How do you deal with the massive number of threads in this group?

We all know that this is a high-volume group, which can be a bit overwhelming (unless you're Stasia). I thought it might be useful for both new and old members if we shared some strategies for dealing with the huge number of posts. How do you find threads of interest, and once you know which threads you want to follow, what next?

I think the best places to start are the general introduction thread, the What Are You Reading genre threads, and the TIOLI challenge. I star all these threads when they come up (or at least, the ones for genres that I'm interested in). Then from those threads I can get an idea of which individual members have similar reading tastes to me, so I'll follow their threads as well--which can conveniently be found in the Threadbook on the wiki. Again, I mark the threads that I'm particularly interested in with stars. I very rarely ignore a thread. I also read the Message Board thread for announcements about group reads, etc.

In Talk, I look at the Your Groups view. This can mean that the 75 Book Challenge group overwhelms everything else, so I periodically go directly to the group page for other groups of particular interest to make sure I haven't missed anything.

What are some other strategies that you use for keeping on top of things?

I pretty much do the same Zoe, except I use the Ignore feature liberally. There is just no way I'm going to be able to read, let alone follow and respond to all those threads (not being Stasia) so I x out the ones I'm fairly certain won't interest me. Even with stars, it's still a LOT to wade through!

et fix typoh!

Once I've found folks that I want to follow, I tend to star my favorite threads (here and on other boards), and use the "your starred" view most often. I try to regularly go to the 75 group main page (as well as the main pages of my other groups) and randomly visit a few unstarred threads to see who else is out there -- and add another star, if I find another kindred-spirited reader.

I hate to use "ignore" for fear of missing out on something/someone interesting down the road . . .

The reality is, it's nearly impossible for me to even keep up with my starred threads here. I have no idea how Stasia can keep up with everyone and still have any time for reading, let alone all the reading that she does.

An idea:
I'm wondering if there isn't some way to break down our overwhelmingly large groups into smaller groups. I don't mean to break apart a group but rather have some subdivisions or "clusters".

For example, say I'm in the 75 books in 2011 challenge group, and I want to start a 75-book group "cluster". This would not be a private group, but it would be a "core group" of a defined number of members who decide to follow each other.

In my mind, a good number for a cluster would be ten people. This could vary, of course.

An example (I'll just use colors because there are so may of them): A member would post a notice to begin a Pink cluster for ten people who like to read romance novels. They'd star each others' threads and follow each other.

Another example: A member would like to start the Gray cluster of 15 people of people between the ages of 60 and 65 (or any other parameter).

In other words, anyone could set up a cluster by defining the number of members and parameters. Could something like this work?

The threads would always remain open for comments by anyone but the "core group" of each cluster would always remain the same (unless someone drops out).

The clusters could be managed on a wiki very easily.

Alternatively, is this too much organization for a talk thread?

I read them all every day. That way I never get behind. Problem solved.

>5 alcottacre:: Not enough hours in my day. How many are in yours??

#6: 24. I spend most of them awake though.

*sigh* I know it is not an answer for most people, Terri. I wish it were.

I'm afraid I red-x most of the 75 challenge threads. I know I'm missing a lot, but I just don't have the time to spend working out which ones interest me the most. I wish it were otherwise.

>4 SqueakyChu: MADeline. Does your creative idea mind ever take a vacation?? I can't even wrap my mind around how this would work, but it feels a little like grade school Red Rover -- what if no one picks me? (or joins my cluster). *Having flashbacks*

> 4

Does your creative idea mind ever take a vacation??

Heavens, no!

My response:
If no one picks *me*, it wouldn't stop me from visiting other threads. If people do pick me, it would be because we decided up front that we have something more in common that we as the (name the color) Cluster would like to share. It would provide a viable option for people who are overwhelmed by the sheer number of names and threads in a large group.

FYI: This group (started 6 days ago!) already has 174 members and is growing fast...

It would be opt-in in the same way that group reads are optional. If no one joins my cluster, perhaps the cluster topic needs to be improved.

The reason I thought of this is that, on day 6 of the new 75-ers group, I'm already overwhelmed by the sheer number of talk threads (and I liberally use the red x). I can only imagine how newbies to this group must feel.

Our synagogue uses a similar idea. We have the option of forming "chavuroth" (friendship circles). It is an idea to get smaller groups of people to connect within a larger framework. This is the idea of groups on LibraryThing, but the problem comes to the forefront that, when the individual group is too large, people still end up feeling lost in it.

Just sayin'.

Thanks Madeline -- I have a hard time visualizing this, which is typical for me, I have to see it to understand it. I will watch with interest how this comes together.

Thanks everyone, I've been thinking of joining this year, but have been overwhelmed at the thought of the volume. I've been contemplating not actually joining the group, but just starring threads of interest (periodically popping over to the group page to see if anything new of interest has come up); has anyone tried this? Has it worked for you?

