The Maelstrom!

Update:

The posts are all out, at least:

*Get this book http://www.librarything.com/topic/77146
*Local Book Search http://www.librarything.com/topic/77148
*Quick Links, Edit Quick Links, All Sources http://www.librarything.com/topic/77149
*Your Ebook Statistics http://www.librarything.com/topic/77151
*Bugs in Monday's new features http://www.librarything.com/topic/77147
*Help put used bookstores on LibraryThing http://www.librarything.com/topic/77118

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So, we've got a maelstrom of new features to release, all related to getting books online and off. Chris, Mike and I have been working together on them for about two months, with occasional help from Dan and Stephanie.

We're going to start releasing things tonight. The main load will come tonight, I think, with some trickling stuff throughout the week.

Some points:

1. The changes are so massive, and so spread out in the files, we are bound to break things as we go. We apologize to members ahead of time.

2. With so much going out, we're going to need to triage on the bug front. We apologize ahead of time if your bug isn't fixed as quickly as you'd like.

3. This is going to be a conversational challenge. We're releasing a lot, and we're going to be very tied up in getting it to work. To help us out, try to comment on the right discussion thread. I'll try to create them as fast as I can, although it will take a while.

4. We're also going to waving our arms, trying to get the book world to notice we've done something fundamentally new, and, I think, fundamental to the survival of physical bookstores! If you agree, we need your help. Twitter this, blog this and tell your bookstore friends why it matters to be online in a real way. We're doing it because we believe in it, but a very real danger all our local work will fail or, worse, make people angry. Your support will be important.

5. When everything settles down, we're going to re-prioritize. This round of features was kicked off by Amazon's decision to forbid non-Amazon links on work pages. We wanted to respond with creativity and strength. But we're also keenly aware that being so focused on this, has left some other parts of the site hanging.

This thread will be for "the push"—for reports on drastically broken stuff, on push coverage, on outages (if we need any) and so forth. Let's keep feature-level bug reports out of it.

Thanks to everyone in advance!

Tim

Just what I need, more help to obtain books!

(Looking forward to the storm)

Storm on hold until Chris resurfaces. He appears to have dived beneath the surface again, and I gather his lungs hold 2 hours of air.

psssshheeeeeewwww.....2 hours and 3 minutes. A new record for me.

Thar she blows!

broken at the moment: author buttons, first profile link on author page and now author button on profile page.

Hmm... Define for me: Author buttons?

The cross-links between author pages and member profiles who are authors.

Okay, hold onto your hats.

The calmest maelstrom I've ever seen. With a few minor jiggles, it all seems to add to the LT universe quite organically.

v

author/profile yellow buttons are still missing.

I know I am being stupid, but I cannot work out where or how to do the local bookstore search - I'm in the UK if that makes a difference.

Thanks

It's on the right side of every work/book page in the green boxes. Look for the target icon. The search defaults to New York if you haven't provided a location. To provide your location simply hit the button that says "Change location" at the top of the search results.

FWIW, I agree with Tim's point 4 above: this is fundamentally different and has the potential to do something powerful for local bookstores, used and new. I can't do a lot to push the idea, but I'll do what I can.

When everything settles down, we're going to re-prioritize.... But we're also keenly aware that being so focused on this, has left some other parts of the site hanging.

Is there going to be room for member feedback on what the priorities should be? ;)

>15

No. We're got a new method. We ask chickens. Then we kill and eat them, and the one that tasted best gets its priorities done first.

Actually, we do have some things queued up. There's a series of catalog-data improvements that are ready for me to advance, for starters. And we need to fix friend-connecting through Google, Facebook. But yeah, we'll be asking.

But yeah, we'll be asking.

Fun :). Maybe you can have another of those contests where everyone lists 5 improvements they'd like to see.

Actually, we're outsourcing all our development to the Book Depository.

:P

#16> See alectryomancy .

#18 The one in Dallas, just up from the grassy knoll?

#20 It is strange that the normally thorough Wikipedia doesn't mention anything about 11 secret herbs and spices?

Can I be Publius Claudius Pulcher, and throw the chickens in the water?