Fantasy and Vampire Book Club discussion
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Help and Rules
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Help around Goodreads
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Mod
(Re posted from questions and suggestions thread)
I have tried to explain things a bit better though. These are used not only in our group but also any other Goodreads group
Group home
That’s the very first page you see when you get to the group. you will find a brief descpiption of what the group is about and the group rules.
you will then see
Bookshelf
These are Favourite books of the group. You can add books on there too!
Too Add books to Group Bookshelf
Adding Books is easy. Up in the Left hand Corner of the screen you will see Add Books and then a text box. Type in the title of the book you want to add and click on the search button, find the book and click on Add to group. You don’t have to worry about the extra bits if you are just adding the book, they are really only if your adding the group read/BOM.
Discussions
Where you can find topics. I find I use this page more than looking on the home page... its more comprehensive.
New Topic
You can click on new topic, and that will create a new topic (aka thread). When you create a new topic you have to type in a name for the topic then select what folder it will be in (if you leave it blank it will go into the general area). If you post the topic in the wrong area, I will move it to the right one.
Next you add a comment, and this will be explaining what you want going on in that particular topic (it will be message 1).
Unread
This shows you all your posts that you haven’t read. Beware: if you’re new to the group this will show a LOT of unread posts. So go into the ones that interest you the most first, and then go into the rest. And remember: please don’t be afraid to join in any discussion.
Just a quick note, right at the bottom (near where you click for the next page), there should be a link to mark all as read. it will come up with a dialogue box(the generic "are you sure?") click ok and you will only see new comments made after you "Read" them all
Events
This is where you find an event that is happening in the group, we haven't got any yet. Because we are an international group, it’s a little hard to organise events. So we may not have any at all. But never say never.
Photos
Pictures related to the group, at the moment we only have a lovely pic of Nicola and the group pic. To add a picture, it’s kinda the same as when you add a file on an email. Except you are adding tags a description and a title for your photo.
Invite
My favourite!
Don’t be afraid to use it. Invite people to the group, if you enjoy this group and want others to know. Invite them. Please read Goodreads Rules on Inviting people these are found in the box on the right hand side of the screen.
to add people
You can either import your contacts from Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, or AOL. This is if they aren’t already a Goodreads Member (And really why wouldn’t they be).
You can invite Existing Goodreads Members who are also your Friends.
Or you could Add people manually, by entering them you can also choose to add them as your friend when you do that. There is also a link you can copy and paste as an invite.
**Did you know? **
That this Group has a Widget available on the Group home area. You can copy this and put it on your blog or website and it will directly link to this group. This is another great way to let people know about Goodreads (and this group).
Members
People can look at who is online, and who is in the group and how many comments have been posted. You can also search for members as well.
For the moderators this is where we can delete troublesome members and also make members co-moderators(like myself).
Polls
This is where you go to find the most recent poll. If we have an active poll going you can visit the group home pages and scroll right to the bottom, and you will also find the most recent poll here too.
**Did you know? **
That once you have voted, as long as the poll is still active you can always change your vote, there is a link, look for it next time you vote it’s usually near the bottom just before the comments
Group settings
For Moderators only. This is where we can change things.... lots of things....mwahahaha
Seriously though. This will not show if you are not a moderator of a group.
Mod
Goodreads has its very own help/turtorial section
http://www.goodreads.com/help
you can either follow the link or on any page you will find this link on the very very bottom right of any page on the goodreads site. labeled Help.
http://www.goodreads.com/about/how_it...
How it works gives you an introdustion on how to get around goodreads... but of course i'll be doing the same thing, but differently.
Mod
that you can export your books onto a spreadsheet.
first click on the my books link
after it loads, scroll downthe left hand side to where it says tools.
underneath the tools heading you will see an import/ export link.
here you can export onto a spread sheet
or import books from the following websites:
Delicious Library
LibraryThing
Shelfari
you can also import any .xls or .txt or .csv file that you may have you book listing on.
be sure to reads the import tips that are found on the right habd side of the screen. but be careful because above that, is a link that remove ALL of your books from ALL shelves.
