Member list back on author pages

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Member list back on author pages

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1timspalding
Edited: May 11, 2009, 1:45 am

Member lists are back on author pages.

1. The "feature" was trivial. The trick was implementing it as fast and frequently updating as possible. As it is now, if an author has fewer than 1,000 members, it updates every time. If not, it updates daily at most. If the author's work list changes, it updates. At worst it adds about five seconds to J. K. Rowling--one user per day gets stuck with that, and my apologies to him or her!

2. It counts distinct works. I'd rather do books, so that member who has 100 different editions of The Night Before Christmas got noticed. But it surfaces bad data as often as good—people who re-uploaded without replacing, etc.

3. The list now has a link to see the books in the users catalog. It may confuse slightly in that the number represents works, but the catalog always works by books—and so may show more.

4. There's a lot I can do now that I have a solid members-for-author data. What else do those people have? What Zombie books do they read, etc. Ideas welcome.

UPDATE: See also message #33—adding a feature for LibraryThing Authors.

2carport
May 9, 2009, 3:41 am

Yay! Thank you.

Off to play with it, then maybe some requests.

3vaneska
May 9, 2009, 3:58 am

Very minor point: where an author has no books listed there's an error message coming up on the members part of the page, e.g. http://www.librarything.com/author/taruschiofranco

v

4timspalding
May 9, 2009, 4:01 am

Thanks. Got it.

5bookel
May 9, 2009, 4:07 am

Cool, thanks for returning this feature! Can I confirm what the numbers mean? eg. at the top of one of my author pages it says I have 70 books by that author. Members (works) says 59 -- does this mean it only lists distinct works, not including duplicates? In my catalogue it actually says 71 (which includes any duplicates).

6timspalding
May 9, 2009, 4:10 am

Shoot me the author and I'll figure out the 70/71 issue.

7bookel
May 9, 2009, 4:16 am

70 (incorrect) on author page at top; 71 in catalogue (correct); 59 distinct works (is correct).
http://www.librarything.com/author/halllynn

8messpots
May 9, 2009, 4:21 am

Love it. I'm top dog for John Buchan again, and everyone knows it.

9Collectorator
May 9, 2009, 5:08 am

This member has been suspended from the site.

10bookel
Edited: May 9, 2009, 5:13 am

9 - It existed last year but was taken off until now. It is one of my favourite features too. :)

Oh, and I like its position on the page, higher up than it was before, yay!

11Collectorator
May 9, 2009, 5:21 am

This member has been suspended from the site.

12SqueakyChu
May 9, 2009, 10:23 am

This is a very good feature for me. I'm going to use it to back-track to the inventories of LT members on BookMooch, where I otherwise have a hard time finding books I want to mooch. Thanks, Tim!

13MarthaJeanne
May 9, 2009, 12:00 pm

Thank you, Tim. Thankyou, thank you, thank you!

14MMcM
May 9, 2009, 12:28 pm

Can you afford to personalize it by calling out similar / interesting libraries?

15timspalding
May 9, 2009, 2:18 pm

>Can you afford to personalize it by calling out similar / interesting libraries?

What do you mean, exactly?

16staffordcastle
May 9, 2009, 2:40 pm

Hooray!! Thanks, Tim!

17MMcM
Edited: May 9, 2009, 2:53 pm

> 15 The Members section of a work's page has entries for Your interesting libraries and Your top 50 similar libraries. I don't know that separate such lists are needed, but wondered if perhaps those entries could be highlighted (text color, font size, inline icon, ?) in the newly restored list sorted by holdings. The use case is to quickly discover which have any works and what ones, particularly when the author has a reasonable number of works (say a dozen) and there are a reasonable number of members (say a hundred -- less for either and it's not so necessary; more and you're ahead of the long tail, so matching isn't as reliable).

18HeathMochaFrost
May 9, 2009, 3:00 pm

8, 11 - I'm in the lead for Susan Fromberg Schaeffer by SEVERAL books! *sighs* I've missed this feature, too. THANKS, TIM! :-)

19timspalding
May 9, 2009, 3:34 pm

>17 MMcM:

Oh, right. Good point. I'm worried that I can't hold ALL Rowling members in memory at the same time easily. Hmmm.

20vaneska
May 9, 2009, 4:42 pm

Image of Tim singlehandedly juggling Rowling members in the air.....

v

21messpots
May 9, 2009, 5:26 pm

>20 vaneska:
Yeah, he should trim those fingernails first.

22timspalding
Edited: May 9, 2009, 5:49 pm

I'd changed it again, this time to add the same categories as on the work page—your friends, legacy libraries, etc. It doesn't include your 50-most-similars. Above is Voltaire. Adams was a fan. I find it randomly quite interesting.*

The result is a bit mammoth, I think. Too much information?



*Lewis was a bigger fan of Twain than I would have thought. (http://www.librarything.com/author/twainmark)

23staffordcastle
May 9, 2009, 5:47 pm

Nice!

24jbd1
May 9, 2009, 6:00 pm

I like it! It's more information, but I don't find it obtrusive at all (those with huge numbers of 'interesting libraries' or 'friends' may disagree with me here).

