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New BAR Admins - SuperReaderGirl & Nifty - Saying Hello

Perhaps one could run a poll to find out what kinds of books people here actually like to read, since so few books actually get any sort of discussion at all down in BOTM anymore. In addition, one might just also find out whether people here respond to polls any more, or not. Reading and discussing seem to be passé on this forum. And one might also look at the stats to see how many read, as compared to how many come here for homework, or to play games, or talk music, or photography, or whatever else just once, other than read. OH suggests it might be an entry poll when a person first signs in. Optional of course; we don't want to scare them away by mentioning books.

Where have all the readers gone,
Long time wondering
Peder/Beatles

Where have all the discussions gone
Long time missing ....
 
I may not have much to add as I have been absent from the forum for quite awhile, but I can add some feedback for why I left and what brings me back to check in :)

I have been a member here off and on for a long time, I joined because like most everyone here I love books, when I joined there were a few book forums to choose from and I was a member of many. This became my primary forum because I liked the atmosphere, the members, the variety of view points. I am an eclectic reader so love to hear about things I would not normally pick up. Once this was a very active forum, with readers all over the world, from all walks of life, from multiple age groups and it was fantastic, my TBR pile grew and grew!

The forum had it's ups and downs, members trickled away. There seems to be a core group that have stayed and weathered all the changes, they bring me back. I come every few months to see if they are still posting :) For a few years I would have sprinklings of posts when I could, when a conversation interests me or a book I felt strongly about was being discussed. I decided to leave for good when basically any book discussions were essentially shut down by a certain moderator because they didn't like the book's message/theme/character. I thought what good is a book forum where you aren't allowed to discuss books. I probably would of stayed gone but I am moving overseas again now and needed to stock up on books, I came by to see if anything was posted that may need to go in my stash and saw that things were changing a bit here. I would love to be back and have it be a place to learn about and/or discuss books again, specially as often when I am overseas it's harder to find books I want.

I will try to pop in more and add to the forum if I can. I should be settled in Germany by mid August.
 
Don't know if we should be talking about chickens. Doing so makes me sad and it's kind of depressing. I only talk about good things, this is just fowl.
 
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I keep getting the message every time I come on this site, can the administration team help?
Also can we know when all the exciting changes and newletters will be coming our way please?
 
Also can we know when all the exciting changes and newletters will be coming our way please?

SuperReaderGirl has posted a thread asking the collective what they would like to read in a newsletter, no replies so far...

If you want a newsletter but you don't give her any pointers you can hardly expect her to prioritise it.
 
I've been around for a while too (five years +). I come and go and try to participate as life allows. I have also noticed the slow death of this forum. I think the biggest problem might be.... the members don't read too much? Or maybe they just don't like to discuss what they read?
My normal BAR routine is to go to the site and check out recent posts. Typically, and especially lately, there are very few books being discussed. I try to throw in a review here and there, but I don't think anyone active on the forum is really into the stuff I like to read LOL.
So I guess what I'm saying is that there just aren't enough really active posters. I don't know how you fix that, but I don't think a newsletter is going to do it. I mean, if you can't get enough people to have a BOTM discussion (I'm guilty too, I know!) I think upping the membership is the crucial component.
When I first started visiting this site there was a lot going on. There were a lot of fun people. Only one or two are left. There were a lot of people reading and posting in a lot of different genre forums. Not so anymore. There were people intelligently reviewing books. It was helpful. Now the main people reviewing books... i don't even know if they are human. I noticed one prolific reviewer and got excited but then noticed they responded to other members comments by posting a completely new review of a different book. (???).
Non-book discussions were lively, sometimes they got out of hand a little bit... but people were generally respectful. Sometimes.
Also, there were crazy people. Anyone who has been here for a while can recall at least a couple of them. Crazy people are interesting. Crazy people keep other members tuning in to see what those crazy so-and-so's said today.

So to summarize : Need more people. Need a few of them to be challenged.
 
Now the main people reviewing books... i don't even know if they are human. I noticed one prolific reviewer and got excited but then noticed they responded to other members comments by posting a completely new review of a different book. (???).

You get 'likes' it's the in thing you know...
 
Thank you for the feedback! We agree that we need more active members. One thought with the newsletters was that it may bring back members who have registered on the site but forgotten about it. We hoped to find some engaging threads we could bring more attention to in highlighting them. We could also bring more attention to the Book of the Month selection (though it is currently on hiatus for Summer).
 
We could also bring more attention to the Book of the Month selection (though it is currently on hiatus for Summer).

It is? I've got Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis for this months BOTM, fair enough I'm the only one in it but given we're through the best part of July you might want to better time your official announcements...
 
It is? I've got Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis for this months BOTM, fair enough I'm the only one in it but given we're through the best part of July you might want to better time your official announcements...
I may have mispoke. I just know that Polly opted to not choose a new book for the upcoming month due to lack of participation and is planning to pick things back up in the Fall. Please feel free to read/discuss the current month's selection!
 
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