How do you find books you like on Bookooch?

Recently, I can't seem to pull up many books I'd want to mooch. Where are they hidden? I've tried the browse feature, the most wanted feature, etc. but never quite get to those books in which I'm most interested. I also have a very large wishlist on which I rarely get a hit.

Does anyone else have this same problem? What do you do to find obscure, but desired books?

On another thread, a suggestion was made for BM to list the most recently added books. It doesn't seem as if BM will be adding this feature any time soon, but I think it would help immensely to solve this problem.

Sometimes if I have time to spare, I'll go through my wishlist and look at the inventories of people who have the same items wishlisted. You can also use Amazon and LibraryThing; look up a book you know you like, and see what the site recommends.

I'm with you, SqueakyChu!

Here's the topic I started about the exact same problem last July:

karenmarie's topic

I have never successfully found a good book by using BookMooch's recommendations features. It was the biggest deterent for me to join BM.

I find recommendations from LT and other sources and then try to find them on BookMooch. Or, I find an author I like and search for more books by that author.

My wishlist on BookMooch is 184 books. Very rarely do any of them come up for mooch.

The one thing I'd like to see would be to be able to download select inventories - books actually available for Mooch - say all books in a particular language, or all books added on or after a date, or all books by authors whose last name begins with a particular letter, or all books available for Mooch in a particular country..... or heck, even all books in English so I'd have something to be able to go through after sorting certain things out (like Grisham, Turow, Stephen King, Daniele Steel, etc. All I'd need are author and title and member.

I use recommendations on librarything, and also by going through people's libraries who have similar tastes to me.

I keep a big wishlist and the main way I find books is to pull up my wishlist and see if there are copies available. I rarely get books from e-mail notices. The books are almost always gone before I act. And like others posting here, I find books and authors who sound interesting here or on other sites and then search for specific titles and authors on BookMooch. The search functions are not its main attraction but, hey, it's free. Sometimes you get what you pay for. To just cheaply trade used books, what I get on BM is plenty fine. I don't need a lot of bells and whistles.

I rarely have trouble finding books... I pull books from here, publisher newsletters, new author releases, news articles... Ah well.

Looking at wishlists of people with similar interests.

Looking at books in real bookstores and making a note of name to add to wishlist.

Recommendations by other people.

Usually like books by favorite authors

I make a big wishlist with the Amazon Mooch button, and then regularly browse through it to see if there are copies available.

Besides My Big Fat Wishlist, I find people who add the type of books that I like/want and I add their inventory to my RSS feed and I STALK them. :)
Whenever they add anything to their inventory, it comes up on my feed so I can see if it's something I might want. This used to be better than it is now, as there seems to be more of a delay on the feed than there used to be. :(

I'm currently stalking 24 inventories. (cue evil laughter)

I have walked people through using RSS feeds before, so if anyone needs help - or has no clue what I'm talking about, just ask.

Oh, so that's you...

#10 It always feeeels like, somebody's watching meeeeeeee......

My wishlist on BM is not small. I currently have 218 books on it.

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Stalking?! Now that might solve the problem! :)

Do I need a blog to use the RSS feed? If not, how do I set it up?

Ahhh, SqueakyChu, you have such a small, restrained wishlist. I've just let mine balloon beyond all rationality--it's currently over 1000 and going strong. Whenever I have time, or points (usually not both at once) I browse LT and Amazon, adding books to my wishlist as I go. I also read book reviews whenever and wherever I can find them and note down the titles. Strangely, the act of adding a title to my wishlist seems to fix the book in my mind so that I remember why I added it, even months later.

The excessive size of my wishlist ensures that I have no trouble spending my points!

I don't want a larger wishlist. I have too many books already!! What I want is a better way to scrutinize the books that are hidden deep inside BookMooch and that I'll never find because they won't come up under recommended books. They may be books I've never heard of before. I just have to find them first.

It's like walking into my used bookstore. I walk down the entire wall of book selections. I read book titles and authors' names. I look at the cover art. When something strikes my fancy, I look inside and read a few lines. That's what I want BookMooch to do. I want it to tempt me with books I've not discovered yet!

Perhaps my problem is that my taste in book is rather eclectic in that I don't like reading the same types of books over and over.

Nope, you don't need a blog to do an RSS feed. Most feeds are attached to your browser, but that's not what I recommend starting with. You can always move it to your browser later if you want, and because everyone uses different browsers the instructions would be different for everyone.

I recommend starting with bloglines.com. It's a web based RSS feed, which means that you can check it from different computers. (not that anyone is stalking inventories or wishlists from work....but if you were, this would help!) I have bloglines open in a window all the time, so I can just jump over in between other things and see if anything has been added.

