Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

As this is a relatively new group, I am in the process of building it up. If anyone has any suggestions, or improvements that they want to see implemented, please let me know either by posting here or messaging me. I want this group to be the best it can be, and the people who will get the most out of it, I hope, will be you guys.

I'm thinking of doing group reads when we hit 2014. Perhaps a classic, contemporary and young adult? That way it covers all the areas of general fiction. Readalongs/buddy-reads seperate are of course welcome!

I'm also interested in having another moderator. Obviously the group is still in the works, and I'd love it if someone was interested enough to want to be a mod. Please message me if you want to be!

So yeah, if you have any suggestions for edits or introductions of different things, please feel free to post here.

As always, feel free to make your own discussions about books or anything. Discussion is good!

Hi everyone,

2014 is coming up fast, and the aim is to get this group functioning just before then to make sure it's ready to really go for it in 2014!

If anyone has any suggestions/wants to comment on anything, please post here or send me a message. I want to make this the best group I can, and I'm sure Faye does too!

The Group Bookshelf hasn't really been used yet, although I do see some books already on there, posted by another member.

Ultimately, I'm not sure how much use the Group Bookshelf will be. If people want to put on the books they've read, it might be a good evaluation of everything people have read.

Currently, anyone can add books to the bookshelf. It's quite a nice feature, so I don't see why it should be limited just to moderators.

If you use an app on an iphone or tablet there is no reply button. Some people may not be using it because they are not on a computer.

Hi Sandy,

Roseanne makes a good point. I use the iPhone app frequently, and I know a few people also do.

Ultimately, I wish we could enforce it. I do agree that it would make the conversations easier, but this now way we could make people do it. It's how people post. But I'll make sure to mention it in the new group message...

There are other limitations with the app that I don't like yet I am still on the app because I cant get my kids off the computer. You cant link book titles or see the goodreads challenge. If I am replying to someone and I think it is too far from their comment sometimes I will just wait until I get on a computer.

You could always do the "so-and-so wrote" part manually? All it takes is quotation marks, the person's name, and a snippet of what they said. Or you could go Twitter-esque and use @member-name. Or even give the number of the comment you're replying to. (For instance, this comment is @Roseanne, comment #10.)

Sorry to butt in :) a few members on the new non fiction chat thread are enquiring as to whether it would be possible to run a non fiction challenge within the group this year? Maybe with a different topic each month? Biography, self help, etc?

Vikki wrote: "Sorry to butt in :) a few members on the new non fiction chat thread are enquiring as to whether it would be possible to run a non fiction challenge within the group this year? Maybe with a differe..."

Thanks for the suggestion! Holly and I will discuss it and let you know what we come up with. :)

Thanks Faye :)

Hi all,

Both Faye and I have realised that the group has become a bit quieter over the last few months, with less people taking part in the group reads and discussions. Although I can't moan at the dedicated group that seem to continually post here! :)

We were just wondering if there was anything people want to see to get the discussions up and running again. The Mini Challenges have been marvellously popular.

Whether it's a new idea or a suggestion in changing how we're running things, any comments would be wonderful. We want to make the group the best it can be, so hopefully things will start picking up again!

People may just be busy, or have no internet access (it is summer after all). :P I know I went missing for a few months because I was so busy that something had to go, and Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ was it.

I find the group is pretty active for its number of members. I'm a member of other groups, and they happen to be more active because they have twice as many members or more. I think the only exception is All About Books, which in fairness is a bit more general than this group.

I have a couple of ideas. :) The first is to host events based around reading books under 130 pages.

I say 130 pages because most of my smaller books are over 100 pages, but not 130. I also think this may get more participation because a bunch of us are behind in their challenges. These events could serve to kickstart our reading by having us all read a book together, that can be read in one day.

What we could do is this, we first create a thread to name all our books (read or unread) that are shorter than 130 pages. We can also hunt books on the site, or Amazon. Then, once a month, a moderator (just for the sake of expediency, and to make it different from the monthly group reads) picks from that list.

A thread would be opened on a specific day at a specific time. Then people would have to post as soon as they finished reading, linking to their reading progress (just to prove they did read it that day and not ahead of time). You could even make it a requirement that they post a short review. Whoever finishes the most one-day challenges at the end of the year gets a badge to put on their profile. Or maybe even a physical thing, like a personalized bookmark. I know some of our members are crafters, perhaps they'd like to contribute.

Since we have members on different timezones, maybe there could be three threads on different days. One for the Australians/East Asians, one for the Europeans/West Asians, and one for the American continent. They'd just have to read the book in under 24 hours, and read it on the day of, not ahead of time.