I belong to so many different groups and I don't keep up with all of them. I visit most of the talk groups everyday but I don't always read the threads. If some of the threads are like 30 new posts I just skim them and read what interests me.

I am just overwhelmed at all the talk groups and how active they can be. I usually star the ones I want to follow even if I don't have anything in common with them because I never know if I may find a book that I would be interested in reading.

Lorax I have just starred threads in this group before. This is my first year actually trying to read 75 books in a year. I used to star threads and then check the group page to see if there was something of interest for me. I know that I didn't keep up on this group or some of the starred threads as much as I would have liked to because I was too busy with my other groups. I just saw how friendly everyone is in this group that I decided to join it this year. I hope that helps.

Happy Reading all!!!

>9 teelgee: I know just what you mean, Terri. I'm sure I'd end up just like in high school gym class being last-one-chosen by a team for whatever game we were forced to play that day. *shudder*

et fix typo

>12 lorax: I can't speak from experience, but that seems like it would work, especially if you regularly look at Your Starred.

I meant to add that I also skim shamelessly. I really like it when people post book covers, so that if I've fallen behind I can just scroll through the thread looking for the book comments and skip the casual conversations in between. I would never actually manage to read all of Stasia's threads, so it's nice that I can at least go and check her weekly summary of books read.

A thought about "groups" within the 75 books group....seems to me I've already kind of done that by starring the threads I plan to follow. I think this year I'll be using the red x a little more often just to try to avoid "overwhelm". I notice that the people who's threads I star, and in who's threads I comment, tend to be the people who comment in my thread. Seems like it is working on kind of an informal basis with which I am pretty happy.

I use the star feature for about a dozen or so of my "can't miss" people.

For others I like to follow, but just not several times per day, I try to post and then follow by threads I've posted to.

For the others, I tend to glance at the list and see if people I know have posted there, and, if so, I might take a look, even if I don't know the person.

I don't use the ignore button at all.

If I see something of interest that someone's posted on TIOLI or someone else's thread, I might also check out their threads.

Once in awhile, when things are quiet, I may just randomly look at previously unvisited threads.

Beyond that, there are plenty of threads I've never visited. That can't be helped, I don't think.

15>

I think that starring would work better for me, and seems more polite, than the alternative of joining the group and red-Xing most of the threads. The volume here is just terrifying -- it's already a major fraction of traffic on Talk and the year hasn't even started yet!

seems more polite, than the alternative of joining the group and red-Xing most of the threads
Well, really no one knows if you x their threads. I'm sure I've been x'd a time or too and I didn't feel a thing!

I star my favorites and then I look at people's profiles. If we have a lot of books in common (I mean like over 150 or so) I will leave them alone and follow them for awhile. If they keep me interested I keep them . If I find that we don't have much in commom I will x them. If they don't have similar interests, I red x them. I wish that I could read everyone's' threads but I was driving myself crazy trying to keep up. If I find that I am more than 100 threads behind in a thread (Stasia's :) ) I will x it because I know that there will be a new thread very shortly. I'm not trying to be rude but usually the busy threads have a lot of 'hi's' and 'just checking ins' and not much talk so I don't miss too much. Lurking has it's good points!

I wish I could x more liberally. I'm just always afraid I'll miss out on something!

>18 lorax: Makes sense.

Zoe, I was like that Last Year, but This Year I am turning over a new bunch of x's!

I think the key here is to not feel like you have to visit everything -- Stasia, bless her, is pretty much the only one who does that -- and generally the group evolves over the year on its own. I know that I start out feeling ambitious and check into a lot of threads, but by summer it's winnowed down to the people who I have the most in common with or the people whose opinions I am most interested in reading. I think this is something that happens naturally.

For those who are new to the group, I think Zoe's initial advice here is perfect: check out the big threads and the genre threads for things that you like. You'll very quickly find people with whom you connect. And as for worrying about missing out -- you are always going to be missing something around here, because that's just the way life is, so just trust that if you read what feels manageable, interesting things will come your way.

That's my take on it, anyway. :)

Oh, and if I really want to follow a particular thread, I just post in it. Then on the home page I have my list set to "Your Posts" so I can see the ones I'm actively participating in and only jump into the larger group list when I feel up to it. That works for me, but may not work for everyone.

I star some threads by people whose reading I've come to know and like, and I look at threads when people comment on mine, but since I generally use "Your Groups," this one can overwhelm the list. This year -- so far -- I haven't joined the group but am just starring threads of interest so they show up if I go to the "Your starred" view. Then I would plan to visit the group page more frequently so that I can find new threads of interest.

However, I don't think this is going to work, as I am so accustomed to just using "Your Groups"!

beserene -- that's really good advice for newcomers!

