Librarian Group folders [call for feedback]

[Linde]

Jaclyn wrote: "Let's try a Librarians folder first and see how it goes.

Any other thoughts on a separate folder for comic book requests?"

1. I'm very happy with the Questions (librarians only) folder!

2. Sounds good, I'd include Manga: "Manga & Comic books". I'm skipping both at the moment and they're quite similar in how they should be handled. =D

3. I've got a few standard responses saved that I use, would that help?
- For an author to become a Goodreads Author
- To ask for more info, different per topic; new book/edition, cover, page count
- For done requests (by me or by others)
- Explaining why a response can take a while (we're volunteers)
- Wrong folder
- Contact Goodreads support
...

4. Add the folder "General" in this post: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... (also staff only + general info that doesnt change often or something like that + posts added by non-staff member will not be picked up by librarians and will be...)

5. The difference between the folders Anounements, Policies & Practices and Librarian Manual are fuzzy and unclear for me, and the distinction doesn't add value in my opinion. Suggestions for the name of the combined folder: "Announcements (by staff only)", "News (only from staff)", "News (from staff for everyone)", "Updates (from staff to everyone" or something similar. Could they be combined? Why do I think that would help?
* Overall, they have the same purpose; as staff you update users (I think all of them; from readers to (other/new) staff members, to (super)librarians and authors) on something; i.e. updates/upgrades/changes in the Goodreads tool, this group, policies, practices or the manual. The title of each topic can show which kind of announcement it is. Just like with the stories being news or interviews, except here it can/would be integrated in the title of the topic. A new topic can start with something like; "Librarian Group:", "Policies & Practices:", "Librarian Manual:", "Goodreads change:" or "Announcement:" (if it doesn't fit any of the other categories) or somethimg else.
* Right now, for me it feels like I need to check multiple folders to see if there is anything I need to do differently or that I just need to know, instead of simply just one.
* When I wasn't a Librarian yet, I read the manual too, so that can be useful for many different types of users.
* Folders are already used interchangeably by staff. See two examples of posts about a Librarian Manual update in the Policies & Practices folder here or in the Announcement folder here
* And the topics added in those folders by all other users (besides staff), can and should now be posted in other existing folders, like the Question folder.
* All are from staff only
* This way just the top 2 folders are staff only, making that clearer and more simplified
* Less folders for "folder maintenance" by moderators, which hopefully also means less work for them (* A clean out of incorrect posts in General, Announcements, Policies & Practices, Requests for Superlibrarians, and Additions to Librarian Manual folders. I'll prompt moderators to do this on a more regular loop.)
* Above I've listed my pros. I'm trying to think of cons for combining these folders, and honestly, I can't think of any. For instance, the updates aren't soooo frequent that to be able to keep track of them or an overview of them, separation in multiple folders would be needed (or something like that)

[Jaclyn, Librarian Program Manager]

Update that it is now mandatory that members select a folder when posting in the group. This should lead to less noise in the general folder. 😊

[Dobby]

That's good news; thanks!

[L J]

Jaclyn wrote: "Update that it is now mandatory that members select a folder when posting in the group. This should lead to less noise in the general folder. 😊"

Thanks. Hopefully this will help.

[Emmy]

Jaclyn wrote: "Update that it is now mandatory that members select a folder when posting in the group. This should lead to less noise in the general folder. 😊"

Looks like this is working great! I've seen no more 'stray' requests in the 'general' folder lately... ;)

[Tal]

Just out of curiosity, why was the Announcements folder removed from the list of group discussion folders? This folder is no longer listed after "General" and before "Adding New Books & Editions", see screencap below.

[gem]

I was curious about that too. It was the first place I checked when visiting the group. Figured there was some kind of folder reorg coming.

[Tawnya]

I have it bookmarked, and it is one of six folders that I use the "open all" every morning, so I didn't even realize it is no longer on the main page.

Here is the direct link if it helps:
Announcements

[Scott]

Maybe because authors kept using it to announce their new books.

[Stefano]

I've got an idea about the add-new-book-requets: it could be a drop-down menu inside the form where the laguage of the edition can be selected. This way anticipates the "lost found" folder for language posts and make easy the process to resolve add new book requests (which I suppose are the more frequent ones), before they'll become old and need to be recovered to the "language requests" folder. I mean that it's more easy for someone to navigate its own language sites and to work with related data.