LibraryThing's 10th Anniversary

We finally made it—LT is 10! That's 10 years of cataloging, combining (well, sort of, some of that came a bit later), tagging, and—above all—reading. 99 MILLION books later, here we are today (blog post).



LT staff around the world is celebrating with cake (of the cup variety, for some of us). Join us!

To all of you who've stuck with us, and those who've only just begun to explore the joys of LibraryThing, thank you. You're the best, and we certainly couldn't have done all this without you.

Congratulations! Thanks for creating this wonderful community for all of us!

Happy Anniversary!!!! I'm looking forward to enjoying the next 10 years, too!

Happy Anniversary! And many thanks to all the LT staff who do so much to make this such a terrific site.

Happy Anniversary!!

My 10th anniversary on LT was a few days ago! Best lifetime membership ever.

Happy anniversary. It's a bit late at night in this time zone to be starting on cake, but tomorrow I'll raise a cup cake to the LT staff and community that makes this my no. 1 website.

Happy anniversary!

Congratulations to my favorite website!

Happy anniversary! :)

Happy anniversary! There really isn't a better book cataloging site. And although it's a little late here for cake, I'm certainly raising a cup of tea.

Are the new badges part of the celebration?

I'm just sorry I haven't been around long enough for the X badge yet.

Ugh. The badges just went out--or many of them--with the wrong image. I'll try to correct it tomorrow, but I'm going to bed--feeling woozy. Too much cake, perhaps.

Happy Birthday to LibraryThing! Now we are ten!! I want to thank all of the LT team for everything that you do to make this website the best one in the whole world wide web. Well done! Here's to the next ten years.

Paul in Glamorgan, Wales.

congrats !
x

Happy birthday to my favourite place on the Internet. All the best to staff, present and past, and to all the members who share books and more!

Whee! Happy tenth birthday. :-)

Happy birthday LT! I've been here since 2008 and can't imagine life without it. Thank you, LT staff, for all your hard work! And a new badge is always awesome.

Now, where's our treasure hunt? ;)

Happy Anniversary. Someone else said it above, but I'll reiterate it. This is my favorite place on the Intertubes....

Thanks for providing us with the playground.

Happy anniversary! Thank you, I've been loving this place for over eight years. I've had my money's worth again and again. Have another cup of cake.

w00t!

Thanks again! My new badge even has my initial on it!

(I know, I know, it's a Roman 5)

Here's to the next 10!

Happy anniversary! Many, many thanks to all the LT staff that make this such a great site. :)

Congratulations! And thank you for the badge :-D

ETA that I got a correct badge. Thank you again, and it's cool too.

This place keeps getting better and better. Thanks for all your work!

Happy Anniversary. I visit you every day.

Happy Anniversary Librarything and thank you for such a great site and for all the hard work you put into it - and of course thank you for the many happy hours (and years) of ...err... 'Librarythinging'!

Not just a place on the net, but a place in my reading life. I can honestly say, despite seemingly less and less time available for reading, I'm actually getting more out of my reading time. A perfect mix of quantitative and qualitative experiences!

Wow! It seems like just yesterday.

Happy anniversary!

Wow. Hard to believe I've been here since the beginning...

Happy Anniversary, LT!

I was a day early, or just time zone oblivious.
https://www.facebook.com/617376905065910/photos/a.618144228322511.1073741828.617...

Library Thing has been a game changer in my life. It is a place for introvert book lovers to talk. I love expressing my feelings of my reads with others. I have had nothing but good experiences with the staff. Happy Birthday and Thanks!!!

Happy Tenth! May there be many, many more. And I don't care how late it is - I'm having cake!
Keep it going.
And THANKS.

Happy anniversary to my favorite website ever! And many happy returns!

Happy Anniversary and congratulations to all. Have to say this is a great place to be.

congrats

Almost 10 years and getting close to 10,000 books in my catalog. Thanks for making it easy, fun and addictive :-) Happy Anniversary Librarything!

If I hadn't been so afraid of the interwebs I could have been here 8 months sooner, but as it is I am coming up on my ninth year in October. My favorite site, in fact, if I had to pick only one, this would be it. Thank you SO much!

I'm back. Too much sugar. Too much stress.

Thank you all for your kind thoughts. They are needed. I just finished dealing with a massive sock-puppet clump, suspending multiple accounts. It sucked. So I'm going to reward myself with a beer and the latest "Fear the Walking Dead."

Thank you all again!

