Interfaith Book Group discussion

Any issues, concerns, problems you want/need to address? Here we can post too some hints for using this site. Also if you're new to our group, please read the posts below about posting on our site. We want to make the site easy to use and easy for finding particular posts and topics, so we have different forums and discussion topics for different purposes.

If you want to use italic or bold in your typing, you can use basic html codes. The codes used rely on the chevron keys (angle brackets) < and >, above the comma and period on your keyboard. If I use the code here, it will be translated into html and disappear so I'm going to use the parentheses instead to demonstrate:

If you want to put a word in italic, you would type (i) words here (/i). The codes mean "begin italics" and "end italics". If you don't use the ending code that has the slash, everything you type afterwards will be italicized.

I'm typing in the codes here words here but you won't see the correct brackets - you'll just see the words in italic.

Bold works in a similar way, (b)words here(/b). But again, you use the < and > instead of parentheses. So I'm using the correct codes here words here and you should see the words in bold.

In regard to links, you don't have to code the link; just copy and paste it. Goodreads will make it an active link.

Just so you all know, there are two primary ways to add photos here:

a) If the photo is on the Internet, you can link directly to it. Sometimes, it's a matter of right clicking on it and choosing to open it in its on windows. Then you have the direct link at the top of your browser.

b) On the top right of our Goodreads site here, there's a link to PHOTOS. Click on it and you can choose to add a photo from your computer - the same way as you add an attachment in an email. In your post (as Nina just did), you can indicate that you've added a photo to our photos area.

In case it isn't clear (I realize now that it may not be)

We have three major forums: Welcome, Book Discussions, and Starlight Cafe. Within each forum, there are discussion topics or threads.

If you are going to write a message that's not a reply to another message (clicking on reply), try to determine the discussion topic where you most think your post most belongs. If it doesn't seem to fit anywhere, consider putting it in open chat.

When you want to post within a discussion topic, click on the discussion topic name so you can see the messages within it.
At the top of each discussion topic, you can click on NEWEST in order to see the newest posts first. Scroll down to the open box for writing and type your comment.

The discussion topics in the Book Discussion forum are only for the books we are reading each month (not for anything else). We only can see eight topics - eight months - on our front page , so if you start a discussion topic there about something else, you'll knock an entire month's book topic off the screen. We have separate discussion areas for recommendations, open chat etc.

I probably should have explained this earlier, but hopefully it's clear now. Maintaining rudimentary order will make it easier to find posts (though we do have a search link at right) and will keep the main discussion topics visible.

Thank you Tracy for clarifying topics versus forums and about not creating any new topics in the books forum and being careful about creating new topics overall.

I had gotten it backwards before months ago when I had posted too many comments in something and I thought you had said to add a new topic than posting too many comments. but I see I had gotten it exactly reversed. also the excessive comments were not in the book topic.

I deleted both of my topics. and re-added a comment NOT a new topic only a comment. in Open Chat. about meditation.
I hope I got it right this time.

I am not seeing that my topics were deleted on the app or my browser on my phone but I DID see were no longer there on my laptop after I deleted them there. I think I just need to update my data in the app. Hopefully they went through. I did not want you to think forgot or just ignored you. fortunately I have a fast laptop so doing this did not take a lot of time.

I still see "closing the session" as a topic although I logged out and logged in again.
will open up laptop and try deleting again.
I do see "Meditation" is gone.

nope. it will not delete. although it stated it had. I think because I am not admin and there were 11 comments other than my own initial once (which i WAS able to delete) and it correctly does not like to let one non admin member to delete the comments of others.

I prefer that no one delete a comment if there are replies to it - because that means deleting other people's posts. So let it be. I should have written some rules and preferences for posting here earlier, and explained the limits regarding discussion topics on our front page. We do and will have more pages but this is what is visible. So it's best if I create or rename etc. the discussion topics and anyone who wants to suggest a new one can ask here.

For some reason, the link to NEWEST (first) at the top of each discussion topics isn't always available. Normally, you can click on it to see the most recent posts at the top. I will try to figure out what the problem is (there is a moderator's forum) and fix it if I can. Otherwise, the posts you haven't read are likely to be highlighted anyway.

I posted a version of this in out Starlight Cafe but am posting most of it here so members will be sure to see it. I hope that I don't come across as a dictator; I've been the moderator for several groups on Goodreads for over a decade and know what works and what doesn't here, so I'm trying to make the site work and be easy to use for the longterm.

I'm not targetting anyone here; I was at fault for not creating a PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE POSTING topic in our welcome area!
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REPOSTING WITH A FEW CHANGES
Please do NOT add new discussion topics unless there are none at all related to your topic (we already have a recommendations topic and even an open chat/other topic).

We can only have ten (increased from eight) per forum and if people start adding them on a narrow (though perhaps meaningful) topic, we'll soon lose our major discussion areas on our home page.

I may just change the settings to prevent members from being able to add new discussion topics without asking me because it could become problematic and I've already raised the discussion in our help discussion topic. I did just change the name of this discussion thread about using this site so that members will make sure to read our somewhat (but not entirely) rules about posting.

It's totally understandable that people might not have bothered to read it because the title wasn't clear and because they might want their post to stand out and get attention.

This topic now titled USING THIS SITE is also where you can ask me if I would create a discussion thread on a topic that doesn't fit into any of our categories- the RECOMMENDATIONS and EVENTS category or even in the OPEN CHAT/OTHER category. Or ask any other questions you have about using this site.

You may not even be aware that on the far right there are links to areas where you can post relevant photos and book listings and even SEARCH our site using keywords related to posts!