1. Go to Bloglines.com and sign up. It's FREE.
2. Once you've confirmed your account, log in.
3. If you're not already there, go to my blogs
4. On the top of the left hand panel, you'll see Add, Edit and Options - Click on Add
5. Start by adding the url for your Wishlist. This is the url for mine:
http://www.bookmooch.com/rss/wishlist/en/ealaindraoi/
Take my user id out and put yours in. (not your name, your Bookmooch user id.) You can leave all of the other options as the default, just make sure you select "Display as New"
6. Click Subscribe at the bottom. Now it should show up as a feed. Whenever you have bloglines open, it should show up as dark when there are new additions.
7. How to Stalk inventories:
Click Add again
Add this url, only replace my user id with the one that you want to stalk: http://www.bookmooch.com/rss/inventory/en/ealaindraoi/
Click Subscribe and it should show up on your feed. The first time you add an inventory, you'll get ALL the books in their inventory at that time. I like this, because I get pictures of the books. (ooooh, shiney! books!) Of course, when they add something new to their inventory, you also get pictures.
At the bottom of each item there's a little blue link, that takes you to the book if you want more information, or if you want to mooch.
HTH!

Edited to note that LT cuts off the url - the rest of it is:
wishlist/en/ealaindraoi/
and
inventory/en/ealaindraoi/

14: Perhaps a random book option, like LT?

#14

I don't think that bookstore feeling is something you'll ever find online.

I shop for books the same way. The closest I get to doing the same on BM is by "stalking" members, as "ealaindraoi" does, although, I don't use the RSS feed.

I, also, like to read a lot of different authors and types of books. Whenever someone "mooches" from me, I check out their inventory and if I am able to find anything, I just go back and check out their new listings periodically. At one time, I was going to start adding them as friends, just to remember who they are, but, instead, I just keep an EXCEL list.

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I'd love it, but they don't have it. They presume to know what books I like and post them under "Recommendations". Ha!

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While signing up for the RSS feed, I found out that I was already a member! Hehe! I found that I was signed up for the New York Times book reviews. I wonder how many years ago I signed up for that?! I added the BM feed to it, and I now see how to do the stalking, although I'm not sure I want to do that as I looked at some other people's inventories (from whom I've mooched book before) and none looked too good to me.

Thanks for taking the time to talk me through the RSS feed, ealaindraoi. How do I read it in the future? Do I go back to the Bloglines site, or is there a different way it "feeds" into my computer screen while I'm doing something else? I never understood that part of it.

I use a lot of word searches & author searches....

example, today I was looking for algebra books... pop in "algebra" and voila!! lots of books... not the ones I want, but a lot of books... (a specific type/style of algebra book)

If I continue on this "quest" I will use 'mathematics', 'math', 'equations' and other math type words... and eventually, I'll find just the book/s that I need...

Yeah, but for fiction it's harder.

Squeak...
I'm with you. Too hard to find something I want over there. It has kept me from listing a lot of books. The books I do list are always good ones, and are always mooched quickly...but whats the point of sending books out there and not finding anything I want? Instead, I have been donating or just giving away a lot of books.. Piccoult, Bohjalian, and more.I took about a dozen off my inventory at the beginning of last winter. It makes people happy to give them a book, and that is good enough for me. Sending them out, thus adding more cost to the original.. and not finding anything I want? Not so much fun. When I did recently mooch one.. I find myself waiting for what seems like ages. Still waiting :P I guess the shine is off BM for me just now.

Also, the attitude I have found if anyone questions BM or suggests that there is a glitch has irritated me. OF course it has glitches, it is a website. There was a thread where someone suggested that there might be a glitch, and that person was insulted. Actually I have seen it more than once. It leaves a bad taste for me.. like going to a store that basically you like, but the clerk is a meanie.

There is really not a good way to search for books unless you know what book you want. If you just want to browse, forget it. At least, unless I am missing something...

I have some points that I hope to use sometime... but I hold little hope right now. Frustrating.

eta

book I mooched has been sent.. it says.. thats good !

I always use more places than BM to give away books, but I recently noticed that I've been accumulating too many points. Now I have no inventory on BM but lots of points. I am giving books away, like you, to others. I do this in person, through Bookcrossing or even LT's Member Giveaway. I think I'll wait until my points go down on BM before I list more books - even though I like to keep at least one or two listed at most times. Like you, I find what I list gets taken in a day or two, so usually I end up having no inventory there anyway.

I'm sorry for BookMooch founder John Buckman because if he does not work to make the more esoteric users happy, he will be left with a website that is great in theory only but not in practice.