I use Your Groups as my main view -- if I just use Your Posts, I'd miss all the new posts I want to X out! I appreciate that LT has added a view for Ignored messages so I don't have to scroll through pages and pages before I get to those, in case I want to look something up or if I accidentally Ignore a thread.

Oh, it's all so complicated! Good thing we're a team and can help each other through this.

Oh, I just realized that options other than joining the group (starring or posting in threads of interest) will be a lot more viable if Tim goes ahead and implements a combined Groups/Posts/Stars Talk view, which I think is very likely. There should be a bunch of Talk improvements coming in January.

>27 _Zoe_: ??? How's that again?

Currently, when you go to Talk, you have to choose one of Your Groups, Your Starred, Your Posts, etc., or switch back and forth between them. But I think there's a good chance that we'll soon have a combined view that shows all of Your Groups, Your Starred, and Your Posts together. So if you normally look at Your Groups and don't want to join this group because it's too active, you could just star specific threads and they would show up along with Your Groups threads in Talk.

I don't know whether that clarified the issue or just made it more confusing....

I thought about unjoining, but then I wondered what I'd miss. If someone started a new genre thread, say Squid on a Stick, I wouldn't see it until I went to the group and sifted through all the messages.

I've been keeping track of about 150 groups, going first each day to Your Posts then to Your Groups. I am used to reading every thread although I've x'd out some games that don't interest me. Since joining this group this year I've found that I have to go to the second page of Your Groups in the morning and I have to keep from clicking the next unread as I go from bottom up until I have seen what that thread is.

I have followed Zoe's pattern of looking at the threads that are not about individuals (for example the genre threads) and about the individuals whom I already know from elsewhere.

I wish it were simpler, and I'll be keeping my eyes open for suggestions that are workable to me.

Robert

150 groups???!!! You are MAD, man! :o)

Most of them are slow moving, even dormant. But every once in awhile someone says something in LibraryThing Railroad, and I don't want to miss it. I'm in some of the busy groups too, but none anywhere near so busy as this.

Robert

I find a few people I want to follow & read their threads as I'm able.
I found it super helpful that alcottacre posted her reads on Sunday. Monday morning I would go through them and add books to my TBR list. Lots of them.

I don't feel that I want to limit myself to people who read the same things that I do, for it seems then that I'm only seeing a whole lot of the same kinds of books. Starring doesn't work for me generally - all those unread threads - when they mount up, I visit fewer and fewer threads of every kind. I do have a few that I visit without fail, but the beginning of the autumn I click on fewer and fewer threads - even those of the people I consider friends. And can I be candid here? (Yes, of course you can, Charlotte, I hear you say.) One of the most annoying things is to open a thread where I can see that there are 15 unread messages only to find that all of them are of the 'starred you' variety. Sure, it's only a minute of my time, but I really want to read something interesting. Wish, I had x-ray eyes that could tell me whether or not there was anything of substance there beforehand.
In short - I have no means of dealing with the downside of The Group's popularity and can't conceive of ever having any.

Charlotte, I appreciate your frustration with the "star" messages, but I usually find that those are predictable, usually coming at the opening of a new thread, so I just scroll past them. It is pretty funny, though -- we all struggle with how busy this group is, but we make it busier all the time! ;)

I star those who have similar interests to me - or are so whacky I can't bare to miss what they are saying :)

I worry about pink groups and red groups and stuff as it smacks of being at school and hoping desperately the cool kids will pick you to be on their team and then trying to pretend you don't really care if your're not picked.

Yes its an insecurity that has lasted over 50 years - but it is MY insecurity LOL :)

sally906...we could start a group and color it insecurity...

I know there are more people here with these ideas of "never getting picked" than we could count.

Thank goodness, here the readers of the world can happily crawl off into their corners and read, read, read and not worry for a minute about groups of people who do or don't notice them and appreciate what wonderful people we all are

I do a mix of many of the things mentioned above -- but first some thoughts on what the 75 group seems to have evolved into. There are groups that are more highbrow and fast-paced and there are groups that are more focussed and particular. The 75 seems to be the place where a certain kind of very intense readers who are ...... curious..... eclectic..... sociable have gravitated (even though, heaven knows, I think most of us are pretty seriously introverted)? (help me find the word?) Every kind of reader is encouraged and welcomed..... but I think the 75er profile is that of someone deeply engaged in their reading but also seeking a kind of affirmation and interaction w/other intense readers, no matter what they read, if that makes ANY sense. That said, few can follow all the threads, and why should anyone feel bad they can't?

