LibraryThing Acquires Litsy!

LibraryThing has acquired Litsy, the mobile app and community.

Here are three blog posts about it:

• LibraryThing Acquires Litsy, mostly a press release.
• Litsy Newsletter, the newsletter we're sending out to Litsy members.
• LibraryThing and Litsy Q&A, questions LibraryThing members might have.

If you'd like to take Litsy for a spin, you can download it here: http://litsy.com

Okay! Any questions?

WHOA!

Updating the thread now that all links in >1 timspalding: are in place. Thanks for your patience, folks! I'll be keeping a close eye on this discussion, so if there's anything the FAQ doesn't cover, or you have any other questions, concerns, etc., I'm all ears.

>4 sunny:

Blog post, blog post, newsletter post, newsletter, FB group, FB Litsy, FB Twitter, FB LibraryThing, FB Twitter, home page, Instagram, tell wife, tell mom, lie on floor and scratch it into floorboards…

Ha. You deleted. Anyway, we're working on it!

Okay, so maybe steal some things from Litsy to go into the LT app?

What are the Litsy rules for author advertising when compared with LT's rules?
(One description said Litsy was a cross between Instagram and GR, which worries me...)

>6 Collectorator: Whoopdeedoo, do you want applause or something?

>6 Collectorator:

Hey, I feel your pain. But we couldn't push Litsy people onto LibraryThing just to talk. So, talk wherever you like. We're hoping we can get a critical mass on Facebook. But Litsy people have never had a central forum, so it's a little tricky.

>7 gilroy:

So, it's a little different, because, again, there's no groups or Talk on Litsy. There's no easy way to push stuff on people. You mostly have to network. And that's a lot of work for an author who doesn't really want to engage.

One description said Litsy was a cross between Instagram and GR, which worries me

Feature-wise, I think that's fair. Culture-wise, I think it's very healthy and mature (which is probably what worries you). LibraryThing and Litsy people are different, but they aren't opposites.

>8 saltmanz:

Be nice.

I love both Litsy and LibraryThing. I do hope you'll keep in mind that not everyone is on (or wants to join) Facebook.

>10 rubyslippersreads:

Join Twitter? Or post here. We'll probably be cross-posting interesting things people say elsewhere.

Just got the Litsy email! Signed up ages ago and never used it. Time to give it a spin again, I see :-)

Congratulations! Exciting possibilities.

>9 timspalding: Feature-wise, I think that's fair. Culture-wise, I think it's very healthy and mature (which is probably what worries you). LibraryThing and Litsy people are different, but they aren't opposites.

And you'd be wrong about what worries me.
What worries me is the GoodReads reference, because GoodReads has become such an Author Promotion platform. Mature would be nice, as it is lacking at times (even from me) around here. Never thought the readers were the problem. They usually want to talk about books.

It's rare that I read an unexpected acquisition message and at the end of it, decide the game state appears to be one of symbiosis rather than hostile takeover. Of course, I'm from the Larger Entity (that is, I'm on LT) not the Smaller Entity (litsy), so maybe my perspective is disingenuous. Still, a major contrast to my usual emotional state after reading similar major announcements, most recently the shuttering of DNAInfo.

>12 timspalding: We'll probably be cross-posting interesting things people say elsewhere.
I suspect I won't join litsy but would be interested in a dedicated LT group to scan developments or news or whatnot. Maybe a quick link to the litsy Twitter feed (I'm not a Twitter user, either, but I believe I can follow anyway)?

Congratulations! It sounds like an exciting move

What worries me is the GoodReads reference, because GoodReads has become such an Author Promotion platform. Mature would be nice, as it is lacking at times (even from me) around here. Never thought the readers were the problem. They usually want to talk about books.

Yeah. I THINK Litsy has escaped it for two reasons—it's small and doesn't have the easy microphone, as I said above. Anyway, I think you know how much I detest this phenomenon on LT. Authors sometimes call us hostile to them and, honestly, they're right. We are hostile to authors who are just looking to promote their books.

It's rare that I read an unexpected acquisition message and at the end of it, decide the game state appears to be one of symbiosis rather than hostile takeover.

Yeah, it's a friendly one. For starters, this would NOT have happened if Jeff at Litsy hadn't simply liked us. Also, if we tried to "eat" Litsy, we'd have nothing--members would NOT make the switch.

Here's the Twitter: https://twitter.com/getlitsy

I suspect we will be using the LibraryThing blog to post about Litsy from time to time. There's no equivalent on Litsy, which is odd.

>16 elenchus: here you go, the Litsy Twitter, which you can absolutely read without joining Twitter:
https://twitter.com/getlitsy

I never heard of Litsy (obnoxious cutesy name there!), so I did a bit of googling.

"You’ve also got a “Litfluence” score, which helps you identify the most influential people on the app and see how you stack up against them"

Ugh.

"If Instagram and Goodreads Had a Perfect Baby"

Double ugh.

"Limited rating options for review. No stars or scales. Just like, so-so, pan, and bail."

Whatever the heck those mean.

"the Litsy community (“Littens”)"

Seriously? This is "mature"?

"LibraryThing intends to offer Litsy members access to LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer program. "

I hope that is only if they join LT. Because otherwise, you're screwing your base. That's worrisome.

I'm on both LT and Litsy and love them both. List avoids some social media pitfalls because: (1) there is no PM feature and (2) no real way for authors, etc to over promote because you have to follow someone in order to get their info. If you don't want to see them, just unfollow. Authors do link to their books and such, occasionally do promotional giveaways, but again, only followers see them. There is a pretty nice respect everyone culture at Litsy and it's not too troll-y. It has a nice and easy way for you to tag books that others recommend to a TBR stack and I enjoy that feature, but for cataloging, etc, LT cannot be beat, and Litsy is not in competition with that. It's a bit of a kindler, gentler instagram/goodreads for folks who think the goodreads culture is too promotional and, well, sort of mean and troll-y. A good bit of instagram feel because it's photo driven. It takes a while to get up to speed there, because you don't really get anything in your feed until you begin to follow people and you don't really get discussions on your posts until you get followers back. For the most part, people reciprocate follows which makes it work well. I would suggest looking up some of your favorite books and following people who post, comment or like about those to start. It's a great place for a quick recommendation, etc just by posting a question. The one drawback for me (which is a big plus for lots of folks): there is a LOT of bookswaps, daily bookish questions or instagram-type post a day challenges. On LT, those can happen in threads which you can avoid if you want. Litsy will benefit greatly from the larger book database on LT and LT may gain some bookish folks looking for a cataloging system.

>18 timspalding:
>19 ablachly:

I've added the link to My Notepad. It may not be worth the development resources, but a Home module would be a handy way to check in (for LTers like me) or to raise awareness among new LTers unaware of Litsy.

> You deleted.

Yes, I thought I don't always have to tell people what they should do ;-)

>20 lilithcat:

Litfluence. Honestly, I'm not a fan. People don't seem to take it seriously, though.

Double ugh. De gustibus non est disputandum.

Whatever the heck those mean. Well, it's different. I'm no fan of ratings, as you may know. But it focuses people on what people say.

Littens. Oh, let people have their fun. "Thingamabrarian" is not more mature. As with that, users came up with it.

I hope that is only if they join LT. Because otherwise, you're screwing your base. That's worrisome. No, I'm going to disagree. LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program is not a handout. It's something we do for publishers that makes them happy. If they're happy, they give you free books. If they're not, they don't. Unfortunately, we're tiny--beneath the notice of many publicists. Expanding our program is good for all.

I use both Litsy and Librarything and both can complement each other. Litsy people like books and discuss books, as with Librarything ... what could be better. There is no trolling that I have ever seen on Litsy and great supportive comments from everybody unlike on Goodreads. I would have to describe it as Social Media for book fans.

Some great buddy reads too.

>24 timspalding: >20 lilithcat: Litsy is a fun place and I can be a serious person as much as the next man (or woman). As I said above I like both. As Tim said no one takes the litfluence seriously just a bit of fun.

I have no particular opinion about Litsy, but it's encouraging to hear about LT getting into acquisitions!

>27 _Zoe_:

it's encouraging to hear about LT getting into acquisitions!

Indeed, it is. The underlying message here is that LT is doing well. And that's a good thing.

I'm on both LT and Litsy, and enjoy them both. Litsy is a very friendly and welcoming community that so far, does not have the negatives that plague Goodreads and Instagram. I hope it stays that way.

>29 abergsman: Me too!

I realize everyplace has a different culture, but one where people are concerned with their "litfluence" doesn't seem like one I would find congenial. (I'm not on Instagram, have only a handful of Twitter followers, and find any concern with likes or followers or the like utterly baffling.) Still, I hope that those who do like that sort of thing continue to enjoy Litsy, and that if they do wander over there they understand we're not into that sort of competitive popularity contest.

>31 lorax: I'm not really sure what the founders (Out of Print, now a subsidiary of PRH) had in mind when they started it but its a fairly meaningless number now. The litfluence score's novelty on Litsy usually wears off very quickly as there isn't any prize or particular cache to the number.

The Litsy community is really very open, friendly, and supportive. Ironically, I can see LT's acquisition and plans to offer ER titles to Litsy users changing that. A publisher may prefer that their book go to someone who has a higher lifluence (a score calculated on followers, likes, comments, and stack adds) than someone else.

A lot of Litsy users don't care for the byzantine ways of LibraryThing, so if they do wander over here, it will only be to register for the ER program (which LT may promote as featured posts on Litsy) but I doubt you will see an influx of members compared to when Otis Chandler of GoodReads sold his platform to Amazon.

Awesome! Welcome aboard LibraryThing! My question is about separating Likes👍🏻 from follow requests. They run on the same thread so I often miss it when someone begins following me. I’d like to know so I can follow them back . Also DMs would make Book swaps a lot easier for those of us who host swaps with hundreds of people involved.

>32 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Fortunately, the publishers really don't dictate who gets the book in the Early Reviewer program. It's all an algorithm with lots of technical details I haven't bothered to follow. :) All they do is offer the book through Librarything.

the byzantine ways of LibraryThing

You mean they don't care for the cataloging and organizing? Not everyone has such a gene.

Hello friend! @texreader from Litsy here! I am on both apps and agree with you 100%.

>31 lorax:

The last phrase I would attribute to Litsy is a competitive popularity contest. It's not Twitter or Instagram, and honestly, I hope the comparison goes away soon! Most people pay very little attention to their Litfluence "score".

>35 KarenMonsen:

Hey there @texreader! I'm @4thhouseontheleft on Litsy, but my LT username came about before my blog, hence the difference. :-)

Some of us are both Litsy and LibraryThing people so there's definitely overlap. As for worrying about authors pushing their own books, it really doesn't happen much in my experience. The authors I follow on Litsy generally plug other authors' work that they are reading and enjoying. Sure, they occasionally throw a post about their own book releasing or whatever but they are generally respectful of the platform and don't use it simply to shill.

>36 abergsman:

Agree with you entirely. I'm @booknaround on Litsy.

>31 lorax:

Absolutely second what abergsman says. I'd never say that Litsy is a competitive popularity contest. In fact, I have zero idea of what my litfluence is and couldn't really care less. I enjoy the photos and the commentary on books and I hope that none of what makes Litsy such a warm and welcoming place will change. It's different than LibraryThing, sure, but as a decade long user of LT, I don't see them being a mismatch in any way, rather as complimentary for those of us who live and breathe books.

>31 lorax:

one where people are concerned with their "litfluence" doesn't seem like one I would find congenial

So, honestly, I completely agree with you. That was my major off-putting thing early on too. It felt like social-media manipulation to me. However, it doesn't seem to have had any ill effects. People don't take it very seriously, and to the extent they notice, it provides a little positive feedback.

The last phrase I would attribute to Litsy is a competitive popularity contest. It's not Twitter or Instagram, and honestly, I hope the comparison goes away soon! Most people pay very little attention to their Litfluence "score".

You put it better than me.

A publisher may prefer that their book go to someone who has a higher lifluence (a score calculated on followers, likes, comments, and stack adds) than someone else.

That's an interesting point. I think we will have to institute a rule about that.

LibraryThing algorithms control the process. We've never been public about exactly what goes into the rule on LibraryThing, but we have been clear that how you rate ER books is never going to be a factor. We don't want people gaming the system.

Litfluence incluces a number of factors; I'm not sure we want to discount them all, or say what's included or not. But Litfluence per se should not be a factor.

Well, congrats. I see the synergy. *cough*

Seriously, this could be a good thing. Just hope it doesn't mean staff is going to be stretched even thinner, long-term...

I have no problems with this. I have friends on Litsy and I've been curious about it, but without a smartphone, and it being based on photos, I've not bothered. However, I do have a tablet and may check it out at some point. I may or may not stick around over there, but you never know!

>40 davidgn:

Send coffee.

RE : >6 Collectorator:, >11 Collectorator:, >13 Collectorator: etc.

* 10,000 ^1000

APPLAUSE!

Litsy (as a mobile-phone 'app') is yet another way in which two or more people--'strangers on a train' (or a bus, a plane, etc)-- might all have their noses pressed to their smart-phone screens and never discover that there's a shared interest between some of them in author(s) X, Y, or Z, -- a shared interest between people who could actually speak directly to each other--at no charge to the phone service-- face-to-face. Even "better", they could be reading the same author from their Kindle-or-whatever phone-like device and, given that these devices, unlike a book's cover, do not divulge title and author to a casual observer, they'd never know it.

Yes, this is progress, alright.



___________________________________________

Just the name "Lit-sy" says it all.

"Excuse me? No, thank you. I read only quality LIT'tra-chure-- J.K. Rowling, LeHane, and other leading lights of LIT'tr-chure. Besides, who ever heard of your what's-his-name fellow, anyway!?

A note about Litfluence

I've been on Litsy for a year and it was fun to watch the Litfluence go up. But that lasts all of a month. After a while you just completely forget about it (at least that was the case with me.) The nice thing about the litfluence is it kind of encouraged me to jump right in and follow pople and post because it was fun watching it grow...then you just kind of stop caring because you are having fun reading about books etc.