Our Tim started a thread here on LT where he asked how BM could compete more effectively with PaperbackSwap. Ideas were given, but none seem to have been implemented or even seriously considered. :(

I too have a wishlist over 1,000 and rarely get a hit. Even looking for related editions it can be tough. My best luck has been keying on the author. That way you can sometimes find other editions of the book you are looking for that don't show up otherwise, or interesting books they have written that you don't know about.

I don't know about your last sentence, Squeaky. John runs BM as a nonprofit thing. I don't think it's really fair to accuse him of laziness or non-interest, when this isn't how he makes his living at all. It's not like we're paying to use his site... I for one don't want to come across as demanding over something I get for free. Basically you're assuming that he's blowing off all our suggestions, just because they aren't implemented instantly (at least, that's how that sentence is reading to me — please correct me if I'm misunderstanding you!).

My wishlist is over 600 books and I'm always adding more through recommendations on other sites (Amazon, LT, PBS, a forum I belong to, etc.). I have a nice cushion of points, because all those books don't come available at once. A slow and steady trickle is all I can handle anyways. Real life does interfere so with reading! ;)

how that sentence is reading to me — please correct me if I'm misunderstanding you!).

You *are* misunderstanding me. I thoroughly support John. I'm just afraid that if he doesn't make known what he's doing to make the site better for his users, they are going to defect. I feel, just as Tim does, that his efforts are even *more* worth supporting than those of other similar book swap websites for the reason you mentioned.

Squeaky - if I look at your wishlist I see three books that are available, of which two look like you have a good chance of getting them (for the third you need an Indian Angel, and the giver has not given any books yet). That does not look so bad to me.

I actually think BookMooch is great if you have a "different" taste than most, because it means many people are going to want books you don't want to keep and you are going to want books other people don't want to keep.

But you should not use BookMooch to find books. I use LT and Amazon for that. Take a look at your LT recommended list. Take a look at the recommended books that go with books you really like, on LT and Amazon. Read the first few pages of those books in Amazon. And if you like them, add them to your wishlist, because that way people know someone is interested in that book and they will sooner decide to list it.

I will add that my reading tastes are not typical, so it does take a little longer for me than most.

I use bookmooch & pbs for a lot of my books. I especially like it for finding books that I normally wouldn't have bought or borrow. I feel more willing to take a risk & get books I might not like.

I get books from a variety of sources, the best of which is the book sale cart at my local library. I've found some great books there & I have a tendency to post them on BM instead of PBS because it is more difficult for me to get points on BM. The last time I got a couple of good books I posted here & let the person decide if they wanted them via BM or PBS.

I also get books from people who I request books for... and some of those go really really fast. The people I mooch for know that for me to get more books I need to have more books for others to mooch...

My wishlist on BM is 388... not really much IMO, but some of them will never become available & I accept that... it is a WISH list... I'm wishing to get those books... sometimes not for me, either. My PBS wishlist is always maxed out.. and I use the reminder list as a backup wishlist for books that others aren't wishing for....

**I should also add that I sometimes use publisher search for books in a genre that I like... since if they publish some books I like they probably have others that I don't know about that I might like, too.

John has stated he will work to improve the browse and search features. Bookmooch will continue to evolve as it has in the past. It is understoody that more blog posts about his efforts would be welcomed by the community.

He has asked me to keep up with this forum as the BM forum is so lacking, so feel free to ask any questions and I'll do my best to answer them.

That said, Bookmooch is not the book trading site for everybody. Many people join multiple sites as each one appeals to different people for a variety of reasons.

This statement by 'Mckait' needs a reply:

'Also, the attitude I have found if anyone questions BM or suggests that there is a glitch has irritated me. OF course it has glitches, it is a website. There was a thread where someone suggested that there might be a glitch, and that person was insulted. Actually I have seen it more than once. It leaves a bad taste for me.. like going to a store that basically you like, but the clerk is a meanie.'

I think the regulars here realize that it is Mckait herself who is the offended party. About a year ago she insisted that a problem on her end was actually a glitch with the site, when I pointed out that it was not, she became very offended and has done her best to insult my efforts to answer tech and usage question over here ever since... She has made such a regular habit of this that I often get a flurry of sympathy e-mails each time she chides away at my responses (appreciated, but I have a tough skin, so not needed).

We admins are not trained in 'customer relations,' so we may well lack some tack. But we do know how the site works, and if someone is confused we do our best to set them straight, sometimes in a no-nonsense manner. The customer is not always right :) Several of us are teachers and so have a fair amount of patience from this background, but we will perhaps not always reply with the subservient tone of your average corporate customer service rep.