Another suggestion would be to ensure that at least one moderator reads every monthly pick. Someone who can think of questions that provoke debate. That's what I miss most in this group, and a reason I think threads may be shorter. You could even get a group of dedicated helpers that like generating discussion, and ask them if they're going to read a monthly pick, then ask them to handle the thread and get people talking. One of the best times I've had on this group was when we discussed Northanger Abbey. It was mostly three of us, Jude, Sandy and I, but we kept the thread going, and got other people's attention. We did go off topic for a bit, though. :P So it would have to be someone who can ask questions, remain on topic, handle disagreements if the topic gets too hot, etc.

Hope any of this is helpful! \o/

Great idea, Aitziber.

For the monthly pick, instead of having a moderator read it, we could have people who volunteer for asking questions / creating a debate, like the leader of a book club. For example, when the group pick was "The Metamorphosis", I could have filled that role as I had already read it before.
Or maybe name people as "sub-moderators" if that's even possible, who would be in charge of group reads as it might be too much for the moderators.

I also go back to my idea of letting members know when nominations are open. If your suggestion is in the poll or/and being read, you're more likely to participate.

We could also create "Readathons" like the ones that are organised on Booktube, where we select a week during the year during which we read as much as possible. We could also have mini challenges within the week. The last Readathon on Booktube had challenges such as "Read a book with red on the cover". It could be anything from reading a children's book to reading to book with an author with whom you share initials. We could also have several people organising different Readathons throughout the year.

What do you think?

I love the idea of the readathons. It would definitely do well to get everyone reading together, and would potentially create a lot of discussion. When reading your ideas, I immediately thought to around Christmas time? That way we can do a last final push to get our goals for the year.

While I know that, with University coming up, it would be hard for me to read the Group Reads, there is an ability to set a 'Discussion leader' for the group reads, much like Camille highlighted. Someone could nominate themselves to lead the discussion, either if they've read it before or are really psyched to read it. That way discussion can perhaps have more of an direction and lead.

As for the notifications when nominations are etc, the main reason we don't notify people (especially through group messages), is because we don't want to spam people's inbox. Would it be better to set a specific dates that nominations, polls and poll closures happen? That way people know automatically when they are on.

eg. 16th - Nominations open
19th - Nominations closed, polls open
22nd - Polls closed, winners announced?

We could easily add this information to the Group's description bit, so people are aware.

I really love the ideas posted, it would definitely make things interesting, and would generate lots of discussions!

There has been some discussion between me and Faye about getting another Moderator in, just to make sure we have things under control and running smoothly. Another possibility, is that we set the moderators with more defined roles (eg. one in charge of group reads, one in charge of 50 questions (like Faye is now), and one in charge of general things and queries). That way things are more likely to be run smoothly and efficiently.

I think having specific dates for the nominations and polls is a good idea and is probably the most convenient way of doing it. If everyone is aware of it, more people can participate. It also saves you have to email all the time.

Readathons could be done when people usually have time off - around Easter, during the summer, around Christmas. I am not sure what school holiday dates are outside of Europe, but we usually also have time off in October and also sometimes in February in France and the UK.

How about having mini readathons at the beginning or end of the month, starting on a Friday at 12:01 a.m. to Sunday 12:00 a.m.?

That's a good idea! So the last weekend of every month is a readathon. I know Renee was thinking about mini challenges based on each month, so we could incorporate both together. I think it just depends how many readathons people want.

I participate in weekend readathons elsewhere. Its fun. I can see how the smaller book idea would work but I personally would probably not participate in that. I generally don't read books that small unless it looks really interesting or is a prequel to another book. I love buddy reads. I love having someone to discuss a book with and I find more discussion in a buddy read than the BOMs. I have done buddy reads where there are lists of questions for the book making it more structured. Very easy to google and find stuff like that. Maybe questions and a leader will help with BOM.

I'm pretty excited with all these ideas, and I can't wait to see what becomes a feature. :D I volunteer for whatever I can help with.

I love all of the ideas coming from everyone! I likely wouldn't participate in the smaller book challenge, although I think it's a fantastic idea. For whatever reason, the books that I typically select are 300+ pages and in looking at my bookshelves, I don't have anything that would fall under the 130 page limit. The weekend readathon sounds like so much fun. I haven't participated in any of those before but it sounds like a fantastic way to spend my weekend. This may sound silly, but would we still be able to participate even if we weren't able to read for the whole weekend? Would we be counting our pages read or would we be trying to complete multiple books in the 2 days? Sorry for the questions, it's all new to me!