BTW Everyone starts with a litflucence of 42 (at least that was the case a year ago.)

ETA: I am @RestlessFickleBookHoarder over there.

I'm glad to hear the unanimous chorus that "litfluence" is largely ignored. The reviews I read (since I'd never heard of Litsy before) seemed quite excited by it, and implied it was a major part of the site; maybe that was just their personality, or maybe it was that initial first-month infatuation with the metric. Thanks, everyone.

I do not need another time suck/ap on my phone. That being said, I am a woman of weak morals and so shall have to check out this Litsy thing out of curiosity. I've never been able to get a handle on the whys and wherefores of Instagram, too old I guess. Anyway, I do like to investigate new and shiny things. :)

I checked Litsy out and pretty much feel it’s not for me. Its most annoying aspect is the need (or strong suggestion) to post a picture with each first entry. I don’t want to post a long book review on my small iPhone screen! I’d rather do that on LT on my desktop. The obscure books I often read are mostly not listed on Litsy, but I also think listing them here on LT has more value for authors.

Litsy is an interesting platform for those literary buffs addicted to their cell phones. Haha! It also may help GoodReads people finally explore LT in greater depth. :)

I am so happy, Tim, that you can now acquire small businesses that complement LT. I hope your acquisition of Litsy is well worthwhile.

ETA: Following authors on Litsy might be fun. I might give that a try at some point.

ETA2: I played a bit on Litsy today and had lots of fun there. I retract my initial response. I like it! It’s strange how preconceptions can be so wrong.

I don’t want to post a long book review on my small iPhone screen!

Litsy doesn't allow long reviews anyway, it appears. More like quick tweet-length reactions - as I understand it it's just a place to see what your friends are reading and a sentence or two about it, not for anything in-depth.

My biggest concern about opening up the ER giveaways to Litsy users isn't about diluting the pool with more requests, it's about lowering the overall quality of reviews by incorporating a culture where one or two sentences is the normal review length and where anything that I'd consider an actual review is in fact impossible. I understand those reviews wouldn't be here on LT (at least I hope not), but are publishers really going to be happy if that's the direction the program starts going?

>46 MrsLee:

I've never been able to get a handle on the whys and wherefores of Instagram, too old I guess.

I thought that, up until this year. Then I found the gardening people on Instagram ... now I revel in photographing my seedlings. I think there's a 'Find your Tribe' element. That was what threw me when I first signed up for Litsy. On LT, I could just drift into Talk and catalogue while I was dipping my toes in. I kind of felt there was nothing to do on Litsy while I found my feet and my 'tribe'. On a second pass at it, having spent more time on Instagram, I can see that maybe it is fun.

I guess I'm just so used to the LT tribe that I haven't considered branching out ;-) The nice thing about Litsy is how dedicated the Litsy Tribe is to their app. Not unlike another fanatical, protective bunch of bibliophiles not a million miles from here :-D

The nice thing about Litsy is how dedicated the Litsy Tribe is to their app. Not unlike another fanatical, protective bunch of bibliophiles not a million miles from here :-D

Exactly. Thank you for saying it, even if only obliquely. The sites are different, and very much the same.

The whole experience has reinforced some core messages I've learned from LibraryThing—that, as the movie says, social software isn't features, it's people.

To take an example I was just writing about over there, I found Litfluence very off-putting. It felt like a rather crass and dated attempt to use "gamification" to drive users to do stuff. For a while sort of carrots-for-building-my-platform logic was all the rage, and it continues today. I never liked it. And its created problems on sites that have it—consider the icky class dynamics at Stack Overflow.(1)

I was converted because I saw how users actually used it. It never "did" much, which was good. And the community at Litsy took such a healthy attitude toward it that it neutralized any potential bad effects. It survives and exists, but it doesn't do any harm. I worry about how it looks to people coming in. But I don't worry about it distorting their generally positive and non-hierarchical community.

1. My feelings here are why LT's badges for doing various things that help the data came late, and are quite hidden in the UI. Even so, some members hate them.

>51 timspalding: I neither hate, nor care, about badges. I think they're kind of, well, dumb, but I recognize that others may like them, and I neither strive for, nor avoid, actions that will cause me to receive them.

Life is short. Spring is beginning to poke little tendrils here and there. The Forsythia are shouting yellow from everywhere, and dogwoods in bloom are starting to creep up the hillsides...

//>52 Lyndatrue: our poor little daffodils look so pathetic with this stupid snow. My wife found a cute picture with a caption on it. It said "Spring installation failed" and below is the magic yellow triangle with the ! in it that says "Application installation failed"//

Life is short. Spring is beginning to poke little tendrils here and there. The Forsythia are shouting yellow from everywhere, and dogwoods in bloom are starting to creep up the hillsides

As a resident of Maine, where no such things are happening, why don't you just rub lemon in the wound?

>52 Lyndatrue: Spring is beginning to poke little tendrils here and there.

And the northeast and midatlantic are expecting a foot of snow in the next two days...

My two cents: I've been a user on Litsy, Librarything and Goodreads and if you asked me to abandon one of them, it would definitely be Goodreads. I'm not too fond of the "social" side of Goodreads for many reasons (the like function makes reviews useless) and loathe Instagram and Twitter. Litsy was a real surprise in that regard. I'm more of a quiet person that isn't into genre-fiction or current bestsellers, my photos were average but people were very open and friendly, with the more popular users not giving off queen bee vibes. Obscure books won't get as much resonance, but even those will usually interest one or two people and that can lead to interesting conversations. If nobody posts it, nobody can find it. ;)

Taking part in challenges has been a nice way to engage with my collection and older books I haven't read in a long time. I do agree that it's not the greatest space for reviews, but it was interesting to condense my opinion into 3 or 4 sentences, and that approach kicked me out of a long writing slump. One of these days, I'll expand them and post them on LT.

Litfluence isn't a big deal. It exists and people will sometimes post a picture when their score hits a certain milestone (1000, 2000 etc.), but that happens rarely and nobody I followed cared about it.

So, overall I'm pleased about LT acquiring Litsy. They're two different beasts (and that is a good thing) and I don't expect users from one site to flood the other, but I do believe they make a better pair then say, Litsy and Goodreads or Goodreads and LT. My only wish for the future is that both sites thrive and that the overall friendly atmosphere doesn't change. Finding places on the internet that aren't infected with petty drama and poisonous attitudes feels difficult these days...

Okay. So I just now checked out the Litsy FB page and see that Litsy members have the same concerns that we had each time we underwent a corporate change here on LT (like when Abebooks bought LT and then Amazon bought Abebooks). We didn't want commercialization. We didn't want trolls. We didn't want negativity. We didn't want to lose the closeness we developed over the years of being LT members. We didn't want change.* Littens want the same.

* I personally hate change, but I've learned to live with it. :)

>56 Mirabelle: If nobody posts it, nobody can find it.

For me that would be a great use of Litsy. I love to promote books by not-well-known authors if I find their writing of superior quality. I might play around with that idea when I start using Litsy more earnestly.

My only wish for the future is that both sites thrive and that the overall friendly atmosphere doesn't change

Amen!

Litsy is of no prospective use to me personally, since I don't carry a phone. (I realize that for many people, this admission is like a claim that I don't wear clothes. In fairness, reading paper books for pleasure qualifies you as eccentric in the US today.)

Litsy does seem like a good complementary fit for LT business-wise, and I hope all goes well with it.

The term, "littens" came from Liberty Hardy of Book Riot, who is also a BOTM judge and who was instrumental in the set-up of the Litsy culture. Her sign-off on Twitter used to be something like, "OK, kittens, Keep all the blood on the inside" and "litten" became the word she used on Litsy.

When Instagram changed their algorithms (eradicating the chronological feed with a favorites-at-top feed), Litsy got a huge influx of Bookstagrammers, much to the annoyance of littens. The IG users were focused on a lot of cute books shots with candles, props, and meaningless posts. Sound familiar? It didn't take long for littens to weed them out of their feeds. And that's the thing, it's easy to curate your feed on the macro level in terms of taking out the dross. (I would still love a way to filter out the fringe events or mute certain hashtags, but that is a topic for Onward Litsy!)

451 characters doesn't sound like a lot in terms of posting a review but you would be surprised. The length forces a conciseness of thought. As for photos? You do not have to post a photo, though it does tend to draw the eye more than "just text." In the beginning, Jeff & Todd, who started Litsy, thought people would just post book covers but actually only about a third of the users default to that. Some go all out with staging and props, while most take candids of the book in-situ.

The tone of this thread gives the impression that littens are like the Visigoths ready to sack Rome! They really just want to be left alone. They are very wary of LT and the changes they may come despite Tim's assurances that everything is going to be okay.

>60 Tanya-dogearedcopy: They really just want to be left alone. They are very wary of LT and the changes they may come despite Tim's assurances that everything is going to be okay.

They sound just like us here! We should be fine together. :)

>59 paradoxosalpha: Well said! I am another eccentric!

Now if we could just get the publishers to stop using the coated paper, the books would be lighter and the glare from the lamp at night would be much less!

//The electronic Luddite reluctantly carries a "smart? phone" as his old Nokia died, ATT would no longer support it and I was having trouble reading the small font. Oh for the dial and the magneto.//

>60 Tanya-dogearedcopy:


The tone of this thread gives the impression that littens are like the Visigoths ready to sack Rome!


I don't think I've seen that at all! I've seen some people saying "Huh, that app's not to my taste", some more strongly than others, but nobody saying anything bad about Litsy members (I'm sorry, I can't bring myself to say "Littens") themselves.

I just signed up and have done a little surveying over there and it seems a great place. Wherever bookish people gather is a fine place to me. And, when I saw their reason for the "42" number for the Litfluence, I was sold... Douglas Adams in case that was unclear. :)

>64 -Eva-: I signed up and made one post. Friend me there so at least I’ll have a friend I “really” know there. Haha! I’m SqueakyChu there. Plus, I haven’t been on your LT thread for ages!! :)

>48 lorax:

Most Litsy users who write long reviews do so on their blog (or LT) and link to it. I prefer Litsy because I'm not a good enough writer or critical enough reader for long reviews ;-)

I see an advantage to Litsy right off. It’s a good place to comment on books before I finish reading them. On my LT thread, I usually finish my read and post my review before commenting on my books (unless I’m participating in a tutored read or group read).

*looks on Litsy for more things to like*

>66 Sace: That’s a good idea!

ETA: Ugh! I hate the learning curve of new apps. :)

>51 timspalding: I'm all about the oblique :-D. Seriously though, the Littens' worries read like a re-run of so many LT threads. It's different but so similar ;-)

>68 Collectorator: Somewhere Tim mentioned something happening 'in a week or so' ... should we tell them about LT time :-D

>67 SqueakyChu:

There are tutorials and blog posts to help. LTer mpmleonard has the YouTube tutorials. I'll be back in a sec with more....

Here's a link to more tips-
https://raimeygallant.com/2017/10/31/litsytips/

I've been on Litsy for a year and a half, and just joined LT to find out what it's all about. I had to laugh, because last night on Litsy, it was LT that represented the Visigoths. Tim has gone above and beyond in addressing concerns on the Litsy end. Personally, I think it's going to be an interesting ride, but one that I'm willing to take.

>21 Well-ReadNeck:

A good bit of instagram feel because it's photo driven. It takes a while to get up to speed there, because you don't really get anything in your feed until you begin to follow people and you don't really get discussions on your posts until you get followers back. For the most part, people reciprocate follows which makes it work well.

....there is a LOT of bookswaps, daily bookish questions or instagram-type post a day challenges.

Oh boy, all of that is So Not For Me. I hope LibaryThing in general doesn't become like that. I find GoodReads reviews unreadable because of all the photos and gifs.

>67 SqueakyChu:
Ha! Will do.

"comment on books before I finish reading them"
That's a really good point!

>59 paradoxosalpha:

Terrorist fist-bump from another person who doesn't have a modern phone, and hates them.

>60 Tanya-dogearedcopy:

451 characters? //dismay

The length forces a conciseness of thought.

People said a tight character limit would do that on Twitter, too. That really didn't happen.

>73 Lynnsoprano:

I've always seen LT as the very serious librarian/teacher who will not suffer the foolishness of young whippersnappers and hooligans. I mean this in the most loving way since I'm sort of that way myself. But sometimes you want to let off a little steam and dance with the lampshade on your head. That's when Litsy is a godsend.

As has been said there you do not have to post a picture you can just post a comment about a book, a review or a quote from a book. I have been there over a year and think posted about 3 photographs in that time (and I am a very active user). I tend to post the book cover though as it draws the attention to what I am talking about, but sometimes just post a comment. The space for a photograph put me off at first! Now don’t think about it.

I have never seen people make much fuss about the influence. Some people acknowledge when they pass a milestone, e.g. 10,000 and some people even host a giveaway when they pass a threshold where they will send the winner of a giveaway a book(s) or an Amazon voucher. I admire their generosity.

I love using Librarything and Litsy but use both in different ways. At Litsy I am known as @Andrew65 if anyone wants to find me. All welcome. It will be right for some people but not right fo others. I only ever use it on my iPad as I HATE being a slave to a phone!

I love some of the buddy reads, for example I am currently taking part in the Epic Buddy Read where we are reading the second book in the Kingkiller Series by Patrick Rothfuss over a two month period, The Wise Man’s Fear. Loving the experience. Of course Patrick is a Librarything Author. http://www.librarything.com/author/rothfusspatrick

Buddy reads - that's enough to get to check out Litsy.

Is Litsy entirely or primarily ephemeral - that if I post a review today, it gets seen by my followers today, and otherwise is gone unless someone scrolls back through my or their timelines, or is it easy to see all the posts pertaining to a particular book? Can people choose to follow books, in addition to people, so that they can see anyone who posts about a favorite book even if they aren't already followers?

(I do like the "follower" vocabulary, rather than the forced intimacy of "friend" as used on Facebook and, yes, here on LT. I'd follow people on LT; I don't use the "friends" feature here.)

>51 timspalding:

1. My feelings here are why LT's badges for doing various things that help the data came late, and are quite hidden in the UI. Even so, some members hate them.