We regularly point out site glitches and have no reason to try and hide them. Believe me, we each know every quirk of the site intimately and do our very best to try and explain each one and suggest work-arounds when needed.

But to characterize our overall attitude as a net negative for Bookbooch is far from the view that so many others have expressed. We are not even close to perfect, nor is Bookmooch, but do our best to help people with their questions and problems with the site (several hundred of them each and every week...)

Mark W
Bookmooch Team

I tend to struggle in finding books to mooch on Bookmooch. Browsing by topic is more or less useless, at least for me; if I go to 'history', I seem to get thousands of books which certainly aren't history. :)

I tend to try and run keyword searches, and then just plow through all of the results. Sometimes I get lucky, usually I don't.

Strangely, regardless of what I search for, "neil gaiman" shows up as a related search. Neil has shown up for searches ranging from "history" to "russian grammar." I'm not sure what's up with that...

That's the 'Gaiman/Meyer' bug :) On the fix-it list

Some very popular books show up much more often than they should on the recs

I see you edited your post from showing up on recs to related searches... This is not so much a bug as a function of how related searches work, those terms most often searched will cross over to many other topics.

#18 - Squeeky
Yes, you have to go back to bloglines.com to see what's new. That's why I keep it open in a window all the time. (I'm on dsl, so that's possible) You could set up bloglines as your home and just click on the home button from time to time.
I recommend bloglines, because it's web based, so it can be used on different computers (ie, work/home/laptop) but if you use the same computer all the time, a browser based RSS feed make work better for you. You'll have to check for info for your particular browser - I do know in Firefox that it's an add-on under tools.

wrong Mark

I have not ever had a problem with BM that I can remember..I like BM, basicaly. Its frustrating, but I like it well enough. You see it has nothing to do with the site.

You recently told someone that a family member sneaked onto her account and created a problem... (which was indeed fixed) instead of admitting that it might be a glitch you accused... very nice eh?

and its tact

not tack

You bring out the worst in me.. strange...

enjoy your letters of sympathy..

my timing for this comment is bad, but I needed to ... comment....

MarkWP, We know that you aren't perfect & that John & others aren't perfect!! We aren't perfect either!! well, most of us aren't!! Look at the title of this thread!! bookooch?? wow!! a mistake!! I make them!! we ALL make them!!

There are books available on BM that I don't think should be there... but do I think that they should be removed just because I don't agree with BM policy? No. I just won't mooch them... the only problems they make for me is cluttering my book searches... so I'll grumble & move on... I can deal with it.

If I don't like BM, I don't have to stay... no one is forcing me...

But I've gotten to like BM.. it has its good & not-so-good points... but so do I!!

Mckait -- Please forgive my typo, I think I probably made 3-4 in that long post (and more in this one?) if you would like to point the others out ...

As you will recall, you posted a problem with BM being slow when it was definitely not having that problem (right after you joined last year). When I pointed out that we are aware of the server being slow at times, but not at the times you reported, and that the problem was at your end, that was the beginning of your stream of complaints about the inadequacies of BM 'customer service.' You have continued to criticize admin responses (primarily mine on this forum) as being rude and insensitive... It has mainly become a nuisance as I get so e-mails from others about this churlish habit of yours, which I then tend to respond to out of politeness, and it all takes up quire a bit of time.

The recent case you mentioned was of a member who had someone use her password to enter her account. We are not certain if it was a family member or someone who got it from another site she uses (as she has used the same password on many sites). We suggested the former as it has happened a few times in the past, while we have yet to find a case of the latter. This may be the first. Simple passwords could also be guessed at by outsiders, although, there is little to be gained by this (any point transfer would be public).

Your summary of the post is not quite what I wrote: 'you recently told someone that a family member sneaked onto her account and created a problem'

Try reading it again, this is the exact wording of my posted response: 'This is not a common experience. Someone has logged on to your account and made the transfer, it was no system error. Check with others in your household and change your password immediately. We have reversed the transfer.'

In which the fact the someone entered her account was indeed true (and the only possibility), and as the only time this has happened in the past has been with household members. Thus that is our first suggestion, but not stated as the only possibility, although I do see how it might be read that way. There are site security features we are not allowed to publicly discuss, and so my more detailed response was made in response to her tech report.

It is not uncommon for us to briefly respond to such public posts for the benefit of the community, but to enter into a much more detailed response and interchange through the tech report system. In fact, it nearly always happens this way.

It was not a glitch. If there were any problems with overall password security (unlikely as the only info not shown when one mooches a books is the password itself), we will be sure to let you all know about it.

