Play Book Tag discussion
Welcome to Play Book Tag!
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Frequently Asked Questions
JoLene wrote: "For the monthly reads, it doesn’t have to be on the shelf. If you feel that it meets the definition, then you can read it for the tag.NOTE: the opposite is also true — the shelf is determined by ..."
thanks so much!
Trying to post for Autobiography, but I get error message wanting an email but providing no opportunity.Do you close a topic from late entries?
(I always trickle in late; not concerned with credit points, just placement for efforts under tag)
Hi Michael,We always give a few days before we calculate participation points so please post your book under Autobiography when you can. Sorry about the bug . . .at the risk of stating the obvious, have you tried rebooting your computer and/or clearing the cache?
Anita wrote: "Hi Michael,..have you tried rebootingu..."Thanks-will fiddle. Glad to know about late window.
I'm new to Goodreads and this group! I literally just joined! Please feel free to add me as a friend! I can't wait to connect with everyone in this group! I want to participate in this monthly reading. Do any of you have any suggestions on good books to read for this month's theme?
Hello Demi --Welcome to the group. In the month folder (this time) April: Strong Woman, there will be a post that is called Announcing April Tag. This is done in the prior month and people put in their reading plans and their own recommendations for books that fit.
There is also a link in the first post that goes to the "strong women" shelf. This is showing the top books that GR users have tagged as "strong woman".
Demi wrote: "I'm new to Goodreads and this group! I literally just joined! Please feel free to add me as a friend! I can't wait to connect with everyone in this group! I want to participate in this monthly read..."Warmest welcome, Demi! Here's where we are all discussing what to read this month. There's a lot of ideas! Please share yours with us too. Click below to see the thread where we are deciding what to read . . .and JoLene also provided directions to get to it in the future.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Welcome Demi! So nice to have such an enthusiastic new member.
Welcome, Demi, good to see you jumping right in!
Demi - Love the enthusiasm! Welcome. Hard not to find a good book about a strong woman or group of strong women. You’re gonna pick something great. And you are going to love it.
Amy wrote: "Demi - Love the enthusiasm! Welcome. Hard not to find a good book about a strong woman or group of strong women. You’re gonna pick something great. And you are going to love it."Thank you! (:
Welcome to PBT, Demi. I'll look forward to seeing which book you pick for April.
Anita wrote: "We are so pleased to have new members join us here at Play Book Tag. Thank you for participating! You'll find a very friendly and welcoming group.Play Book Tag is fast-paced and can be a bit conf..."
Hey!!! I wanted to participate in the decathalon, I see the monthly reporting is locked. Is this a challenge we need permission for? I also thought I read we can read from the previous months...should I start a thread in the tracking section is that where I list the books I have read for the monthy themes? I know there are several challenges going so I hope I didn't ask a question that was already clarified. I even printed some stuff off discussing it all until I get a hang of it
>.< haha
Mishelly, you can participate in the prior months decathlon, but you will still post it in the month you read it. Be sure to clarify in your post what month and the title of that months challenge that you are reading for. In regards to creating a thread to keep up with your challenges and monthly tags, it is not required bu there is a heading where you can do this. I think it's titled member challenge tracking or something of the sort. You can look at others to get an idea.
Welcome Mishelly. Jump right in. Jason is correct, you will actually log the past month’s challenges in the month that you accomplish them.
Muzhen-ReadTime wrote: "Hmm…is it OK if I post something? "Hello, you can post your reviews in the appropriate folders. Questions can go here or in the “New to PlayBookTag” folder.
Hello, all, new member, excited to join your group. I look forward to reading Everything I Never Told You for the May 2018 tag: family drama.
Sorry if my question is redundant, I scanned through the FAQ and still wasn't sure of the answer so I want to double check.
If I read a book in April, but finish in May, would my review belong in the April folder? Or May?
In this case, I am referring to an "April: Other" book (or May potentially).
In other words, it does not fit the April or May tag and I started in April but won't finish until this month.
Thanks for your help!
Meli wrote: "Hello, all, new member, excited to join your group. I look forward to reading Everything I Never Told You for the May 2018 tag: family drama.
Sorry if my question is redundant, I..."
I would put it in the May: Other folder if I finish it in May. That way more people are likely to see it and you won't miss out on getting a participation point for it.
Welcome Meli,Cora is correct, you should put the review in the May folder. We count up the participation points quickly after the end of the month, usually in 3 or 4. More importantly, people tend to look at the current month’s folders for commenting.
Welcome, Meli! Good to see you jumping right in!
OK, I understand. Thank you for the quick feedback!
Can I read the same book for the monthly theme and the decathlon if it fits both? How do I go about posting it?Also, can I join the decathalon and listopia challenges now or is it too late?
Hello Jamie,Yes, to both your questions.