>41 timspalding:

I just finished dealing with a massive sock-puppet clump, suspending multiple accounts. It sucked.
Awww... that doesn't seem a fair way to have to celebrate your tenth!
But it is appreciated - as always!

Congratulations for ten fabulous years! I could not be without this site...

Thank you for the work you all do. I have enjoyed my time here and appreciate each and every one of you.

>13 timspalding: I think it may have been too much footwear fashion focus. Just sayin'. ;)

8 years ago, when a friend said, "Hey, you should check out this site, you can catalog your books!" I couldn't believe that I lived just a town away from LT HQ when it was founded, before I moved to San Francisco. I cursed the fact that I was on the other coast when positions opened up for local employees. But man, when my time came, in the form of a reply to a resume I'd emailed four years prior... I hit the jackpot. I love this company, as both a member and an employee, and I can't wait to see 15 and 20 and more years. Cheers.

For someone who doesn't do social media, LT has become part of my life. Thank you, Tim et al. for all you do, particularly your responsiveness to members, and Happy Birthday!

Happy Anniversary, and in the true sense of the phrase, many happy returns! This is my favorite place on the internet, too :)

Happy tenth anniversary LibraryThing! I've loved the last (almost) 8 years of getting to know you!

Happy Anniversary! I've loved LT since I first became aware of it, and it just keeps getting better.

Happy anniversary! I've been here 6 years and LT has become one of those "how on earth did I manage before I had this" things in my life.

Happy Thingaversary zum Ding an sich!

Oops, a day late, but still: Happy 10th Anniversary, LTers! :) It's been awesome. I truly love this site and look forward to many more years of LT going and going and going.... :)

Many happy returns! and very many thanks

Happy birthday to my favourite place on the internet! Thank you for all your hard work in making this such a wonderful place to be.

Happy Anniversary! I've been here for 5+ years and loving it!

Happy Thingaversary LT! Hope you celebrated in the correct manner.

Happy anniversary to all of us. And a big Thanks to TIM for founding it!

Happy Anniversary! I love seeing my books here and being able to celebrate my love for books!

Happy Birthday and many many happy returns.
I spend far too much time on here but it reassures me I'm not the only reader in the world.
Please stay as non commercial as possible.

Recording Music \ films - there go my weekends. Hope the Apple app means Android not far behind.

Happy anniversary! It's nearly my 10th Thingaversary too, so I'm happy to have been here from nearly the beginning.

Happy birthday! You are doing a great job. Go on for the next ten or twenty...

Happy Anniversary and Congratulations to my favorite website!!!
Thank you for all the great work!

Happy Anniversary! I've been here 8 years and 1 week.

>45 abbottthomas: For someone who doesn't do social media, LT has become part of my life

I think I can say something similar. I don't do any other social media (unless you count a couple of railway-related bulletin boards).

>44 kgriffith: a friend said, "Hey, you should check out this site, you can catalog your books!"

Likewise I initially came to it purely to catalogue my books, rather useful when they're split between two continents, but I find LT to be quite a remarkable site and I soon got drawn in to it.

Looking at my profile page I see I still have three and a half months to go before aspiring to the coveted ten year badge!

Thanks, Tim and everybody, staff and members, and keep it up.

Yay! Happy birthday to us all! :-)

"My apologies if you received this message twice. Ten years and we STILL have bugs!"

Actually I got that one twice, and a shorter version once as well. I think the bugs are reproducing. Ah, well, if you get rid of all pests, you usually manage to kill off helpful entities as well.

Congratulations - I'm glad I found out about LT only a week after it started, as it has made such a difference to my reading and book collecting life ever since.

Congratulations! I love your site. I'm just me, with a love of books, and I'm still only half way through cataloging what I've got (and I'm still buying!), LibraryThing just enhances my enjoyment of the written words and - also - of book covers, an art unto themselves. Looking forward to cataloging some of my music, too. I've enjoyed my first five years with you all immensely x

Happy Thingaversary to you. I've been here 7.5 years and only wish I'd found it sooner.

10 years of booknerdism & memories!! Yo-ho! *raises the rum cup*

Late to the party, but I echo what everyone has said. I love it here! Thanks!

Happy anniversary. Thanks for creating one of my favourite sites.

Happy Anniversary, my 10th Anniversary on the site is next monday, I can't believe that the time has flown so fast

>41 timspalding:. Sock-puppets suck. Tim rules! Hooray for Captain Spalding! And the next 10 years.

