Help needed or questions? Ask here!

[Celeste]

Are we allowed to add books that we began in late 2016 but finished in 2017 to our 2017 challenge?

[Zaz]

Yes as long as you finish the book in 2017, it can count for the challenge.

[Sophie]

Zaz, did you ask me for copyright? haha

Seriously guys, we're here to answer your questions, but sometimes reading a little bit before asking them can give you the answer ;)

[Celeste]

I did check. >_< I must have passed over it.

[Books In Bloom]

Do we have a graphic for 2017 yet? Cant wait to get started! :D

[Amy]

I have a question about the group in general. As in 2015, which I was not a part of, will this group close at the end of 2017? I know you decided to combine the years this year, but do you think you will continue to do that in the future? I am wondering for ongoing challenge reasons. It be nice to keep the majority in here, but if it closes next year and a new group is begun as in 2015, I would likely just cluster them all in another group as I had done in the past. However, because of the love of this challenge group it be nice to keep them all under one "roof". Sorry for my long winded ways. :-(

[Zaz]

Bemused Bookworm > do you mean something like this?
https://www.goodreads.com/photo/group...

Amy > we have no plans to close or move the group for 2018 (for the moment).

[Amy]

Thanks, as always, Zaz :-)))

[Books In Bloom]

Zaz wrote: "Bemused Bookworm > do you mean something like this?
https://www.goodreads.com/photo/group...

Amy > we have no plans to close or move the group ..."

Ahh, that's a great graphic, i'll save it but I was thinking something like this:
https://www.goodreads.com/photo/group...

[Zaz]

Oops, nope, we don't have a new one yet. We totally forgot we need to change it!

[Allison]

Hello!

I tried to post my 2017 plan but after pressing the post button it told me that I have to confirm my email address in order to post? I looked in my email and have no such email. Any help would be appreciated!

[Books In Bloom]

The 2017 graphic is looking good! Added it to my blog. :)

[Zaz]

Allison > try this: https://www.goodreads.com/help/show/2....

Bemused Bookworm > it's a quick one, so we're ready for 2017 :)

[Lee Anne]

For the 2017 category #29, "a book published outside the 4 major publishing houses," would a title published by Entangled Teen, and independent publisher, but *distributed* by Macmillan, count?

[Zaz]

Lee Anne > Macmillan is ok (as publisher or distributor), it's the 5th major house, not one of the main four :)

[Angela]

Hi - I'm trying to enter my 2017 reading challenge shelf name through copying the shelf title (2017-reading-challenge) and pasting it into the box. However, when I go to save it, this message comes up:

["User shelf name not entered."]

Umm...help...

[Zaz]

That's weird. Did you put the number of books in the box just above the shelf name?

[Angela]

Yep, sure did - 52

[Zaz]

If you just created the shelf, maybe re-try tomorrow, it's possible there's a cache problem (usual on GR and with the progress bar). If not, re-try tomorrow, because I've no idea what else you can do. 24 members already succeeded to enter their shelves, so it should work at some point for you too.

[Angela]

Cool. It worked for me last year without a hitch and I did exactly what I did last year, so I'm not sure what is happening at the moment. I'll log off and try again tomorrow as suggested. Happy New Year!

[MJ]

I'm having the same problem. I made my shelf two days ago, and when I enter it, I get the same message.

[Laura, Celestial Sphere Mod]

I've been experiencing a lot of errors in the past few minutes. Be sure to clear your cookies and cache, as Zaz said. If not, you could try deleting and recreating the shelf. Be sure you're copying and pasting the full shelf name, hyphens and all.

[°~Amy~°]

I have a feeling that there are a LOT of people working with the shelves and the GR challenge today so glitches are expected. I'm sure it will all work itself out as people wander off to other things.

[Ange]

So... For the challenge of a long title, if a book has a 5 word title (ex: The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han), it counts or it has to be MORE than 5 words?

[Zaz]

It's 5 words at least so your title works :)

[Angela]

Zaz wrote: "If you just created the shelf, maybe re-try tomorrow, it's possible there's a cache problem (usual on GR and with the progress bar). If not, re-try tomorrow, because I've no idea what else you can ..."

It works now!! Yay!!

[Ange]

Zaz wrote: "It's 5 words at least so your title works :)"

Ok thank you! :)

[Beth]

If our book is in the A to Z files from the 2016 challenge should we just discuss it there or is there a new A to Z that I am missing?? Thanks.