I don't hate them. I just don't pay any attention to them. They certainly have no impact on what I do here.

I've been on Litsy for almost a year now and like it very much. Litsy and LT fulfill different needs for me.

I love LT for cataloging all my books, reading and writing full reviews, doing long-term planning and organization (via the challenge groups) and engaging in deeper conversations about books and authors.

I love Litsy for more spontaneous activities, such as participating in the readathons or buddy-reads. Sometimes I want to share a book-related photo (like my new Penguin Classics mug or a recent book haul) and I enjoy seeing other people's photos. I don't go on Litsy everyday, as I do with LT, but I just engage with the community when I feel like it.

I've also been a long-time member of BookCrossing. To me, all these book-themed sites serve different needs, but I think it's terrific when the communities overlap.

I think LT's acquisition of Litsy is a positive thing. I expect each site will gain benefits as a result but I doubt that this will change the characteristics of either group in any significant way.

>65 SqueakyChu: I found you on Litsy! I'm kwmg40 over there.

>82 lorax: At the current time you can’t follow a book, here’s an idea for Tim! If you go to the page for a book you can go through all the postings for that book and see all reviews, blurbs, quotes about the book.you can also look at all your postings on your own page starting with the most recent and go backwards. I know one or two people have commented on how they’d like to be able to access postings for past week, month etc quicker.

>64 -Eva-:

when I saw their reason for the "42" number for the Litfluence, I was sold... Douglas Adams in case that was unclear. :)

Yes, absolutely unclear, and a good example of why I'm dubious. That sort of cliquish reference turns me off.

>86 lilithcat:
To be honest, a reference to 42 almost isn't an insider joke anymore, at least not limited to Litsy and its community, it is used so often in geeky and/or SF contexts... See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrases_from_The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galax...

>86 lilithcat:
If the knowledge was imperative to your ability to use the app, absolutely, but since it isn't in any way, I think it adds something for those who know it and doesn't detract anything at all for those who don't.

ETA: >87 divinenanny: I'd agree with that, but since lilithcat doesn't/didn't know it, it's not true for all. Still, not necessary for using the app.

Wherever book-lovers gather, Ima gonna check that out. I'm a loooooooong time LT member and have been on Litsy a year or so. (The following is not a plug! ;)) I have a tea business and I read a lot of books I love. I take a lot of tea pictures for my tea business (for FB, IG, and Twotterton...but I don't really use them personally). I have a book blog, because some of the books I love are even works of art as objects regardless of whether the words between the covers are worthwhile. I take a lot of book pictures for my blog. I also take a lot of tea AND book pictures because they go so well together and well, I love photography. So...

I love the visual aspect of Litsy. A photo and a few words. A place to post book pics I might have taken for my other selves but also get to (succinctly) talk about the book. I'm not much of a selfie taker. But shelfies? Guilty. Multiple uses for photos.

I don't like that most of the covers seem to be the more pulp paperback covers. So I post a cover pic or something else intriguing about the edition I am reading.

I like to be able to just post a quick quote I love or a thought about the book in the heat of a reading minute. Either by typing the quote or by taking a photo of it so I don't have to type on a phone (an activity I abhor after about 50 characters).

I like that Litsy forces me to be extremely concise if I wanna ('wanna' uses less characters than 'want to'!) post a review. I might link to LT for people who want my usual run-on sentence wordy self, and to my blog if they want photos complete with the smell of hand made paper.

If I'm on my desktop or laptop, I'm on LT. If I'm on my phone being bookish, I'm probably on Litsy, unless I'm in a bookstore wondering if I already have a particular edition of Ulysses among my eight. Then it's the cumbersome but useful LT iPhone App.

LT is my jam; Litsy is a nice addition to my book life. If either of them get to troll-y, commercial, or markety-algorithmic; I'll kick them to the curb for the next real or virtual hangout for booklovers.

jveezer on Litsy. Go figure. (Don't expect a similar post on Litsy limited to 451 characters. I'm can't even..

>42 timspalding: P.S. Tea would focus your team better than coffee. ;) O.K. That might have been a plug.

>82 lorax: the forced intimacy of "friend" as used on Facebook and, yes, here on LT. I'd follow people on LT; I don't use the "friends" feature here.

LT does have "interesting library" as a way to follow users without the "forced intimacy of 'friend'" status. I like that.

I've been a Litsy member for at least a year and a member here (although not a particularly active one) for a few years. They both fill different functions for me.

I do love Litsy and the people who use it. It's probably one of the most welcoming and least judgmental (of all the reading/book sites) community of readers of which I've had the pleasure to belong. No one really uses the Litfluence number and it's not competitive in the least. It's truly a community of friendly and passionate readers.

I also want to clear up misconceptions about the lack of seriousness (implied by comments about the name "Littens", and the comment about how adding Litsy members to early review program would lower the quality of reviews, etc) of the community. That hasn't been my experience of using Litsy. I've done some great buddy reads on Litsy including an Infinite Jest buddy read which I credit for my success in finishing and enjoying the book. I read primarily literary fiction and have a blog where I review literary fiction. On Litsy, I've met a community of readers who enjoy reading Man Booker nominees, 1001 books, and great literary fiction. I've discovered wonderful new books and authors from recommendations by my fellow Litsy members. I'm also participating in a read around the world challenge where I've discovered great world literature each month thanks to other participants. There is great diversity of reader types on the app and you can create the experience you like by following like-minded people.

Litsy posts from my trusted connections are like a snapshot of what's out there that I may want to read. It's not a great place for long book reviews (but many members post those elsewhere -- here, GR, blogs, etc) but it is a great place for learning about new books, new authors, and new reading activities. I don't use Litsy to catalogue my books (I do that here) because that's not really its function. But I think it has great value and I think the community is pretty wonderful and kind.

Finally, I've never been contacted by authors trying to promote books. We don't have ads, there's no spamming, and members would be unhappy if those things change. Some have mentioned that it is promoted or marketed as a cross between goodreads and Instagram but for me, it's pretty different from both. It's not about taking beautiful photos, but rather using photos to illustrate various things related to our reading experience. I like the photo feature to take pictures of quotes or notes as I read or to see book covers.

Anyway, it's not probably something that will appeal to everyone but I do think Litsy is a wonderful place filled with many people who are truly passionate about reading. I'm hopeful about the integration with LT and think they could complement each other quite well.

Well said >91 JenPrim: This sums it up so well!

>73 Lynnsoprano: Welcome to LT!!! Hope you enjoy it here! I mentioned above that I'm not on Litsy (no smartphone), but I do have a tablet, so I might check it out at some point.

Just thought I'd add that (although I seem to be in a minority) I think the "litfluence" just sounds like a fun kinda thing! But then, I also think the badges here are a little bit fun. Using the word "littens", however, I may have trouble with!

I'm on Litsy, at least theoretically - I joined (as jjmcgaffey), tried to post, tried a couple things and couldn't figure them out, and couldn't find the tips they kept suggesting. I'll be checking out the link in >78 Sace:, for sure.
Aside from the pictures, which isn't really my thing, Litsy sounds very much like my thread in Club Read (or previous years' threads in 75 Book Challenge). I do a mini-review there and link to the proper review on my book. I may expand my posting to Litsy... Though I do most of my posting on the computer, I'll have to see how using the app works for me.
Personally it may or may not work for me - I may stick to LT. For LT, and the general world of bookishness on the internet, this acquisition sounds like an excellent idea to me!

Well, I spent some time on Litsy today trying to orient myself there to see what it has to offer. I received a very warm welcome there from many Litsy members. Where can I welcome those Litsy members to LT? How will I find them here?

I use both LT and Litsy, but for completely different purposes. I track my books here (although I've got some catching up to do at the moment!), but I use Litsy to share my reading with others. I don't pay attention to my Litfluence score, and wouldn't care if that feature went away as I don't see much point to it. I love the family feel of Litsy, and my experience on the app has been nothing but positive. I don't know many people in real life who are as passionate about books and reading as I am. Through Litsy I've met a group of equally passionate readers who I can chat books and bookish things with at any time of the day, every day.

>83 lilithcat:

I don't hate the badges either. I think they're sort of cute, but it's very unclear why they're awarded and the placement on their own page means I pretty much forget about them until I get a reminder email. Those can be annoying.

>56 Mirabelle: >57 SqueakyChu: >60 Tanya-dogearedcopy: >91 JenPrim: and many others

All great posts, with a lot of understanding between the groups. Thanks.

But sometimes you want to let off a little steam and dance with the lampshade on your head.

Pics or it didn't happen!

I'd follow people on LT; I don't use the "friends" feature here.

Well, as it turned out "Interesting Library" was following. Then we added friends. I'd like to simplify and go to just "follow" but you can't change something like that. People would go bananas.

>85 Andrew-theQM:

That is indeed a good idea.

>96 SqueakyChu: Tonight I came across a Litsy Group on Librarything which is dormant. I have just posted on it which should resurrect it (or make it active again after a few hours)., that should be a good place to meet Litsy members or Littens depending on what term you prefer. I have also advertised this Group on a couple of posts on Litsy.

Great to hear you received a very warm welcome. 😊

http://www.librarything.com/groups/litsy

>87 divinenanny:

Being neither "geeky" nor an "SF" person (assuming you mean science fiction rather than San Francisco), to me it is, indeed, an "insider joke".

>94 LibraryCin: I feel like Spartacus here, I’m a Litten and happy to be called either a Litten or a Litsy member. It is only a Name after all. 😊 No different to Shelfarians in the old days of the Shelfari website.

One thing I didn't say, for fear of being misunderstood.

Goodreads is in the middle.
LibraryThing is on the left.
Litsy is on the right.
So we have them surrounded!

(If you prefer LibraryThing on the right and Litsy on the left, go for it.)

Anyway, I think there's something to that. LibraryThing is complex and high touch. It appeals to a desire for good data, complete catalogs, and words words words. It's focused on the web. It doesn't handle "but what are you reading now?" as well. Litsy is much more about the now, more focused on images and limits words. It's not very good as a cataloging tool. It has no web version at all.

I don't think the services can be combined. But there are things to learn for both sites. And I'm pleased to be offering more for more types of people, or perhaps just the same people in different moods.

>103 timspalding: That does sound a good summation Tim. I feel they are complementary.

>102 Andrew-theQM: That’s great! Hopefully you’ll continue to post there to speak with more newbie Littens. Thank you!

>105 SqueakyChu: I will 😊

Perfect description of each strength! Litsy is definitely "in the moment", spontaneous lampshade dancing and LT is for reflection, data and keeping track of your lampshade collection.

Awesome! Thanks!

>103 timspalding: Well some of us have been asking for better "what are you reading now?" support on LT for a while now with not much response.

>3 lorannen: Well I tried Litsy and the first thing I hit (after it screwed up settings and permissions on my Note 4 which took 2 hours to fix) is that I can't easily add out of print books.

Where does it search for titles and authors? It's frustrating as h... if you want to add a book that isn't in their library. So I haven't added anything YET.

Until I hit a book I'm reading that is in their "library" I'm stuck.

The book I was trying to add was Thomas Mason, Adventurer.

>110 ulmannc: That is one of the things many, many people have high hopes for from the takeover - a much better catalogue for Litsy

>111 Robertgreaves: However, after having read the complaints about the poor catalogue, I was pleasantly surprised to find a relatively recently published book on Finnish history, in Swedish, in their catalogue.

>112 anglemark: >110 ulmannc:

Their back-catalog is what's in Ingram. So if it's being sold right now in physical bookstores, it's often there. If it's older, it's often not.

I am quite positive when it comes to this acquisition and Litsy, but I've become a little dishearted trying to find people to follow. I decided that finding people with a similar taste in books is the natural way of finding them, but nobody's reading Cabell, nobody has read E. R. Eddison, Rich Burlew, Walt Kelly. Not a single comment on Bulgakov's Master & Margarita, just a couple of cover pics. I seem to be much to odd and old for the Litsy crowd.

I think the fans of more obscure or quirky reading will find more souls here. Litsy does seem to be more popular fiction driven (and that's perhaps an overboard statement), but I have seen several Litsy users with more specific tastes. There were actually a lot of posts with comments for Master & Margarita.

>114 anglemark:

I think look harder. I don't have solid demographic information, but as far as the Facebook pages go, Litsy is not much younger than LibraryThing. Perhaps engagement is different.

>115 Sace: >116 timspalding: I will keep looking. Generally, I like the idea of somewhere to chat idly about books in a stream in contrast to the deeper discussions I find here. I guess searching for titles doesn't find all there is to find.

>98 the_red_shoes:

until I get a reminder email. Those can be annoying.

I've never gotten a reminder email for a badge. Do you have comment notifications turned on?

>99 timspalding:

Hey, "follow a book" was my idea first! ;-)

>117 anglemark: Try searching on tags instead. For example, I've used #1001books (for Peter Boxall's list) and #tob2018 (for Tournament of Books) to find like-minded people to follow.

Also, try participating in some events that might interest you and think of these as opportunities to introduce others to the more obscure books that you love. I've participated in a couple of comicthons. If you post about Walt Kelly during one of these events and include the #comicthon tag, I'll bet you'll get some likes and maybe new followers. Most of the posts for that thread do talk about recently published comics and manga, but I expect that the participants are open to discovering new authors and broadening their scopes. Isn't that why many of us are on LT and other book sites? :)

To see upcoming events, search for LitsyHappenings (under "People"). There are loads of posts introducing new members, but event announcements are tucked in there too.

1 I was just updating my profile and saw that there is no entry for Litsy in the "Also On" list.

What's the worldwide demographic like? For those of us across the pond (let alone speaking foreign!) even LT can be very US centric. It's already hard having conversation with people who sleep at different times to you, and US/UK/EU publishing rights (eg books that are available now and hence might be on the app) can be very different.

I've gotten a very internacional feel on Litsy. A lot of people I follow are across the pond and I follow some folks who post in German and English.

I guess searching for titles doesn't find all there is to find.

Also, their book-finding is really bad. All they have is the Ingram data. This is the only thing we've absolutely promised to improve. It makes me itch it's so bad!