Happy Anniversary! This probably sounds terribly over the top, but I think this is by a long way the best site on the web. It's the one I always want to check first every day, even if necessity or duty takes me elsewhere. Many, many thanks for it.

Grateful Congratulations to the LT team. Well done!

Happy anniversary to my favorite place on the Internet -- may there be many, many more!

Like many, I came to LT for the cataloging. It was and is a life saver for me -- a proper catalog helps me get so much more out of my personal library than I ever thought possible.

But the social side has been cool too. Thanks for being the only place on the Internet where I can talk about religion and politics with complete strangers and enjoy it.

Happy belated tenth to LT, and happy tenth Thingaversary to me!

^^ What southernbooklady said. :)

Thank you, and wishing you (and us) many more happily book-obsessed years.

Happy tenth anniversary! So many fun hours spent here and so many great features added in those ten years.

And today I'm celebrating my own tenth Thingaversary with a new book AND a new badge!

Question about the fiver badge: is it for any accounts that were created more than five years ago, or only for people who actually signed in five years after creating their account?

Happy Happy to all of you with the Box L in front of your name.

>63 John5918: You couldn't have said it better! I have a ways to go. I'll be 3 years on LT next month.

To you all keep up the great work!

HBD, LT!

It's not too much to say that LT has changed my life. (For the better, of course.)

And next week is my #7 Thingamaversary.

Thanka for everything... and more!

Happy anniversary! Thanks to the whole staff for creating such a wonderful, book-y sandbox for us to play in.

Cheers to Tim and his fabulous crew
Here’s a big thanks for all that you do
No matter the problem
You’re so quick to solve ’em
Happy 10th Anniversary to you!

>81 _Zoe_: I checked out a profile created in 2005, with just one book catalogued, and it had no 5 or 10 years badge so apparently activity is required as well.

>86 anglemark:

Yeah. See the Wiki ( http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/Badges ). It's a 25-book minimum. I didn't want to have a metric like "Been on the site X days out year in consecutive year…" etc. So, yeah, people go it who haven't used the site in a while.

Thanks for the badges!

We got them because we're constantly badgering him.

Big, BIG congratulations to you all, and thank you for everything you do.

Congrats!!

I have really appreciated LibraryThing more recently (although a "Fiver" now!!) and I am looking forward to the new features and enhancements yet to come.

As others have stated similarly, "Thank you for creating such a great tool for the community of booklovers!!"

Congratulations! My very top website. Enjoyable and useful.

¡Enhorabuena! Lo mejor de Internet. Un placer y además útil

May it continue for many more decades!

¡Por muchos años!

Thanks for all the happy thoughts, everyone. I'm still very new, in LT years (just had my 2nd Thingaversary in July). My only regret is that I didn't see the light sooner!*

It's an honor to work for and in a community like this one.

Leftover cake for breakfast!

*I actually did sign up for an account back in 2008, but got pulled away by my friends demanding that I use GR instead. Blech.

How did I miss the beginning of this party? Hi guys! So glad to know y'all. This is the ONLY web place to be, IMHO.

Congrats LibraryThing. Long may you be.

Happy birthday, LT team! And thank you so much for creating, maintaining and continually improving one of my favourite things on the intarwebs.

When I signed up, almost nine years ago, I did not have a credit card. What finally pushed me to get one (apart from the lure of online books) was wanting to sign up for a lifetime membership here, and that was indeed the very first payment I used the card for.

Thanks for everything.

>95 Petroglyph:

That is a cool story.

Only 10 years? I would have guessed it had been around longer (I've been here for 7.5!)

>93 lorannen:: "Leftover cake for breakfast!"

Vat ees thees "leftover cake"? :D

>97 elenchus:
a nerdy story, you mean :)

There's a difference?

>98 saltmanz: German chocolate! I had a glass of milk with it, too. That makes it good for me, right?

Congratulations on a decade! Rare for any business with a ".com" in their name. Glad to see the site continue to grow, add new features, and help readers find new books!

>87 timspalding: Ah, thanks for clarifying. I would have preferred a basic requirement like "actually came to the site once five years after signing up", but oh well.

Congratulations and thank you, LT! :-) Looking forward to another 10 years.

>101 lorannen: and >98 saltmanz:

Yup!!!

Congratulations, and thank you to everyone at LT for all that you do!

>101 lorannen: Sure, why not? :)

(I looove german chocolate cake.)

Joyeux Anniversaire mes amis. :)

Alls Gueti zem Jubiläum!! Schön, dass es eu git!!

I am pleased about LT. Thanks for creating it and congratulations for keeping it going.