It is not helpful to have the community under the impression that something is a glitch or bug, when it is not.

We were able to resolve the problem to her satisfaction, over a few dozen e-mails (some expressed sympathy FYI) -- you can e-mail and ask her about this if you would like to. She did not express offense over my (granted) terse initial public response as you seem to think she should have.

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Those three are available from overseas. I purposely do not request boks from overseas because I will not ship overseas. I *do* know that I can request them though, so thanks.

In other words, you want me to enlarge my wishlist. I do that here on LT. That's how my wishlist got so long in the first place. So your suggestion is to simply make it even larger?! :D

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Thanks, Mark. Just knowing John's working on the browse and search features is good enough for me. I'll stick with BM until he improves them.

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Yeah. For me, too. Why do Neil Gaiman and Chuck Palahniuk always show up as a related search for any keyword? Weird!

ETA: Oh! I just saw Mark's answer. :)

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I'll just keep the RSS feed on Bloglines. Thanks for reminding me I had it in the first place! :D

Yeah, these authors and a few others really do seem to show up too often, maybe they should be filtered out, I'll check to see if it's on John's fix-it list.

Skittles -- I agree that the BM book database gets more and more cluttered (with many eds of the same books) as time passes, but as it does seem to generate too much concern, I do not believe it is too high up on the list.

MarkWP, it isn't the multiple editions of books that bothers me (& I don't expect anything to be done)

My point was that no one is perfect & you cannot please everyone...

I can live with BM the way it is now & the way it will be in the future!! improved... but I can also wait...

and still be happy!!

I am easily pleased... give me books & I'm happy!!

Ah okay, well the multi-eds sure do bug me sometimes :) As do some of the other quirks of the site, in part as we admins are hyper-aware of them through responding to the same complaints dozens or hundreds of times in some cases.

You can't imagine our relief when one of them is fixed!

Thanks for the support if that's what you meant. I had stopped responding to this person's (very) regular insults of our attempts to help people with questions and problems here. But when she felt the need to include my fellow volunteers admins in her denouncement of our work, and not just myself, I thought it best to respond. My apologies for hijacking the thread a bit.

ok. Let me be clear... BM is not perfect
Nor am I
I like BM well enough
"r denouncement of our work, and not just myself," wrong
I do not like you. You clearly do not like me.
This bothers me not a bit.
I may be imperfect, but I am not arrogant.
Whenever I respond to anything about BM you go after me with a vengeance.
Every time.

I find it rather creepy that you keep a file on me. Bookmooch is often reported to be slow. It often is. You nearly always deny it is the site. Ridiculous.

I also find it interesting that my conversation with the person with the glitch
was entirely different from what you report. We did message. You are right.. she was satisfied .. to me it was, again, your response in the post that was offensive.

Now lets both go and enjoy our sympathetic messages eh?

markwp, I really admire your ability to keep calm under extremely trying circumstances!

You and the other admins do wonderful work and it is appreciated by (most) other members of BM enormously - in BM, as in life, there are some people who are determined to make life difficult, sadly ...

Thread hijack ends here!

SqueakyChu:

I also liked used book stores best (except for the often too-high prices)-- so I take my iphone-- when I find a book I like I see if it's available-- if not I wishlist it, or breakdown and buy it. Sometime I chekc out inventory by the same author, read a few amazon or LT reviews, and so on. All from the bookstore, on my iphone. This is also good when shopping for supercheap used books-- you can check out wishlists and pay your 25 cents for the book and then turn around and list it in your inventory.

Overall-- to do well and mooching books you have to be flexible about what you get-- try new stuff, take risks. People who have 5 books on their wishlist don't have much luck.

Mckait,

I for one apologize if I have offended you or others through my overly short, at times terse, replies to people's problems here. This is not a complaint we often hear, but I am sure some people feel we (or just I) are lacking in this regard. We tend to see these posts as a jumping off point for a longer conversation with the member who has generally filled a parallel tech report, but this is not always clear to those who may read our public posts. Perhaps we should post more follow-ups explaining this each time it happens.

I certainly don't know you in the slightest so have no personal dislike for you. I assume you are a member in good standing on Bookmooch as I have never heard otherwise.

But I do dislike your attempts to present misinformation here, which continues to expand as you list more of your grievances. And we admins are all annoyed by having to reassure the newbies that have been confused by your inaccurate reports of site slowness, etc.. and the time required to respond to all of those who dislike your campaign against us. As I am a person with feelings, I dislike your personal insults as well.

So I feel it best to fully address all the problems troubling you in the hopes of putting some of them to rest. It would be much easier to fire off a few bitter lines as you continue to do, but unlikely to lead to any resolution.

