should we shelve books found by the askers?

[Lisa]

I've been shelving them, but what do members think about shelving books that are found by the members who were looking for them, especially if they find them immediately before other members have given their suggestions?

So far it hasn't been a problem, I don't think, but I'm thinking this could be abused: members asking about books and then "finding" them only in order for those books to get shelved on our group bookshelves.

Thoughts?

[Snail in Danger (Sid)]

I'm not sure anyone actually benefits from having a book added. Even if it's an author asking about their own book, I'm not sure how much the shelves are used. I have used them a couple times in the period when the group search was broken, but other than that, I'm not sure.

EDIT: that said, if it were group policy that books which are found by the asker without group involvement don't get added to the shelves, I wouldn't feel particularly upset.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Hmm. I've found two of my own books without group involvement, which I had been thinking about and looking for for a really long time. I don't know why these two wonderful out of print books should suffer just because I tracked them down myself.

That abuse thing hadn't occurred to me before. I didn't think it was that big a deal for books to be on group shelves, but I'm not an expert on that. Lisa, do you have your eye on any suspicious abusers?

[Lisa]

Lobstergirl wrote: "Lisa, do you have your eye on any suspicious abusers?"

No, not at all. I'm just cautious given what I've seen happen in some other groups. For now, I'm definitely shelving all found books, and I agree that no truly found books should suffer.

For now, I'll take it on a case by case basis, and so far I've seen nothing suspicious.

[Leela4]

> which I had been thinking about and looking for for a really long time

I think there's an answer here in this sentence. If the book is older than a certain age, it can usually be considered legitimate by default.

Yeah, I too found one of the four or five books that had been driving me crazy for twenty years as soon as I posted the query. --The process of describing it inspired a chain of thought which led to the title.

[George]

pls create a button to move our question or to deletewhen our book is found: too many steps otherwise.

You can shelf several of my questions: I have comented that they have been found.

[Lisa]

George, You've posted a lot and I just started catching up.

There is no button. The way it is now is how Goodreads works.

I'll shelve the books, and move folders if needed, when I get to them. I'm caught up through last night. By tonight I'll be caught up for the day.

Any help by original posters re moving threads to solved folders and shelving books is very much appreciated!

[Erin]

I guess I'm a nerd when it comes to getting an answer, but I love to be able to edit my original posts to "Solved."

[Lisa]

Erin wrote: "I guess I'm a nerd when it comes to getting an answer, but I love to be able to edit my original posts to "Solved.""

¥es, we want members to do that. Original posters, when they've found the book, and hopefully thanked the members who helped find it, are supposed to move their threads to the appropriate solved folder and shelve the book. The instructions for doing these things are in the general folder.

If you have a solved book, definitely go to the topic title of the thread, click the edit link to the right of its name, and from the drop down menu choose the appropriate solved folder and then click save. That's the way to do it.

Is there confusion about this?

Thanks.

[Erin]

No, no confusion, I think I was mostly responding to George's comment, I like "finishing" the post by editing it to solved, it doesn't seem like too many steps to me.

[Lisa]

Erin, Good. Yes, that's what members here are asked to do to help keep the group running smoothly. Thank you!

[Laura]

I'm new to this group, so I don't really get the group shelf thing, but I am looking mostly for books that I have already read many years ago so I will be shelving them as read. :)

[Lisa]

Laura (Roses and Vellum) wrote: "I'm new to this group, so I don't really get the group shelf thing, but I am looking mostly for books that I have already read many years ago so I will be shelving them as read. :)"

Laura, In this group we shelve all found books as read. (And we've been linking each shelving to its proper query thread(s))

[Cheryl]

I only saw this thread just now, sorry for late input. I have sensed some 'suspicious' found-by-asker books lately so we might want to revisit this discussion. No evidence to support my suspicions, so no real concern. Maybe just 'bear in mind' for now.

[Lisa]

Cheryl, I've noticed quite a few of these too, although most seem legitimate to me, and I always appreciate when posters come back to update our group members when a book has been found. Some do seem suspicious, but not most.

[Cheryl]

Right, we certainly don't want to discourage posters from letting us know they found the book, howsoever that was accomplished. I think we're fine for now.