Mod
Below I have explained some of the pop out screen a bit better (the most important ones anyway). When you first look at it it look like another language, it is in a way. but I’m here to help you learn it..
well formed web urls automatically get turned into links so if you type www.goodreads.com it will be turned into a link straight away.
link: <*a href="URL"> URL Link’s Name
Copy and paste this for a link html (but leave out the *). Here an explanation of it works:
If you don’t want to have the whole name showing the webpage (and lets face it, some of them are quite long) you can type in your link where it says URL, and then where it say’s URL links name, that is where you type in the name of the website. so if it’s goodreads, you type http://www.goodreads.com, where it says URL, and where it says URL links name you put Goodreads it will turn out like this
Goodreads
Posting Images
<*img src="URL” width="40" height="100" alt="description"/*> (Width must be 0-400, Height must be 0-1000, alt is a description of the image. All three are optional, but recommended.)
Ok this may look like a lot of Jargon, but really it makes sense. Going with the same principal as posting up a link, you add the URL link to the picture. you then adjust the height and width of the picture (I always have mine at 400x400) you don’t want it too big, but you don’t want it so small you can’t see it. And don't forget to remove the *
Now you can only post up pictures that are already online, to post up personal picture, you will have to put the online by adding them to your photos on your goodreads profile or you get an account like flickr. Even your facebook photos can be posted with a little bit of difficulty! I find photobucket doesn’t work well. And if you post up images from a random site, double check your post in a week. To either make sure its there and hasn’t been deleted on their end, or they may have changed the pic at their end (I had this happen a few times).
How to change Text
You need to Type in <* > your text here * >.
in those you will need to put different letters to make different effects, basically replace the * with a special letter and your good to go. These make your text stand out. b fpr Bold i for Italics S for Strikethrough (puts a line through) and u for Underline.
So for bold you put a b in between then you type the word you want to be Bold and then you closed off with < and / and > it should turn out like this: BOLD
You always have to use < > and always close them off by adding a / BEFORE the letter. If you add it after the letter. It won’t work. If you forget to add it, it won’t work either.and if you do it in capitals I don’t think it will work either, it has to be lowercase.
here is a list and what effect it is:
For Bold type b Sample
Italic type i Sample
strikethrough type s
underline type u Sample
you can also mash them together. example:
Sample to get that effect you do i first then b second. thendont forget to close off so this time you do /b then /i.
But if you did i b then i/ b/ it wouldn't work.
Remember, No Capitals and also i have had troubles with spaceing in the brackets too so avoid if you can.
Mod
1st week
The Group Starts Reading and discussing the BOM.
2nd week
This is where I put up a nomination Topic up.
In this topic you nominate/make a suggestion, which book you would most like the group to read; these books I put into the poll.
To nominate a book, I need the name and author or the book (there are some books with the same names out there).
I will also send out an email to everyone to announce that the nomination Topic is ready to go; in this email I’ll include a link to the topic.
Please nominate one book. As in the past the poll has had 20 or so books to choose from.
And the poll hasn't really shown a clear answer. So we avoid going "back to the polls" if you just nominate one book.
3rd week
in this week I put the poll up (and send and email with a link for the poll).
The poll is made up of all the books that people have nominated.
You can always change your vote. But people usually don't. But to do this you scroll right down to the bottom of the poll,
and there is a little link for changing your vote. There is also the information on who created the poll. When it started and when it finishes.
Please be aware when creating polls for our BOM, I will take out the books that have already been read as a group. But thankfully I haven't had to do that....yet!
4th week
this is the week where I announce the winner of the poll (via email), and you get to go shopping or borrowing from the library (or a friend/relative) or Getting the book off your Bookshelf (and hopefully reducing your TBR shelf!).
I also set up discussion topic in this time so people can stop by and discuss the book, what they thought of it (if they loved or hated it), and which character was the best/ worst.
I will only put up a one topic for the BOM; as I have put up non spoiler topics in the past. And... Well...nobody really commented in them. Maybe one or two people other than myself would comment. So unless I get heaps of people saying they want one. I’m not going to set one up. So if you have a comment that may bee a bit spoilersish please use the spoiler HTML tag
Mod
To get there you click on explore on the top of the page (on the Goodreads banner). Then you click the second tab which will take you to giveaways.
Or you could just follow this link:
http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway
there are hundreds of books available. The ones that show up first are the ones available to your country.
Pretty simple to enter, you just press the enter to win button and follow the prompts. Make sure you read the info box on the side. (I love the bit about how they are chosen...phase of the moon...lol )
Oh and don't forget to put it on you TBR shelf... i have created a free reads shelf for books i have entered, so i can keep track. But there is a link near the top of the page in green its list giveaways you've entered.
