| BookTalk.org News |
| • Woops! The "Your Inner Fish" forum is now open and awaiting posts! I had created the forum and made it invisible to everyone but me. No wonder nobody was posting. Sorry about that! |
| • Four free books have already been awarded as part of the "Explore BookTalk" contest. There is still time to win free books by participating in this simple contest. |
| • Professor Neil Shubin has agreed to do a live author chat with us where we will discuss his book, "Your Inner Fish." |
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| BookTalk.org Community Rules |
Rule 1: Be nice!
Treat other members as you would like to be treated yourself. Often we forget that the post we’re replying to was written by a real person with real feelings. Before you attack someone take a step back and breathe. Imagine that you are sitting next to this individual having a cup of coffee. How would you speak to them in person?
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Rule 2: Be honest
No cheating on polls, plagiarism, or claiming to be someone you’re not.
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Rule 3: One username per person
Create and use only one username. Username changes can be made by contacting Chris O'Connor, the owner and administrator of BookTalk.org.
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Rule 4: Post to the appropriate forums
Read the forum names and descriptions before posting and then post to the right forum.
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Rule 5: No crossposting
Do not post the same message to more than one forum. Locate the right forum and post it there.
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Rule 6: No ALL CAPS posting
Using ALL CAPITAL letters is considered SHOUTING and rude. It violates our “Be nice” rule.
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Rule 7: Maintain a valid email address
Your email address can be kept private from other members through your Profile settings, but the forum administrator must be able to contact each member through a valid email address at all times.
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Rule 8: Keep it clean
No adult content such as pornographic messages, images or links to such material. Limit swearing, vulgarity, racism or inappropriate comments.
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Rule 9: Cite your sources
Always cite your sources when quoting, posting excerpts or book reviews, or using material that is not your own. Respect copyright laws. Plagiarism is unethical and often illegal. Make it abundantly clear where your own writing ends and a quote begins. Most authors appreciate and are flattered when they are quoted, but use common sense and provide a direct link to your source every time.
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Rule 10: No bandwidth theft or hot linking
The use of inline ([IMG][/IMG]) image tags pointing to images or data stored on third party systems for which the user has not received permission to link to may be removed
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Rule 11: Write right!
Use Internet lingo, slang and abbreviations sparingly. Avoid excessive use of punctuation, emoticons, large fonts, small fonts, colored fonts, and images. All of the above have their place on the forums, but when used in excess they can become quite annoying to other members.
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Rule 12: Do not contact authors on behalf of BookTalk.org
Please refrain from making contact with authors on behalf of BookTalk.org. No member should contact an author to attempt to set up an interview or a live chat session without explicit permission from Chris O'Connor. Doing otherwise gives the impression that the member is a representative of BookTalk.org. Live chat sessions and interviews are set up under certain conditions and are at the sole discretion of the community administrator.
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| Helpful Tips |
Tip 1: Use descriptive subject titles
Use an appropriate, descriptive title when posting a new topic. Examples of bad titles include; "Imagine this...", "My thoughts", "I don’t agree", etc.
Examples of good titles include; "Imagine a world with no wars”, “My thoughts on gay marriage”, and “I don’t agree with Liberalism.” Give other members a good idea of what your thread is about so they can make an educated decision on whether or not to click and enter it.
And more importantly, good descriptive titles tell search engines how to categorize your post. Describe yourself well and search engines will pull in new members that happen to be searching for your keywords. It is often helpful to repeat the subject title at the very top of the post body.
If you find that few people are responding to topics you create the problem might be with how you title the topic. Are you making the thread sound enticing? Do people understand what the thread is about simply by reading your topic title?
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Tip 2: Fill out your entire profile
Have you explored your entire profile? To enjoy BookTalk fully you should consider filling out your entire profile. Start at the top and share as much or as little information as you like.
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Tip 3: Show us where you live on the map
In the left sidebar you will see a map of the world. Click on this map and follow the simple instructions for showing us where you live. It is fun and informative to see a visual representation of how our membership is spread out across the entire globe.
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Tip 4: Share your photos
Share your personal photos by uploading them to our photo album. You'll see the link to "Album" near the top of the page.
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Tip 5: Introduce yourself!
We try to make new members as comfortable as possible, but it sure helps us welcome you to the community if we know you're here!
The very top forum is called "Introduce Yourself!" for a good reason. We're hoping you will create a new topic in that forum, using your own name in the topic title, and then make a post telling us about yourself.
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Tip 6: Create a Blog and start Blogging
A Blog is an online journal. Blog is actually short for "web log." You can create your very own Blog by clicking on the Blogs link in the top green navigation bar. Enjoy!
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Tip 7: Play some of our 170+ free games
You probably didn't expect a book discussion site to offer over 170 free games. But we do! Click on the Games link in the left sidebar and see if you can set some new high scores.
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Tip 8: Read our past author chat transcripts
Over the years we've hosted numerous live chats with some fantastic authors. Please explore the transcripts so you can know what to expect during the next live author chat.
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Tip 9: Use the "Recent Topics" box
At the top of the right sidebar is a box entitled "Recent Topics." Whenever you log into BookTalk you might want to scan that scrolling list of recent topics to see the most recent posts. Simply click any of the links in that box to travel directly to the discussion.
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Tip 10: Use the chat room
We have a wonderful chat room open 24 hours per day 7 days per week. Of course it can be pretty lonely in there if you're the only one, so use the "Chat Central" forum for setting up live chats with your fellow members.
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Tip 11: Pay attention to the BookTalk.org News box
Check out the news box in the left sidebar whenever you first log into the community. This is where you'll find brief news items that are important for all members.
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Tip 12: Explore our LINKS page
In the top green navigation bar you will see "LINKS." Our links page features some great web sites that you might want to explore. If you would like to see any additional links added just let me know. And if you see any dead links I'd like to know this too.
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Tip 13: Explore our BOOKS page
If you would like to see all of our past book selections the BOOKS page is your best bet. Click on the BOOKS link in the top green navigation bar.
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