I star people who seem to want to communicate at an intensity level that feels good to me, and who are more or less in my interest areas, about whatever they are reading, thinking about, doing..... I read every bio entry on the welcome thread and if, after I look at the profile it seems possible we might connect I contact them and star the thread if they respond and it looks like a go. If nothing really happens back and forth over, say, a few months, I might unstar them, but I take my time. I have about 12 people I read every day, no matter how few posts they have, including touching base with them if they don't post, and about another twenty-forty whose posts I read when I have collected say, 20-30 of them, I read them fast, pausing over the reviews and how they are doing...... not the banter. I don't always say anything -- only if I have a real comment with this 'layer' - but if it's been too long I'll think of something friendly to say so they know I am reading. I have a few folks starred to whom I almost never can think of a thing to say, except I am somehow interested...... The last thing I do sometimes on a whim is just randomly go to some thread or other and read a little bit -- At some point I noticed that I was familiar with pretty much everyone..... I think over time I visit at least everyone once or twice...... I would be sad to think someone felt I left them out! So that's how I do it.

I only belong to one other fairly active group, the Viragos and I star everything that seems like it might be interesting or fun. The rest of my groups aren't much struggle to sustain as there aren't very many posts.

And when I am having a seriously busy day I set my kitchen timer for the amount of time I think I can spare and just stop when it goes off!!!!

Each year I start optimisticly and read all the threads.
Somewhere in February, or even January I realise my name is not Stasia and I stop reading everything.
Some members have become special to me over the years, so I star their threads. I keep an eye on the introductions thread and look at the profile of new members; if we have something in common I follow them too for a while and then decide to keep them starred or not.

When real life interfears
For a while I have no time to read a lot of threads, so I hide in my own thread and see who comes along ;-)
Thus I become terrible behind on all starred threads... and there is no way I can read them all.
Then I go to "my starred" and read only threads that don't have many new messages until I have more time and am able to keep up with a few very busy threads of people I like.

#39: That's almost a perfect expression of how I feel about this group and how I try to handle the threads. One thing I do is check out a reader's profile if he/she posts an interesting comment in a thread I already follow. Sometimes I star, sometimes not. My real life has developed some complications this year, so I've been unable to do as much posting on others' threads as I might like (sybix and elkidee and bazah and lindapanzo and several others) which makes me feel bad, but I hope everyone understands that some days are great for posting and others, not so much.

And sally906 and maggie1944: We could call it The Gray Group; I'd be a member there, for sure. What if no one likes me? Man, some things you just can't get over. Never mind.

I do love it here.

#41 Don't feel bad!!

Some days, I'm very active and post quite a bit. Other days, I just lurk. Once in awhile, I'm lucky if I even get onto LT at all.

Here's something I've been trying to do each day. I log on around 7am when my son heads off to school. I try to visit the first 5 threads in the 75ers group, some I know, some I don't and say something. If they're interested in posting to my thread that's good, if not that's ok too, then I visit the regulars. I think of it as a kind of cocktail party. Mingle, move on, mingle, move on and some you meet up with again.

That's a great analogy -- a cocktail party! I love it!

I briefly joined the group, then unjoined because it was overwhelming Talk, two weeks before its official start date. (As I've mentioned elsewhere in RSI threads re Talk organization.) Instead, I have multiple tabs in my browser for LT, including one for my home page with Talk set to my groups, one for this group, and one for this group's wiki. So far, I have starred threads of people who have mentioned books/genres of interest to me, and I'll make a point of glancing at other threads when actual books have been entered. I expect that as the year progresses, I will pay more attention to threads that inspired me to post comments, than to threads that are starred, since I have other threads for other groups starred also and there's currently no way to categorize them. I am hesitant to red x for fear of missing something, but the reality is that I miss more when I'm overwhelmed than when I focus.

(Thanks, Zoë, for starting this thread.)

I'm trying something different this year. I start reading from the bottom of the threads with unread posts instead of the top. There are several members who are always near the top so I'm not afraid of losing them off the bottom of the page - they don't know where that is. However, there are many of who are not as social but find amazing reads nonetheless and I am interested in their views, too. I haven't felt the need to red-x anyone. If there is someone who doesn't read the same language as I do or concentrates in a genre that I have no interest in, I know who they are and can just skip past them. I star my own thread since I do fall off the page occasionally and it's easier to find myself if I'm the only one starred. This method has made it possible to keep up with the threads so far. We'll see how it goes when things really rev up in the new year.

I don't know how I'm going to do this...since it's my first year as an Official Member of the group

I'll follow long-time friends, of course....and stalk the others who have seriously intrigued me

Beware of Woman-with-Fedora!!!

;-}

>47 jdthloue:: And dark glasses?

> 47

Jude, have you read Oh Play That Thing by Roddy Doyle? I'm listening to that CD now, and your reference to "Woman-With-Fedora" reminds me of the character of Olaf's half sister from that book. Yours is probably a reference to something completely different, though. Isn't it?

>49 SqueakyChu:

No, I haven't read that one..yet...but I love Roddy Doyle's work.

My reference? My actual Fedora. On my head.

this year is going to be one Hell-of-a -Ride!!!

>48 teelgee:: No dark glasses, sorry...I'm blind as a bat without my prescription specs...though the IMAGE fascinates

;-}

My reference? My actual Fedora. On my head.