Happy anniversary! Congrats to Tim and Abby and everyone at LibraryThing. And thanks for everything you do!

Happy Tenth anniversary LT, I am so glad I came across this site and joined and as it happens I am wearing my LibraryThing sweatshirt today.

>87 timspalding: timspalding: Ah, thanks for clarifying. I would have preferred a basic requirement like "actually came to the site once five years after signing up", but oh well.

Right. Or added a book. But there'd be have and have-not battles. And, well, I wanted to use the awarding of the badges as a re-recruitment event too :)

>112 timspalding: I don't really think there would be a battle with people who aren't using the site ;). But I can understand the re-recruitment point.

>113 _Zoe_:

My ten-year badge isn't devalued by knowing that some people who haven't logged in for nine years might have one too; if you feel yours will be, I'm sorry. I'd actually love to know how many of us creaky oldsters are still around. (I'm glad to see you are, actually; I hadn't been seeing you around much lately!)

How do you get a badge, I am only coming up to my fourth Thingaversary in December but am on here everyday for at least a couple of hours.

>115 johnsimpson:

There are lots of ways to get badges! The "old-timer" badges for five- and ten-year members are brand new with LT's tenth anniversary, but helper badges have been around for years.

The wiki is here, but you get them for things like combining or separating authors and works, uploading cover photos, adding bookstores or libraries to LibraryThing Local, and so forth; basically anything that benefits the site as a whole.

Happy 10th anniversary! Thank you for the best site on the web, a great book cataloging experience, the opportunity to learn how to use and play on a wiki and, most of all, some fabulous real life LT friends! Here's to another ten years (and more) of LT fun!!

>116 lorax:, Thanks Lorax, don't think I have done anything that benefits the site apart from being a life member. Lt has changed my life and made me many new friends, keep up the good work to all staff at LT.

I think my favorite badge to get was the treasure box from last year's TLAP day :) I think @Lorannen said she's got somethin' a-brewin' for this year...

Thank you for my "fiver" badge, but I feel as though I should be giving Tim & Co. an award instead, for everything that LibraryThing has meant to me over the past 10 years.

Since I first found LT in December 2005 it has provided hours of enjoyment in cataloguing my books (still nowhere near finished because I keep reading them instread of cataloguing them), let me scratch any number of weird OCD ticks with cataloguing, tags and collections, and expanded my reading scope greatly thanks to the recommendations/book bullets I receive on a daily basis from some absolutely lovely fellow book-lovers, including some who have gone on to be offline friends.

My reading life would be far narrower and poorer without LibraryThing.

Here's to the next 10 years — and beyond!

Yay LT! I haven't been around for the past year, but I couldn't imagine life without this place, I'll be finding my way back soon! :))

>114 lorax: I'd actually love to know how many of us creaky oldsters are still around.

Me too :). (Of course, this is partially why I'd like it if the badge only went to people who were still around—and if it were possible to click on a badge to see a list of everyone who had that badge.)

It's been a pretty crazy year, but I'm still around sometimes. Maybe I'll even update my challenge threads one day :)

It would be fun to know how many of the people who joined in 2005 are still around at least semi-regularly. I know I'm not going anywhere!

Happy anniversary!

I missed joining in 2005 by six hours, haileb - I gave LT to myself as a new year's present. Three months until my X badge....

Congratulations! I look forward to the next ten and the ten after that! Cheers!

> 101

German chocolate! I had a glass of milk with it, too. That makes it good for me, right?

Absolutely!

When I was a kid, Dressel's made a chocolate cake layered with "whipped cream" and I would always have the leftovers for breakfast.

Happy anniversary! I'm so glad that LibraryThing is a thing!

Congratulations and thanks to Tim and all LT staff.
Good-on-you!.

Happy happy birthday to my favorite virtual home.

Y'know what would be fun? An update on all the crew that helped us all over the years. Abby comes to mind, and Graybeard. (Do I have his moniker right? He was Down-Under somewhere, and really kind and helpful) Where are they? Are they still members? Are they still on staff?

A little late but still...congratulations! And many thanks to Tim Spalding and all the staff over the years. You've got a great thing going here.

Belated congrats from me too. Been here for nearing seven years now, and expect I'll still be here for the twentieth anniversary.

Happy Anniversary! Special thanks and congrats to Tim and company for all your hard work over the years to make this site the success that it is today!