Now it's not a requirement to do a long in depth review of the book, and I’m sure the author will appreciate your honest opinion, as that is why they have sent it to you in the first place. But it's always nice to write something about the book.
Sometimes you will end up with a signed copy of the book.
And they always post it to your mailing address (which you choose during sign up)
I have a discussion going in the competitions area of the group, so if you have won (and want to brag about it) or if you just want to talk about the giveaways. Head on over there now.
Mod
This is my most exciting "did you know" yet...
http://www.goodreads.com/about/press
This is all the media coverage that Goodreads has had. But not only that!
If you scroll down to the very bottom of the page you will find heaps of downloadable content, just for you to use on your Blog, Website etc.
there is even a colour bookmark that you can print off and use.
Now that's exciting! (I just love free stuff...don't you?)
Mod
Goodreads has an app availible in your App store.
It has limited usability in groups. But for everything else it is really awesome.
So head over to your app store!
Mod
as you can see Goodreads has a new Header. I love it. So easy to navigate. Everything has a drop down arrow (but you can still click on them like usual) so here is a brief explanation of the drop down arrows for you.
My Books
you get to choose which main shelve you would like to navigate to. Or go to the book stats page.
Friends
you can either click on the link or click on the dropdown box and get the followingoptions
Popular Books
takes you to popular books among my friends tab
Book swap books
only available in the US. (So I can't access it) but I’m assuming it's for the book swap program Goodreads has going.
Add Friends
exactly that...to add more friends.
Groups
Recently Active
recently active groups on Goodreads
My groups
listing of the groups you are in(and shortcuts to them)
*Now for the fun bit....i've always loved this one*
Explore
Creative Writing
Story and writing area. So you can read what people have written (some of it is really really good). This is also a good place if you have doe an entry for the writing competition and you want to continue the story, you can put it here.
Authors
Goodreads recently active Author. but if you are a fan of a particular author it will show up in a my author tab
Events
Upcoming events of groups and friends
People
People who are online now, around your area
Fun
Trivia
The never ending book quiz. Gotta love it. It is fun and really tests your memory on books you have read.
Quizzes
Featured quizzes. A relatively new thing with Goodreads. Lots of fun though.
Quotes
I love a good quote. Here you can add them to your profile. And there is also a function where you can export (download) your quotes onto an excel file just head to my quotes and an excel file will open tin the same window. Then all you have to do is save as... and there you have it! you can also play 'guess the quote' game, if you look at the states when your done playing it's quite shocking(one person played it for 4 hours when I played last)
Find books
Find books by title, author or ISBN.
Listopia
Vote on a list of your favourite books. Or create one of your own. I personally look at the lists to see what I could read next
Popular
popular books at the moment. New releases this month.
Goodreads voice
New books, interviews, videos, blog posts, and other tidbits (beta version, which means it might not be a permanent thing.... so go and support it)
Giveaways
see my section in the competitions area on the in's and out's of Goodreads giveaways. And further discussion.
eBooks
find books with e books available.
Books swap
Available in the US only. But this feature is the Goodreads swap. Have a book that you no longer read. Why don't you list it on the swap? And swap it for another book.
Random
I FREAKING LOVE THIS!!!!!!
Random books!!!! Once you start you will find it hard to stop. The idea is you browse books at random. And you click on view another book and it takes you to (yep you guessed it... another random book!) you can always stop by clicking on stop the madness!
Genres
Browse top shelves via genre.
Very good if you have been asked to do a challenge for a particular genre of book only.
Mod
I've been reading the Goodreads blog and there seems to be a new html format to use. It’s the spoiler "tag"
so when you speak about your review or even chat about books. Instead of putting ***Spoiler alert***
you just simply type spoiler in between the <> and >
(see message 5 on html formatting)
so if you wrote a spoiler I would look something like this...(view spoiler)
Mod
I know I spend a lot of time with my wording of the message. But not everyone wants to receive weekly (or so) messages and emails. I mean lets face it you probably get heaps from all the groups you are a member of. And it could be pretty daunting... I know I received 6 in one day (including my own lol).
So here is how I think you can stop/limit them, (only if you want them to be stopped).