Hmm? So it wasn't over my head; it was over your head. Too cool!

By the way, if you haven't yet, read (preferably listen to) that book by Roddy Doyle. Just an FYI, though. It's actually part II of a trilogy that started with A Star Called Henry. You may want to start there.

>51 SqueakyChu:

I think I might actually own A Star Called Henry...but it's UPSTAIRS....where the Wild Books live

I think we have eerily similar taste in Books???

Goody!

;-}

I think we have eerily similar taste in Books???

LOL!! I hope so!

If you have Laundry, Tongue and The Muse Asylum in your library (which you do!), I'm definitely following your thread!!

>54 SqueakyChu::Laundry.....I own..not read & Tongue is Wishlist

The Muse Asylum i read before joining LT

We need to talk
;-}

Thanks for this thread, it is good to see how others handle the volume of posts. I love the cocktail party analogy as well.

I tend to alternate between Your Posts and Your Starred (I do like the easy access to Started by You as well). Usually I lurk and just Star (without a comment) although I am starting this new year out with a bunch of comments. Then, if someone is reading a book I am interested in or have a comment about or if I want to join a conversation I add my two-cents and remove the star.

If someone posts on my thread or makes an interesting post on another thread I'm reading I will check out their profile and then their thread to see if I want to star it. I then remove the Star or use the Ignore to remove old threads (for example, I only keep Stasia's current thread).

Then, every few days I go to the group page to see any new threads or other links (I love the wiki page for the group this year).

That doesn't mean I don't fall behind, especially when things get busy. But I have managed to keep up pretty well, with skimming as a good strategy.

#56 you have some great ideas, I try really hard in the beginning but get overwhelmed pretty quick. I hate missing out on great books so I do skim the popular peeps threads rather than trying to keep up. I also delete threads that are geared to chatting or topics I won't be participating in.

I star treads that are group based so kitchen, introdutions and challange, then to keep up with gosip and everyones opinion on everything I star Kath's current tread, then Stasia tread to add endless books to my rapidly growing book pile. all these are good for people that stugle with the volume of posts in this group, though Stasia tread is durnting on it's own you can discover lots of people on her tread.

and skiming works to!

I'm ready to admit that I am overwhelmed. I just reskimmed this thread, and I wondered whether anybody but qebo is participating here without being a member? I use stars for other purposes; mostly I don't want to acquire so many that I'd have to have superstarred threads among my starred threads.

I'm thinking of posting vapid messages in those threads that I know interest me so that they'll show up in my Your Posts, quitting the group, and just every couple of days dropping in to see what's news.

Robert

59: Other people have mentioned, either here or in RSI, that they've joined then unjoined challenge groups for the same reason I did. I'd vote against "vapid messages" for the if-everybody-did-it reason.

I'm frantically starring and xing, but the threads are appearing and changing at a pace I can't maintain, and many are too new for assessment. I'm hoping to limit the number of starred (or non-xed) threads to maybe a few dozen, I can't see doing justice to more, and as I slog through each thread my criteria have become more ruthless. I may have to focus mostly on the topic threads rather than the personal threads.

I wonder whether we could try for interest/genre groups, to be listed on the wiki page?

I actually read every thread too, though I tend to skim many conversations, or I'll skim reviews for books I know I'm not interested in (though these seem to be fewer and fewer these days). It makes me a lurker in the majority of threads, and it's rather overwhelming if I get behind by a few days, but my strategy is to read all the threads on the front page (when you're in the group) while drinking my morning coffee. I'll pop in now and again during the day if I can, but otherwise I'll come back the next morning and start from the bottom of page one and work my way up again.

I read every thread the first years, but it became totally impossible last year for anyone who is not a cyborg. I use my Starred button to navigate Talk, and star those who visit my thread regularly and those who I've come to know over the years. I also star the group threads--the Kitchen, the genre threads, etc. And I star the heavily trafficked threads, because that's where lots of the conversations about books are going on. I read the Introductions thread and star those who read science fiction and fantasy, since that's my primary genre, figuring that I will get exposed to many, many books outside the genre from my other threads. And finally, every week I visit 10-12 new threads, check out the library of the authors, and if we share a lot of books or they are reading things or having discussions I find interesting, then I star them.

I read my starred threads pretty regularly, but usually wait until there are several unread messages there before checking in. If they are at all active, most of them will move up the screen regularly and I find them as they do. I do check my groups weekly to find new threads that might have come up since I last visited and starred threads.

qebo, I think the genre threads are a good place to find those who are reading in that area.

I don't use stars much; however, I've been vigorous in using the ignore function. If it isn't someone I know, there are no books listed that I've read and liked, and there is no mention of a genre of books I read, I put it on ignore.

I've unignored people of interest - especially from the Introduction thread.

