Around the World discussion

Hi everyone.

Just wanted to let you all know I cleaned up all our folders tonight. We had so many we couldn't navigate them properly.

Each country had it's own folder, but over 100 of them were empty. I have deleted all the empty ones, but left every thread that has recommendations in them.

If you would like to recommend us all a book for a country that doesn't have a folder now, please feel free to make one, and add the recommendation in. We all want to hear them!!

But hopefully in the meantime, it makes it a bit easier in here for moving topics between threads.

Thanks a ton Rusalka - you are awesome! Hopefully some wine went along with the "cleaning up Around the World folders" chore - since you didn't have pecan pie and ice cream!

Since the folders seem to be the issue, I did an experiment. You can tell me what you think, and if you don't like it I can change it back. I made a folder for EUROPE and put all the posts from European countries in there, changing each post title to start with that country.

If we did that we'd have fewer large folder categories to deal with.... does this work for you?

Definitely some things need sorting out:
-Where does Turkey go, Europe or Asia?
-What about island groups? North Atlantic... divide in half or keep as a unit?

I also created a Personal Lists folder for 2016. The last three years we've used one folder but it's getting hard to navigate. Let's start fresh with those of us continuing on.

Jenny - thanks a ton! I like what you did with Europe - it makes sense, just like folders and sub folders when one is filing docs on a server. I'd say Turkey goes under Europe. Re: island groups, I don't know what you meant, but I'd be good with whatever you came up with. Thanks for starting thr 2016 personal folders! I was looking at the zillion folders - what do you think about consolidating and moving the 2013 and older folders -- personal and where are you and where have you been folders (except the country and other resource type folders) -- to the bottom? I'm not sure how to do that but I could play around with that and learn how to do that when the weekend comes?

Having worked in European Studies for a few years, I would say that Turkey goes to the Middle East. lol Contentious!

Also North Atlantic islands... hmm... Orkney is def Europe as is the Faeros.

Greenland is North America. I guess we split them.

Oh and I had a friend who went to Svalbard and it's Norway.

Yeah I usually group Greenland with North America too, and Faroe Islands east with Europe.

Once we get everything regrouped and tucked into folders, I will sort it so the older stuff is on the bottom.

Woohoo! This will make 2016 easier.

Geography is tricky and political.

I guess the default statement is that we're not being political, we're just tidying and making things easier to navigate.

And I agree, it's so much easier already!

I would include Turkey in Asia geographically, as only a part of Istanbul is in Europe. It could also go in a separate 'Middle East' political grouping.
Greenland is a more difficult one, as it is part of Denmark (Europe) but joined on to the North American continental shelf. The same sort of thing happens with other Atlantic islands: Orkneys, Shetlands, Faroes, etc. are Europe geographically and politically, but Canaries are closer to Africa for example.

Yeah I did say Europe for Turkey because of the EU, so political rather than geographic. I'm good with whichever folder it goes in as long as we can find it - I seem to read and enjoy a lot of books set in Turkey.

I went with Middle East and put Turkey in there. Until it gets added to the EU, haha.

So for now I have it as:

Group Discussions (all our pinned posts are in there)
Personal Lists 2014-15 (will move down to bottom in January)
Personal Lists 2016
Resources
Group Reads
Africa
Asia
Caribbean
Europe
Latin America
Middle East (including Turkey)
North America
Oceania
Off-topic
Older lists
Closed topics

Lovely Jenny - thanks! P.S. - guess I was a bit ahead of myself on Turkey and the EU although I do somehow associate Turkey with Europe for some reason.

Lilisa wrote: "Lovely Jenny - thanks! P.S. - guess I was a bit ahead of myself on Turkey and the EU although I do somehow associate Turkey with Europe for some reason. "

Oh in no way is there only one solution to THAT problem. Heh.

Thanks so much Jenny! That's heaps of work.

Heh and I agree about the EU and Turkey. If only we could solve geopolitics as easily as fixing our folders ;)

Good that you've added (including Turkey) so its stands out.

What countries are you putting in Middle East?
(I had not really used it in the group before today, I just put them in the appropriate continent.)

Wikipedia uses these:
Traditionally included within the Middle East are Iran (Persia), Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, and Egypt. In modern-day-country terms they are these:

Bahrain
Cyprus
Egypt
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Jordan
Kuwait
Lebanon
Oman
Palestine
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Syria
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
Yemen

So far we only put the countries people had posted about - Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Turkey.

I kept Egypt in Africa but we can always move it.

It doesn't seem worth moving it Jenny.
I wouldn't take Cyprus out of Europe either.

I have put the books I read for all the countries listed above on the Middle East bookshelf though, as well as their continent.

I've organized our folders a bit - nothing's deleted. I grouped our general annual discussions - intros, where are you, where have you been, etc. into the 2012-2016 Discussions folder; best-worst books of the past few years into the Best-Worst of the Years folder; Personal Folders 2014-2015 have been moved further down on the list.

I left the Personal Lists 2016 where it was in case folks are referencing their lists for 2017 and the Planning for 2016 remains in Group Discussions for the same reason. If you can't find something, shout!

Thanks Lilisa!

This is sort of pertinent? Someone just spammed my travels thread, and probably that of several others based on group notifications, with unsolicited book recs that look like bad author promo attempts. Would a mod be able to delete the spam post please?

Hesper wrote: "This is sort of pertinent? Someone just spammed my travels thread, and probably that of several others based on group notifications, with unsolicited book recs that look like bad author promo attem..."

Done Hesper, thanks for flagging. I posted on the Where in the world are you thread to ascertain if the individual is just spamming or was genuinely enthusiastic - we'd love to hear from the individual in the Welcome and Introduction thread...

Hi everyone - I've moved all our 2018 Personal Lists further down under the Discussion Board if you're looking for them. Also, our 2018 Group Discussions are filed in 2012-2018 Discussions folder.

Lilisa wrote: "Hi everyone - I've moved all our 2018 Personal Lists further down under the Discussion Board if you're looking for them. Also, our 2018 Group Discussions are filed in 2012-2018 Discussions folder."

Thanks Lilisa!

Just letting everyone know I've tidied up the 2019 discussion threads. They are all still here and visible if you're looking for something, but listed further down.

Andrea wrote: "Just letting everyone know I've tidied up the 2019 discussion threads. They are all still here and visible if you're looking for something, but listed further down."

Thank you Andrea!