25rsterling
May 9, 2009, 6:12 pm

I really like it, especially with the breakdown by friends, legacy, etc.!

26lilithcat
May 9, 2009, 6:23 pm

~snerk~

Back? I never noticed it was gone! Can we have the option to hide it? In fact, is it possible to have the option to chose what to display on the author pages?

I don't care about ratings, for instance, but that takes up a fair bit of space on the author page, so I'd like to be rid of it. But I know there are other folks who live and breathe ratings. Same for this "members" stuff.

27rsterling
Edited: May 9, 2009, 6:54 pm

There's a privacy bug here. My library is private, but if another member has me on his/her private watch list, I'm showing up with the number of books I own by that author, under "private watch list." I'm not showing up under "top members," though. I don't know about "friends" or "interesting" libraries; I only looked at it a friend's account (RL friend not "friend" on LT) who has me only on the private watch list.

ETA - I just tested this, and it's also happening when a private member is listed as a friend or interesting library: you can see whether s/he's got books by this author.

28timspalding
May 9, 2009, 7:19 pm

I'm not seeing this. I've added you to my "interesting libraries." And you are showing up under my interesting libraries now on my profile.

When I go to an author, for example the author whose last name starts "Ar-" and of whom you have 14 books, I do not see you on the member list, either under "Top members (works)," which you'd be under if you were public, or under "Interesting Libraries." Ditto a work page. This makes sense as the "connections list" includes the privacy status, and I'm not sending private users to the function here.

Can you shoot me exact situation that you're getting the problem with?

29SqueakyChu
May 9, 2009, 7:30 pm

I agree with # 26 re # 22. It's more information than I care to have. Can we hide part of it?

30bookel
May 9, 2009, 9:28 pm

Tim not sure if you saw this but it is still incorrect.

70 (incorrect) on author page at top; 71 in catalogue (correct); 59 distinct works (is correct).
http://www.librarything.com/author/halllynn

31jjlong
May 9, 2009, 11:06 pm

Sweet.

32rsterling
May 9, 2009, 11:07 pm

28 - I'll send you a private comment on it.

33timspalding
May 10, 2009, 2:13 am

1. I've added a section for LT authors only—not friends or connections, but their readers.



2. To cut down on the bulk I'm going to turn all into just 10 or 15, with a show all. Tomorrow.

34kevmalone
May 10, 2009, 2:29 am

Goodnight then

35edwinbcn
May 10, 2009, 3:01 am

Thanks for restoring this extremely useful and interesting (trivial?) feature.

Patience rewarded!

Thanks, thanks, thanks.

36jbd1
May 10, 2009, 10:41 am

33 - Tim, I'm not sure this is what you intended, but at the moment these LibraryThing Author stats are showing up on all author pages, whether they're LT-Authors or not.

37rsterling
May 10, 2009, 12:11 pm

36 - I'm not seeing that. Maybe it's there when you're logged on as a legacy library? Do you also see it when you're signed on as yourself? If so, maybe it's because of your association with the legacy project?

38jbd1
May 10, 2009, 12:45 pm

D'oh. Right. Sometimes I forget I'm not logged in as myself. Bingo. Sorry, disregard #36.

39LolaWalser
May 10, 2009, 2:56 pm

yay!

40PortiaLong
May 11, 2009, 12:09 am

Thank you Tim! Back and even better!

41timspalding
May 11, 2009, 12:37 am

It's more information than I care to have. Can we hide part of it?

I've reduced the default numbers for all the lists, and given them "more" links.

42reading_fox
May 11, 2009, 7:10 am

To me it would make more sense to have this close to the " you own x books " by phrase.

I'd quite like it at the top where the phrase is at the moment, but wouldn't mind the phrase moving instead of this section.

43Nicole_VanK
May 11, 2009, 9:11 am

Great, this was my favorite feature and I sorely missed it.

I'd rather do books, so that member who has 100 different editions of The Night Before Christmas got noticed. But it surfaces bad data as often as good—people who re-uploaded without replacing, etc.

Too bad. Yes that would be even better so if it could become possible - sometime in the future - that would be marvelous. But doing happy dance as it is.

44infiniteletters
May 11, 2009, 9:21 am

43: I agree that a books version would be cool for people who legitimately own a lot of different versions.

45anglemark
May 11, 2009, 9:28 am

"legitimately"? ;)

46infiniteletters
May 11, 2009, 10:07 am

45: vs the reupload with dupes version that Tim brought up. ;P

47timspalding
May 11, 2009, 1:11 pm

>45 anglemark:

We wouldn't want to reward book thieves! :)

48Nicole_VanK
May 11, 2009, 2:03 pm

Possession is 9/10th of the law --- exorcise your lawyers

49MrsLee
May 11, 2009, 5:01 pm

Love this feature!

50Donogh
Edited: May 13, 2009, 11:17 am

Very nice indeed
Although it's now plain to see that I am either Bernard Bachrach's long-lost love-child or the man himself!