Goodreads Ireland discussion
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New Moderator and Discussion of Group Guidelines
How can you prevent people from voting?
Or people living in France voting in Irish Elections might be another analogy. But I don't think theres an easy way to do anything about voting anyway.
It wiuld be great if all voters were intending to partake but theres no easy line to draw.
It does seem odd to me that someone votes , reads the book but never comments though. Seems a bit pointless but to each their own I suppose.
It is a difficult one and I can see everyone's points. I'm sure Emma and Sara will keep an eye on it and a few gentle reminders might help.
I think Paul it allows people to hear about books they may otherwise never come across. And that can only be a good thing.
Thanks Emma. That looks quite handy to me .And thats true Seraphina. And this group is great at coming up with a range of books
Emma wrote: "While I agree with you on that if you join a book club you should try to engage with the discussions even if the book you wanted didn't win, because I think the part of the point of a book club is ..."I am sometimes relieved when a book I am not interested in reading wins. I am in 2 other face-to-face book club and have lots of books in my 'to read' pile. So I am probably one of those people who doesn't get in the discussion when a book I wasn't interested in doesn't get chosen. Even in my face to face groups, people skip months when the selection is not something they want to read. I am not particularly a science fiction, fantasy etc. fan but I did "To Say Nothing of the Dog". I have read a couple of books I wouldn't have read ordinarily including The Cuckoo's Calling (so so wouldn't recommend necesarily). I tried to look up our polls but only found some from 2011. I get loads of ideas of what to read from this group including American authors I've never read such as Steinbeck and Vonnegut not to mention Willy Vlautin and Tim O'Brien.
Sara wrote: "I like Emma's suggestion ("Thanks for tidying the buddy reads up. Is it worth considering moving group quarterly and monthly reads older then 12mths, and therefore unlikely to be active, into a gen..."I'm reading Irelandnow please don't delete that thread yet .
There not being deleted just moved to folders. I'm sure the girls will put up a link if you can't find it
Seraphina wrote: "There not being deleted just moved to folders. I'm sure the girls will put up a link if you can't find it"Thanks :)
Thanks Emma.I must have misread the comment and I was worried because Ireland was a long time ago read.:)
Welcome new moderators! I'm sorry to learn Declan has stepped down, but I can imagine being moderator of a blog is a LOT of work. When I went to the library yesterday, they had both The Son and In the Woods waiting for me, so I was thrilled! When I went up to check them out, the librarian said, "I LOVE Tana French! Do you know she has a new book out? We haven't got it yet." By the way, I added six new illustrations to the bullying children's book yesterday, and both books are available free on Kindle/Amazon today, but it's the last day. If you know any little kids, please help yourself to the books - Catherine Sutter
I think these "jobs" always have more than meets the eye. I was president of my community library in Saranac Lake, NY (the Adirondack Mountains), and was surprised at the amount of responsibility and time commitment. I have been on 3 boards, and my experience is, a lot of people are willing to get involved,they see the time commitment, and they bow out. In small communities, it's usually the same people on every board. While it's kind of them, it probably isn't good for the health of the organization. I hope our new moderators don't become overwhelmed. As an elderly woman, I say, enjoy your lives; do what you love.
A suggestion for a nice new Mods.I always thought things got a little hectic around the time of quarterly reads for Declan , with following three nomination threads and setting up the polls .
Why not leave the monthly read nominations and polls to the same time of the month but on a month with the films and Irish reads why not split the effort out and do their nominations and polls a week or so earlier. It might make them easier to manage and tracj
Just a thought but as you guys will be doing the hard work its up to yourselves to find what works for you and Sara
Mod
Also to the best of our recollection: The timeline for the voting process usually goes:
Nominations: 21st - 24th
Initial vote: 25th - 27th
Tie break vote: 28th - 30th
Does that match whatever one else remembers?
We will be following the same tie breaking system that we have been doing. We will both still vote in the initial vote and then abstain from the tie break vote. If there's still a tie after that second round of voting we will alternate who casts it.
I think for the time being, we're going to stay away from any qualifications on who is allowed to nominate and vote on books. It seems like a bit of a headache to police, and we're not sure it's really necessary.
I am going to update the group info page with description of the tie break process.
You are doing a great job ladies so well done for filling big shoes ☺
wow alot has happend since i checked the group last, to the new admins congrats and can't wait to see the group continue forward i know it will be great, wo looking there i have been in this group sense Dec 31, 2011 have expanded my reading out of my comfort zone and hope to keep that going i know my life for the next year is going to hetice so i may not be involved as much
oh i know that :) i'll still check the group for book suggestions book reading for pleasure will keep me sane in my final undergraduate degree when alot of stuff will be happening and massive decisions need to be made
I'm the opposite my reading actually picked up bar during exam times. I'm in my final year of Level 8 Accounting Degree
@ Emma I think when you do a degree like English, Classics etc where you have to read a lot of novels and plays for the course, your leisure time reading naturally suffers. I used to love when i finished exams and had the summer to read whatever I wanted.
Fair play keeping the reading going during the degree Gav. I used to spend an hour in and out on a bus so managed to keep my reading going. I only did a year of classics and I'm not sure how my reading would have suffered if i did English or classics the whole way
I did english at uni too, and the exact same thing; during the summer it was nice to pick my own books. I remember a big shopping trip straight after exams, my bags just full of books. however I feel that I did and still do gravitate towards more literary books.
I like Sara's initial ideas about the voting for books and would be quite happy to lead a discussion if a book I nominate was voted in. I think it is a good idea to say that if you nominate and/or vote for a book you should at least be in the discussion but I also agree that sometimes life gets in the way of achieving this goal.
