World Mysteries and Thrillers discussion

Hi everybody :)

Wow, this group has grown over the years...
And now it's time to make it more awesome.
Some new air will be good, so please tell us how to make this group really awesome.

What would you like here?
Think... And post when you get some ideas.
So many good ideas have come from the members already. And you have more cool ideas for sure. You are here - what would be awesome and make you happy?

A read of the month? Should it be a book, an author, or a country? (Or all three)
Since the members are located everywhere on the planet a specific book might not be available everywhere.

Topics by country?
I love the idea (and got it from one of you). But it will take quite a bit of work.
Would anyone want to help get that started? Make a topic for your own country or your favorite country, where all the cool authors there will be listed and updated as time goes by.

What about the author section?
I like having both readers and writers, but I'm a bit worried there might be occasionally an overwhelming amount of writers posting about their stuff.
So input is welcome - is there too much of it? Would you feel more cozy here if there was a different subsection (so you could completely ignore its activity if you chose so)? Or would it be better if there was a completely new group created for it?

I'd like this board to be comfortable, inviting, and welcome for everyone. Yet if there is too much of something and not enough of something else... It's hard to get the balance.
Please help - what do you READERS want?
I wanted a place for readers to come and hang out and discuss world crime books and discover new stuff. And I need your help to make it even better.

Also would it be good to add some subsections for different genres too?
Proper noir (more dark and violent stuff), more cozy stuff, more psychological stuff?

Free chocolate!

Anna wrote: "Hi everybody :)

Wow, this group has grown over the years...
And now it's time to make it more awesome.
Some new air will be good, so please tell us how to make this group really awesome.

What wou..."

I would like to see self-promotion limited to some sort of promotions thread, and taken out of the reader threads. I have basically quit posting here because there are so many ads.

And enforced @Nancy! I seem to see the same ads in all my different groups. There's one book that I won't even consider because the guy is pushing it. In every group, in every thread... *groans*

Kirsten wrote: "And enforced @Nancy! I seem to see the same ads in all my different groups. There's one book that I won't even consider because the guy is pushing it. In every group, in every thread... *groans*"

I am one of four moderators in another mystery group, and we created a number of author threads (and a thread for just advertisements) and have made it clear that self-promotional threads in the reader topic areas will be deleted. I give a warning, and if the promotional poster hasn't removed his/her post, it's deleted within 24 hours.

And let me just add that we've seen an increase in reader members since we put in that plan into action.

What if you gave them so many "strikes" and then you block them from group.

Kirsten wrote: "What if you gave them so many "strikes" and then you block them from group."

It doesn't work. But I will say that we've seen a lot less advertising since we started enforcing it. Not just that, but in a few cases, the readers have actually been taking it upon themselves to warn the self-promoters that this isn't allowed. That's where I ultimately hope to get to so the moderators don't become the no-ads police.

I'm new, so t his may be retread. Maybe we could concentrate on a country or region for several months and then move to another. Or we could do it by type of mystery: spy, police procedural, thriller, WhoDoneIt, Noir, Professional/Amateur, Legal/ Medical, etc. Or we could choose a book for each category or several) each month. Just some ideas.

I like the ideas I hear so far.

A too strong police in a group is never fun.
So please feel free to be kind and tell to any new self-advertising newcomer or old member that we don't like that kind of behavior here. Whoever find a dubious post first.
(And of course a few new moderators might be welcome soon)

I redrafted a sticky thread about rules, does this sound clear enough?
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Sounds good. You just have to make sure it's enforced. It won't take long until it slows down and then stops - and then it will be so nice!

Yep. :)
What do you think instead of deleting all self-advertising posts we'll put them in the dead threads archive, modify the thread to mention the crime, and close them? I'm thinking that way when some potential new reader will come to search for thread about some author's book, they might not be very happy about finding that Mr Author did not rely on his book's charm alone...

It seems to me that if you've set up space for self and other promotions, I would just direct anyone you catch to those areas. It's new so it will take a while for them to catch on. After you've let them know by replying to their post, then leave it up for x amount of time and delete it. I've found that most authors get it the first time. I left the posts in that occurred prior to us setting up the rules, and warned/deleted after that point.

I agree with Nancy's last post. It's pretty self explanatory, and the occasional reminder followed by deleting the offending post should do the trick.

This group looks pretty stable to me. I don't see anything outrageously out-of-order. Nothing looks in a bad way.

I can tell you though, some 'group issues' that usually keep me from participating (in other groups around GR):

--too much activity. Contests, polls, group reads, buddy reads..it results in constant messages flooding my inbox.