I've never gotten a reminder email for a badge. Do you have comment notifications turned on?

Yeah, it's a comment.

Try searching on tags instead. For example, I've used #1001books (for Peter Boxall's list) and #tob2018 (for Tournament of Books) to find like-minded people to follow.

Hashtags have become the unofficial way to organize people on Litsy. But there's no good way to discover them. As with LibraryThing, Litsy people have developed various work-arounds for what they want to do, and it's become somewhat hermetic. The cognoscenti know what to do and where to look. Newcomers may not.

I was just updating my profile and saw that there is no entry for Litsy in the "Also On" list.

We should add it, but it couldn't link anywhere. There is no web page for members.

What's the worldwide demographic like?

It's mostly US--more than LT, I believe. The FB demos are similar to LT, but it may not be representative. Lately it's been getting a huge influx of Indians, but they don't seem to do much on the site yet. (My guess is that it's popping up high in some suggested-app list over there.)

And I'm sure it's been said multiple times, but please please please don't let Litsy or LT become a place just for authors to self promote. Sometimes the author behavior on GR is downright creepy.

Oh and please remember us android Littens :-)

>125 Sace:

Not a current hazard for LT. The site TOS are clear about it, and the member culture enforces it pretty vigorously.

WHEW! Thanks for the information.. I've been on LT for a while but haven't engaged enough to know these things.

I just joined Litsy yesterday and really enjoy it as it's an app and works well with my phone, whereas the LT site is hard to use on my phone, but I still love LT. Which brings me to a question, is anyone going to make the LT site mobile friendly at some point?? And one more question, is there going to be a Litsy webpage at some point, I'd like one to link to??

I tried it out yesterday, and see how it could be fun. As mentioned above, it will take time to "find my tribe." It may be a new shiny thing for me, but being sick right now dampens my enthusiasm.

I must say that when setting up my account and they announced that everyone begins with "42" litpoints (or whatever those are called), I was convinced that the site would be a good one. :)

Anyway, congratulations to LT, best wishes to Litsy, and may everyone be reading a great book.

>128 InsightsintoBooks: As a long time LT member... With regards to an LT mobile site: Haha, no. There is a broken mobile site that won't be killed nor fixed, and no attempt will be made to either make the current site responsive or a mobile site. Just use the app (don't shoot the messenger, see here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/288414).

>130 divinenanny: I can certainly appreciate your frustration with this issue but "no attempt will be made" is inaccurate. As Tim mentioned further down the thread you linked (here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/288414#6413258), making the main site mobile-friendly is a long-term goal, but it's quite an undertaking and will take some time.

I've never found the "normal" LT side hard to use on mobile devices. Or, at least, no harder to use than anywhere else where I might want to write something, but a mobile site wouldn't fix that.

>132 AndreasJ: If your mobile device is a tablet, maybe not. But on my phone reading talk is a real chore since you can't see all the columns at the zoom level you need and putting the phone in landscape mode doesn't help. It also always refreshes the page with the list of threads whenever I return to it, something that doesn't happen as often on the desktop.

>131 lorannen: I think we've learned from experience that anything that's a long-term goal is basically not going to happen. Even something that was supposed to be the next big thing, hello Add Page Redo, doesn't necessarily happen.

Okay, thanks.

>132 AndreasJ:

I've used LT on a variety on smartphones without issues.

As someone who was on Litsy for a long time and big time lurker on LT - I am very excited. Litsy has a great community and pretty simple way to talk and share about something you are reading or want to read. I think it will strengthen both platforms but as it's two very different communities I don't think anyone will notice a difference.

I’ve had about a day to play around on Litsy and am finding it really fun. I think it takes getting more involved to get the most out of it. I like how it complements LT in these ways:

It’s book-driven. All of the conversations begin with a book rather than with a themed thread.

The demographic seems different. I know that it’s really not that much different. However, it seems to pull mostly from GR users who generally do not also have an active LT account (yet!).

It’s so good for quick thoughts about a book. You know. It’s those times you want to share something quickly, and no one’s home to listen to you. I can now open my phone to do this in a minute.

It’s phone-driven. I know there are LTers who would never have a smart phone or a FB page, but I want to stay current even if I am up in years. Heh!

It will make me use my phone camera in a different way. I see how photos enhance the Litsy blurbs so I have every intention of doing so. Photo uploads are so much simpler and quicker than in LT.

It’s good for when I’m out and about. I never pull up LT unless I’m near my desktop. Now I can just pull up Litsy instead.

That’s it...I think! :)

>137 SqueakyChu: I know there are LTers who would never have a smart phone or a FB page, but I want to stay current even if I am up in years.

I deep-sixed my Facebook account after a few months of using it in 2008. I was just ahead of the curve.

Among my personal acquaintances, there is a recent and burgeoning trend of people taking Facebook off their phones, and reporting an improved sense of well-being as a result.

Have you read this week's news regarding Facebook?

Stay current, and ditch Facebook. :)

>138 paradoxosalpha: I've been on FB since 2009 and have found it very useful for networking and keeping up with people all over the country. I have lived in many different places, but with FB I can still be in touch with people I geographically left behind. Since I've moved to a new place and have had bouts of illness that kept me mostly housebound, it has been a huge factor in keeping me from feeling too isolated. Heck, I've gotten to know my cousin's wife through FB; we are planning to spend some time together on my next trip to my home town. I would barely know her name if not for FB. YMMV, of course. Point is, for some people it is a pretty great thing.

I have also gotten a lot of gigs through people contacting me via FB, far more than through any other type of communication. So simply for that, I'm not going to let it go.

However, I very rarely use FB on my phone. I'm at home a lot with my laptop, so that's how I access it, same as with LT. Once in a great while I'll take a photo on my phone, log in, and upload it to FB. Then I log out of the app. Perhaps this is one reason I have a good relationship with my FB experience. I'm an old lady, I want to do things on bigger screens!

Interesting news - one extra use for my iPad!

>139 PhaedraB: YMMV, of course.

And as should be obvious, it does.

I don't have a smartphone so I can't use Litsy, but "littens" is a cute word that I endorse.

Re demographic, there are a lot of people from the UK as well as American and Canada, but there are peop,e from a large number of countries including Germany, Australia, Ireland, India etc that I have come across.

The best way is to find people to follow . If anyone wants to be introduced to the Litsy community let me know your name on Litsy and I will introduce via a post you and a number of people will then follow you, That is when the real fun starts. 😊

If you are interested in buddy reads explore these hashtags #Botmbuddyread (just finishing As Bright As Heaven) and #EpicBuddyRead (currently Reading The Wise Man’s Fear).

>143 Andrew-theQM:
#LitsyBuddyRead, Reading Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore

If you are really adventurous there is the #StephenKing #BuddyRead where they started Salem’s Lot on Monday, and are reading one Stephen King book a month for the next 10 (!!!!) Years.

>142 reconditereader: Can Be used on an iPad if you have one.

>144 Andrew-theQM: !!!!!! I’m too old to start doing that! LOL! It’s a good thing I’ve already read most of Stephen King’s books.

>131 lorannen: Yeah... Two weeks. Like >133 jjwilson61: said. LT is so fast in fixing bugs and upgrading necessary stuff that I had the time to teach myself database design, PHP and later on MVC development to roll my own solution.

This is excellent news. Now, if you could beat the Litsy Android app into a non-crashing entity that would be niced. Also could do with a regular web interface, sometimes mobile is clunky.

It sounds like an interesting app, but since I have a Windows phone and the version on Amazon store is incompatible my Kindles, it doesn't look like I have any way of trying it out.

Hi everyone! I know probably only a handful of you know me, but I've been on LibraryThing for over a decade and Litsy for nearly a year now... if you have any questions for an active user, I'm happy to answer them!

I love Litsy. To me, it's a place to just zone out while looking at/reading about books and bookish things. I feel like, it's "my people."

On Litfluence
The "litfluence" is not something that is exclusionary or clique'y at *all*. More than anything, I feel like it's a way to celebrate how active you are on Litsy.... the more active you are (and/or the longer you've been around), the higher that number is. That's it. Everyone there is so supportive and happy to "like" your posts just because you made it. The trick is following people so they can follow you back and you can engage. That's one way in which it's completely different from any other social network I've ever engaged in... in ALL of the other ones, I am only friends with my RL friends or a handful of people with whom I've engaged in meaningful online relationships. On Litsy, the follow/be-followed aspect is the way that we do engage in such meaningful relationships. I've made some real friends on Litsy, and we've all started in the same place... brand new, following no-one, with 42 litfluence points. Dive in. The water's warm!

On Swaps/Challenges/Buddy Reads/Giveaways/Surveys
I've seen some comments about whether the posts/feed should include posts that are not strictly just a comment on/review on/quote from a book. I just can't see why not, since it's a social network app and not a book catalog. I think... if you want to read about people's thoughts on books, LT and GR and Amazon, as well as book blogs, are great places to find such reviews/comments/quotes. Although Litsy requires its users to link conversations to books, I've seen the point of that as being more to just ensure that Litsy remains a Bookish place for all of us book geeks in the world to gather.

That being said: I've seen some suggestions including the ability to filter out non-book posts or prioritize only-book posts... I think those are great suggestions! TimSpalding if you can figure that out, yay!!

What are all these things?
Swaps: You are either matched w/ someone (paired) or assigned to someone and someone else is assigned to you (secret), and you "stalk" your person on Litsy and whereever else is relevant (something like LT would offer great access to catalogs!) and send them a few books and a few bookish things (to match the theme). And you get a package. And it's amazing.

Challenges: There are prompts that you respond to with pictures of books :) E.g., a challenge could be centered around quotes -- and then on day 1 of the month, the prompt is "food," so people are challenged to post quotes from books about or involving food. There are all kinds of challenges.

Buddy Reads: Litsy people who've decided to read a book together and discuss it on Litsy. :) Similar to Group Reads, where a person "hosts" the Read and provides discussion questions.

Giveaways: As straightforward as it sounds. For all manner of reasons, people will host a giveaway and you can win books and bookish things! (E.g., someone is excited because they hit Litfluence of 5000 or someone has a bunch of books they are culling from their own stacks or someone just feels like it... I hosted a "January Blues" giveaway in January because so many people have a tough time after the holidays and I thought it would be fun to send some books out into the world :))

Surveys: Various people start surveys that often involve book habits or preferences that people just like answering. It may not be specifically about a book, but it often triggers great book discussions and, of course, recommendations :) An example of this is #FriYayIntro where @JessHowBooks asks a set of questions every Friday to allow the people to get to know each other better.

And that's just the beginning of what Litsy offers
Again, if you have questions, I'm happy to answer them.

Oh, I'm also avanders on Litsy -- come find me!

>150 avanders:

So, litfluence is purely a way of marking extroverts as being better members than introverts? Once again, I'm glad it's something most people ignore, because you sure aren't selling me on the feature.

>151 lorax: hmm, I certainly hadn't thought of it that way... And I don't think most people *on* Litsy view it that way. But definitely if it doesn't appeal to you, ignore it! I think a *lot* of people just ignore it. Honestly, you don't really even "see" it most of the time.. sure, it's there, but it's not something people are focusing on.

But, yes, to squarely answer your question, if you don't post much, then your "litfluence" won't be high. But... that doesn't mean anything. I mean, no one thinks any worse of someone w/ a low number or any better of someone with a high number... it's just a thing. So, yeah, ignore it :)

Litsy can be for *you* whatever you want it to be. If you don't care about the Litfluence, then you certainly don't need to :)

>150 avanders:

"The trick is following people so they can follow you back and you can engage. That's one way in which it's completely different from any other social network I've ever engaged in..."

Clearly, you're not on Twitter! That pattern is the norm there.

>153 Tid: oh lol, no I'm not really on Twitter. Technically I have an account, but I pretty much never use it. ☺️

>154 avanders:

I only use mine to play a daily word game, comment on disability issues, and occasionally stick my tongue out at Trump. 😉

Wow! That's "new". Various of my posts in this thread "disappeared" without any trace. No little red flag, no "removed for TOS violation," just, Boom, air-brushed out of the photo. I somehow missed that memorandum.



interesting.

(this post archived off-this-site) (22-032018)

___________________________

ETA Posts I'd thought I looked for yesterday and thought at the time weren't in the thread--and I'd been thinking of two threads, rather than this one alone--were perhaps there and I missed/overlooked them and thought mistakenly that, being "missing," they'd been removed. Having re-checked, I think that everything I recall having posted is still on view.

So I wasn't careful enough in checking first.

>156 proximity1:

Because of course "murderous despots" is where your mind goes first, rather than "technical glitch".

FFS.

>156 proximity1: Of the threads that I've seen you post on lately, I recall your activity here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/287845, but I can't find any evidence of posts in this thread (that are now missing). Do you recall anything about them? Date/time? What you were commenting on? We do maintain multiple backups of LT data, so if they were here, I should be able to find them somewhere.

I assume (hope?) proximity1 is just joking with those photos.

>159 anglemark:

I'm surprised proximity1 isn't blaming the Stratfordians.

>150 avanders:

Thanks for that. You have confirmed my initial suspicion that Litsy is a place with which I want nothing to do.

>161 lilithcat: Some of us are giving it a try, though, in support of Tim.

>162 SqueakyChu:

I appreciate that, but the way it's been described here, it's just not something that would appeal to me. To each her own!

Yeah, I'm with SqueakyChu. I became a member a while ago, but never did anything with it. I'm going to try it out more now.

I did a Quote post (I usually like to put interesting quotes that I find in my reviews) for a book. One thing I'm not sure I get, is the "gentle" suggestion that you add a picture to your post. You have to attach your post to a book/isbn, why not use the cover image (if you want) from the LT catalog, instead of pictures you have to take yourself.

Another suggestion for future integration between Litsy and LT. Have an option so that when you post a review in LT, it allows you to post it directly (maybe with a link, if the text is too long) into your Litsey feed. (like it does with FB already)

>150 avanders: Thanks Avanders for a great post and for taking time to pull that altogether.

