Book Snails Book Group discussion

This is the place for newbie co-moderators to ask questions and leave comments. Unsure what it means to be a co-moderator? Need help with creating polls or posting in our discussion boards? Please ask...we will find an answer to your questions! (Psst...StarMan is particularly knowledgeable and helpful!)

[Please note I mostly use the desktop (computer) version of Goodreads, not the mobile phone version.]


TIP #1: See the list of our current Moderators / Co-Moderators:

Click the group "Members" link, then click the "Moderators" link on that page. Or use direct link: https://www.goodreads.com/group/moder...


TIP #2: Add or Change your 'Title':

You should be able to do it on the above page. Look for the 'change title' link next to your name/photo. (Titles are OPTIONAL; only add one for yourself if you want to).


...And here are 2 more tips, if you want more:

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TIP #3: Find UNREAD Book Snails discussion posts quickly:

For quick access, consider adding the following page to your browser bookmarks/favorites/menu bar:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/unrea...

(or simply go to the group 'Discussions' link, then click the tiny 'Unread' link near the top. To add a webpage as a Bookmark/Favorite, on most desktop browsers the shortcut command is CTRL-D).


TIP #4: Read Goodread.com's general guidelines for all Moderators: https://www.goodreads.com/group/moder...

(hide spoiler)]

TIP #5:   To invite 1 or more people to a POLL,
look for the 'Invite Friends' link near the bottom of the poll.

On the invite page, it usually defaults to 'Group Members', and you can select 1 or ALL members.

Or you can click 'Friends' to invite people from your own Friends list.

Or click 'Custom' for a shareable link/URL to the poll.

Thanks for this? I was wondering how to do this when I voted on the 1st second nd chance poll.

So as you know, I added the Quarterly Poll, but was wondering... is there a way to make it be the first one on the poll page? My sort button is set at newest, but the Quarterly Poll is way down at #11. Just curious what I did wrong. Thanks!

One thing I just realized... when inviting members to take a poll, and you select the "all" box, it only does that page. UGH, to me that's a flaw. If you select all members, it should select them all then! Grr... so you have to click on each of the three pages, then select "all" in order to get every member of the group. Sigh... nothing can be simple, huh?

Vickie wrote: "So as you know, I added the Quarterly Poll, but was wondering... is there a way to make it be the first one on the poll page? My sort button is set at newest, but the Quarterly Poll is way down at ..."

Great question, Vickie...

When creating a Poll, you can check
[x] Feature this poll on the group homepage
to make it jump to the top of the Polls.

If you forget and want to do it later:

Assuming you are using the Desktop (non-Mobile) version of GR:
Go to your Poll, click Comments,
Click Edit This Poll (at top right).
Now you can scroll down and find the [ ] Feature this poll on the group homepage option

(I didn't edit your poll yet, please feel free to try the above)

and Thank You for adding the Quarterly Poll :)

Vickie wrote: "One thing I just realized... when inviting members to take a poll, and you select the "all" box, it only does that page. UGH, to me that's a flaw. If you select all members, it should select them a..."

That is a good observation... you have to go to all each page and click Invite All on each page.

On the plus side, anyone who's already voted won't get invited twice.

But I can imagine how this can be a pain on groups that have thousands of members.

Here is a workaround:

Rather than use the 'Invite Friends' feature on a Poll, there's another way:

1. Go to group MEMBERS page
2. Scroll allllll the way down to bottom.
3. Click broadcast a message to all members
4. In your message, be sure to include the URL of the Poll (i.e., copy and paste actual http://www... location into your message), so members can click it and go directly to your Poll (or you can simply ask them to go to our group Polls page in your message).

Ahh... thanks StarMan!

StarMan you are so good.

A few questions?

May I create a challenge? Personally, I love a challenge (especially stress free open-ended ones). They can often get me to read outside of my comfort zone, which is why I started doing them. I'm thinking either a member inspired challenge (obviously I'd contact the member for prior approval) or using my random genre generator.

Would you all like a monthly or quarterly newsletter? I'd be happy to do it. I would need other mods to help, in terms of sending info to include.

Also, I know we're snails but could we do a first and second BOM? Like start one book on the first and another midway through the month? I've already Outlander and though I enjoyed it, I won't be rereading it. I'll still be contributing to the discussion anyway.