There are simply far too many threads for me to read them all and I have to sort them somehow.

>59 Mr.Durick:, 60: my first year in the challenge I was not a member of the group. I starred threads I wanted to follow. This worked pretty well, except I often missed it when people started new individual reading threads.

I know the current thread proliferation is difficult to keep up with, and like others, the more threads the more ruthless I become with the little "x". But if 2011 is at all like previous years, this is a new year phenomenon and will settle down in the next week or two.

59, 60>

I'd vote against "vapid messages" for the if-everybody-did-it reason.

Me too, but I thought that already was what a lot of people are doing here! I certainly see a lot of "hello" posts that don't seem to serve any other purpose.

>65 lorax: Well, I think some of the "hello" messages are for general friendliness; I don't look at Your Posts but I do find it nice to see that people are reading my thread, so I try to reciprocate. (I've actually just come from your thread and thought about leaving some basic comment about how I've been meaning to read the Aubrey & Maturin books and will get to them someday, but with this thread in mind I decided against it in case you considered it pointless.)

I'm starting to ignore more now. Last year I mostly ignored only threads where people just listed books without comment, but I think I'll have to start ignoring people who just don't have very similar reading tastes as well. At least with the wiki I know I can always find them again.

I think a lot of the Hello posts are so the threads show up when you click the Your Posts option. Kind of a 'secondary' star.

That's what I thought, too, but I suspect _Zoe_ may be right, in which case just disguising a "vapid" post as a "hello" post should be fine. :-)

_Zoe_, I wouldn't consider that pointless at all! That's actually about books!

Many group members seem to enjoy stopping by a newly-created thread, and acknowledging it with a "hello" or "starred you!" comment. While I personally haven't engaged in much of that, it is part of the inherently social nature of this group. Late last year there were a couple of us who made a timid suggestion that we minimize this practice, just to make new threads more manageable for everyone ... but we were soundly outnumbered. So, we are who we are. I'm OK with that !!

While my brain understands the argument to eliminate the Hello posts (seemingly purposeless ones), my heart would miss them if people stopped saying Hello on my threads. *sniff* Emotionally, I don't think those posts are purposeless at all.

Even if a decision was reached that this forum is to strictly discuss books and only books, I still think that, being humans, the social element would begin to creep back in again right away.

>70 BookAngel_a:: yeah, and once we get past the flood of new year's greetings, I really like it.

I would miss the social side of this group if it was strictly books only. I think that this group's strength is it's social side. Have I considered moving up a group....Yes but I stay here because of the people. I have even considered unjoining this group because of the multitude of 'meaningless' posts and then someone has a problem or a happy and I see the support system here at it's best and I know that I would miss everyone! People care here!

The 50 book challenge group is mostly books only with less socialization. I switched to this group because I like the social side of it, but I do see the attraction of both.

So far, what I'm trying to do is star the threads I'm particularly interested in and red x the threads I'm not interested in, and leave others to see if I'm interested in them or not (although I'm considering starring "maybe interested in them" too, since I can always remove the star later).

73: I'm starring for definite interest, xing for definite uninterest, neither for too soon to tell. Figure eventually when everything is decided one way or the other, I'll remove the stars. Not set in stone; I also read the topic threads, which may lead to un-xing personal threads. This sounds drastic, but really the intention is not to be unsocial; it's quite the opposite, hoping to keep track of some people rather than lose track of everyone.

I think "books" versus "social" is a false dichotomy, actually! Sure, there are some posts that are unambiguously one or the other -- a list of titles on one end, a "Happy New Year" message on the other, but from the little I've seen there's a lot in the rich middle. Besides, it's not like skipping over the hello messages in someone else's thread you're following is all that much work; it's just that seeing dozens of new unread messages in every thread is intimidating when you don't realize that's what most of them are!

Convinced here that I should not leave empty posts on all of the threads that interest me, I have left many unmarked, but I am off to dismember myself (ick!) while remaining a participant. I will still have to scan the group every once in awhile to pick up on threads that do interest me, but I think my normal few hours a day at LibraryThing will be more manageable.

Robert

I've done something this year that I've never done but Stasia gave me the idea. I started out 2011 starring threads I regularly visit but after three years I found, happily, that I was visiting a large group of regulars. Soooo....I unstarred everyone except group threads like The Kitchen, Readathons, etc. I know the people I want to look for and sometimes I just drop in on somebody new. It seems to be working for me.

That's the bottom line -- do what works for you. The insane number of threads in this group is part of its joy -- and its part of what makes us appealing.

The fact is, there are many members who left other groups because they weren't friendly and social; if you want to be cheered on, said hello to for no good reason, chatted with, and otherwise supported and engaged on multiple topics, then this is the group for you. If your focus is pretty strictly on book recs and book-related topics, this group might not be your thing. If you fall somewhere in the middle, I think this thread has offered up a great variety of strategies for handling threads in ways that will work for many people.