>151 lorax: I don’t think the facts show that those who are extroverts have the highest Litfluence. I have been on Litsy for well over a year and I know so many GREAT people on Litsy that love books and reading. In my experience so many people with high Litfluence scores are some of the biggest introverts going and sharing posts about books and book things (as well as non book posts) on Litsy is how they communicate and feel part of something that they do onot necessarily feel comfortable doing in social situations in the big bad world. I include myself in that! A high flying powerful job, but not great or comfortable in social situations in the real world. For work yes, socially no. I am also a numbers man so love the numbers aspect of it and enjoy seeing my number going up, but most importantly it is a bit of FUN, and I can be as serious as the next person. For me it would be a great loss if it wasn’t there as it promotes activity for some and the site lives or dies by this activity.

>161 lilithcat: Litsy won’t be for everyone, as Librarything, Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc aren’t for everyone.

I am enjoying interfacing with >162 SqueakyChu: on Litsy. 😊 👍👏

>164 mahsdad: Some people don’t put pictures on (the minority). It is very rare for me a put a photograph on (only done this on 3 or four occasions), I do usually put book covers on my posts. That way it is very clear what the post is about when people are scanning the posts. No one has ever asked me why I am using book covers instead of photographs and plenty of people follow me and like my posts. I think you are free to use this option in any way you choose to.

>163 lilithcat: I understand! :)

>164 mahsdad: So, after playing on Litsy for two days, this is what I think.

I suppose you could use a cover image, but I find taking my own creative photo is part of the Litsy fun. See the two last books I added to Litsy, for examples. I’m SqueakyChu there.

The idea at Litsy, to me anyway, is to NOT have a long review. In its Twitter-like atmosphere, no one wants to read a long review. The way I’m using Litsy so far is to comment on my books while reading them, and then I’ll come back to LT to post the full review to my thread and to the book when I’m done. I don’t like posting the same thing all over the place. That is why I stopped doing multiple LT challenges. They were too repetitive.

>165 Andrew-theQM: I agree about the fun part. If social media were not fun, I’d like it and probably use it a lot less.

Another comment. Being on Litsy is like having your own book blog without having to maintain it! :D

>170 SqueakyChu:

Being on Litsy is like having your own book blog without having to maintain it! :D

I used to have a book blog. Keeping it up was tough. But my reviews were pretty lengthy!

>168 SqueakyChu: I think that what I'm liking about Litsy is that I have a place where I put long reviews, but, here I can put short ones and then link (which, I believe you can't do from Instagram) to the full review. Very cool.

I have to say, I didn't fully realize that you didn't really have to take photos, which could be good for me going forward, 'cause mine aren't exactly... um... super creative... :)) (Can you see my sock in the one I have up now (frombellatoylva is my handle) ... heh...)

>156 proximity1:

Nobody is deleting your posts. Please.

>172 DanieXJ: >168 SqueakyChu: Mine aren’t very creative hence using book covers or montages of book covers. 😊

>149 yoyogod: me too. But since I think they've stopped making these phones I don't think there will be an app for us. Maybe if Litsy gets a website.

>166 Andrew-theQM: >168 SqueakyChu: I agree with the creative aspects of what images you put with your post, and sometimes that's nice. My point was related to Andrew's comment about "I usually put Book Covers with my post".

I like that, and would generally do that as well. I'm looking for an option to just pull the book cover from the source (namely LT, going forward), instead of me having to take a picture of the cover and just have to go delete it from my burgeoning camera roll later. Unless I'm missing something, is there a way to post an image of a book cover, without having to take it yourself?

>176 mahsdad: >168 SqueakyChu: I’ve copied images of book covers from the author’s website and Library websites.

Ah. Seems like a perfect opportunity to pull directly from the LT database (as an option) when you are entering the post. :)

I'm really enjoying Litsy ... I surprised myself! I love the way I can use it as a kind of diary that records what I'm reading but also how it randomly links to my life in general while I read things. I have a lot of random thoughts. My family will be most grateful that I now have an outlet that isn't them ;-) I love how easy it is to add pictures too.

OMG though, I do miss LT's book data. It's like going back to the dark ages. I have the itchiest of fingers too ... I want to add missing things and correct bad data. Once a Thingamabrarian, always a Thingamabrarian!

Everyone is very welcoming there too.

>179 klarusu: It is the most positive place I know! I like how you can adapt it to your needs. I also use it as a kind of diary, loeaving quotes and comments about books as you read them. It has given me so many great books to read.

>My reviews were pretty lengthy

Then, you’re correct! Litsy is not for you! :)

>172 DanieXJ: Yep. Saw your sock! Haha!

>179 klarusu: >180 Andrew-theQM:

I love copying down quotes. I’m sure I’ll use Litsy for that, too. On LT, I just put quotes on Common Knowledge where they sit quietly waiting to be seen. On Litsy, they can be seen and liked immediately!

>176 mahsdad: take a picture of the cover and just have to go delete it from my burgeoning camera roll later.

Litsy has an option where you can take a picture without it being added to your camera roll. Litsy also has a setting where you can choose to automatically save the new image to your camera roll. That is not the default setting, however.

>181 SqueakyChu: It was a clean sock, so... phew....

>184 SqueakyChu: Ah, thank you, finally found it and turned it off (I wasn't going far enough down, and when I was saving my eyes were going over it). I don't love saving images to my phone's storage instead of my extended storage (yay android and SD cards!!)

>164 mahsdad: Another suggestion for future integration between Litsy and LT. Have an option so that when you post a review in LT, it allows you to post it directly (maybe with a link, if the text is too long) into your Litsey feed. (like it does with FB already)

Oh, I like this idea!

>166 Andrew-theQM: Yeah, I'm unlikely to bother with pictures. I've only posted one review so far, but didn't even see how/where to add in a photo. I had thought about using a cover, but then, I was really just copy/pasting the review, so didn't take a lot of time to figure it out, either.

Regarding photos, I did try to add one as a profile photo last night. But, then it wouldn't let me with out it having access to all my photos. Now, I have a tablet, not a smartphone, so I don't have very many photos, but I didn't really like that requirement, so I will even be without a profile photo for the forseeable future. :-(

>158 lorannen: Please see a revised addition at >156 proximity1:. Sorry. Per Tim's definitve word at >173 timspalding:.

_____________________________

>160 lilithcat:

I have no idea what Stalin thought, if anything, about the Shakespeare Authorship issue. There's little doubt, however, that he'd have been anything other than admiring of William and Robert Cecil's, Walsingham's and others' at Elizabeth the first's court's talents at erasing historical evidence which didn't conform to official dogma--my apparently mistaken impression here notwithstanding. Just on the plain odds, the chances are very high that Stalin took Stratfordian dogma at face-value--though it's valueless at face-value and in every other way.

>189 proximity1:

The (murderous) Tudors were the absolute masters of propaganda, spy networks, double agents, and all the things we think of as 'modern' inventions. Look what they did to Richard III's reputation, an achievement that lasted centuries and still endures in many quarters.

>190 Tid:

..."and still endures in many quarters."

My own quarter not excepted. Though I'm open to revision, I haven't studied the grounds for it--yet. So, according to my own view of it--ignorant though it may be--Richard the Third got the reputation from Oxford's play(s) about him which he deserved.

I really appreciate all the Litsy folks, old and new chiming in here with suggestions and what not. Thank you.

I can see it being fun when I finally get well enough to be reading again. However, I am not a person to go gather unknown people to follow me, although I don't really mind if unknown people decide to follow me. I feel I would be rather a disappointment to them because I will probably be sporadic in my posting. My friends would understand this.

If I don't post for a week or two, does that mean that no one will see my post when I do? Because if I have thoughts on a book I want to share, fine, but I can't manufacture them to feed to a social media site just to have a presence. Does that make sense? Some days I feel social, others not so much.

I installed the app yesterday and the first thing it did was present me with a bunch of people I don't know and suggested that I follow them. So is that how it's supposed to work? I follow a bunch of strangers and if they aren't reading my kind of books then I unfollow them and try to find someone else to follow. I guess I thought that there would be a way to find people with my taste in books to follow.

>193 jjwilson61: That's one way it can work. For finding like-minded readers, I recommend finding a book you like, are reading, etc., using the little magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen. On the book page, you can scroll through posts about that book, which include reviews, blurbs, and quotes. Tapping on the username or profile picture for any post will get you to that member's profile, where you can tap to follow them.

>195 Collectorator:

I'm interested in what chores we can have.

Hey! There are still over 2,000 combination opportunities available!

>3 lorannen: I mentioned it before but now I'm getting curious. Ever since I added Litsy to my Note 4, I'm starting to get strange aps being installed/activated on my phone and free demos as well as this silly ap allowing me to write on top of other aps. The first was a DVR remote ap called "Peel Smart Remote". The next one was "Caller Name ID". Does Litsy push info to vendors/carriers or am I just LUCKY?

>197 ulmannc: Pretty sure you're just lucky, since I haven't heard from anyone else describing this behavior. I guess it's possible there's something about the combo of Litsy + Note 4, but we'd need to ask around among other Note folks.

>195 Collectorator: I like your enthusiasm! But we're not there yet. First we have to get LT data talking to Litsy, and that's on our to-do list next, as I understand it (this week being busy with initial announcement and feedback, plus PLA). We'll keep you posted! ETA: Tim probably has a better sense of what those chores can and will look like than I do, as well.

>192 MrsLee: You can post on Litsy as frequently or infrequently as you’d like. Your posts will be seen when you do post. Initially get some followers per lorannen’s suggestion on message 94 below. In addition, make at least one or two posts immediately so people will know you are there.

I can follow you. I’m SqueakyChu there...a Litsy newbie! :)

>195 Collectorator:

'Chores'? Surely you meant to say 'delectable treats' ;-)

>197 ulmannc: >198 lorannen: I agree, most probably just lucky. I’ve never had that problem.

>198 lorannen: and >202 Andrew-theQM: That kind of luck I can do without! Thanks for checking a bit for me.

>198 lorannen: and >202 Andrew-theQM: I can do without that kind of luck. Thanks for a little checking!

So I decided to take this weekend to evaluate Litsy and make a good opinion. Anyone wanting to follow, I'm gilroyc there.

So far... Not bad. I've posted links for my LT reviews of the last two books read. Couldn't find my most recent audio book I'm presently reading, so chose a blank journal as the book to "tag" then posted photo and comment.

>194 lorannen: This is a great method of finding and following people on Litsy. I started out adding everyone from the welcoming bandwagon post (such a sweet, wonderful crew), but now I'm searching by author/book title to find readers with similar interests. Love the variety from random following though, a great way to discover books I ordinarily wouldn't have considered or known about.

>205 gilroy: Blank Journal? How do find one of those or how do you create one?

>191 proximity1:

Then you need to study it. Richard was no saint - no monarch was in those days - but most of what was said about him was Tudor propaganda, mainly put about due to Henry VII's extremely tenuous claim to the throne, which he tried to strengthen at every opportunity.

Haven't read this whole thread but I joined Litsy a few days ago and am enjoying it. Seeing a LOT of people really lost on how to navigate the main site and the app. Has anyone set up a Welcome Littens thread that I'm missing? I was going to start one but I don't want to start directing people to a separate thread if one is ongoing.

ETA: And then I found the Litsy group.... nevermind ;)

>207 ulmannc: I just started typing in blank in the book tag field and searched the list for the item with no image associated. Not sure if it's right, but it worked.

I've been reading this thread and adding some people based on their comments. I'm esanderson on Litsy.

One comment I'd make is that I kinda wish there was some sort of way to feel about a book that is between "Pick" and "So-So". I wouldn't go so far as to say something is just so-so, but it's also not, like, the greatest thing ever. Most of my ratings on LT are in the 3.5-4.5 range because I hesitate to rate anything 5 unless I would unequivocally recommend it to pretty much anyone.

Also, can't wait until cover images from LT and Litsy are available to each other. Both books I've added so far have no image available. One because it's new (Early Reviewers) and the other because it's obscure. It seems like with all the photos of book covers being taken on Litsy by people with the book in their hands, LT would really benefit from that as well.

>211 EmScape:

I kinda wish there was some sort of way to feel about a book that is between "Pick" and "So-So".

I heartily agree with that suggestion!

In the meantime, photograph a picture (or screen shot) of the book from your computer screen or do a screen shot on your phone from any website. Then upload that image to Litsy.

>212 SqueakyChu: I have one where the image is of my Hoopla Digital screen on my tablet, taken with my cell phone. So whatever works. :)

>211 EmScape: >212 SqueakyChu:

That's as bad as TripAdvisor, who seem to think there is nothing between Very Good (****) and merely Average (***). I'd like to rate places as Good, i.e. better than Average but less than Very Good.

>214 Tid:

We've talked about it on Facebook. We could add another, but then why not ANOTHER and have five stars? I like the simplicity of the system, but, as you guys know, I'm not a big fan of ratings.

I actually like having only 3 options for rating books on Litsy. I don't have to think about it too hard. I tend to post brief thoughts on Litsy and longer, more carefully thought out reviews on LibraryThing. I use other people's reviews in the same way. I go to Litsy to get a glimpse of what's interesting and/or popular but I go to LT to get more detailed reviews and deeper discussions of the books.

I was just thinking we need to expand the NBF gathering and meet up to include Litsy people now.

So it becomes the LT/BC/Litsy meet up at the NBF! :)

>215 timspalding:

I'd say 6 stars were appropriate (for TripAdvisor)

****** truly excellent, out of this world (awarded rarely)
***** very good
**** good
*** average
** disappointing
* truly awful (awarded rarely)

Then apart from the rare very best and very worst, you'd have a range of 4 stars to work with, day to day.

>216 mathgirl40: I like the three levels, too, but I want them to be Bleh, OK, Really Good. It's the huge gap between Pick and So-So that bothers me, not the three tiers as such.

>217 gilroy: Do we still go to the NBF (National Book Festival)? I didn’t last year nor did I set up a meetup because it’s a too difficult of a venue for me now (too crowded, difficulty hearing, inability to get tickets for authors I want to see, I don’t drive at night, etc).