Well what can I say? I think I have posted a message per day on average. After about 8 or so years, that might mean I do LOVE LT & TIM

I suspect I might have tried to join LT quite a while before I did. http://www.librarything.com/profile/guido

Thus I might have been a VERY early settler.

Guido :-)

Congrats! A little late! Love this site and so glad I found it just over 7 years ago.

Happy 10th, Library Thing! Blessings to Tim Spalding and his cohorts.

You have rocked the decade. Love the new things you've got cooking with the app & ability to now add media to libraries (yes!)! Thx for the cool badge, too. HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY LT!

Happy 10th to the best site on the web! Thanks for making this wonderful place.

>129 MerryMary: I'm not sure about GrayBeard, but since @ablachly is my boss, I can assure you that she is still around :-D Abby was Tim's first employee, and is the Head Librarian and runs LibraryThing for Libraries. This is who we are, though many of us (especially the kiddos) look a little different from when these pics were initially added :)

>138 kgriffith:

I think MerryMary may be thinking of @GreyHead; I don't think he was ever an LT employee but used to be very active and helpful on Talk.

>138 kgriffith:
That who we are page is very interesting. What fascinating and varied talents you people have.

Happy Tenth, dear LT! You have no idea what a difference you've made in my life. I live in a literary desert, but here I have friends who READ - the same weird mix that I do.
Wishing you and us another happy 10 or 20 or 30 or more!

Aw, a 10th birthday!! Very special indeed. I love the place, the cataloging and super people, just wish I had more time to spend here.

Congrats on a job well done - keep up the good work! On your special day, I wish you many happy returns!

Happy Anniversary everyone!!! I have been here for 5 years and still love it. If I had known about LT when it started I would have been here 10 years. GREAT job Tim and all ! Keep up the good work because you are appreciated.

Happy anniversary, and congrats for making one of the best web sites around! I was shocked when I received my "Fiver" badge, couldn't believe I had been a member for such a short time, as I feel like LT was part of my life for ever :)

I love you all. And as a librarian with a lot of grumbling against many of the three-lettered systems we use to manage our libraries, I'm especially happy about the direction things are going with LTFL and Tiny Cat. Keep up the good work.

And the post mentions an iPhone app! Hurrah, hurrah! Was it perhaps 10 years in the making? *grins*

But that said, how fun it was to get my 10 year badge today. Many happy returns!

@GreyHead is indeed the gentleman I was thinking of. And it's good to see Abby again. She's still wearing a lot of hats. Her little guy can't be very little any more.

I wax nostalgic...

I love, love, love this site. Happy belated birthday!! Thank you for my badge, thank you for all the free Early Reviewer books, thank you for giving me a social media site where I can choose to be social or choose to be alone. (I only wish you would have let me make the cake.

> 146 I am still here, I've never left! Just less visible on the site itself. I run LTFL now. And you're right, none of our kids are so young anymore! Mine just started first grade. (He's in the 10th anniversary photo with me, eating a pink cupcake in the upper right corner.)

Happy Birf Dee! This site has come to mean so much to me over the years- the order is ssoooo awesome, as are the friends I've made here over the years. Thanks for all the hard work, and thanks for creating this space.

Ad Multos Annos!

I learned about LT almost 8 years ago in a little online course sponsored by CSLA called Library 2.0. Of all the apps we learned about, this is the only one I still use. If I have a book addiction then I've met the most wonderful enablers on this site!

Happy Anniversary LT (and all the so helpful and awesome staff, not to mention all my fellow cool peeps on Talk and other places on the site.)

I found this site about 5 1/4th years ago and haven't regretted signing up or going for the lifetime membership for one second.

And this site isn't just useful for me personally, but I use it so often when patrons need to know the order of a series, or the next book in a series too. Useful at work and at home. :)

This is the first site I log into every day - it's my favorite. Happy Anniversary and thank you for all the great features of this site. It's wonderful to be able to get good recommendations for a good read. I have never been disappointed. I love being able to catalog my "library" - you're the best!

Congrats!

I'm 2 months away from my 10-year Thingaversary, and you could say the Fiver badge re-recruited me after life got in the way for a long while. So, mission accomplished for at least one old-timer, Tim (and expanded media features didn't hurt either). :)

>154 SchanleyMedia:

Great to hear!

Congratulations. This site keeps me connected to my books since retiring from my librarian job. Always loved cataloging in library school. Keep up the good work everyone.

Happy Anniversary! Only 11 months until my 10th Thingaversary. Great to see so many of the old familiar names still around.

