussion
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I don't think it's a mess either, I'm happy about everything. No stranger than a lot of conversations on AAB!(Especially between Jean and myself!)
Chrissie - please don't worry about it! I set the thread up and I have no problem with people nominating more than one book by the same author. Readalongs are easily created and you are free to join or not join any of the group reads. By having nominations and votes we are just trying to give you the say, in the best way we know, so that it's our group - and not just the mods choice in everything. So if sometimes unexpected things happen, then I don't think anyone really minds. And Gill and Jean, please keep having your conversations, they often brighten my day!
I agree about those conversations , Gill and Jean !
Well, Jean. It sounds like we've got the go-ahead! I do sometimes wonder whether we are viewed as the eccentric grand old ladies of the group. Or maybe that's wishful thinking!
I prefer to this of us as the "wise women". All tribes have their sages, their wise elders. The AAB tribe has thee and me, plus John and Everyman...(except that I keep falling flat on my face of course :D )
Jean, Gill, John and Everyman - AAB members for whom I have so much respect. I'm cultivating myself to be one:D
LOL Bette! You have the wisdom without the age. An ideal position :D(Ooops, we're on the ask the mods thread again. Skeedaddle quick before we get detention!)
Jean, I do understand that you were being courteous, but why in the world should you withdraw your nomination?! Please don't. Shirley, it might be good to change those rules to avoid this from happening again. Two books by the same author affects the voting - that I had not thought of until Gil mentioned it.
I am glad you all understand that I had no intention of causing this ruckus.
Thanks for your understanding.
Chrissie wrote: "Jean, I do understand that you were being courteous, but why in the world should you withdraw your nomination?! Please don't. Shirley, it might be good to change those rules to avoid this from ha..."
Chrissie, don't feel responsible for a "ruckus" -- I think it has been more of a healthy debate.
Speaking for myself, we moderators may decide to change the rules but would want to discuss it amongst ourselves first. Personally, I am not convinced a new rule is necessary.
Leslie, I will of curse leave this up to you!
Post 90 in book bargains is self promotion. Please can the mods remove it. Thanks
Hoping someone can help me hereCopyright © 1981 by Linda Pastan.
Source: Carnival Evening: New and Selected Poems, 1968-1998 (W. W. Norton and Company Inc., 1998)
The above was posted by Jenny when she shared her Monday Poem. I seem to have missed the posts in AAB which refer to copyright provisions. As I post quite a few poems, am I supposed to be adding this type of comment to each poem I post?
Bette, just quickly as I am not at home right now: I would love to link it for you but I am nowhere near my computer. You will find a thread called 'the copyright jungle' in the Monday Poem folder if you are interested. We don't have a group policy, but I like to add it, along with a translator if that applies.
I posted a Readalong thread because many people voiced interest in reading Animal Farm with me. It's my first readalong so I hope it's okay that I started the thread - wasn't sure what the etiquette was there? Let me know if I should do differently in the future!
Shannon Noel wrote: "I posted a Readalong thread because many people voiced interest in reading Animal Farm with me. It's my first readalong so I hope it's okay that I started the thread - wasn't sure what the etiquett..."That's absolutely fine, Shannon Noel!
Hi Mods! I will be away the last weekend in September and may not be able to post the Read-a-thon event, invites and the thread. Laura usually posts the event/invite for me as I'm not a moderator. (just paste and copy text from previous month but change the dates) Then set up the thread in BookChat.Can someone please handle this for me?
I will also be away for two weeks in October (dates not yet confirmed) and will need someone to post the daily This Day In Literary History thread. (I will want this task back when I come back cos I love doing it:) So tell the person that it's only on loan, haha:P:)
Mod
Thanks, Laura. I usually diarise it for 20th of the month (to send out the event/invites).Maybe, after totaling some 800 pages over our target number of pages this month, we could increase our target to 15,000 pages for September. You will need to change the figure in the event invite.
Mod
No problems, Laura, and thanks:)
Self promotion in 'what are you reading' and 'what have you just read'. Just in case you hadn't spotted it!!
Thank you Jean, Chrissie and Heather! I've got all of them I think. I honestly find this kind of self-promotion the most ridiculous kind.
Thanks, Jenny. "Ridiculous" is certainly the word, Jenny. All you needed to do to see the different surname was to go onto her profile page where, lo and behold, the "author"'s name was part of her email address!I don't particularly want authors to be adept at subterfuge, but honestly! If you're going to pretend to be someone else then you'll have to do better than that!
Thanks. It is frustrating when authors do it but the mods are great and usually clear it out. I do find it quite funny occasionally; they think they can fool us but then you get 2/3 regulars commenting from here and then they just look silly. There are so many groups with whole sections dedicated to authors, I don't know why they don't just use them!
dely wrote: "I think this is spam: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...Mods, give a look into it, th..."
Deleted!
Laura said,"I was wondering what had happened. The rules coming out - and I don't know if it's linked to this, but the font of what I write - not what comes out when I post, but when I'm writing - has changed!!!"
on the "Mods only" thread, so I thought I'd better make my comment here...