If you still want to do that, feel free to organize it.

By the way, I still love other local festivals. I chair the BookCrossing booth for the Kensington International Day of the Book Street Festival and work the BookCrossing booth at the Gaithersburg Book Festival. LTers and Littens are invited to both! They can even pick up free books at both of these local festivals (free admission/free parking) from our BookCrossing booth!

https://dayofthebook.com
http://gaithersburgbookfestival.org

By the way, Littens, LTers, and even Little Free Library stewards are always invited to attend BookCrossing meetups!

>219 anglemark: Agreed. There’s too much of a gap between pick and so-so. I think most books I read are exactly halfway between so-so and pick! :)

I’ve never had a problem with LT’s 5-star rating, but BookCrossing’s 10-Star rating is over the top for me!

"Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS), the world’s largest retail bookseller, today announced the launch of Browsery—the first mobile app to talk about books the way readers do. Browsery is available for Android and iOS users. It blends technology with the Barnes & Noble experience of community, conversation and peer-to-peer recommendations to deliver a new kind of digital browsing that’s a gateway for users to find new books and talk about the ones they love with fellow readers. Customers can like, comment, or contribute answers to questions posed by the community, like or comment on the answers of others, or ask questions of their own"
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180327005651/en/Barnes-Noble-Launches-B...

The timing of this is quite the coincidence...

>222 norabelle414:

Truly, it is a coincidence. You can't write an app like that overnight.

>222 norabelle414: Wow! Have you tried it out? It almost seems as if B&N has to do that in order to stay competitive with Amazon. Fortunately, here at LT and Litsy, we are far from being a commercial site so I’m firmly planted here. :)

B&N are a friend. I'd be pleased to see their effort take off. I'm not sure, though. These things are hard to do.

>225 timspalding: I'd certainly be more likely to use their app than GoodReads, but also more likely to use Litsy than either.
This month Amazon opened a physical bookstore in Georgetown DC - in the old Barnes & Noble building. What a gut-punch.

I remember when B&N was the bully, stomping small independent bookstores.

>226 norabelle414:

Oh, God. I know that place. My stomping grounds for years, at Georgetown and after. Fuckers.

The B&N app seems a bit lost, honestly.

>228 timspalding: I figured you would :-(

I was first pointed to an instagram post announcing the app, which contained a broken link. Not an auspicious start.

>220 SqueakyChu: Honestly, I've not been the last two (?) years due to other obligations and them shifting the date back and forth. I liked it better when it was outside and always the same weekend each year.

>222 norabelle414: So I had to go check it out. I can say that the UI is great and the question/answer format is pretty cool. BUT the whole app is basically just that. I would love that as a part of a bookish app (Litsy for sure) but I can't see myself using an app that only does that even if it does it really well.

Also, no matter what I tried, it won't recognize my B&N credentials to let me log in even though the website does....

Re: Litsy, I'm enjoying it and think it's a nice addition to LT. I don't have much to add about things that could change EXCEPT please God, make posts and comments editable! The autocorrect and typos I can't fix are going to make me go insane.

>232 leahbird: I even went so far as deleting an entry as it looked so bad and had so many mistakes as I am not a thumb typer!

They 'sort of' are editable BUT you can't add blank lines and I still haven't figured out how to do copy/paste or cut/paste. I agree though that the edit capability needs A LOT OF WORK.

I do not use or want to use twitter but if I can only use my thumbs I'm going to go crazy. May have to resurrect my Bluetooth keyboard. . . na. . . on second thought, I'm going to simply use it as a place to store short notes when I'm not by the computer. The brain only remembers things for a minute or so these days. . .

>226 norabelle414: I actually like B&N and rather buy from them than Amazon. I’m afraid they might disappear! Indie books stores (Remember them?) are good, too!

>222 norabelle414: They won't beat Litsy (or LT or GR) because they aren't even available internationally. So I don't matter, even though I read English almost exclusively just because I am not located where B&N is...

There was an NPR report from a few days ago that said that independent bookstores are making a comeback in the last few years, and the reason is that Amazon has absolutely killed the big box bookstores to the point that there's in now a niche for independent bookstores that cater to the local community.

ETA: Here's the story, https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/03/22/596162292/too-small-to-fail

>236 jjwilson61:

That matches my anecdotal experience.

>236 jjwilson61:

I've been seeing stories to that effect for a couple years now. Online stores are good for buying a particular title you know you want, but they're crap at discovery. A well-curated selection where you can browse is a wonderful thing. (Even better if, like at my favorite local independent, they also have a cafe, and good beer.)

Who needs stores for discovery when there's LT?

(Well, lot's of people it would seem, but for myself, between LT and various hobby fora I frequent I find so many additions to the wishlist that the idea of going to a store for the express purpose of adding yet more to it seems perverse. It's not like I'll ever have the opportunity to read everything interesting-seeming I discover as is.)

I'm stuck in the digital stores .. for people with vision issues of any kind the ability to change font size is a godsend.

>211 EmScape: , >212 SqueakyChu: and others. For what it's worth, I think it is the name, "so-so" that is so worrisome. If it said average, decent, readable or some such other medium word, the three rating system wouldn't bother me, but I read a lot of books which were good enough, but not worthy of keeping on the shelves. I would never call them "so-so" though. Books I'm thinking of are by Agatha Christie and others. I enjoyed reading them, they served their purpose, I could read one like it any time, but I won't be keeping them; they didn't change my life they only added a little pleasure to it. That is better than "so-so."

I could live with:
Great book
Good book
Not-for-me book
Horrible book

I suppose that "pan" and "bail" cover the last two on my list, although they seem a bit too much alike to me.

Anyway, my words aren't cute and brief, so I will adjust and as with the star rating system, use this one the way I see fit, which is probably why Tim doesn't like rating systems. :)

There is a Litsy user named Chello who has put a couple of helpful videos on YouTube of how to use the site. I can't figure out how to bring up the "feed" or "newsfeed" as FB would call it. The place to see what my followers or those I'm following have posted recently. If I tap the little house at the bottom, I see my last one a few days ago and older stuff. Where is the new stuff?

Pan, to me, is I was able to finish the book but it's not a good book. 1 to 2 star at best.

Bail, to me, is just what it suggests. Didn't or couldn't finish for whatever reason.

>242 gilroy:

That's what they suggest to me too. Finished but with a negative opinion, and DNF. Of course this doesn't really allow for hate-reading something - finishing it just in order to more thoroughly criticize it - but that's really a corner case.

>243 lorax:

I've got a few books on my TBR stack that are strictly hate reads. I'll start them with no expectation of enjoyment, until I compose the scathing review.

I took one of those MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) things once, and one of the assignments was to write a short essay and then the essay would be graded by several classmates and averaged. The grading options were 0, 1, or 2. A passing grade was an average of 1.5.

In the end they had to totally scrap the assignment because so many people failed. While the administrators had intended a grade of "1" to be equivalent to 50% (something is significantly wrong but at least you strung a few words together), most graders interpreted "2" as "perfect" and "1" as "anything less than perfect" and hardly anyone got a single "2" let alone an average of 1.5

As rubyslippersreads said, I'm not a Facebook user, but I am an LT lifetimer, and I hope that the conversation and community stays here.

>241 MrsLee: I suppose that "pan" and "bail" cover the last two on my list, although they seem a bit too much alike to me.

Heh! Yeah. I almost always “bail” on any book I’d “pan”. There’s really no need to finish a terrible book!

...all of which goes to prove Tim’s point, I guess. We all use rating systems differently.

>241 MrsLee: If I tap the little house at the bottom, I see my last one a few days ago and older stuff. Where is the new stuff?

That threw me for a while too, until I accidentally discovered that if I pull that page down when I'm already at the top that it refreshes and I get the new stuff.

>241 MrsLee:

"I think it is the name, "so-so" that is so worrisome. If it said average, decent, readable or some such other medium word"

What's medium about "average", outside the mathematical sense? If someone told me a restaurant was "average", I'd avoid it thinking it really wasn't up to much at all. This is the beef I have with TripAdvisor labelling their 3-stars (out of 5) as "average".

>241 MrsLee: I can't figure out how to bring up the "feed" or "newsfeed" as FB would call it. The place to see what my followers or those I'm following have posted recently. If I tap the little house at the bottom, I see my last one a few days ago and older stuff. Where is the new stuff?

I sort of accidentally stumbled upon this. I think I accidentally swiped my screen "backwards" and that loaded the newer stuff. At least I think that's how I got some newer stuff. Give it a try! :-)

>248 jjwilson61: & >250 LibraryCin: Thank you! I accidentally discovered that yesterday too. :D

Next issue: I ran into the problem with the poor source issue when trying to post a photo of the book I was reading, Euphemania. It wasn't there, so I couldn't put a post on about it. After dinking around a bit in the search, I managed to find the author and a couple of his other books, then to enter more details of the book I wanted, and finally, was able to get to mine. I have no idea how I did it.

The question is, if one cannot find the book one wants to talk about, does that mean one cannot post, or does one simply enter a related book and then make their post? I notice one of my "followers" seems to be posting nothing about books, but more about sending one another postcards or something, possibly a game from this book, Postcards? This is the one she has at the top of all her posts. I'm too new to know, and I don't really care, but I wondered what to do if I couldn't find a book I want to post about in the source.

>249 Tid: For me, average is okay. Not stellar, possibly not memorable, but okay. An average hotel would be clean, reasonably priced and decent service, not a lot of amenities (I worked in the hotel industry for six years and was in charge of bringing our TripAdvisor ratings to a better place, which I did, so your comments resonate with me). An average restaurant would serve a meal which was not unpleasant to eat, clean, friendly, without making me do the yummy dance in my chair. An average book is one that I can enjoy reading at the time I am reading it, but it does not stay in my mind afterwards (although as I age, that may not be a good deciding factor).

>247 SqueakyChu: Yes, and yes!

>249 Tid:

Help me understand this.

I think of "average" as being, well, average. Typical. Ordinary. An average restaurant is one that doesn't stand out either for being particularly bad or particularly good - I wouldn't leave feeling disappointed or feeling wowed. Three out of five is practically the mathematical definition of average.

But, I know that (perhaps because I'm more mathematically inclined than most) this is a minority view - after all, for an Uber driver, four stars out of five means something was very, very wrong. (Driver with too many four-star ratings can be suspended.)

So how would *you* characterize something that's typical, ordinary, neither better nor worse than the norm that you experience, and how many stars would you give it?

>252 lorax: Really? I shouldn't ever use Uber then. I rarely give 5 out of 5 to anything and I can't imagine what a driver could do to deserve one.

>253 jjwilson61:

If you can't bring yourself to accept that they're using a stupid and arbitrary system enough to overcome your usual rating system, even when you know that they consider four stars to be negative, then no, you shouldn't use them.

Personally, I started out with four stars if there was anything that could have been improved, but - and this is key - when I learned about the system, I changed my rating system rather than punish the drivers for the stupid system. YMMV.

>254 lorax:

Do they provide any indication what the ratings are supposed to mean?

It's vaguely interesting that they seemingly have no interest in identifying outstandingly good drivers, only the bad ones.

>254 lorax:

Not that I've ever seen. (I use Lyft, myself, rather than Uber, but I believe they have a similar policy.)

Honestly, I thought this was common knowledge - I've seen it multiple places the past couple years.

>256 lorax:

Uber does not operate where I live, so the details of how it works certainly aren't common knowledge here.

I did once stay at a hotel that afterwards sent me an email asking me to rate them on a scale that went something like bad - okay - good - exceptional, and also said they'd take anything less than "exceptional" as a sign they needed to do better. I thought that was so silly I didn't reply at all. Maybe the approach is commoner than I thought.

I was dealing with a claim handler at an insurance company when I got an email asking me to rate her on a scale of 1-10. I rated her 8, because nobody's perfect, right? A couple of days later I get a call from her begging me to tell me what she'd done wrong. I said I rarely gave anything a 10; 8 from me was pretty good. She was all upset because her supervisor was all upset because I didn't give her a ten. Just terrible pressure to put on employees.

>258 PhaedraB:

It appears what she did wrong was not telling you how the scale was supposed to work.

But why on Earth have a five- or ten-point scale if anything below a five or ten is interpreted as "inadequate"? Why not just have a good/bad option then?

I see TVTropes have a relevant page: Four Point Scale.

So, when the doctor asks me how bad the pain is on a 1 to 10 scale and I say 9, I guess he's going to give me an aspirin and tell me to go home.

I once received a survey which had a one to ten scale. There were words over some of the numbers so you had an idea what they meant: Good was at the low end (one or two, I don't remember), Great was about four, Excellent was six and Fantastic was eight. Ten was Beyond All Expectations. I did not like feeling manipulated into giving them a glowing rating for adequate but not special service. I gave them a "low" score and within a minute of hitting the submit button my phone rang. Obviously not an anonymous survey.

>251 MrsLee: >252 lorax:

It's probably an Atlantic thing. In the UK, "average" is not so much damning with faint praise as damning with faint criticism. If someone said "How was your meal?" and you replied "Distinctly average", that would mean you were not impressed. Nothing terrible you could put your finger on, but not likely you'd be back.

Yes, the star system online is farcical. My sister is a writer and she solicits reviews from her nearest and dearest. She kind of expects us to give 5 stars, but I've changed in recent years. Now I will only give 5 stars - book, meal, music, etc - if something is really excellent, the very best of the best. Otherwise, if I've enjoyed something rather a lot I will give 4 stars. 3 stars if it's pretty good, but a long way off the ultimate. 2 stars is disappointing, and 1 star is truly awful. Much the same as MOJO's star system really. So to me here in the UK, "average" would be 2 and a half stars out of 5 (exactly half) but they usually don't let you award half stars, more's the pity.

>253 jjwilson61: >258 PhaedraB: >259 AndreasJ:

Hear hear. Exactly.

Please, please, please, may we have a “jump back to top” feature (Caveat: I know nothing about how the app is made, so not sure if it’s even possible.)

>263 -Eva-: Are you talking about on the home page/feed? If so, tapping the home icon should take you back to the top of the screen.