I know I'm new to the group and the mod thing, and I don't want to mess with the Snails vibe but if any of that is appealing or doable, let me know

I think they're all great ideas Keli, and I'd be happy to help in any way with the newsletter as well.😊

So Readage & StarMan, to give you an idea of what I mean for the Meet Your Fellow Members Challenge, I've done an example below. This challenge was inspired by Stress Free Reading Challenges "Meet Your Mods Challenge"

So I'd email the member first

"Hi Keli,

I'm starting a new open-ended challenge where each month I'll introduce a new member of the Book Snails group. I'd like to introduce you for May. There will be a little three sentence intro and 10 questions about you. These are mostly about books but some are not. I will only put in as much personal info as you give me, like your favourite book or colour, so nothing truly identifying or fraud worthy. So, if you'd like to participate just email me back and I will send you the questionnaire."

If they say yes, I'll send them 10 questions. Nine will be identical the 10th will vary. I will also ask for something that they'd be happy to have in the intro, like where they're from or where they are now, how many books they read on average and some fun fact about them. I'll use myself as an example of what it'll look like.

Meet the members challenge
Get to know your fellow Snails

AMeet Keli, originally from Texas she currently lives in England. She has more pics of her dog on her phone than her daughter. She averages 2-3 books per week.

1. Why did you join the Book Snails Group?
K - I was looking for a buddy reads group that didn't have strict start and end dates. Something informal but organised.
🔸Read a book about friends.
🔸Read a book that takes place over a long period of time.
🔸Read a book where the title doesn't follow grammatical rules, eg random capitalisation, misspelled words, etc

2. What is your favourite genre? Be as specific as you like.
K - Fantasy but mostly UF and sci-fi.
🔸Read a fantasy book
🔸Read an urban fantasy book
🔸Read a sci-fi book

3. Who is your fave author?
K - That's hard but I'd say John Irving.
🔸Read a book by John Irving
🔸Read a book by an author with the initials J I
🔸Read a book set in New England.

4. What is your favourite book?
K - Working for the Devil
🔸Read Working for the Devil
🔸Read a book about the devil or demons
🔸Read a book set in an office

5. What is your favourite colour?
K - Blue, though I love all colours.
🔸Read a book with a blue cover
🔸Read a book with blue in the title
🔸Read a book with seven different colours on the cover

6. What's your favourite food?
K-Pizza, any kind.
🔸Read a book with either a tomato or cheese on the cover or in the title.
🔸Read a book set in Naples
🔸Read a book that begins or ends with a letter in PIZZA

7. What is your favourite song?
K - This is soooo hard. The first song that came to mind that felt right was I, Me, Mine by the Beatles.
🔸Read a book with a first person narration
🔸Read a book with a beetle on the cover
🔸Read a book set in either England or the 1960s

8. What is the best book to film adaptation you've seen?
K - Bladerunner
🔸Read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
🔸Read a futuristic novel
🔸Read a non-fiction book about technology, extra points if it's about AI

9. What's your favourite movie?
K - Glory or the Color Purple
🔸Read a book set during or about the US civil war
🔸Read The Color Purple
🔸Read a book with an African American protagonist

10. If you could time travel once would you travel to the past or future?
K - Future, definitely. Aside from being brown and a woman which was never going to be fun or easy in the past, I couldn't do without indoor plumbing.
🔸Read a book set in the future
🔸Read book about the history of plumbing
🔸Read a book about women

Bonus Tasks
🔸Read a book where a dog is central to the story
🔸Read a book set in either Texas or England
🔸Read one of Keli's currently reading books

Hi Keli & Vickie,

Thanks for the good ideas :)

Newsletter:

We do one kind of randomly. Alison (readage) did one in early March -- you may have it in your old Messages. We had sort of come to the conclusion that a Quarterly newsletter was enough... but now that we have more Mods, we could consider doing one more often.

What do you other Snail Moderators think?

Basically in Newsletters we mention current BOTM and any Quarterly or Yearly Read that's in progress (with links to same), and mention some popular discussion threads (such as Polls, Fun & Games, Share Your Book Reviews, What are you Reading). Also feel free to make comments about current season/nearby holidays, etc. And always welcome new members and thank all our members for being awesome reading Snails ;)

~~~~

Tasks/Challenges:

You can start some new discussion threads, or add to these existing ones:

Fun & Games:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...
(for example, we've previously done some 'daily' book challenges, something different for each day of the month)

2019 Theme challenges:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Your idea about introduce/interview a Snail each month sounds fun to me. It could go in our "Social" area, perhaps?

~~~~

BOTM x 2 ?

Not sure about having more than 1... since we sort of cater to folks who don't care to read toooo quickly.