Go to My Account which is found in the drop box on the upper right corner (top of your page on the Goodreads banner) where it says "Hi (your name)" and click on the Notifications tab. Then you can check/un-check what types of emails you wish to receive. Then, scroll down to set each group you belong to as you want it. For each individual group, you can choose daily digest, individual emails, notifications only, or none.
This is for all topics in the group. If you want to have specific notifications. Go to the group home page. And just under the picture for the group. There should be a link for edit settings.
This page is a marvel. You can get a widget for the group. You can see exactly how many comments you have made. And this is also where you leave the group (we don't want that!).
Right down the bottom of the page it has reminder emails; these are the emails that are sent to your email account in regards to the next book we are reading. You can edit how many days you need a reminder email sent or you can set this to never.
I’m pretty sure that is how it is done. Unless someone else tells me different (make your suggestion in the questions and suggestions topic)
Mod
To get to the newest comment in a topic you look at the very top (just above message 1) (see below for what it looks like)
Comments (showing 1-12 of 12) post a comment » date newest »
click on newest and it will take you to the very last page in th topic, and all you have to do is scroll down to get to the bottom.
this is really helpful for the topics that have pages and pages. so if you don't want to sit through them all, one click and you're right to the end.
Mod
Polls are awesome but tricky little things. I’m here to help you navigate around them
Now we have it set that you cannot add polls to the group. But personally you can add one for fun to your profile. First head on over to the polls area of Goodreads (click the link)
http://www.goodreads.com/poll
This is where you go to find the most recent poll. If we have an active poll going you can visit the group home pages and scroll right to the bottom, and you will also find the most recent poll here too.
Creating Polls is easier than it looks. You write your “question”, provide “answers” and then the highest “answer” wins! So in the case of Voting for a book I’ll let you know a bit about why you’re voting and when voting finishes (that’s what I put in the “question” box). The “answers” are books that people have nominated. you can do two types of polls, a specific Book poll(that's what i do for the BOM), or a Survey Poll.
For the Book of the Month, I have specific Rules, such as only vote for something you would like to read and discuss. No Point in just voting when you don’t intend to participate, it’s like buying an ice cream because it looks pretty!
Now that's really all there is to it.
What does it mean that a poll is closed?
When a Poll a poll is created the creator has the option to have the poll open for a certain amount of time. once this time period has finished the poll becomes "closed" and you can no longer vote on that poll
Help! I can't choose... can i pick two instead?
No, you can only Vote for one thing so choose wisely.But you may change your vote, if you change your mind.
**Did you know? **
That once you have voted, as long as the polls that you have answered or created are still open, you can change your Vote.
To change your vote, there is a link, look for it (scroll right down to the bottom of the poll); there you will see a little link for changing your vote
(There is also the information on who created the poll. When it started and when it finishes. In that area too).Once you click on the change your vote link, the screen should refresh and what should happen is the buttons to vote will appear again, and you can then change your vote.
Mod
That you can put little heart Icons in your Comments ♥
to make it appear type this without both the asterix: &*hearts*;
Mod
I Have Created a Folder Map of this Group. I’m constantly updating it but it shows you all the folders that have been created in the group.
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5...
Alternatively you could look at the group’s homepage and along the right hand side just above where it tells you who the moderators are. Is what I’m calling a side-bar. This side bar is always visible no matter what topic or what section of the group you are in it should always be there.
Now I think I have explained about the side-bar before. There you will find a link called Discussions. This is a much more comprehensive list, as it shows you the topics within the folders. To see a folder individually, you just click on the folder’s title and it will show all the topics within that folder.
Mod
The Group has Rules Regarding Promotion or books and Blog/websites.
to see these rules (and others),
Please visit the following link:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5...
Mod
click on the link named add book/author. located above the comment box..that will bring up a box...so you might want to be careful of your pop up stopper. if it is very sensitive it won't come up.
when you get the box up it will have two tabs, one to search for the book, and one to search for the author.
so let's just say you want to add a book. by default the tab would best automatically set on books, however if you have used it previously It would be set on what it was last.
so back to what I was saying, to add a book simply do a search. so if you were after the iron king by Julie kagawa. you search the iron king. and when the list comes up you can click on add. and it will automatically put a link in for the book. if you were after the cover, you may notice at the bottom of the box there is a place where you can select link or cover. to place an author in all you have to do is click the author tab and do the same as what you would do for finding a book. except you can link their name or photo.
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
If you would like something specific please post in our questions and suggestions Thread.
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/4...