Kassandra wrote: "I love all of the ideas coming from everyone! I likely wouldn't participate in the smaller book challenge, although I think it's a fantastic idea. For whatever reason, the books that I typically se..."

The one I participate in counts how many pages you read from midnight friday night to midnight sunday night and you just post what books and how many pages you read. Some weekends I do better than others

Roseanne wrote: "The one I participate in counts how many pages you read from midnight friday night to midnight sunday night and you just post what books and how many pages you read. Some weekends I do better than others."

Thanks Roseanne. This is perfect for me, I hope the group does it! I really didn't need any more reasons to read - but now this gives me a valid excuse as to why I must spend my weekend reading :)

We could definitely incorporate both together. We can always have a separate thread for people wanting to focus on smaller book numbers. It would be great to have some volunteers to help run the readathons.

Sandy, I think if someone would be willing to step up when there's a book they've read, to lead the discussion, then that would be great. Understandably, this can't happen with every read, then I expect either one of the moderators will try to do the best they can, or the nominator could pick it up. Does that sound alright?

Kassandra, I think it doesn't matter if you can't read for the whole weekend. For many people, it's probably impossible. Just try and read as much as you can during the weekend. You don't have to read for the whole of it.

If people are really interested, we could do one to celebrate the start of school, so round early September? We could do kind of a tester one to see how it works?

Roseanne, we'd really love to try push the concept of buddy-reads over the next few months and into the next year. If you have any ideas on how to do that, that would be excellent!

Me and Faye have been thinking about expanding the group a lot. If you have any specific ideas for threads or recurring items, please let you know. We're really looking for volunteers to start organising their own things, such as threads. Please let me or Faye know if you're interested in a specific idea (maybe one that you haven't mentioned yet), or just are interested in helping in any future projects. Feel free to pop us a message.

I'd like to volunteer for the readathons, if that's ok?

Holly - I'd be up for a readathon in early September. That would be a good test run for us to see how it would work within the group.

I might open it up to the whole group and just see how it goes. Ideally, it would be handy to have a few people just making sure, if people have any questions, or anything, to keep them on track. Perhaps to lend a hand in encouraging people and everything to go ahead :)

I was looking at Charioteer discussions when I noticed this feature at another group. It apparently hosts group reads of one of the members' favorite books that said member is very knowledgeable about. They talk about the book in depth. This wouldn't be like one of the monthly reads because it wouldn't be voted on, but the member's suggestion/favorite book, and it wouldn't be like a buddy read because the one member has already read it and knows a lot about it.

Perhaps we could open a thread in which we mention our favorite books that we know a lot about. Then we'd have a poll like, "Mary - The Red Wallpaper", "Joseph - Babies that weren't mine", and the person with the most votes gets to go first. Every so often, we have the poll again in case we want to revise our favorites, or new members want to add theirs.

Also, going into 2015, would it be possible for us members to have a say in some of the genres that get a month to themselves? Perhaps we could nominate genres, and the 6 to get the most votes are part of the 12 genres next year, or something? :)

Aitziber, both great ideas! Aiziber, I still love your idea about the short novels idea.

*Wonder which genres Aitziber would vote off the island?*

We would be voting for the genres we would like to see, though!

We could also be more precise, e.g. instead of classics, it could be 19th century classic, or Spanish classic, etc to get a variety of genres and explore more aspects of literature.

The main reason we didn't allow members to pick genres in 2014 was mainly because of the timeframe. Considering most of the members joined after Jan 1st, we thought a very general set that we could start from Jan 1st would be best. Having all the members input on what our genres will be is definitely a great idea!

The only issue really is actually voting. Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ doesn't allow ordered votes (eg, ranking genres 1-12), so using the polls feature would be very clunky, unless we can work out a way to vote.

As for the members favourite reads, I absolutely love the idea. I am a bit confused though. Is like a leader-led buddy read? Or simply a discussion for anyone who has read it or wants to read it? We could make like a calendar and have the weekly member post, where one member talks about their favourite book.

I am loving your thirst for ideas, Aitziber, thank you!

Holly wrote: "The main reason we didn't allow members to pick genres in 2014 was mainly because of the timeframe."

I figured that was the reason! actually, I'm pretty sure I read elsewhere in the group that you were thinking of having the members vote on possible genres next year. I just thought I'd post to let you know there's interest in doing exactly that. :)

The only issue really is actually voting. Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ doesn't allow ordered votes (eg, ranking genres 1-12), so using the polls feature would be very clunky, unless we can work out a way to vote.