Your dismissive comments about our attempts to help people are posted in this thread, if you are saying that they were intended just for me, that was certainly not made clear in your post. Perhaps if you have volunteered in the past, you can then understand the camaraderie one feels towards fellow volunteers in a shared effort, and thus the defensiveness I have expressed over your negative appraisal of our efforts as a group.

We have thick skins, and you are not the first to vent your frustrations against us for one reason or another, however, you have done so more than any member of Bookmooch ever has... your discontent seems to stem from my attempt to help you with the problem (stretching your entire year with Bookmooch?) you claim to have forgotten yesterday, but which you now seem to clearly recall.

As for the brief post that recently offended you, you appear to have reached some understanding (through your interviewing this person..) that it was a small part of a much longer conversation with that member and that she is very satisfied and not at all offended by how it all went. We cannot tell the full story on the public forum as we are not allowed to discuss the site's security features, but it was very clearly not due to any glitch or bug with the password system.

I'm sure others reading this realize that having people believe there is a problem with the site when there is not generates unnecessary concern, and results in our having to reassure people individually (many people read this forum...) as they each file tech reports.

As mentioned, you now appear to clearly remember your original series of complaints about Bookmooch site slowness (when, after checking the logs, was not on our end) and how my replies appear to be the source of your ongoing unhappiness with us, and your theory that we are doing our utmost to hide or deny problems with Boookmooch. You have compared us to poor customer service in retail establishments a few times, so I assume you have had other problems in your past which you see reflected in our posts somehow.

You are a bit vague this time around, but, as before, we are aware of when the server is slow, it is logged.... There has not been a significant slowdown of more than a few hours for a couple of weeks, but has certainly been prior to this have there have been regular periods of maintenance, not all of which are announced.

If you experience major slow-downs on a daily basis (or when not otherwise mentioned, here, for example), then the problem is (still....) most likely at your end. There are a variety of issues ranging from possible virus or spy wear installed on one's system, to problems with one's ISP, regional server, browser (or cache/cookies settings therein), etc... We have a great deal of experience in helping people through these problems, and perhaps another admin can help you with them if you would like.

It is entirely in our own interests to publicly discuss problems with the server, as this saves us from having to answer the many dozens of tech e-mails which always follow an overall site slow-down. LT has a handy little message appear most of the time the site slows down: "site is a little slow, we're fixing it' I wish BM displayed this same message.

Your statement that I "nearly always deny it' when slowness is reported here is another distortion of yours, and I think all the regular members of the site are well aware of this. Our primary function here is to answer questions and publicly post any problems with the site. On the other hand, It is not at all uncommon for people to experience individual slowness for one or more of the above reasons, and we are nearly always able to help them correct the problem they are having.

You see, we still try and help people, no matter how many names they call us :)

That's our job.

The entire admin team is committed to Bookmooch as we believe in John's ideals for the site, are members of and fans of this fantastic community, and, particularly, are supporters of the many charities which are members of Bookmooch.

Your efforts will not deter our efforts to help people here at our sister site which is now serving as the primary forum for BM usage and tech questions, as our own forum is so sadly lacking. Answering questions here saves us from having to do so individually in many cases, so greatly aids us in our work. I was drawn here by the many regulars who notified us when questions were posted here.

Thank you Sophie, and others, for your kind words. We do generally try and take the high road and let these things pass, which may have been the best in this case as well, I suppose... And we certainly do our best to give people the last word in any conflict, which is important to some, of course, and I will be glad to do so with Mckait as I have in the past, but not if she continues to present misinformation about the site or our efforts to help out with questions here.

But I should really do so much more briefly , as this is just taking too much time and the tech/abuse reports are starting to pile up :)

Mark W
Bookmooch Team

I just want to say... please, mckait and Mark, please let's try to get rid of the animosity. Please try to be fair — and maybe even a little nicer than fair. No one's claiming perfection here, in themselves or in the site. I know it's a cliché, but not forgiving an offense really hurts you more than the offender. Hanging on to all that bitterness just isn't worth it. And I speak as someone who has issues with forgiveness herself.

The BM volunteers are just that: volunteers. I think it's REALLY easy to misinterpret comments online because there's no body language or tone to clue us in about the speaker's attitude. I find myself having to give the benefit of the doubt many times... and usually it turns out that the other person really did have good intentions.

