Buddy Reads discussion

Hey You, Congrats on being a moderator of the Group :)



First I'd recommend you read the Group Guide so that you are familiar with the Group and it's activities.

Once you've read the Guide, here's all you need to know/do (hopefully):

1. Be active in the group chats, games and book discussions.

2. Try to participate in the Main Group Activities (Buddy Reads and Reading Sprints), and Yearly Challenges.

3. Try to keep the discussions thread active by commenting in them often. If the moderators don't keep the group alive, no one will.

4. Try to answer the questions and queries of the members especially in the "Introduction" and "Moderators" Folders:

5. Delete inappropriate and spam comments, then deal with those members. I'd suggest coming to Moderator Chat and discussing with other Mods before doing any of this.

6. Make sure everyone follows the Group Rules.

7. Most of all, try to help manage the Group by helping in polls, nominations, and broadcasting messages according to the schedule below. The dates are extremely important.


Any comment you make as a Moderator is supposed to be in bold font. Other messages can be in normal font.

Keeping the dates always in mind, the following schedule is to be followed to keep the members updated about the Group and to manage the Buddy Reads, Reading Sprints and Readathons.
(It doesn't matter whether the month has 30 or 31 days-or 28)

Buddy Reads

See what are Buddy Reads here.

• Nominations are started for a month on the first of the previous month (e.g., June Nominations will begin on 01st of May) and end on the 15th of the previous month (i.e., 15th of May in our example). This will be added in the Updates thread and Newsletter one or two days before the month (May) begins. You can see the format for this from the previous Nominations' threads. The words must be the same and everything else too.

Please note that each person can vote only one book (this must not have been read by the Group before) but everyone can second as many books as they want.

• Polls are uploaded the same day when Nominations end (i.e., 15th). Nominations will generally include 4 or 5 books depending on the number of seconds the books got. Up to the Mod. Do not include an extra book if the gap between the seconds is huge. Poll ends 3 days later (18 or 19) and the top 2 books selected are told to the Members in the Updates thread.

Please note that each member gets to vote 2 books in a single poll. They can vote for one book by selecting from the poll and the second by stating it in the comment.

Use this format for each poll:

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

Make sure that no one votes for the same book. You can check that by matching a person's comment to their vote. Duplicate votes will be counted once. (On 18th or 19th)

Also, invite all the members to the polls. If that is not possible, then broadcast a message and link the polls. Also post in the Updates thread. (This is done on 15th)

The next 2 most voted books are taken to 'Popular in Polls' thread which is located in the Nominations folder and they are automatically renominated with 0 seconds in the next months' nominations (This was June poll so they will be renominated for Augusts' noms unless Members nominate them themselves). This can be even one or zero books.

• Discussion Leaders (explained in message 5) selected will be told to the group on the Updates thread by 28th of the month. This will also be stated in the monthly Newsletters (when June begins).

One Moderator must be selected to overlook each of the Buddy Read/Semi Annual Reads. This is in addition to the Discussion Leader selected. Mods can divide among themselves when the books were originally selected after the poll.

• How to lead?
Simple. First make the discussion folders: Spoiler free, Review, and sections of roughly equal chapters. Be sure to keep the first text in each one according to the ones in this folder:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

You can find free ebook from the sites mentioned here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Keep the conversation active. Share your thoughts and be sure everyone puts tags where necessary. Be sure to reply to everyone. Do read the book.

Reading Sprints

See what are Reading Sprints here.

• Nominations are started for a month on the first of the previous month (e.g., June Nominations will begin on 01st of May) and end on the 15th of the previous month (i.e., 15th of May in our example). This will be added in the Updates thread and Newsletter one or two days before the month (May) begins. You can see the format for this from the previous Nominations' threads. The words must be the same and everything else too. (This is same for Buddy Reads)

Please note that each person can vote 3 books that meet the criteria (these must not have been read by the Group before) but everyone can second as many books as they want.

• Polls are usually not held for this. We have a handful of members who really contribute in this. So we tell them in the last 5 days of Nominations (and even in the poll period of Buddy Reads) to second the books they will be reading with us. The 7 top books are selected.

The next most seconded books are taken to 'Popular in Polls' thread which is located in the Nominations folder and they are automatically renominated with 0 seconds in the next months' nominations (This was June poll so they will be renominated for Augusts' noms unless Members nominate them themselves). These can be 3 or even 4 books depending on the seconds. Even none.

• Discussion Leaders (explained in message 5) selected will be told to the group on the Updates thread by 28th of the month. This will also be stated in the monthly Newsletters (when June begins).

One Moderator must be selected to overlook the whole reading sprint. This is in addition to the Discussion Leaders selected. Mods can divide among themselves when the books were originally selected after the poll.

Updates.

Discussion Leaders

Readathons

Challenges

General Fun and Games and Bookish Threads

These two folders are usually mostly active by the members, but let's not forget that members need incentive all the time. So visit each thread at least twice a month in all both folders. Other than that, be active in these 7 threads more:

New Threads and Ideas

We work together so if you have a new idea or suggestion, or if you wanna add a new thread to lead, first you must share with us in the Moderator Chat. Do ask.

Queries by Members

Must turn your notification on for this thread:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Feel free to reply to the members. If you are not sure about a certain question, ask in the Moderator Chat.

Polls

Every Month:

There are 3 major polls every month.

• One for deciding the 2 Buddy Read Books.
• One for deciding Reading Sprint Week.
• One for deciding Readathon Theme.

Every Quarter:

There is one poll for before each quarter start. This is held in the last month of the previous quarter.

• Deciding new dates for Readathon for the Quarter. These are 2 polls. One for deciding the weeks and then one for selecting the exact date within the selected week. The 5 days starting from the selected date are Readathon dates of the Quarter.

Every Year

These are many! Especially in December every year. I'll probably set them up myself and save you all the trouble.

Newsletters and other Broadcasts

Updates thread

This is a big job, but it is easy to control it because the dates are same every month. Old posts are deleted. I manage this by looking at last month's updates as per dates and deleting them when I post another similar update for the new month. This way nothing is missed and the posts are symmetrical and consistent. The words are same too. This is especially useful for Newsletters.

Group Requests:

This group was recently made private owing to spam accounts. We have not removed the privacy and do not intend to. A challenge question for new members has been set and I would usually accept the requests. However, when I am not available, only accept requests of people who have answered the challenged question in some way. Blank responses must be rejected. You can, however, message them and let them know their requests have been rejected owing to blank replies and they can re-apply any time.

Absense/Removal. and Introducing new members.