I also think that it would be very difficult to police and tedious to monitor who can and can't vote and nominate books to read. I think this would make too much work for the moderators.
Thank you to Sara and Emma for taking up these positions.
Fiona wrote: "I think the moderator(s) of the group should read the monthly and quarterly books chosen by the members. "
I don't think you're making the role of a moderator demanding enough Fiona. I mean they don't have enough work to do as it is. Moderators should read *everything* that we nominate in the poll, and that's an order.
As for the winning book each month, I think they should come to each of our houses, and read us to sleep while feeding us grapes, and gently stroking our hair.
John, If we don't like grapes can we choose an alternative. I think this will be the beauty of two mods. If one is busy the other will more than likely be involved in reading the monthly book.
Nice to ease a bit of pressure.
Mod
Mod
You and Emma are great in all discussions anyway so we appreciate the effort
Oh god I've had enough of this American group masquerading as Goodreads Ireland. Wouldn't know a bit of Irish banter if it kicked you in the gee. Or ended in a smiley.I've been struggling to get with the vibe of this group for a while. The last few interactions are nails in the coffin. We ain't ever gonna click.
Doubt there'll be any broken hearts for my departure :) :) :)
Slan
Good luck John. I hope to see you around again.
I thought your post was nicely cheeky.
Its a shame as you bring a quirky taste to the group.
Slan agus beatha
Sorry to see you go John, I assumed you were going for cheeky/sarcastic and it made me smile. All the best.
@ John - I totally thought your comments were spot on. I'm in 2 minds as to stay or not.
People are dropping like flies. Why do you feel that way ILTR?
@ Jamie Lynn I don't think John has a problem with Americans, i think he just got annoyed that what was intended as a tongue in cheek comment was taken up wrong. @ Kate I hope you don't leave too.
I do think the response to Johns very obvious joke was very over the top from both Fiona and Sara. It wasn't hostile in anyway , and the response he got was so its not surprising he felt a little put upon.Everyone is a little sensitive at the moment with recent events and it will all settle down.
I hope you stay Kate.
The chats in general are getting back to normal at least and with nominations coming up at the weekend we'll be in full flow quick enough
Bear in mind that often the written word can be taken the wrong way. Sometimes it can be hard to read the tone of what the writer intended to convey. If I read some of the things my son has said and did not know him personally, I might tend to think that he was an arrogant wanker.Food for thought.
Fair point. That's why I ask that we should all think about what we write and also how we respond .
The second post was a reaction more so. He was annoyed at his humour being misinterpreted. Ironically it was an Irish member who misunderstood his post.
@ Jamie Lynn I obviously can't speak for john. I meant his first post was tongue in cheek. The second one was probably written in fruatrastion. Having members from lots of different countries is what makes this group so interesting. Whether or not it's called GoodReads Ireland the non Irish members are as integral a part as anyone.
I'm not making a criticism of anyone here, and people are free to join or leave groups as they wish, but could the issue be that some people who have been in the group for a long time, like John and Kate, remember the time when there were less posts, but those posts were primarily on topic ie about books?I don't think that there is any less chat about books in the group than when I joined, but it's just that there are a lot more asides because of the number of people posting.
But hey, things change, and groups develop. One doesn't have to take part in every discussion, and as long as people are pleasant to each other, I can't see an issue.
I hope that my thoughts make some sense...
Mod
I also echo what Allan said. In particular, if we could try to keep the various asides in the appropriate threads (Nothing to Books with books etc.) it would make it much easier for those who want to just focus on the book discussions to find them.
Finally, thanks Trelawn for you kind words about us non-Irish members of Goodreads Ireland!. I definitely appreciate that this group has an Irish character. I like that we have a quarterly read, and that Allan in particular has shared many Irish authors and book news from his of the words. If anyone has suggestions about how to interject even more Irish content into the group, I (and I'm sure Emma as well) would love to hear it. Someone in a private message to me suggested an Irish history thread which I'll be putting up soon. Aside from that, the group and its content are only as strong as what our members contribute.
Thanks to both mods for addressing the issues ☺An Irish History thread is a great idea
The comment about American members in the group was way below the belt. Barbara is the most knowledgeable person I know about both Irish fiction and non fiction, and Sara, your breadth of reading and insight into what you read is second to none. And that's without mentioning those with recent Irish lineage or Irish birth (JL and Donna), or even those members who have been in the group from before Declan was moderator (Susan). I wonder if I'm classed as Irish, coming from the north and traveling on a British passport? Should Theresa and I be barred? Sara, your ideas about extra threads are great for the group, but don't be giving yourself unnecessary work. As I said above, there's no less book related content in the threads than ever there was-it's just that sometimes it gets lost in the prolific posting. But that's what makes the group what it is-something that I don't want to change, but which may rankle with the odd person.
And regarding Irish content, I know that there was a time that it was purely Irish reads, but the rules were changed because people wanted more variety. I think the quarterly read is perfect, and at the end of the day, if someone wants to nominate an Irish book at any time, people are free to vote for it!
And can I just reiterate that both Sara and Emma are doing an excellent job; it's just impossible to keep all the people happy all of the time.
Ah here lads, this is getting ridiculous!
Well i do think you over reacted to an obvious joke and the reply was over the top.But we will miss you here and i do hope you and Declan return at some point.
And please can no one else leave. We are a great group because of the mix of tastes and personalities and its a shame to lose a few of them
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Theresa where did you get the information about who's commented and who hasn't? If this is something easy to look up for the moderators, we may be more inclined to try it. I might even go so far as to say that people should have made one comment within the past year to qualify (if I could find that information easily).