Computer issues and site glitches are definitely frustrating. I know I myself am not very tech-savvy and I'd be uptight if I had to investigate an issue that was on my end. That hasn't happened to me yet, but I know it will one of these days. It's probably a fairly common thing, and nothing to be ashamed of. Maybe mckait's computer just doesn't like BM ;)

I'm sorry to re-hijack the thread again, Sophie. I just want this resolved somehow, because I really hate seeing angry/snippy comments in what is supposed to be a friendly community. I'm not attaching blame to anyone here; I don't know every detail of every situation. I do my best to hold everyone here in respect, and I've seen many of you in other forums making sensible, intelligent, friendly comments that really make this place better :-)

So this is just me, humbly asking that we let go of the past and move on, and enjoy BM and each other. I know we can if we try. And I will feel it is a personal favor if this is done. This is probably my favorite group on LT, and it's because of you guys! :)

Do forgive the unpleasantness. Those of you that have followed my posts as an admin over the last few years will recognize this as a very unusual occurrence, as I have said, our policy is to try and just let these things go, to not answer personal insults... And to let upset people have the last word, which has worked before, the few times it has happened on one of the public forums.

But in this case, her campaign against us has now generated well over 100 e-mails, which are taking a growing amount of time to respond to, so I am doing my best to settle things, as I really don't have the time to deal with it in addition to my other duties.

People tell me they don't won't to post as they feel it will just inflame her, but I really feel the need to respond to all of your notes as a matter of courtesy. I appreciate your support, but your message has been heard.

And it is part of our work to help correct misunderstandings about how the site is working, I really don't have any choice but to correct misstatements for this reason alone (about the site experiencing bugs/slowness when it is not, for instance).

I would much prefer she air her many grievances through the tech support system as we could then spare of all you nice people :)

Well, I, for one, am a ridiculous devotee to BookMooch. My bookshelves are groaning with books I can't wait to read and I've gotten rid of all the books I didn't want anymore. I've made friends both near and far (Australians are really nice and not all named Bruce, as I had earlier thought) and discovered new favorite authors I would not have found elsewhere. So many thanks to markwp, John Buckman and all the selfless volunteers and angels who keep this free site running and to all the people willing to list books in their inventory and mooch from mine. But I'm also a fan of discussion, even when it's contentious, although I would really rather that this had turned into a argument about Jacob v. Edward (those are the right names, aren't they?) or which Jonathan? Safran Foer or Lethem?

*returns to topic*

Thanks to Tim here on LT, I think I've found a good way to find books I want to mooch on BookMooch.

Tim just fixed a feature called Member List for each author. All I need do now is go to my favorite authors, find who has most of his/her books, go to that member's profile and click on that member's BookMooch link. It might just be a treaure trove of new mooches.

For me, I think this will be a good workaround until John updates his browsing ability for newly added books. It may be a bit more time-consuming, but it is a taregeted approach, in the same way that ealaindraoi's suggestion for RSS feeds on BM members is. The only advantage ot my way is that I can picka different author each time (as in when I discover a new author I like).

Hope others find this useful as well.

>#50: But we are all called Bruce. Even the women.

Fortunately, however, we are very partial to nicknames. Otherwise it could get very confusing.

I thought all Bruces came from New Jersey.

I thought all Australians were named Cyril or Sheila.

52> I thought you were called Sydney.
53> Or Gotham City

"her campaign against us has now generated well over 100 e-mails"??

What is that supposed to mean. I have never done any more than post the posts here on LT that everyone has seen. I am curious to hear more about my campaign.

If I thought a mail would go to anyone to you over at BM
I would cheerfully email . You have attacked me any time I have posted an opinion.

Harassment by an admin, is of course okay I imagine?

There is no reason in the world that I cannot disagree with you.. none.
none. I wouldn't have bothered even coming back here had I not received an email saying that you are at it again..

I am glad I did.

Why do my comments bother you so much? As I explained more than once.. I have nothing against BM. I dislike arrogance, and when a volunteer rams it down the throats of those for whom they are volunteering, it loses something .. IMO

Campaign.. you are delusional..

i have been reading these posts and have to weigh in on the "mkait" side.....arrogance, unlike ignorance, is not bliss....and, like one of my English Lit professors told us in college.."if you can't take criticism for your opinions....you're in the wrong line of work"....nuff said.
BookMooch has its flaws and everyone who is a part of....knows that...but why be so snipey if one is reminded of that fact?

now, i am probably in the Doghouse....hey, i'll pick out the colors and we can decorate it well... what say mckait ?

I do apologize for any arrogance I have expressed, I may well be guilty of that. I am an imperfect person, and in my frustration in trying to deal with this situation I agree that I have not been as clam and measured as I aim to be.

Please, anyone, post any problems with Bookmooch on this forum, it helps us greatly when you do. The site is in 'beta' in some regards, and we, really, really appreciate those who have helped use discover new problems, and lent their voices to a consensus asking us to change the way the site works.