I have this difference too! My font is now a different one - and in bold - but reverts back to what it has always been when I post it! At the same time this happened, a couple of days ago, a lot of my other programs went haywire. I always enlarge everything, but now the wordgames I play are enlarged to start with, and I lose part of the screen when I reduce them to a manageable size. My own personal files on the computer also all come up about 300% but say they are 100% (I can reduce them to my chosen magnification OK.)
It seemed to start happening when a program for Calibre e-publishing was downloaded (now got rid of!) so I'd thought that was the original cause. Do any others have the "font typeface" problem though?
I, too, have the Group Rules appearing every time I make a comment. I checked and this does not happen in other groups I belong to. I have not changed anything in AAB at all, am still a member etc. It's not a big deal, I suppose, but it does kind of get of my nerves.
Better BookAddict wrote: "I, too, have the Group Rules appearing every time I make a comment. I checked and this does not happen in other groups I belong to. I have not changed anything in AAB at all, am still a member et..."This is a setting that each group's moderators can control. Because of the recent rash of self-promotional posting, we decided to implement it, at least for now.
Thanks, Leslie. I just saw the post in Mods Only. I did think I had touched something and botched things up for myself:)
Bette, I posted about the group rules pop up in Group Announcements this morning to let you guys know. Like Leslie said, it is a temporary thing. It feels like our member numbers are climbing by 100 per week at the moment, and not all of them are joining for the right reasons.No changes to my font though. So nothing got changed there, at least not from our side.
I saw self-promotional posts from a teen in the general information and what have you read threads. Just wanted to let ya'll know.
It's all very irritating...thanks for keeping on top of things. A couple of newbies say they write too, but hopefully they're in this group for the reading! :) A question: Do you think it might be a good idea to ask people people posting readalongs to say the name of the author, or at least link to the book at the top of the thread? Perhaps I should do, but I don't always know the name of the author, and it takes a while to check it out.
It would just be helpful, for those not sure whether or not to join in, or just wanting to follow the thread.
I don't know if GR tells the mods of a group when they are a featured group or not but in case they don't. I thought I should point out AAB is currently and has been at least for a while the first group on the featured groups list, which is probably the reason for all of the new members as well as the uptick in spam posts. The same thing happened when one of my other groups was featured.
amber wrote: "I don't know if GR tells the mods of a group when they are a featured group or not but in case they don't. I thought I should point out AAB is currently and has been at least for a while the first ..."Ooh I didn't know that! Thanks, amber!
Better BookAddict wrote: "I, too, have the Group Rules appearing every time I make a comment. I checked and this does not happen in other groups I belong to. I have not changed anything in AAB at all, am still a member et..."It did happen in another group that was newly re-established, but they fixed it. I think GR must have done a program update, and it did this to some groups.
On a side issue, another group I was in they wrote to all the members who hadn't commented for a long long time/ever to ask them to respond if they wanted to continue as members. If they did not respond, they deleted their membership. This brought the group back down to a manageable size. Perhaps the mods would like to discuss this amongst themselves? It doesn't feel to Mr like the total group number reflects the numbers who are involved in the group.
Mod
Me neither
suggestion 442 please...? A question: Do you think it might be a good idea to ask people people posting readalongs to say the name of the author, or at least link to the book at the top of the thread? (not that I think I've made 442 suggestions...)
Everyman - it was instigated by the mods here as a temporary measure, something they do deliberately as the need arises.
May I just add, I think Gill has a point. As part of my twitching antennae when a sockpuppet was around, I "sorted" the membership by number of comments, so that the list started with members who had made zero comments in the group, upwards. The number of zeros, ones and twos was incredibly high!I can see that there is a certain kudos attached to a large membership, and a transitory good feeling that it's thriving, but also, might it now be attracting people who just join to be in a lot of groups, similar to those who have thousands (literally) of Facebook friends? When I do a quick check now, out of 42 pages of members, there are only 14 pages where members have actually made a comment. A huge three quarters have not made any comment at all, not even a hello.
(I can see the opposite arguments too, of course, but that is the default at the moment, so it's not necessary for me to say anything.)
Mod
I agree, the numbers are shocking. I recently found out that one of my university friends had joined on the first day but hasn't commented on anything. I kept encouraging him to come on and say hello. But I have given up, to be honest.
Mod
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All About Books
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Chrissie - I don't think this is a mess at all! I'm glad this has happened, because it points up a possible problem for the future. In a way it's surprising it hasn't caused difficulties before.
When it happened once before, with Jane Austen in the classics poll, I was uneasy as I could see a split vote arising. But in the event so many people wanted to read a Jane Austen, that one of them went through to be the final choice. (As it happens I don't think I voted on that occasion.)
As for "Jean's book" - well I had considered withdrawing my suggestion too - but that just seemed to overcomplicate things. Mods, if you actually feel that would be better, then please withdraw either - or the author completely, to give us a fresh start. Actually I think three might have been mentioned. I'd be happy with either way.
And Chrissie - I only said I would leave the suggestion to come from you, as you were the first to actually express it. It seemed more courteous that way. I'm getting the feeling you are upset by this. Please don't be! I honestly don't mind whatever is decided, although I do think a rule would be a good idea, for the future personally :)
Hope one of the mods can get onto this quite soon...