Wow. How did I miss this?? I love you LT! Happy Anniversary. You are my one and only since I don't do Facebook, Twitter or any of these others. I need to get back into writing reviews one of these days. I am here every day though.

My very best wishes to all of you far and wide for making LT so great!

k4k

A very late congratulations from NewZealand! I remember stumbling onto this website back in 2006 and being ridiculously excited - and that was before I found the forums and many friends. Thank you Tim for starting something amazing.

Happy 10th Birthday!

Congratulations!

This site is by far the best electronic/internet based bibliography on this planet. I am amazed at its flexibility with features such a use of non-Latin alphabets, destinctions of homonymous authors, and detailed statistics. It is flexible to allow very specific data to be entered, including in my case "Table of Contents", "dates of museum exhibitions", etc. The feature of being able to record contributors, photographers, and editors is especially useful and gives all those "other authors" credit for their work, which libraries usually ignore with "et al"!

I have shown this system to hundreds in the last six years - members of Parliament in Indonesia (and a daughter of President), numerous Directors of Museums, some of which have adopted LibraryThing (e.g. BowersMuseum in Santa Ana, California), and, of course colleagues at the Weltmuseum Wien. The recent further improvements such a Media designation really add to its usefullness. Now one can enter "posters", "zines", "sets of postcards" and magazines with a clear distinction to books.

Looking forward to the next ten years!

Happy Birthday to founder(s), workers and members.
Thank you.
You all have been given me a lot of funny and helpfull and a few of annoying hours spending time on the site.

I am looking forward...

Congratulations! I happily use LT for work and play. Thanks for being such a consistently great place to share. I love you guys! I love your widgets!

>161 johninvienna:

You deserve to be made an LT Ambassador for your efforts!

*singing slightly off key* And many mooooooooore .....

Happy anniversary . Lovely to be part of this community . Best ever . My celebration was to give a talk on LT and how excellent it is at a book faire so you should get a few more Joburg members .

>147 morningwalker:
Love This!!!

Happy anniversary!!. I love LT.

Congratulations on 10 years of doing what you love and doing it well! I don't get into the Groups and Site Talk as often as I used to, but I still count the LT memberships I've bought over the years to be the best of investments. I have to admit that I shuddered in horror at the new features for adding non-book media, but only because I just reorganized those collections and know how much I have to catalogue. ;)

It's funny... I'm kind of giddy at the prospect of a 10-year badge a month from now! And I loved seeing so many familiar names up above.

What a happy occasion, ten years of LT!

I see many great friends also commenting here, thanks Tim and congratulations to us all!

My own Tenth Thingaversary is next April, so I am psyched for that! I have a question about Group Thingaversaries. I see a number of the established Groups like The Green Dragon, Hogwart's Express, Science Fiction Fans, What Are You Reading Now, Non-Fiction Readers, all have Start Dates between July 26-29, 2006, but I really thought I was active in Groups from Day One.

A limited search hasn't shown any threads started before August, 2006, yet they read like established communities, and curiously without introduction threads.

Was there a reboot or back-up problem at the end of July, 2006 that may have caused this?

Just curious, it doesn't really matter, but it has piqued my interest!

170>

Was there a reboot or back-up problem at the end of July, 2006 that may have caused this?

No, that's when Groups got started.

Not all groups have or need introduction threads. I personally despise the process for topic-oriented groups; some groups are about chatting about anything and everything with friends, in which case a "Hi, although my username is Fred please call me George, I live in Seattle with two cats and a parakeet" type thread is appropriate, if the group's about (for instance) reading non-fiction books than that sort of thing is irrelevant and an unnecessary hurdle for people who may just want to discuss a book.

Edited to add:

You may remember having participated in the now-defunct Google Group before Groups got started. It was fairly active, and a lot of participants knew each other, which helps to explain why we just jumped into Talk without feeling the need for introductions in Every. Single. Group.

>171 lorax:

Maybe we should start a "Welcome to the Groups" group.

>172 suitable1:

Like this one?

>173 lorax:

No, that one is serious.

Just a place for entering "I'm Fred with two cats and I no longer have a parakeet." And then just link to it as one joins a group.

Congratulations! Love LibraryThing!

>174 suitable1: R.I.P. Fred's parakeet

>170 mrgrooism: Ah! So it's the logical, non-complicated answer!

Thanks!

>172 suitable1: Ah! Sarcasm. I approve, please carry on!

>174 suitable1: Have the authorities questioned the cats, preferably separately? One might turn into a stool pigeon or rat the other one out.

