November & December - what shall we do?

Chris OConnor · Last edited by Chris OConnor on Sun Nov 11, 2007 6:35 pm; edited 1 time in total

November & December - what shall we do??

Typically we would be discussing a few books during the final quarter of the year, but due to the forum transfer and associated slow-down we didn't generate enough book suggestions and overall activity to warrant launching two new book discussions.

So what shall we do? I'm all ears. Be creative, but think about the logistics of your suggestion before you type a novel.

Should we all suggest new books over a 3 day period, narrow them down to 3 total selections, and then run a new poll next week? We could discuss only one book for Nov. & Dec. since any more than that just wouldn't make sense. And if the discussion is humming along we can keep that forum up as we move into the New Year. No solid rules here - let's think about this and come up with a game plan.

I should fill you all in on what I'm doing behind the scenes too, but I am not looking for this thread to be a discussion of such changes. In a nutshell this is the plan...

I'd like to start doing a total of 3 books per quarter or per reading period.

1 non-fiction (selected by the community)
1 fiction (selected by the community)
1 atheism (selected by a small book selection committee)

Each of these 3 book discussions will have a forum in the Current Book Discussions category up at the top of the forums page. As the book discussions come to an end they are moved down into the archives.

Atheism/freethought will have its own area of the forums. You have probably seen the new forums down below. I am open to suggestions for the design of this new section, but not here in this thread. If you are interested in that section please create a thread down there and share your feelings. Any help with getting that section active would be greatly appreciated. If you find good videos, blogs or web sites that pertain to atheism and/or freethought please share them.

Our slogan will no longer be "the freethinker's book discussion community." It will be changed to a much more welcoming and far less intimidating, "Quality Books. Good People. Great Conversations." If you can help me on how to put that slogan into correct grammatical forum I'd appreciate the help. Do we use periods, commas, uppercase letters, and/or an exclamation point?

Our fiction and non-fiction book discussions do not have to have a thing to do with freethought. But we might want to create some simple rules as we all want this community to be attractive to bright people. Any suggestions on some ground rules for book selection would be appreciated.

Also, I am game for staggering the book discussions. MadArchitect has pushed for this in the past. And the time is right for starting this.

An example might be that we start new books on a schedule similar to this...

January - start fiction book
February - start non-fiction book
March - start atheism book
April - start fiction book
May - start non-fiction book
June- start atheism book

Every month we are starting a new book of some sort.

Also, book selection needs to happen up to 2 full months prior to the start of that reading period. This will require some active help from those of you that are active on the forums. Or I am going to be a dictator and simply deal with people complaining. Help me select them and we'll all be happy.

As soon as Indie is available we are making these changes...

1. The top "Welcome to BookTalk" box will only appear when you are NOT logged into your account. The reason is that this box, rich with quality keywords, is food for search engine spiders. We want them to know how to classify our site. I am going to be working on this section soon. I'd love help. Maybe we can do a live chat soon - strictly for working on some of these thoughts. But that box will have the BookTalk Mission Statement and will be quite informative - several hundred words.

Once you log in that box is still there, but it is collapsed and out of your way. Should you desire to read the text again you would simply click the arrow and the box would appear. Click it again and the box collapsed.

#2 Having all of the Archived Book forums directly on the home page is ugly and annoying to me. I thought I'd like it, but I am sick of seeing so many links. The problem is those links are really good for search engine optimization. The solution is that the entire Archived Book Discussion forums section will be open when NOT logged in and collapsed once you are logged in. Again, the arrow button will open and collapse that section.

The reason we want some items to be opened when not logged in is because a search engine spider never logs in. They will never see the features that you see when you are logged in. This is a really good thing. This is something we could not control back on ezboard. I won't go into any further detail with this, but trust me we have some awesome benefits to this new advanced forum.

Tons of new content is on the way. We will have a Google Earth guest map where visitors and members can put a push pin in the map of the world where they live. This will be much more attractive and sophisticated than the last guest map we used.

We will have a newly designed Cafe Press store once I have the new slogan on the logo. And the merchandise will have much more to the design than simply the logo.