[Katie]

Beth, we're gong to keep the A-Z discussion threads from 2016 for this year so that ask the discussion about each book will be in one place. So if your book already has a thread, go ahead and discuss there, or create new threads as needed.

[MJ]

I think this question fits here: How are people making the check marks in their list? Is this an html code I don't know?

[Laura, Celestial Sphere Mod]

Technically, you can use HTML code for the checkmarks but you can also directly copy and paste them. I usually copy/paste one and then just keep using the same one throughout my plan. That works for any of the symbols (i.e. stars).

http://www.w3schools.com/charsets/ref...

[Karen]

Zaz wrote: "If you're talking about the challenge progress bar at the top of the group, the one displayed currently is for 2016. The 2017 progress bar will be a different one and I'll active it on January 1."

I still cannot get my shelf to add for 2017. It says I have not added a shelf. I did not add by URL, but tried to add it by the name at the top of the page of the shelf I created. Tried several times.

[MJ]

Karen wrote: "Zaz wrote: "If you're talking about the challenge progress bar at the top of the group, the one displayed currently is for 2016. The 2017 progress bar will be a different one and I'll active it on ..."

Try from the side menu of shelves. That's how I got mine to work. When I did it from the name at the top of the shelf's page, it didn't either.

[Sophie]

I tried copying the name on the left, but it didn't work. What did it for me was copying just the end of the url of my shelf. Hope it helps!

[Karen]

Thanks, will try it with your suggestions.

[Karen]

The URL ending worked. I did try Mj's way also, but it finally worked with the URL ending. Excited to get started.

[Deb]

Help--I cannot seem to create the bookshelf right and add the book I have finished plus use the list to post books planning to read for the challenge!!!

[Stephanie]

Is there new A-z folders for 2017

[Elizabeth]

Question how do you add your book to "this topic is about" box? And where do you find it at

[Zaz]

Karen > great :)

Stephanie > nope, we are using the same A-Z for 2016 and 2017.

Elizabeth > you should add it when you create a new topic. If it's already created (by you), you need to use "edit" that you can see near the title. Then, you'll have a "this topic is about" field on the page.

Deb > on a book page, when you add it, you have a scroll menu under "want to read", you have to check the shelf for the group there. You can also do this in "My Books" and then with "edit" on the shelf column of a book. I don't know if you're on a computer or a tablet, but managing stuff on Goodreads is a lot easier on computer.

[Elizabeth]

Zaz wrote: "Karen > great :)

Stephanie > nope, we are using the same A-Z for 2016 and 2017.

Elizabeth > you should add it when you create a new topic. If it's already created (by you), you need to use "edit"..."

Thinks ,for answering my question , and for.the help.

[Bookmarvel]

do i have to put in my entire list of books for 2017, or can i edit it later?

[Laura, Celestial Sphere Mod]

Anastasia, you can edit it at whatever speed works for you. You can do it all at once and then change the books as you go along or just leave some/all blank and add as you go. It's really up to you.

[Bookmarvel]

Thanks Laura!

[°~Amy~°]

Is there a quicker way to check to see if a book is already in the a-z folders? Right now if I want to see if a book is listed, say ARMASTAD for instance, I open up the A folder, sort the titles alphabetically then take a wild guess that it might listed alphabetically on page 3, but no, that isn't far enough, so I jump to page 4 and no, it isn't there so now I have to add it. That is kind of cumbersome and potentially getting worse as we are going to now have two years worth of books in the folders. Is there an easier way to find what I am looking for? If not, I am actually thinking that I won't even bother with the a-z folders this year.

[Zaz]

The search bar on the right? You use one word from the title and you check "show only topic titles". It's how I do it.

[°~Amy~°]

The few times I have done that with simple titles, I get a ton of irrelevant posts. :(

[Zaz]

Search by author then, you shouldn't have more than 10 topics. And you need to check the "show by title" not "show by comment" that is the default view.

[°~Amy~°]

Hm, I think author will work. Goodreads could do with a wee bit of an upgrade in their search features though. I think they have enough users to justify it. Somebody get Zuckerberg over here! :-)

[Jody]

The search function on here blows. I agree. Particularly for partial words - sometimes it won't work, but if I add one more letter, it will. In this day and age, on a big site like this, that shouldn't really be the case.