You can read the same book for the monthly theme and decathlon challenge. You simply post your review twice. Generally people will put "cross-posted in folder XXX" where XXX would be the June 2018: Magical Realism and PBT Decathlon - June Thread.
For the decathlon challenge, you are playing for participation points for a raffle. You will get 5 points for doing the monthly task in the month assigned and 3 for doing an earlier monthly tasks.
For the listopia, you can certainly join since the goal is to read 6 books off of a list.
Welcome to PBT!
Hi, is it too late to participate in the 2018 challenges? I've had a busy reading year, but I'm just starting to post in this group. It doesn't matter to me if I'm eligible for prizes or not, I just don't want to complicate things for anyone. Also, do the monthly tag discussions continue when that month is done, or does everyone just move on after a week or so?
Hi Nancy-welcome! I am not a moderator, but I do know you can jump right in. Monthly Tags are usually closed at a certain point and then we move on. If your book fits last month tag you can post your review to The Other Books thread the current month. Hope that helps.
NancyJ wrote: "Hi, is it too late to participate in the 2018 challenges? I've had a busy reading year, but I'm just starting to post in this group. It doesn't matter to me if I'm eligible for prizes or not, I jus..."Hi Nancy, welcome to PBT! We are so glad you found us and are jumping right in!
First of all, you can certainly join in on the 2018 Challenges if you like. We do close them down on January 1, but feel free to complete some or all of them in the meantime.
As for the monthly tag, we do not officially close any former threads, but we generally move on each month and do not keep posting in older months. As you have probably seen, we award Participation Points for reviews and, once those are tallied, we do not go back and award Participation Points for reviews posted after the tally. So, it is in your interest to post them in the month you read the book! We have a monthly tag folder and a folder for all other books, so there is always a place to post your review no matter what book you read.
Let us know if you have other questions! We are happy to help you navigate the PBT waters and we have an amazing, helpful, supportive group to chime in as well :)
Welcome NancyJ! The challenges we have every year are so much fun and I know there will be some great new ones coming soon for January. Jump in and have fun.
Welcome, Nancy! Jump right in, we're a fun and friendly group!
Hi, NancyJ .... so nice to see you here!
Thanks everyone! I made notes for some of the challenges, but then that October list of questions distracted me from everything else. Wow!
Hi, I remember reading that the tags come from a list of 200? or 300? most popular shelf tags. Now I can't find it. Is there a copy somewhere? Also, is it updated regularly? Many of the books I read this year would have a shelf tag that likely wasn't created until May, and I'm not sure which variation would be the most popular: Great American Read, PBS Great American Read. GAR, TGAR, etc.
Thanks!
NancyJ wrote: "Hi, I remember reading that the tags come from a list of 200? or 300? most popular shelf tags. Now I can't find it. Is there a copy somewhere? Also, is it updated regularly? Many of the books I r..."
On the right side of the PBT home page, up top there are some links, one of them is Bookshelf-I think, (and sometimes that does not go well-lol) that is where you will find it???? Someone else may know for sure, but it is a place to start
NancyJ wrote: "Hi, I remember reading that the tags come from a list of 200? or 300? most popular shelf tags. Now I can't find it. Is there a copy somewhere? Also, is it updated regularly? Many of the books I r..."
The list was a bit buried on the first page of this thread but this link should work
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Two of the tags we vote on each month are randomly picked from this list and one is nominated by a member. The tag nominated by a member can be anything, it doesn't need to be on this list. The admins updated the list this year and I'm sure they will again in the future.
By the way Nancy if you haven't checked the monthly raffle winner thread yet you should :-)
Rachel N. wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Hi, I remember reading that the tags come from a list of 200? or 300? most popular shelf tags. Now I can't find it. Is there a copy somewhere? Also, is it updated regularly? Many o..."
WOOHOO! Thank you! I didn't even look at that thread because I didn't think it was possible to win anything yet. I feel lucky! Thank you for buying prizes for us. That's very generous.
Regarding the shelves, I think "Great American Read" (or other variations) would be a relatively popular shelf tag now. It started in May, and it was a big literacy event this year. It got a lot of people reading again (and visiting goodreads). I'll be reading from the list every month so I hope it makes the update! THANKS!!
Rachel N. wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Hi, I remember reading that the tags come from a list of 200? or 300? most popular shelf tags. Now I can't find it. Is there a copy somewhere? Also, is it updated regularly? Many o..."
Thank you so much, Rachel, for kindly answering this question for Nancy.
Nancy, we update the list of 300 tags based on the most popular on Goodreads (doing some editing along the way to take out tags that are too individualized and too similar). I wouldn't be at all surprised to find Great American Read makes the latest rendition!