I admit I have no idea how GR groups work behind the scenes. Is it not possible to cast more than one vote in a single poll? That's inconvenient. I suppose one possibility would be to have the same poll three times, and instruct people to vote for three different genres (for instance), but it seems like a hassle. :/a Another idea, depending on participation, would be to instruct people to vote for ONE genre, that they didn't nominate, and hope there are enough nominations and votes cast that six clear winners emerge victorious.

As for the members favourite reads, I absolutely love the idea. I am a bit confused though. Is like a leader-led buddy read? Or simply a discussion for anyone who has read it or wants to read it? We could make like a calendar and have the weekly member post, where one member talks about their favourite book.

Haha, so I came back to that discussion I found, and it turns out it wasn't a member's favorite. The group was actually created to have a place to interact with an indie author called Josh Lanyon, and one of the features was discussing Josh Lanyon's favorite books, with his participation and insights. I still think it's a doable idea even if we're not indie authors ourselves. I like your idea of a calendar! I suppose it'd be like a leader-led buddy read, yes, but the member who's picked the book has to have read it and be fairly knowledgeable of it.

Holly wrote: "The only issue really is actually voting. Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ doesn't allow ordered votes (eg, ranking genres 1-12), so using the polls feature would be very clunky, unless we can work out a way to vote."

Would it be kosher to conduct the poll on a separate website? Something like Easypolls where you can set up a poll that allows voters to select multiple choices, in this case 12, out of a large list of options?

Camille wrote: "We could also be more precise, e.g. instead of classics, it could be 19th century classic, or Spanish classic, etc to get a variety of genres and explore more aspects of literature."

I agree with you Camille, "classics" is really to large, it should be more precise, or give the oportunity to be "classic" for you, because classic american litterature is not the same than classic french litterature or even classic english litterature...

And I love the idea of voting for the genres for next year. It would be a good idea to post a link with an access to another website, which only member of the group could have access to, and voting for the genres that the "board" would have submit. What do you think ?

I like the points challenge, but I would love it if the one(s) with the highest number of points could get some kind of prize by year's end. Anything from a bookmark to an Amazon giftcard. Or food!

For instance, this sells 25 bookmarks of your own design for $6.15 plus shipping. You could design a Winner of The Points Challenge 2015 bookmark. :P

We'll definitely look into it, Aitziber!

I'm changing the banner now that the Readathon is over.

Any suggestions for the text/colour? :)

Is it possible to do a yellow/red/brown gradient?

Also, would it be okay to open a new welcome thread? On the app, you have to click for a long time to see the new messages and welcome the new members. Perhaps you could have an Archived folder for threads that don't get messages anymore, like monthly reading counts for past months, nomination threads and the like.

Aitziber wrote: "Is it possible to do a yellow/red/brown gradient?

Also, would it be okay to open a new welcome thread? On the app, you have to click for a long time to see the new messages and welcome the new me..."

a new welcome thread is a great idea. I admit I dont look at it much because I am mostly on the app and it is just too much to get to the end. What if it was quarterly or monthly.

Sandy wrote: "Aitziber wrote: "Is it possible to do a yellow/red/brown gradient?

Also, would it be okay to open a new welcome thread? On the app, you have to click for a long time to see the new messages and w..."

I think that feature is not available on the android app which is the one I use.

Roseanne wrote: "I think that feature is not available on the android app which is the one I use. "

I use android too. I'll look into it just in case, but the Android app is considerably crappier than the iOs app.

Aitziber wrote: "Roseanne wrote: "I think that feature is not available on the android app which is the one I use. "

I use android too. I'll look into it just in case, but the Android app is considerably crappier ..."

definitely the lesser app but the other day I noticed that I can now see when someone posts a book cover so I am hoping changes are coming

I stop reading threads when they're over a certain number of posts, it's just too long winded.

The new Member Introductions thread is now up. I've locked the previous thread so people can no longer post in it.

I kind of have to agree with Lauren there, not that there is a foreseeable fix to said problem though.

We just need to accept that this is a rather busy group ha. I also think a lot is down to the fact that I am still relatively new to this site, you I guess it takes a little while to get used to used to everything.

Great work though, it must be said.

Thanks for the feedback! Most of the threads that are commonly used are renewed every months (most reading threads), so generally, things are quite usable. It is just the more stable threads.

Hopefully this can be rectified a bit in 2015, where I expect we'll start archiving old threads to make way for new, 2015 ones!

Regarding the personal challenges, could we open a section for 2015 and eventually archive the 2014 section to keep it tidier?

Camille wrote: "Regarding the personal challenges, could we open a section for 2015 and eventually archive the 2014 section to keep it tidier?"

We'll be doing that at the start of December. :)