Mckait -- I have not posted on this disagreement with you for nearly two weeks, so had hoped it might have been put to rest. I had long followed a policy of not answering your sentiments, and only did so in an attempt to reduce the volume of responses I get.

We have only ever exchanged comment on this public forum. I have never contacted you in any other way.

The many e-mails (I wrote that you had generated 100 e-mails, not that you wrote them) I have received have been from those that have expressed support for myself and the rest of us volunteer admins over these many months. Most have disliked your many angry replies to my attempt to help people on this forum, and generally have felt that they did not want to inflame you or be attacked themselves by publicly posing. While we have occasionally annoyed BM members over the last few years here and on the BM forum, none have acted as you have, thus I used the term 'campaign,' which seems fitting.

And there also been many e-mails we have had to respond to when you have misrepresented your longstanding problem with site slowness as having to do with the site performance, when it does not. At the least, please spare us the added work of not reporting a problem as being with the site when we have clarified that it is not.

While you can write anything you like, of course, I am also free to answer these sentiments, although at this point, I am sure many would rather we do so off-forum... I have been asked by the site owner to answer question here at our sister site as well as the main BM forum. I was also asked to clarify what might be site issues and what are problems at the user-end (as your long standing problem with daily site slowness is). We have great experience walking people through these kinds of issues, I continue to implore you to let us help you with your by filing a tech report.

Once again, in the interest of community peace, I apologize for any offense originally given when I tried to help you with your problems so many months ago, or any offense any have taken to overly short replies myself and others sometimes make to people's questions, which are often just the jumping-off point to further communications off-forum. All of us admins have training and backgrounds in fields (several of us are teachers) other than 'customer support,' so we will probably not reply to questions as would employees of Comcast, your phone company, etc..

Peace :)

Please?

Mark W
Bookmooch Team

Er, can we get back on topic?

Hey, SqueakyChu is still trying to find some books to spend her points on. I need to stop finding books to spend my points on. The books are taking over. They're piled up on every surface a dozen high. My family is speaking quietly behind my back. SqueakyChu, come over and help me resist the BM Sirens. They're singing again.

I actually did go back over to BookMooch and find some books that looked good. One of the things I did over the past few weeks was to prune my "Recommended" list very harshly, hiding those books I have no intention of mooching. Now I'm down to those books of which there are only one to a few copies. That will make my "Recommended" list turn over more frequently. I think that will help.

Don't resist them, WildMaggie...

Dont't resist the BM sirens Maggie.. let them draw you and drown you in a cascade of new books :)

One can always find new surface areas.

Someone once said: "You can never be too thin, too rich, or have too many books."

Well, I have a good method for browsing books that may be of interest to me:
- first, I browse by author's name. If unsuccessful,
- I browse by 'themes', with digressions, i.e. for my course subject, I search fist for 'nineteenth century literature', then go on to 'Victorian fiction', or 'romantic writers', etc.
- if unsuccessful, I then look for the publishers, sorted by language and keywords, like 'dictionary', 'Cambridge Guide to', 'Oxford Companion to', 'a very short introduction' etc.
- Otherwise, I look for obscure writers, and look for 'related editions'. I use the 'save-for-later' list for all the books I cannot find or that are not available, whose related editions can be searched for.

61> How do you prune "Recommended?" I've just ignored recommended since it didn't seem useful but this might make it more worthwhile.

62> "Never too thin, too rich, or have too many books." I'm not too thin and I will never be any kind of rich, so I guess my only option is too many books. Now, what criteria would be appropriate to determine when one has too many books? Being crushed by the cascade might qualify as too-many since once crushed and dead, one wouldn't be able to read anymore. But what about one's heirs? A difficult philosophical question.

I go to book shop sites and check their listings - I only read fiction so I will look at their 'Fiction - All' listings. I basically look at the covers - maybe check out the blurb. Any that sound interesting I add to my save-for-later list. When I have time I go to my save-for-later list and click through for Amazon reviews and also click through for Librarything reviews. If it sounds good I add to my wishlist, not so good, I remove from my save-for-later.

(Why yes, I do have a lot of spare time at my job, why do you ask?)

And WildMaggie - my family don't even bother to pretend to talk about my 'book problem' behind my back - they're quite happy to make remarks to my face :)

--> 64

This will take quite some time, but simply press the button that says "hide" for each book you don't want. That prevents it from recurring on your list. It took me weeks to get rid of the most obnoxious books. It doesn't make the "Recommended" list great, but it does make it somewhat better.

I have also had pretty good luck with pruning my recommendations list- that's where I find the majority of the books I request.