Anita wrote: "Rachel N. wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Hi, I remember reading that the tags come from a list of 200? or 300? most popular shelf tags. Now I can't find it. Is there a copy somewhere? Also, is it updated r..."Hi, is the 2019 list ready yet? If not, I understand. I tried to identify the top 300 tags from the list, but there are so many near duplicates and irrelevant tags, it was hard to slog through.
I couldn't believe how many different ways Great American Read books were tagged. Great American Read, The Great American Read, greatamericanread, PBS Great American Read, PBS 100, GAR, TGAR, Great American Read 2018, PBS GAR, PBS Top 100, PBS Great Reads, etc.
NancyJ wrote: "Hi, is the 2019 list ready yet?..."We are in the process of finalizing it, and, when it is ready, Anita will share it.
Nicole R wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Hi, is the 2019 list ready yet?..."We are in the process of finalizing it, and, when it is ready, Anita will share it."
It's ready! I will share it in Footnotes. You are right - - a giant pain!
Double checking my understanding of the rules. I'm reading a very long book with a group (we're spreading it over 3 months). I started in January, and it fits the January Action-Adventure Tag. It also fits the February Life tag. So I just wanted to confirm that whether I finish it in January or February, it counts for that month's tag.
I know we can't start our Trim TBR book until the beginning of the month, but that rule doesn't apply to other books, correct?
NancyJ wrote: "Double checking my understanding of the rules. I'm reading a very long book with a group (we're spreading it over 3 months). I started in January, and it fits the January Action-Adventure Tag. It..."
That is correct, Nancy. The general suggestion is that you count it for the month you complete it so long as a reasonable amount was read in the month you report it.
"Reasonable amount" is up to you to decide, but the goal is just to not save like 5 pages for February 1st just so you can get more participation points!
Like you, I have books that take me months to read (I am looking at you, Outlander books) and sometimes a well-timed tag is the incentive I need to actually push through to the end! lol.
Question about the challenges, specifically the individual member threads - I have noticed people are posting their reviews in their personal challenge thread also. I have been created a link to the review I post in the group folder. Is this completely up to the individual? Or am I supposed to be posting my reviews as a separate comment in my challenge thread?
Meli wrote: "Question about the challenges, specifically the individual member threads - I have noticed people are posting their reviews in their personal challenge thread also. I have been created a link to th..."How you organize your personal tracking thread is completely up to you! The admins do not monitor those and they are really just to help you keep track of your challenges. To participate in the PBT challenges, you need to post your reviews in the designated Trim or Horizon thread—which you have been doing perfectly so no worries on that one!
For the personal tracking threads, some people post full reviews, some people post links to their reviews, others just make lists of books, and some do not have one at all! It is 100% your choice and maintaining a personal tracking thread is not a requirement to anything PBT related.
Hope that helps!
I for example don't post my reviews or links to them but I have started writing little summaries of trends in my readings, or random connections I am making while reading books for challenges, sort of like a reading diary. They are things I won't necessarily put into the review of any one book. An example: the Iraq rabbit hole of reading I fell into in January led to some very interesting reading that fit together amazingly well. All pretty much by happenstance. So I had thoughts to share on that.
I keep all my reviews on my computer, and in fact I keep a lot of my tracking there. I tend to only post my personal tracking thread at the end of the year, or if I feel I have done something remarkable or worth sharing on. And I think I’ve never done that. I think I posted a separate thread for all of the different women spending the centuries that I had read for women in remarkable fiction last year. But I use my tracking thread just to go over personal and group challenges, including how many buddy reads and with who. That kind of thing. I don’t really tend to look at everybody’s tracking threads if they are posted along with the review. Sometimes we see it for the group challenge, we see it in the tag or other folder, and then we see the personal thread right in a row. Those I don’t even look at because it’s the third in a row. But that’s just me.
After I write my reviews for the monthly folders, I try to also post a review on goodreads in My books. They're all in one place and I can sort it by date read. I also use these reviews for a winter adult reading challenge at my local library. I intended to use my tracking thread to keep things organized, but organization is a real challenge for me. I'm finding it easier to use monthly word files and folders in mybooks.
Awesome, thank you for the confirmation, and thank you to everyone else for their own personal habits with their review tracking / tracking thread.
Meli wrote: "Question about the challenges, specifically the individual member threads - I have noticed people are posting their reviews in their personal challenge thread also. I have been created a link to th..."I'm going to let Nicole chime in here with the definitive answer because she does the calculation of the points for the two annual challenges, but I'm quite sure that for the two challenges this year, there's no need to post reviews in your personal thread.
Play Book Tag
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NOTE: the opposite is also true — the shelf is determined by any GoodReads user’s placing them on the shelf. Sometimes people do not have the mental definition. As an example, historical fiction has an academic definition of the book should be published 40- 50 years after the action of most of the book. Books like Pride and Prejudice are not historical fiction, but many people think any book with a time setting in the past is historical fiction.
Also note: for some of the challenges, we are more strict and the must be on the shelf.