Bottom line: this activity is part of who we are. No need to try to quash the chatter or change the dynamic. All are welcome, but no one is obligated. That's something that I like about this group.

Just wanted to share my thoughts. :)

#78 This is a great thread, really, for new members and long-standing ones. I agree with Sarah - this is an incredibly friendly group. I just joined this group this year and am very impressed with how welcoming everyone is - this group has a great "culture" all its own. But I also share the feeling of being overwhelmed by all the action.

I really think the cocktail party analogy in a good one, because at a cocktail party few of us (certainly not I) would ever try to be a part of every conversation, it's just not possible or expected. And it doesn't make you a bad party-goer if you don't talk to everyone there, although some people will try to do just that! It also is okay to just listen and not be outspoken if that's what you want to do. I think each of us must "settle in" to the right level of participation. I think this group provides a great environment for that, even if the "technical" challenges of doing so using LT functionality take awhile to get just right.

I appreciate this thread because of all the ideas people have come up with for reducing the "noise" level (the definition of which rightly can vary by person) so that everyone can find their own comfort level and be a participant.

There is a your stars function? and if Ipunch the red X it doesn't delete the thread? So glad I stopped by this topic! New strategies, hooray!

Last year Istarred people who posted in my thread & added folks from introductions thread; this year I have some folks to keep up with & am starring more genre threads. This weekend I must post at least 2 novels on my personal threads, so I really should stop chatting, but it,s so much fun. . .

Thanks for starting this thread Zoe.

Interestingly the volume seems, completely counterintuitively to me as a new participant, to have ramped down since the start of the year! I was expecting that, if the volume was high in December, it would be torrential in January, but it seems to have dropped to less insane volumes.

It makes sense to me, because people are no longer going to everyone's threads saying "hi! hi! great to see you! happy new year! good luck!" Which was very nice but very busy :) Now it's more about waiting for someone to update, and then they get responses, so it's staggered instead of all at once.

Very interesting to hear of everyone's strategies, and I love the cocktail party analogy too - though it would be one with some pretty intensive in depth conversations going on in some corners, and some tea and sympathy in other corners, as well as lots of quick friendly hellos and moving on.

I tended for the whole of last year to use stars liberally, and to try to keep up with all starred threads and not attempt any others. Thus I used the Your Starred tab or the Your posts tab - the contents of the two were often the same, but slightly fewer in the Your Posts as I just lurked on some threads.

I rarely checked the Your Groups, or the Group page for the 75 group. Because of this, I often missed out on new threads of interest or general announcements unless there was a signpost to them from the Kitchen or from one of my starred threads. So this year I am trying to look at the Group page more often. I will still be starring anything of interest as that is my main way of keeping track. But I will be trying to visit threads of people I don't know from time to time, just to see what I'm missing and especially to try to encourage newer members.

I couldn't imagine reading all the threads. I have almost never used the ignore function, as I suppose I effectively ignore threads I have not starred, but I would see them there when I go to the Group page.

82>

It makes sense in retrospect, but my thought when I first looked at the group was "My God, there are this many posts and most people haven't even started for the year yet, and nobody's posted books!" I hadn't realized either that most people started their 2011 threads in 2010, or that the level of social posts dropped off after initial New Year greetings, so it was pretty intimidating.

I'm glad the volumne is decreasing, because even with all the great strategies for dealing with it all, I find the very busy-ness somewhat stress-inducing. (Yes, I feel the same way at cocktail parties). This pace is much more relaxing!

84 lorax - Ah, I see. I didn't join until December 31, so I didn't realize that people had started their threads weeks before either. I agree, it was intimidating, I was definitely overwhelmed at first.

I'm still using both the red x and the star liberally. I like the suggestion of looking at the number of shared books to determine if heretofore unknown members might have threads of interest to me. When there are hundreds of threads to go through (and I'd like to spend some of my time reading, you know, books ;) I've found that that is a pretty good starting point.

Phew! 12 days into the year and with a little each day I've completed round 1 of starring and xing, now have threads of potential interest on a single page. May still be too many to keep up with (I'm having trouble keeping up with some individual people, let alone the entire group), but seems much less overwhelming now.

Short answer: I don't. I started out okay, or so I thought, but the sheer volume of posts is overwhelming. Now I'm so far behind I'll never be able to catch up unless I were to be laid off my job with nothing to do all day except read posts.

Of course by the time I got caught up, there'd be new posts piling up on all the threads I follow, so looks like I'll be always playing catch up no matter what.

Yeah, I take back my earlier statement... this year there are just so many posts that I can't read them all. I do the first page each morning, and that's it unless I pop in during the day. I know that means there may be some on page 2 and 3 I'll never see, but I have starred many threads and I read those first :)

89: I think that's a realistic approach and it at least gives active posters in your time zone some chance that you might drop by occasionally.