>178 Taphophile13: Hmmm. Cats turning into pigeons and rats. Sounds like incorporating parakeet might be dangerous.

>179 MarthaJeanne: On second thought, those cats will probably just flip the bird.

Where would I be without librarything? I mean, seriously?

In the Netherlands? :p

>182 anglemark: *snort*

Actually, the one time I was in the Netherlands, I met someone who is on LibraryThing. :-D

>183 PhaedraB: It wasn't me. :-(

>184 henkl: Maybe next time :-)

>181 sjjk: Pining for the fjords?

>183 PhaedraB: A couple of months I saw someone walking down the street wearing a t-shirt with the text @andejons on it. I ran up to him and asked about it, and of course it was the LT member with that nick, who lives in a city 300 miles away but was visiting that week.

>187 anglemark: Hah, that's crazy!

We should all have t-shirts with our member names on them!

weirdos.

>189 anglemark: ...and wear them CONSTANTLY, EVERYWHERE we go!

am I the only one who read MrAndrew's post in this voice?

>192 Bookmarque: NOPE.
But then, I read most of @MrAndrew's posts in that voice. ;)

>192 Bookmarque:, >193 kgriffith:

You are all WEIRDOES!

>194 lorax:

Already have the t-shirt!

Happy Anniversary LT ! wonderful website..

Happy anniversary, and thank you, LibraryThing staff, for all you do!

I have two questions: Who owns LibraryThing?
What happened to Pirate Speak this year?

Congratulations! My favorite memory of LibraryThing has been SantaThing. I love having the chance to gift and be gifted books with a community who I know wants nothing more than for me to be able to sit down with a good book.

>198 Illiniguy71:

I own a majority. Abebooks and Bowker, LLC own minority stakes.

Our Pirate day was confined to this ( https://www.librarything.com/topic/195939 ). Others have asked me too. I don't think that thread was seen by many. It should have also included a home-page announcement and a blog post.

>200 timspalding: I Love Abebooks! Makes perfect sense to me (the minority ownership).

Congrats and Happy Birthday LibraryThing.

I've been a member since 2006, almost your whole run. As a lifelong Library fan, I'm really glad you're here.

Abebooks is owned by Amazon, isn't it?

>203 jjwilson61: Sadly, you are correct. I don't take back the love, though.

Amazon keeps buying up (formerly) independant internet book companies. They want a monopoly.

See http://blog.librarything.com/main/2008/08/page/2/

Felicitations! Five years of book happiness for me from you. Thank you :)

Happy Anniversary! I agree with the others that this site has made such a positive contribution!

When I stumbled across LT almost three years ago I joined immediately. Never looked back. It seems the numbers are growing exponentially because I never receive any early reviewer books anymore! The price one pays for success. Love the site and my love grow exponentially as well. Hope For Another 10 Times 10 Years.

Happy Anniversary! I am glad to be a part of the Fiver group and wish I could have been a Tenner!

Whoops, didn't see this til just now. Happy belated birthday!

Happy Anniversary! I love this site, here is to many more.

Happy 1st Decade! Here's to the next decade! Congratulations. You make reading a joy!

I'm so happy I've discovered LibraryThing, so here's to another 10 and beyond.

Nice to see that there's another ten year anniversary. Books and math; life is good.

http://xkcd.com/1581/

LT is my anchor and comfort and great pleasure.
There probably is no other group with such interesting members anywhere.

Thank you Esta. Your presence here is our anchor.

I didn't know about this thread, but I do want to say Happy Birthday LibraryThing!

I also want to say, Thank you so much for allowing me to meet some utterly fabulous people here. Friends. Special people. so.. thank you! A lot

And thank you for keeping me from buying the same book secondhand, like, seven times.

Happy Anniversary!!! I Love your site and it is so much fun to log my books read and to wait in anticipation if I've won a book to review.
That's what this site makes me feel like... a winner!!!!
I know cheesy message, but its true!

>218 SomeGuyInVirginia: You are a true collector. Happy Birthday again LT.

Republic of Tea has spawned a couple of books. The Republic of Tea: The Story of the Creation of a Business, as Told Through the Personal Letters of Its Founders and The Republic of Tea: the Book of Tea and Herbs: Appreciating the Varietals and Virtues of Fine Tea and Herbs so when will the LibraryThing books start coming out?

>221 bnielsen: Yes, that's what we need.

LibraryThing : The Book

But I don't think Tim should write it. We need him developing, smashing all the bugs on that plate...