But sometimes I make a new Buddy Read discussion for a book that didn't win, if two or more Snails request such.

Buddy Reads: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

Maybe we could do a poll, such as
"Would you be interested in an alternate BOTM discussion each month? (perhaps the 2nd place Poll winner?)"

Yes!
Yes, but do it as a 'Buddy Read' <--optional choice?
Not Sure/No Opinion
No, one BOTM is enough

I forgot we just started the "Second Chance Reads" polls and discussion, where we vote on recent runner-ups from BOTM or other polls! So we sort of have a second semi-monthly book now :)

We don't always get great participation in our BOTM polls, but of course not everyone cares about such, or likes to vote. Some Snails just come here for other discussions, reviews, friends, etc., or don't sign into Goodreads very often.

Thanks again for suggestions, and I'll let the other Mods and Queen Alison (readage) chime in now!

Today I blocked 9 rogue scammers/spammers/fake accounts who've joined this group recently.

The details:
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Some of these may be automated "bots", and at least some of them appear to be originating from China or overseas, but attempting to appear to be from the USA. GR seems to be allowing more and more of these rogue "members", so be on the lookout.

8 of them were fake accounts with 0 books, 0 reviews, repeated user names, and (worst of all) links to Canadian Pharmacy or erectile dysfunction websites. Yep, even Goodreads can't escape these idiots!

The 9th idiot was posting inappropriate/non-permitted content that Goodreads specifically prohibits, and has been posting the same word-for-word crapola on multiple groups around GR. I flagged them for abuse and violation of TOS (Terms of Service).

I hope we don't ever have to make this a 'private' (invitation-only or moderator-approved members only) group. Hopefully GR will eventually do a better job of preventing riffraff from joining in the first place...

You know... the kind of fake members promoting Canadian pharmacies, home improvement scams, free software, pirated eBooks, fake book/author websites that lead to infected websites, etc..

If you see junk like that posted in our group, please delete and/or flag these dangerous and unwelcome posts.

If you see a fake/scam/spam "member" that's joined our group and needs to be eliminated, please visit our group's "Block Users" page at:

https://www.goodreads.com/group/19403...

If in doubt, please message one of the other Moderators here about a specific post/user, or contact Goodreads help. You can also 'flag' objectionable posts, or report abuses:

https://www.goodreads.com/help/show/5...

Thanks for keeping the riffraff out of the Book Snails garden!

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Hmm... shows how much I've been paying attention, I didn't even notice any of those. I'll definitely be on the lookout now. Thanks StarMan for taking such good care of our group!!

StarMan, I completely forgot about the second chance book. That is essentially another bom, kind of. I'm looking forward to A Gentleman in Moscow.

If Readage is happy with my challenge idea or if it's just cool to start, then I will kick it off fairly soon. Obvs Allison would be my first intro.

► Would any of you awesome co-moderators like to put up the BOTM poll for JUNE?

The current nominations are at: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

To create a Poll: Polls --> Create a Poll
(I usually then choose the 'create a BOOK poll' link in the Guidelines section, but it's up to you)

or direct link for 'create a BOOK poll' is:
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/new?id...

P.S. IF it's a month with only a few nominations, you can check the "Allow write-in answers" box during poll creation, if you so wish.

Sorry I’ve been MIA...I’ve not been doing much reading and been in a depressive funk. I’m just climbing back out of my hole so I might be a bit before I’m back regularly.

Alrighty, I attempted to make the a June poll. Hopefully, it's all correct. I added two choices from me. 😉
Let me know if I did anything that need to be changed.

Doh, I put tomorrow's date o on the poll. So you may not be able to see it, yet.

So I found the poll and I got it to move to spot#1 but it's still not appearing on the homepage. Any suggestions?

As long as it's #1 on the polls page, I think your fine.

Lupe wrote: "Sorry I’ve been MIA...I’ve not been doing much reading and been in a depressive funk. I’m just climbing back out of my hole so I might be a bit before I’m back regularly."

I only just saw this. Lupe, I hope you feel brighter soon. Depression sucks. Reading was the only thing that made me feel not wholly bleak. I hope you have something else that makes you feel something a little good. ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

Lupe, good to hear from you. Hope your days get brighter soon.

Keli, thanks for adding the June poll, it looks good me :)

So I've got Allison's Meet a Member challenge just about ready to go. Just need to decide where to put it. Social or fun & games?