--the other extreme: a group which is absolutely 'dead' in activity. 'Slow' or 'sleepy' groups are okay but when no one wants to speak up at all, that's off-putting. [Not the case, here!]

--overly-stringent, heavy-handed draconian moderators. [I don't see this here, either].

--author spam. Not a problem here. Shouldn't ever really be a big deal. All ya gotta do is instruct authors, 'where to stick it' :D and if they don't, just move their posts to where they oughta be. They'll learn.

--over-babying. If a group has a frantic concern that no one's ego should ever be slighted, it loses appeal to me (personally). I feel adults should be allowed to be adults; and a 'forum' implies democratic processes. Its difficult to find Goodreads groups where people really value the ethic of 'let every voice be heard'. But I see no problems here yet (in this regard) in this group.

Basically, I think there's not always a need to 'fix' a group "when it isn't really broken". It's true, a 'good balance' is hard to achieve. But unless there's something screamingly wrong..its okay to just 'coast'. Let people browse discussions, don't 'force' anything..lots of people like to 'lurk'.

Possible enhancements?
~More fine-grained organization of discussion shelves. Don't let authors do a 'bait'n'switch' (topics which look like 'general interest' but which are really all about their new release)
~Make the group bookshelf really something to boast about
~Do a 'reader spotlight' every week to keep *some* discussion going
~The Photo section is an an area for possible fun activity. 'Guess this photo' games, etc
~More links to external websites; links to reader's reviews?
~'Top Ten' lists?

Maybe, you can post short intro/bio of every interested member and allow other members to ask them questions about their works or other things. That can be fun!

If one author a day is too much then three or four can be put in limelight each day. I personally think that may be fun for regular readers of the group. They may get some of their new reads from there.

Good input.
And perhaps good time to slowly start to put some action in...
Iʻve been quiet in the past weeks for some health issues (in fact, skipping even my usual reads and sticking to uncontracted braille books - glad to be back to normal soon), but soon thatʻll be history...

Anna! All :)
I am sooo late in posting to this thread. I was the original Ann who suggested listing books by country as I love as a reader to quickly travel the world by country but the current setup on this page was too unwieldy for me to quickly find that. There was some very confusing messages back and forth and after awhile I became very busy. The setup I would recommend is similar to the group: Around the World in 80 Books. I happen to read/armchair travel through mysteries so would love to see the country delineation here as well.

I am extremely impressed with all of Felik's post above. So well stated about this group that I can only reply to his by saying, "what he said!"

I am getting quite ashamed as I only seem to want to read mysteries set in other countries now...exotic, inexpensive, and thrilling way to travel!

All that being said...I am a fanatic mystery by country reader...to the extent that I am now starting my own series. So, yes, I have started down the path of trying to write my own. I am quite a ways from finishing my own book. And for the record I also find any author promos on these sites to be off-putting to the extreme. Anything that can be done to minimize that should be done ... I hadn't noticed much of that in this group. I will write a separate message to the moderator Anna to see what we can get going for the book by country categories.

Thank you, Ann.

Seriously, this group has 1,798 members. And just three moderators. I'd say you're doing very well.

p.s. a few of my own groups were 'a little slow' this season and I decided to change that. I implemented some new techniques with good results.

For one thing, I decided to really highlight the presence of our working authors and give them their own thread. Basically I took over their self-promo and made it a selling point. Now there's not so much tension between authors and readers. You know, when authors constantly try to do 'hard sell techniques' in a group that's supposed to be about reading. My readers now have a 'one-stop shop' to check out new titles and new releases; and they're not being shouted-at every few days by authors hawking their wares.

Oh and the other thing I did was implement some stern measures to prevent author-bullying. Because this happened to me last year (in another group) and I became outraged over it. I am against any groups where moderators make authors 'privileged citizens'. Equality for all, in my groups. No special treatment.

What else..oh, I started some new trivia threads. And I change up the group masthead frequently. These are just basic principles of web presentation: people like eye-candy and they like mindless diversion. They like a clean, interesting, pleasant, and well-ordered environment.

Oh god. I'm a moderator now...alright..

But I warn you...this can only further my obsessive OCD tendencies..

I really just want to sort out the bookshelf, & the accompanying 'discussion bins'--as for any other (major) initiatives which occur to me, I will consult first with the other mods (I've only met 'Ken' so far, nice guy)

Congratulations, Feliks.

Thanks. Made some decent progress today. A mere 300 books left to sort.

Thanks for all your work Feliks

de nada, senor...de nada..


;0)