Why are there two general folders? / Suggestions to improve the group.

[AsimovsZeroth]

Not trying to be overly critical, but is General going to be reserved for moderator only posting? If so, shouldn't it be renamed? I ask, because it's really confusing that all of the monthly currently reading threads are in General, except for the most recent one (October) which is located in General User Discussions. Especially as General User Discussions is all the way at the bottom of the page and General is at the top. Shouldn't it at least be above the regional book events, as it's likely to be used a lot more?

Actually, everything seems a little hastily thrown together thus far. Why is there a general folder for books by genre, instead of individual folders for genres? For that matter, why is there a genreless Book Discussions folder, if we're supposed to make individual genre threads within Discussions by Genre?

Seriously not trying to be mean, Chrissy and Rachel, I really do appreciate that you have taken it upon yourselves to get a Reading Glasses group started and having run quite a few group forums myself, I understand that it can take a little bit of trial and error to work out how you'd like the discussions organized.

I only mention it because in my experience, if your forum isn't organized so that the average member can intuitively find what they're looking for, the group tends to fail. With 500+ members already, it's clear that people are excited to talk to fellow Reading Glasses fans about books, but there really isn't much activity. Sure, there are always tons of lurkers in groups, but it still seems like there should be more book discussions starting up spontaneously by now.

I'm not just idly criticizing, I'd be happy to help in any way I can. The only reason that I'm posting this here, instead of privately messaging our lovely Admin team, is that I'm sure other people may have their own ideas - not necessarily organizational, but perhaps what they'd like to get out of this group.

Anyone else have any input?

[Allison]

Cataloging! I second this- saw this message immediately after I struggled to find this month's reading thread.

[Allison]

Is there a currently reading thread for November?

[AsimovsZeroth]

Yeah, I can't find it either. I don't think they've put it up yet.

[Rachel]

I'll be addressing these as straight forward as I can. First of all, Chrissy and I had extremely difficult in real life months. Life happens, and while I would love to say this takes precedence over that, it doesn't.

- General is a group GoodReads will not allow us to rename. We cannot rename this group. It just exists. I have tried. If someone can find a work around, please let me know.

- I have moved the General Book Discussions.

- There is a folder for books by genre because we found it would be easiest and less cluttered to go to a "Horror" thread and find horror books, than have a million sections with random threads. We felt this would be the best way to organize.

- The genreless book discussions folder is there for you to bring up a book (as some have done) of any genre, and discuss it with people. I would never venture into a Horror thread, however, I may have read a book that someone wants to discuss. Hence the book discussions thread.

I will say that in my experince, GoodReads groups are not active like other forums. We have done our best to meet everyone's requests for what they'd like. Also, everyone is free to start a November Reading post. You don't have to wait for us, however I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused anyone.

We've now created a comments/suggestions/questions thread where all replies are immediately sent to my phone so I can reply quickly.

I hope this answers your questions, and please know in the future that I get GoodReads messages notifications instantly and can respond immediately, as I did to your private message after I got off my shift today.