Also, Vickie are you still up for doing a newsletter? Cos if you did then we could include it on that. Otherwise I was thinking of sending out an email.

What do you all think?

Keli wrote: "So I've got Allison's Meet a Member challenge just about ready to go. Just need to decide where to put it. Social or fun & games?

I suggest a new topic under "Social," but it's up to you!

Yes, of course Keli! It just depends on how soon you're looking to do it because I'm really slammed right now between work and my son's graduation.

Vickie wrote: "Yes, of course Keli! It just depends on how soon you're looking to do it because I'm really slammed right now between work and my son's graduation."

Let's do a cute snail worthy one for July, then. Unless you're still crazy busy, then we'll just wait until you're ready.
I'll shoot out an email with the new challenge and a reminder about our current books, including June's botm.
Nothing too fancy as I'm doing this on my phone. I use the desktop version but it's still a faff. Links and pics are not the easiest to include.

Social seems good to me, StarMan.

So, as you will know by now, I attempted a newsletter. I accidentally hit send as I was trying to scroll to the top. 😶 Needless, to ssy there are a few typos. But other than that I'm rather chuffed, considering I did it on my tiny phone.

I thought it was great Keli!😊

Great job, thank you :)

Kelli it was wonderful!!!

Thanks y'all. ☺️

I got a thanks from a member about the newsletter. He said he was going to try t read both books. ☺️

Does anyone know how to create a link to posts within a thread?

Not sure I know what you mean??🤷‍♀️

Vickie wrote: "Not sure I know what you mean??🤷‍♀️"

Like when in a challenge, the mods create a link to your challenge post but it just says your username not the link address. Does that make sense? I may not be using the right terms.

Not sure. All I know is that you just copy and paste the link to the thread you want to go to. I don't think I've ever come across what you're talking about. :-(

Vickie wrote: "Not sure. All I know is that you just copy and paste the link to the thread you want to go to. I don't think I've ever come across what you're talking about. :-("

I've figured out how to do it.
Snail 2 Amy Summers
Or
Civil War Western Theater
As the Snails increase I wanted to give people an easy way to find them.
If I'd really been think I would have reserved a couple spaces at the top for linking the Q&A Snails and those playing along.

Cool!

Vickie wrote: "Cool!"

It was in the "some html is ok" link in the upper right hand corner, ↗️, of every new, edit or reply post.! 😶

Oh, okay. I was playing around a bit, and I just thought maybe you would just click on the time stamp of the specific post (comment) you wanted, then copied and pasted the URL link that shows up top since each comment has its own comment# in the link.

Vickie wrote: "Oh, okay. I was playing around a bit, and I just thought maybe you would just click on the time stamp of the specific post (comment) you wanted, then copied and pasted the URL link that shows up to..."

That's exactly what you do but to change to the text of your choosing rather than the long address itself, you just put it in the html code they provide.

oh, gotcha!

Hi gang! I was looking through all our current books and got to thinking... what's everyone's thoughts to doing a second chance read as a book of the month, instead of having it in addition to the book of the month. I noticed there wasn't much traffic in the second chance thread, so I'm wondering if that's because it's too overwhelming for some members, having all these books on their plate, so to speak? Between the BOTM, Yearly, and Quarterly Reads, maybe it would be easier to throw the second chance read into the BOTM once in a while. So for example, take some recent runner ups and vote on them for the October or November BOTM. Thoughts??

Vickie wrote: "Hi gang! I was looking through all our current books and got to thinking... what's everyone's thoughts to doing a second chance read as a book of the month, instead of having it in addition to the ..."

Fine with me either way :) I probably only read about 1/4 or 1/5 of the BOTM winners, but I've discovered some good ones in the other polls --Second Chance, Yearly, Quarterly, etc. And also in the 'Share Your Reviews' and 'What are You Reading' discussions.

Thanks, Vickie.

Personally, I like the separate BOM and second chance. Especially if the BOM is one I've already read. But that's a personal preference. This group is about taking it easy, so I always figured people would get around to the books in their own time and comment.
I'm still waiting for the answers from my August snail. Life gets in the way. So, I don't think it's about too much choice. I think it's too much life, if you want to will.

Okay, no biggie. I was just thinking out loud. 😆😉

Hi all, sorry I've been a bit MIA. I've been so busy, a bit blue and on holiday. I did contact a snail for August's meet a Member but she still hasn't gotten her answers back to me. When I get back home in the first week of September I'll contact another snail for a mid-month MaM. I'll try to get a newsletter out, too, if you all think that's a good idea.