>218 SomeGuyInVirginia: It wasn't The Catcher in the Rye, was it? I smell a Conspiracy.

>222 MarthaJeanne: BIGGER FLY SWATTER.

>222 MarthaJeanne: LibraryThing : The Book
Oh, I can hardly wait to catalog that one.

Just remember, when it comes out I want to be listed as an other author as 'title suggester'.

>222 MarthaJeanne:, >225 Taphophile13:

Oh, we can do better than that!

[No Title] by Various for maximal cataloging and Touchstoning pains.

Happy Birthday! Here's to another 10!

>220 ulmannc: Thanks for not saying 'hoarder'.

>223 Noisy: Totally holding those 100 copies for friends.

Yes! The LT book! How cool would that be? Very, very cool indeed.

Happy Birthday....Have enjoyed my 1st year with your site....:)

Wow, this is a true cause for celebration! I'm rather new to LT and navigating my way around all your services. Thank you for al the work you've done over 10 years.

Happy Birthday! ^___^

You must realize that shortly after the book comes out it'll be optioned for film. Hmmm. Now who would you cast as Tim?

>233 2wonderY: Daring scientist well versed in ancient languages and strolling along in archaeological digs? Harrison Ford :-)

Happy Birthday Librarything! I am a member for six years now.. it has been great.

>234 bnielsen: Perfect!

Happy Birthday Library Thing! What a wonderful website you are!

Thank you to Tim and all the people who make this place real.

>234 bnielsen: Oh, that is perfect!

>234 bnielsen: Not sure if flattering Tim or insulting Mr. Ford. ;)

>239 lorannen: And who would you like to portray you?

>240 Taphophile13: Stanley Tucci. The obvious choice.

ETA: If Mr. Tucci is (understandably) unavailable, Evelyn from The Mummy would also be good.

Congratulations Tim et. al.!

Has it been 10 years in your enjoyable company already? :O
Congratulations from Denmark!

Congrats, and thanks for keeping us updated with the latest bells and whistles. We love you!

Got my 10 year badge! Congratulations to LT and 10 years of cataloging and good conversations.

Just missed the 10 year badge, but still feel like an early adopter. Saw Tim Spalding at an ALA conference in Washington DC (I think that's where I was!). Signed up immediately and have been recommending it to people ever since.
Kit Keller

>246 kitkeller: That's awesome! You'll still get that Tenner badge, by the way, once your 10th Thingaversary rolls around!

Congrats to LT! I remember finding it almost 8.5 years ago while living in the internet wasteland of East Africa. It was really exciting to me at the time (and I still love it), especially because the most promising book-cataloging software I was able to find required me to learn Ruby on Rails!

Congratulations from Italy!
I remember, years ago I chose LibraryThing for a funny reason: because I saw ancient books (actually, Italian books!) in your home page. And I understood that LibraryThing could be OK for ancient books as well.
But LT is much more than that.

Roberto

Thank you so much for a wonderful tool to help me remembering all the books I have read

Happy Anniversary!!!!

How time flies. Really.

Happy birthday, LibraryThing!! Love you guys!! Thanks for creating this wonderful site!!

Congratulations LibraryThing! I've got a question for you. The Early Review books seem to have a basic bibliographic record, but when I go to add one to my books, they aren't always available. This seems to be most problematic with audio books. Is there something I can do to get the correct bib record? Thanks for all the reading fun!

And today''s my 10th Thingaversary! Again, many thanks and best wishes to all!

222, 225>

A few of us in the Tropic of Ideas group actually self-published a book of reviews from our Librarything accounts. It's called A Fabulous Opera and the proceeds are going to be donated. So, there is sorta a book, at least one inspired by the Librarything experience.

Happy 10th, LT!!

Happy Tenth!

I still, after nine years, love you dear LT.

Herzlichen Glückwunsch, Zehn Jahr alt und immer am laufen.
And now in English: Heartfelt congratulations, ten years old and still running.

Still got a year and a half until I make 10 but this place is home. Makes me wonder what I was doing for that wasted year and a half ;-) Best thing on the Internet, hands down.

:)

Great for LT and its 10th year ( I've been around for 5 years ). Still love the site and love the idea of movies & DVD collections. Looking forward to the LT iphone app. Thanks for all your efforts LT staff!

The app has arrived!

https://www.librarything.com/topic/199467

*looks at his android phone*

I'll wait another "two weeks."

:)

Oh my I thought LT was older then that. I joined in 2008 after a Google search. :) so glad I found this place!