Well, a lot of this discussion explains recent author problems so much. No one is allowed to rate below a Top Rating, because every US person is trained to accept nothing but a Top Rating.

Geez Louise and Chapeez!

Somewhere people lost the fact that Garrison Keillor was joking that "all the children are above average."

>264 lorannen:
Good grief, why haven’t I tried that before? Well, that was the fastest feature implementation ever. :D THANK YOU!

>260 jjwilson61: Probably. I've had complaints for nurse friends of mine that after they explain the scale, they get told the pain is a ten. "Okay, ten is getting running over a stream of tanks." "Yep, ten."

I don't know, try adapting to the system in use. I give higher scores on Amazon then I give on IMDB or here, because that's the way things work out.

>197 ulmannc: No, nothing to do with Litsy, that's Samsung giving you bloat. Both Peel and Caller Name ID are stuff that normally comes installed on Samsung devices (well, Peel on ones that have IR blasters, so mostly tablets not phones...hmm, didn't know the Note 4 had an IR blaster, or maybe Peel figured out another way to control gadgets). I've gotten both of them, and deleted/disabled/hid them shortly thereafter. Longtime Samsung user beginning to look elsewhere, here...

Yes...I'm actually reluctant to post reviews on Amazon except for the rare amazing book/thing/service, because I don't give out 5s for anything less. I'm less reluctant to post for stuff that's actually bad, because, well, my review is more likely to match their expectations. But "perfectly good" or "quite decent" - 3 and 4 star stuff, to my mind... And yes, as a scale of quality of service it's amazingly stupid. A ten-point scale that actually contains 10 and bad is a two-point scale.

>269 prosfilaes:

Even if I could be bothered to adapt to the system in use, I'd dig my heels and bawl "NOOOOOOOO!!". The only adapting I ever do is if the number of stars varies - the most common being 5, then 10, and occasionally 3. If it's 10, I will simply double the score I give with 5, but will gratefully award 5/10 for the 'truly average'.

>270 jjmcgaffey:

Agreed. What on earth is the point of a 10-star system if only 10 counts as "good" and anything else is "bad"?

It's interesting to see all the talk of ratings. On Amazon, I've given four ratings, total, over an astonishing 20 years, and more. In fact, my only real sadness with Amazon is knowing that, each time I've gone to a new email, I lose ALL the history associated with the account. It's one of the few things I really dislike.

Back to ratings. Four, on Amazon. Two 5 star ratings (well-deserved), and two half-star ratings (equally well-deserved). In both cases, for the bad ratings, the entity on the other end tried to convince me to change it. One was an author, who was willing to give me a copy of his second edition, so that I could see how much better it was. Um, nope? The other was a bookseller that sent me a beat up, marked up copy of a book I'd wanted, that was sold as new. That one was even dumber, since he said that he'd give me a refund if I changed my review. I considered pointing out that I had *already* received a refund from Amazon, but decided to spend my time doing something more worthwhile.

Most of the books I've entered here either have no rating, or 4 to 5 stars. This is mostly due to the fact that I've cleaned out my library, and the only books I had left when I first joined LT were books I loved. I do have an ongoing project of removing ratings from books that I haven't read, but own for the cover art. My average rating for books here on LT is 4.5 stars.

I like and appreciate ratings, and well-written reviews. I try to make my own reviews useful, and I also try not to review books that already have multiple reviews (unless I disagree with them all).

I really don't see the point of giving a rating for something that is as subjective as a book. The books I love aren't necessarily the books other people will love and vice versa. The only time I post ratings is when I'm reviewing an ER giveaway on Amazon (and that's because you can't post a review without one) or there are issues with the book - in one case, the ebook was riddled with OCR errors and in the other the writing was abysmal.

My general reading gets reviewed here and on The Gaming Tavern and I don't give ratings. What I do is to say if I recommend it or not (occasionally I will recommend with reservations - the work may deal with stuff that's not to everyone's taste or be antediluvian in it's societal attitudes but the story is compelling nonetheless).

I only rate books on LT if I received them through ER. I've had one case where an author--very politely--enquired after a rating that he thought was low compared to what I said in the review. In retrospect, it was probably because I don't use stars to the amazon standard, whatever that is.

I am trying out Litsy.

A suggestion (though I'm not sure if anyone else is interested in this, as everyone else seems happy to provide their own photos on Litsy).

I am not taking the time to find and add photos. I am posting reviews connected to books.

Can there be a default photo of the book's cover when a book is tagged, so it's not just left as text?

I am tagging a book, so I don't understand why a cover can't automatically be attached. That is, if no photo is added (most people seem happy to do this), a default cover would be nice for those of us who don't take the time to add our own photo.

Thanks!

>269 prosfilaes: Re: pain scales, most pain scale exaggerators (that is, just about everyone) believe that the higher on the pain scale they report will get them faster attention. In fact, the purpose of the pain scale is to judge whether the treatment helped. If your pain is a 5 but after the painkiller it's a 3, the treatment is working. If you say your sprained ankle is an 11, they know better and you won't be seen any sooner. But if after the sprain is wrapped and you're given a pain pill, anything lower than 11 means success.

>275 LibraryCin: And if that's implemented, I want an option to turn off default photos.
Because if I'm posting without a photo, I don't want one added for me.

>271 Tid: At least for Uber, the value of a 5-star system where only 5 counts as good, is that you can average the numbers together, and anything less than a five indicates some sort of problem. If three is average, then a driver that gets everyone to the location on time but nothing exceptional is a three, as well as the guy who half the time is perfect and awesome, and half the time drives in the wrong lane, speeds and ignores lights. Yet the first guy is a good Uber driver, and the second guy needs to be fired before he kills someone.

Likewise, for Amazon sellers, 95% of the time what do I have to say? I got the book I ordered, in the condition they said it was in, at a speed consistent with the shipping I paid for. They did their job perfectly; what good does insisting they go beyond perfect to get four or five stars?

>278 prosfilaes: That makes a lot of sense but how would they expect people to know that? If they want a 5 point scale that means what you said they should use labels instead of numbers and they should be something like good, didn't meet expectations, awful, horrible, I almost died.

>277 gilroy: That makes sense.

>278 prosfilaes:

I get what you're saying, but in the case of the Uber drivers I'd expect - as with so many other review places - that a written review can accompany the star rating. I would anticipate that the driver who half the time is reckless, would attract written reviews telling everyone what a terrible experience he gave. Then people would read the reviews and say to themselves "I'm not risking Uber and getting that driver". In spite of his/her 'average' rating.

>281 Tid:

The number of people willing to take the time to pen a written review is presumably much smaller than those willing to give a numerical rating.

What I don’t understand is why they use a five point scale. If they had a binary satisfactory / not satisfactory question, they’d avoid people assuming that a three is a average, nothing to complain about performance, and getting essentially the same information as 1-4 are apparently treated much the same currently.

>282 AndreasJ: Ideally you want a 3-point scale:

Above and beyond the call of duty (only to be awarded in exceptional circumstances)
Satisfactory
Not Satisfactory

The first and last should be accompanied by a written review explaining why these ratings were given.

>282 AndreasJ:

Yes, but if a passenger has experienced the worst excesses of an Uber driver as outlined in >278 prosfilaes:, I would have thought it was inevitable that there WOULD be a written review.

>284 Tid: Hard to say. Just today I was looking at reviews on a furniture site and a great many of them were stars alone, nothing written at all.

>285 PhaedraB:

That was my point. When people rate mere 'things' they will often not leave an actual review (and that includes music and books!). But if the same person gets very poor service from someone, I think the opposite applies.

Is there a thread specifically intended for Litsy feature requests/suggested improvements? I’m not on Facebook so am not able to contribute my thoughts via the Litsy FB group. I can’t express strongly enough just how much I’d like to be able to mute hashtags on Litsy.

>287 Melissa_J: There is a group here dedicated to Litsy, I'm sure you can post sugggestions there.
https://www.librarything.com/groups/litsy

>287 Melissa_J: I've posted one suggestion in this thread, and asked a question in the Litsy group "Litsy questions" thread (https://www.librarything.com/topic/288829), with sort of has a suggestion added, depending on the answer.

I might as well add it here:
"If i reply to a comment, will i automatically get a notification that someone else has replied? Or am i only notified if someone tags me?

If i reply to someone elses comment, i dont want to have to tag them each time so they know theres a reply. Thats a bit of a pain."

My suggestion would be that I'd like to get notifications (or at least the option to get them) if I've commented somewhere, not only if/when someone tags me.

>287 Melissa_J: I also dislike all the hashtags (and the @ symbols of someone being tagged). Makes it difficult to read.

I meant to add that i have no idea if anyone is watching here for suggestions or not.

We are.

>292 timspalding: Thanks, Tim!

I ran right over to join Litsy this morning out of gratitude for the LT web site being back up and really couldn’t make any sense of it. I am not the “following” type in general so didn’t realize I ha e to follow people to make it happen. Does it even make sense to have the Litsy app if you don’t have a crew of friends on it? Also, I am not and have never been on Facebook. Will this impair my ability to participate on Litsy?

One thing that is a bit cumbersome in using LT a phone is the tagging process. I have become somewhat crazed about tagging as I read a book - helps me remember what I read and I love the cross-referencing with other books - but 1) it takes awhile for the page to load when I first log in to edit, and 2) the menu box for adding tags is sooooo narrow and tiny. Would be really cool if it would expand for mobile device taggers. And if emojis could be incorporated (insert praying emoji here) (insert smile emoji here)

>294 AmourFou: Facebook is not a requirement of Litsy, so that won't hurt anything if you avoid it. (I never connected the two.) You don't need to follow anyone to use Litsy, though it helps make the experience more enjoyable. Others will chose to follow you based on what you post. I went in with a knowledge of very few, mostly Lt people, and am up to 25 followers.

>295 AmourFou: Oh, please, no emoji tags.

gilroy sometimes I think my life has been reduced to an emoji tag (insert big smile emoji here)

(I am trying to reply to you but I guess @ is not the right way to do it?)

>294 AmourFou: I regularly use Litsy and avoid Facebook like the plague, and have never been on Facebook (or will be), we are in total agreement here. A lot of Litsy members feel the same about Facebook, there is no connection between the two. Litsy will be right for many, who love it, but will not be right for everyone. I do know Litsy has added to my reading experience and introduced new books to me.

>298 Andrew-theQM: If we're all honest with ourselves, something that introduces us to new books is probably *not* something we need in our lives. :)

That said, I enjoy Litsy, new books and all.

>297 AmourFou: use the > symbol along with the comment number that you want address - LT will fill in the user name based on that combination.

>297 AmourFou:, >300 btuckertx: The @ symbol followed by a user name gets you a link to the user's profile. As described above, the > followed by a message number gets a link to that message and the user name who wrote it appended.

>298 Andrew-theQM: >300 btuckertx: >301 drneutron: thank you all for your helpful comments! Did you just wake up in the morning one day knowing to use the > sign or is there a repository of LT arcania somewhere that has escaped me?

>298 Andrew-theQM: I set up a FB profile once when I thought I had to have one to play Words With Friends but have never ever returned. I still fear that I unleashed some portal via which they follow me around. Of course I am also on WordPress and Twitter so not exactly a social media recluse (insert eye roll emoji here)

>301 drneutron: thanks for clarifying!

>302 AmourFou: If there is such a repository I didn't know about it. I only knew about the > sign from observation of others using it.

>302 AmourFou: "Did you just wake up in the morning one day knowing to use the > sign or is there a repository of LT arcania somewhere that has escaped me?"

*snort* Most of us learn from others on the site. This thread has a lot of nifty tips in it:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/177029

I'm a bit lazy to make the link cleverly say "The New How To Do Fancy Things in Your Posts" thread. Obviously, there is also an old thread, which you should be able to link to from the new one. Have fun storming the castle!

>302 AmourFou: The basics are covered in the Help wiki, but even these two items aren't there. I found out about them by watching the group where Tim announces new features, then word gets spread to others by word of mouth.

It's possible to do more complicated HTML things in posts as well, and if you're interested in that there's also this wiki page for instructions:

https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Basic_HTML_/_How_to_do_Fancy_Things_in_Y...

>305 MrsLee: >306 drneutron: wow thank you both! Looks like I’ll be heading down a few LT rabbit holes today to explore!

Using the arrow to respond to posts is included in the help wiki, here: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/HelpThing:Topic#Posting_Messages

>236 jjwilson61:

_______________________________
Comparing U.S. population and physical bookstores (est.)
1930 vs. circa 1992

all population figures are sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau's data—

Total U.S. population (1930) : 122, 775, 046

Notes : figures in parentheses following city names
indicate the minimum number of bookstores available assuming a rate of 1 bookstore per 173 436 people in the bottom twelve most-populous urban places (1930 or 1992); thus Leaving the top eight urban places 56 bookstores per urban area concerned (out of the 500 strores est. for 1930* or, the same pro rata store to population ratio as a city with a population of 9 712 416 people. (See Note No. 9 below) (An urban area for these purposes is NOT necessariily the same as what is currently viewed as the "greater metropolitan area" for the cities named in the list.)