I type too fast. I just typed a novel and this thread was really about trying to figure out a game plan for November and December. If you are all up for it I want to have a new book suggestion thread in the Book Suggestion forum. I am out of time so the first one of you to read this and create the thread...THANK YOU! Let's stick with 1 non-fiction book as the goal and let's pick it within a few days to a week. Feel free to create that thread and help me out. Smile

MadArchitect

irishrose · Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 10:00 pm Post subject:

I’m with Mad, Chris. You might be better off just picking a book which you think a couple people might be interested in reading this month. In truth, I find the book polling unnecessarily cumbersome. Now, of course, it would be a necessary process if we had dozens of contributors who wanted a say as to what books are picked—but we don’t yet. And to go through the whole rigmarole for the half dozen of us who will actually contribute to the discussion, doesn’t seem wholly necessary. And it has the negative affect of inviting in another half dozen to dozen “members” who sometimes seem to just come here to sway the vote, without any intention of ever discussing the book they choose. I don’t know that we wouldn’t make out better with whoever’s interested in participating saying:

Person #1: I’ve been looking at book A, B, C, D & E
Person #2: I’ve been looking at F,G,H,I,J, but hell I’d discuss book B, that looks awesome.
Person#3: I’d read B, but I’m much more interested in reading J. Or, if you’re interested in J, Q might be a better take on the topic.
Person #4: I’d read Q or J, but I have absolutely no interest in B.

Etc., etc., etc. We’re fairly cordial people, with relatively open minds. [Heh.] I’m confident the handful of us interested in really reading a book could come to some sort of compromise in the matter of a couple weeks. And this more fluid way of picking a book might lead to a better choice overall. I KNOW this isn’t something that can work once we have even ten regular members who want to participate in book discussions. It’s not a suggestion for the long-term. But, while you’re time is consumed working on the site, and our membership is still on the low end, it might be something to consider.

As for November/December, just give us something to read, Papa Bear.

MadArchitect · Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 10:51 pm Post subject:

Ditto everything Rose said, up to Papa Bear, which I really can't imagine myself saying without creeping myself out. A lot.

Sugar Bear, maybe, but only because he sings in a faux Dean Martin voice.

irishrose · Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 10:59 pm Post subject:

JulianTheApostate · Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 12:12 am Post subject: Extend to next year

Many people, including me, are busy for the last two months of the year. Let's extend the book discussion period into January or February.

As I mentioned elsewhere, I'd rather choose the top two nonfiction selections and omit the atheism book, since a lot more people were interested in the former.

Chris OConnor · Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 11:12 am Post subject:

The 2 new book forums are up and running. Please help get those forums jump started guys. I'd like to advertise as soon as possible, so it would be very helpful to have a few dozen posts in both forums as quickly as possible.

Check out the top logo. Our slogan has been edited.

riverc0il · Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 4:39 pm Post subject:

I completely agree with everything Mad wrote, specifically about the unfocused part. The extending of the forums into new categories was suppose to generate more activity, but I think it causes more harm than good. We need to focus activity on books. The additional forums and threads are just noise and I am essentially not following any non-book threads at this point whereas before I followed philosophy, current events, science, etc. Regardless, we need a book discussion fired up ASAP. I think Mad's suggestion of not only taking into consideration what most people would be willing to read, but additionally take strong consideration into what people are vocally against is important. This is the inherent problem with the current voting system is books that only a small number of people are interested in reading get picked instead of books that have a broad basis of moderate interest versus strong interest from only a few people.

Chris OConnor · Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 5:34 pm Post subject:

I have a solution, but it is Halloween. We'll discuss this later. Smile

seeker · Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 7:19 pm Post subject:

Thanks, Chris, for posting the new books. As I have limited reading time and have to order my books from Amazon, I need as early a notice as possible to be able to participate. Like the other contributors, my main interest is the book discussions, and I would prefer the staggered format you mentioned where we have a new book each month. I don't really care how we select them as long as it's far enough in advance.

MadArchitect · Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 8:09 pm Post subject:

Hey, just wanted say that I'm happy with the books you selected, Chris. I think they'll serve the purposes of discussion well, and I'm hoping everyone will jump in right away. Happy Halloween everyone!


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