I only "ignore" group read threads for books that I'm not likely to read or be interested in the discussion in at all. I've been here a year but I still feel very much out of the incrowd and I think putting crosses by individual threads shuts out all but a small group.

Thankfully I don't know how many of you are crossing me but I don't really see the need to cross loads of individual threads - it seems to me to be saying you can't be bothered with anyone who joined more recently than you did or less than two years ago, or that's the danger. You can always just use the threads you've posted in view to catch up on those where you're joining in the conversation.

I'm looking at TIOLI, readathon and What We Are Reading threads more and individual threads less - I got very behind in December and have only just caught up with last year's threads.

I'm really thankful for this thread and assorted strategies for dealing with a high volume group. I'm brand new here so I don't know anyone (well, there are some names I recognize from skimming assorted forums now and again but I haven't actively participated in forums in a couple of years or more) and I'm really looking forward to the social aspects of this group (it's why I'm here rather than the 50 Book Challenge which was depressingly silent to my taste)

>90 elkiedee:: Luci, I think you have a really important point about xing out threads. I use one particular challenge thread, a couple of group read threads (such as mysteries) and the threads of some folks I already know, virtually, to see who else is reading interesting stuff, or who is funny, or who just seems like a congenial person. I've discovered a lot of folks that I never would have met or read that way (yourself and elliepotten and bahzah and goodness knows how many others).

I get way behind, but it's not bothering me as much as it did at first. There are some threads I just skim, almost scroll through, skipping the one-line "hello" messages. My time on LT is somewhat limited (because I would need abuot 10 hours per day to do what I want on here), but I try to visit here and there as often as I can. The only thing I worry about is that people will think I'm ignoring them if I don't post...but I'm still lurking...

90, 92: Although I've x-ed many individual threads, I keep an eye on the genre threads of interest so I don't completely lose track of people, and I have un-x-ed some individual threads as a result. The x-ing is not a matter of "can't be bothered", it's a matter of only so many hours in the day. It's actually _because_ I've x-ed so many individual threads that I am very aware when someone joins the group or begins a new thread, and since I'm not overwhelmed I can take the time to check the profile.

I've been in this group for just over a year, and I would say that I'm horrible at keeping up with everything going on here. Like others, I usually skim through the social aspects (though I think those are very important to the character of the group), and look for the touchstones or book covers. But even with all this skimming I've felt completely overwhelmed with the sheer number of threads that I'm missing out on. Up until now I've just starred threads, but perhaps reading through the group page is a better strategy, if I don't want to miss out on too much.

>90 elkiedee: I've been thinking for the past month about that comment about not being bothered with people who joined more recently, and I think in my case at least I can say resoundingly that that's not true. I'm actually far more likely to keep up with the threads of newer members, simply because they tend to be more manageable thanks to the lower volume.

>#95 I have to agree with you there being that I am one of those "newbies". :) It is much less daunting to read a thread that only has a couple of posts versus those who have been around and are already on their 5/6th thread. Although I do make an effort to get around to everyone's thread, I only contribute when I have something to say. :) Nevertheless, this group has been a great place to meet people who share the same love of books and of course the growth of my TBR list should be illegal!

Honestly, if someone is on their 5th or 6th thread - unless our reading tastes are very similar, I probably have them on ignore. Far too much chatter. I only have so much time in the day. As it is, I spend about 2 hours a day reading LT.

I'm still struggling with this question and may just forgo it next year. I did try something new for me a few minutes ago. Like most people I sort on last message; I sorted the group, instead for a few minutes, by topic. That led me to seeing in a bunch all the topics beginning with asterisks and a good many general threads. I may do that more; I've got a few more threads now in my Your Posts pages.

Robert

I've finally stumbled on something that works for me. When I joined your group in mid-February, I read or skimmed through every thread in the group, and used stars liberally in three ways:

1. For every thread whose challenge reporting or book listing style I liked. This gave me ideas for how to set up my own thread.

2. For member threads who had interesting ideas or discussion going on.

3. For member threads who had similar reading tastes as mine. These are the threads I follow most closely.

Once I had my own thread up and going, I red-x-ed everything not starred. Then de-starred category one, left stars on category 2, and red-x-ed both sets, in order to relegate them to the bottom. Now and again, as I have time, I like to go back through those stars that gleam from the bottom of the list, for some interesting reading.

That left category 3 showing on the screen. I removed most of the stars from that section, leaving starred the TIOLI threads and group reads in which I'm interested, and my own thread so I can find it again. Now the threads I follow most closely are right there on the visible screen - no scrolling - easy to see what's new. Keeping it sorted by Topic makes it even easier.

I am glad, though, that I found this group fairly early in the year. It would be a nightmare to try to catch up on reading the whole shebang now! You guys sure do talk a lot!

#99: You guys sure do talk a lot!

That may be the understatement of the century!