Rank by population (1930 Census data)
(descending: 1st-10th)

6930446 (New York City) (56)
+ 3376438 (Chicago) (56)
+ 1950961 (Philadelphia) (56)
+ 1568662 (Detriot) (56)
+ 1238048 (Los Angeles) (56)
+ 900429 (Cleveland) (56)
+ 821960 (St. Louis) (56)
+ 804874 (Baltimore) (56)
+ 781188 (Boston) (5)
+ 669817 (Pittsburgh) (5)
___________
= 19, 042, 823 (top ten)

Rank 11th-20th:

634394 (San Francisco) (5)
+ 578249 (Milwaukee) (4)
+ 573076 (Buffalo, NY) (4)
+ 486869 (Washington, D.C.) (4)
+ 464356 (Minneapoolis) (4)
+ 458762 (New Orleans) (4)
+ 451160 (Cincinnati) (4)
+ 442337 (Newark) (4)
+ 399746 (Kansas City) (2)
+ 365583 (Seattle) (2)
__________
= 4, 854, 532 (bottom twenty)

Combined top twenty citites populations: 23, 897, 355

Total U.S. adult population:

(White & Black combined (=98,4% of the total population) / adults aged 15 and up)

11552115 (15 to 19 years of age)
+ 47023247 (20 to 44 years of age)
+ 28048786 (45 and over)
+ 94022 (age not determined (+99 years of age)
___________________________
Total (15 yrs. Old and up) = 86, 718, 170

about 500 dedicated bookstores in the country

*(the many department stores with book departments are not included)

1 bookstore per 173 436 people (aged 15-99+) (nationally) (1930) /

1 bookstore per 62 177 people (all ages combined) (nationally) (1992 (est.))
__________________________

Circa 1992 population figures

New York city, NY *...... 7,322,564 308.9 23,705 (56 bookstores (See Note No.10) )
2 Los Angeles city, CA..... 3,485,398 469.3 7,427 (56)
3 Chicago city, IL......... 2,783,726 227.2 12,252 (56)
4 Houston city, TX......... 1,630,553 539.9 3,020 (56)
5 Philadelphia city, PA.... 1,585,577 135.1 11,736 (56)
6 San Diego city, CA *..... 1,110,549 324.0 3,428 (56)
7 Detroit city, MI......... 1,027,974 138.7 7,411 (56)
8 Dallas city, TX.......... 1,006,877 342.4 2,941 (56)
9 Phoenix city, AZ *....... 983,403 419.9 2,342 (5) (49)
10 San Antonio city, TX..... 935,933 333.0 2,811 (5)

11 San Jose city, CA........ 782,248 171.3 4,567 (5)
12 Baltimore city, MD....... 736,014 80.8 9,109 (4)
13 Indianapolis city, IN *.. 731,327 361.7 2,022 (4)
14 San Francisco city, CA... 723,959 46.7 15,502 (4)
15 Jacksonville city, FL *.. 635,230 758.7 837 (4)
16 Columbus city, OH........ 632,910 190.9 3,315 (4)
17 Milwaukee city, WI....... 628,088 96.1 6,536 (4)
18 Memphis city, TN *....... 610,337 256.0 2,384 (4)
19 Washington city, DC...... 606,900 61.4 9,884 (3)
20 Boston city, MA.......... 574,283 48.4 11,865 (3)

*See Notes for Individual Places. @ https://www.census.gov/library/working-papers/1998/demo/POP-twps0027.html
_________________________________________

from Census Bureau data (as just above)

Table 22. Population of the 100 Largest Urban Places: 1990
Top 20 Urban places
7,322,564 (New York city, NY)
3,485,398 (Los Angeles)
2,783,726 (Chicago)
1,630,553 (Houston)
1,585,577 (Philadelphia)
1,110,549 (San Diego)
1,027,974 (Detroit)
1,006,877 (Dallas)
983,403 (Phoenix)
935,933 (San Antonio)
782,248 (San Jose)
736,014 (Baltimore)
731,327 (Indianapolis)
723,959 (San Francisco)
635,230 (Jacksonville, FL.)
632,910 (Columbus, OH.)
628,088 (Milwaukee)
610,337 (Memphis)
606,900 (Washington, D.C.)
574,283 (Boston)
________________________

Total population of the top twenty = 28 533 850 (not age-differentiated i.e. all ages combined)

Note: in 1990 there were approx. 4000 independent bookstores (Source: No. 2, below)

avgeraged through the total national (1930) population (aged 15 to 100+)
86, 718, 170 (people aged 15 to 100+) / 500 (bookstores) :
= 1 bookstore per 173 436

averaged through the 1992 (est.) (total) population; 280 533 850 / 4000
= 1 bookstore per 7 133 people.

(“Two decades ago ( i.e. 1992), there were about 4,000 independent bookstores in the United States; only about 1,900 remain (i.e. May, 2012).” Source No. 2 : https://www.thenation.com/article/amazon-effect/ )

Overall, what the data show about the ratio of bookstores to population nationally is that,

in 1930, this ratio was 1 : 173 436 people (15 yrs. and up) (department store books depts. not included)

in 1992 it was 1 : 62 177 people (all ages combined)

and in 2015, it was 1 : 114 885 people (16 yrs. and up)

with an estimated (U.S. Census Bureau (Note No. 12) national population of (16 years old and older) of 255 650 855 and, approximately 2 227 independent bookstores nationally (2015 / American Booksellers Association estimate (Note No. 11))

______________________

Sources / referenced links :

(1) http://oedb.org/ilibrarian/12-stats-on-the-state-of-bookstores-in-america-today/

(2) https://www.thenation.com/article/amazon-effect/

(3) https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/16/us/ann-patchett-bucks-bookstore-tide-opening-...

(4) http://www.sbdcnet.org/small-business-research-reports/bookstore-2012

(5) http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2011-02-10-1Abookstores10_CV_N.ht...

(6) https://www2.census.gov/prod2/statcomp/documents/1931-02.pdf

(7) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_United_States_Census#External_links

(8) https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027/tab22.txt

(9) at that ratio, i.e. 56 bookstores, (1 per 173 436 people) would suppose a total urban population of 9 712 416 people for each of the top eight urban places, which, of course, have nowhere near that number.

(10) In the bottom twelve most-populous urban areas, the number of bookstores per 173 436 people is rounded up or down at the +/- ".5" thus "3.5" stores is rounded to "4" while "3.4" is rounded to "3" stores.

(11) https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/why-independent-bookstores-haved-thrived-in-spite-of-...

(12) https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?sr...
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I enjoy Litsy ‘somewhat’ BUT my one big problem is people that get on there and keep quoting and quoting and quoting what they are reading.

>310 logcabingal: I like to post quotes. Maybe Tim can develop a way to filter out quotes for people like yourself who don’t like to read them.

I like Litsy. It is light and unstressful.

Think getting a feed I like is going to take time. Want lots of people, mostly adult fiction, and posts about individual books rather than screenshot questionnaires or pet photos. I like quotes. Different stuff for different people.

Reviewing books is less stressful for me on Librarything because it doesn't seem as permanent.

A suggestion from someone fairly new to Litsy. Maybe current "littens" won't like it, I don't know. Maybe I'm just not used to the way it works.

So, someone posted one of those lists where you can answer questions. Might have been some type of giveaway? Anyway, not one single person commented with answers, so I asked about that. I was told it's "easier" to take a screenshot and repost it. That's the "easy" way to repost something!?

Maybe a "share" or "repost" or "forward" link/button might be something that could be added? There is a little forward arrow underneath posts and I clicked it, but now I can't remember what it did (I'm currently on my PC, so not able to test at this moment), but it wasn't a re-share kind of thing, as far as I could tell.

Thanks.

>313 LibraryCin: I think that’s a good idea!

I just read through all this and no one mentioned the thing that I think is the weirdest. Littens wanting to play a game will choose a random book that has some similarity to the game they want to play. Like if they want to do a giveaway they pick a book with Give or Giving in it. WHY? They seem to think it's cute, or funny. Later, if someone wants to find information about that book, it's buried in games. I really like my new Litsy friends but this bewilders me.

>315 jillrhudy: That's my major pet peeve too. I don't know why people aren't just using No Title.

>315 jillrhudy: BoardGameGeek has a lot of that, e.g. discussions of bad movies with each movie anchored by a game with a similar or appropriate name.

>316 leahbird: I don't understand; do you really not know, or do you just not approve? Because I think 315 was right on with it being cute or funny, or at least less sterile than just using "No Title".

>315 jillrhudy: One of the recommendations that I made when LT was entertaining feedback was that there should be an option to create event/club identities entries (like book entries.) So, instead of flooding the thread that should belong to Going Postal (by Terry Pratchett) with blurbs about the various postal book groups, members could post to the appropriate book or event as necessary. Another alternate solution would be the ability to mute hashtags so that you could opt out of having to see specific memes, etc. without having to unfollow a person's entire account. That way, you could mute #litsygoespostal but still be able to see anything about the book, Going Postal if the book should happen to pop up in your feed otherwise.

But I doubt any recommendations from anyone are going to implemented by LT anytime soon, if ever. LT still seems to be working out the kinks from the cloud server migration that happened weeks ago, and the only change I've seen LT post about is improving the library of books that users can tag in the app. We'll see.

>318 Tanya-dogearedcopy: That's discouraging, but probably true. I'm another who dislike seeing the five-question and postal-mailing posts. I'd really prefer a way to weed out the Blurb posts -- have some option that just lets me see Reviews and/or Quotes, both in the Home feed page and the pages for the books themselves.

>318 Tanya-dogearedcopy: >319 MyriadBooks: I wouldn't want to do away with all of the Blurb's. I like seeing things like pictures of where people are reading or what meal they're having with the book. But I agree about the postal posts and mini-surveys - I wouldn't miss them if they disappeared.

>320 Robertgreaves: I'm with you. Taking out all of the blurbs would be, for me anyway, taking out the most interesting comments. I'd like to be able to filter out questionaires. Maybe that could be a separate category?

>321 SqueakyChu: That's a neat idea. Maybe add a fourth category for stuff like that? Label it something like 'Play'?

I really like Litsy. Unfortunately, iPhone software update 11.3.1 does not and it pretty much jettisoned all the data from my account on my phone. The good news is that I still have it on my ereader, but it still lowered my Litfluence and follow info down to zero. Yes, zero. Thanks a lot, Apple. You suck.

>323 WordMaven: That's really weird, and I haven't heard from other folks experiencing this problem. If you're able to email us some more details (or even better, screenshots), I'd like to know more—litsy@librarything.com

>323 WordMaven: I have 11.3.1 on my iPhone (5/S) and haven't had any issues with the Litsy app or my Litfluence score. The only weird thing was that the Litsy app logged itself out after the 11.3.1 update so I had to reset my password to log back in (I used to log in via FaceBook) and it took three password tokens to reset. The tokens kept expiring (almost immediately!) But since that one little blip, nothing in terms of problems.

I should probably go knock on wood!

>323 WordMaven: You might just have the blank screen with the update. Log off of your account entirely and then log back on. That brought all my information back. I have an iPhone 6. It's now working perfectly.

>326 SqueakyChu: And if that doesn't do the trick, uninstalling/reinstalling the app usually does.

Please, make a "Play" category and let me get rid of it.

Going Postal is flooded? I love that book and I want to hurt people now. To me, as a librarian, it's like if you went into a bibliographic record and filled it with 100 fields of nonsense. There is ONLY ONE PLACE in the app that pulls together book reviews, quotes, blurbs etc. WHY OH WHY are they wrecking it??? I am fine with quotes. I am fine with blurbs. I am not fine with posts that have NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with the book but are in its profile.

>329 jillrhudy: So you'd be Going Postal on people misusing the Going Postal profile? :D

There are several of us who have been lobbying for feed management tools including hashtags mutes, the ability to filter by review/quote/blurb, the ability to create event accounts... But the response so far has been that these are coding changes to the app that will take a long time and that there are more important things on the task list.

In the past few weeks, the number of "fringe" events posted on Litsy seems to have exploded. Easily 8/10 posts in my feed were fringe posts before the app went down this last time. I seriously thought about not re-installing the app as the feed has become nearly impossible when you are looking for "real" content. I ended up purging 2/3 of the people I followed. Though it greatly improved my feed, admittedly it doesn't help when you want to look at a specific book, only to find non-related posts attached to it.

Hopefully, some feed management tools will be forthcoming, but TBH, I don't think it will be any time soon.

So I am obviously a Library thing user and am also a Listy user. Neither are used as often as they ought to be but whatever. Today I decided to log into my Listy for the first time in months and none of my emails are recognized. I mean NONE of them. Not my main one, my other Mac generated nonsense {from Mac to me to iCloud because hey why not}, my yahoo, my gmail. Seriously I know which email I used and I even know my fabulous user name because I sent a screenshot to my kid of some notes she wrote into margins of a book I was rereading. How can I get back into Listy if it refuses to find my emails?

>332 e.bolhafner:

You might want to write your issue up for litsy@librarything.com. But I can briefly try to help here. What's your user name? PM me it, if you don't want it public.

>332 e.bolhafner:

I see your message on the Litsy platform now, and have replied to you there. The email address we have on file is refusing all emails to it.

Just reading through this thread and linking to things that I was wondering about. I joined Litsy a few months ago, after the announcement on LT.

>176 mahsdad: >275 LibraryCin: I'm looking for a way to pull book covers onto my Litsy post, too, without having to take a photo. Or, if I have taken a photo using the Litsy app for a previous blurb, to be able to reuse it.

>211 EmScape: >241 MrsLee: It seems as though the ability to rate a book has gone from three icons to four. I actually wanted to request 5 to match up with LT's five stars (so that I don't have to do maths problems when I'm thinking about books)

And I also want to ask if the icon for 'so-so' can be changed to maybe a flat hand? Right now, every time I catch a glimpse of the thumb pointing sideways, I wonder why I've given the thumbs down to something that I've rated between a 3 to 4.5 stars on LT.

Checking to see if there's any progress on adding the LT barcode reader to the Litsy app?

>335 humouress: I started taking screen shots of the book covers to add them.

I haven't been on Litsy this week, so I didn't realize there were now 4 options. I like the idea of a flat hand for "so-so", though.

>336 LibraryCin: Is that something I can save on Litsy? As it is, things are stalling because my iCloud storage is full so I'll have to trawl through every single photo I (or my kids) have ever taken to weed out the ones I don't want.

I tried to edit my profile in the Also on section to add my Litsy account, and it isn't an option. Can LibraryThing add it? It would be a great way to connect the 2 platforms.

>337 humouress: I'm not very well versed on tablets or Smartphones and apps, to be honest. I usually (and prefer to) use a PC, but obviously with Litsy, that's not (currently) possible. I had to google how to take a screen shot on my Android tablet

Maybe someone else can weigh in for an Apple device?

Hmmm, as I reread, I think the answer might be no. When I take a screen shot, it saves to my tablet first, then I have to upload it to Litsy. I do, fairly frequently, go back and delete those screen shots.