Bookcrossers discussion

I love the concept of tracking books like wild animals, though in practice it rarely yields any interesting results. So I haven't done much bookcrossing in well over a year. I just logged on for my semi-annual check and discovered that the whole user interface had changed. So my question is this:

One of my books was picked up (yay!) and it has a new journal entry, but I can't figure out how to view it. I thought maybe the person didn't write anything, but I couldn't view my own entry either. Am I missing something?

Jamie wrote: "...So I haven't done much bookcrossing in well over a year. I just logged on for ..."

Hi Jamie -- I went to my own account to try to figure out what steps you should take. Lots of folks griped about the new look and feel of the BC site when it was first launched, but after a few weeks and some fixing of glitches, I have to say it's perfectly fine and in many ways better, quicker.

So, after you log in, you should be at your home page, let's call it "jamies bookshelf".

You used to automatically see everything you've put in to customize your home page, but now you see a shortened version with some of the books you've recently logged and some stats (# of books registered, etc.) In order to see your entire profile you have to go to the left side and click: Extended Profile.

But anyway, to see your actual bookshelf, go to the links over to the right. Click on whichever link seems best. "Caught" will give you, I believe, books that you have released and someone else caught, so maybe a good place to start. When you get to that list, you can select some sort options, like "release date". I tend to just use the listing of "All Books" because having wings allows you to sort by "recently journaled", which I find really useful. Once you get any one of those listings, if you click on the title of the book, it should show you every journal entry for that book.

So the question at this point is, if you do these things, what do you see?

Judy

Interesting Judy,
I thought I'd give your directions a go.
But it may be that you get a different screen if you have Wings?
I don't, and maybe Jamie doesn't either??

My Home Page gives Dubaireader's bookshelf.
There is a small tag on the left that says 'extended profile' and that has a little personal info.
I don't have a 'caught' option.
If I hover over the Home button in the green band above I get a number of options.
I would then click on Bookshelf and when that comes up all my registered books appear. They are in date order from the first person to list them.
There are some pull down sort options that might be useful if I had a huge list but I'm currently at 4 pages, which is managable.

Does that help?
And what would I see if I had Wings?
What are Wings anyway ??

Wings are the little decorations by your username. I (cherylllr) have rainbows on my name.

They symbolize the fact that you have paid bookcrossing for a premium membership.

A premium membership means you don't have to see ads and you get extra features, for example more sort options.

Wings should not be necessary to see journal entries for books.

If you know the BCID for a book that you believe has been caught, you can search directly for that book and see it's journal entries very quickly.

Otherwise you might have to search your books.

If you find your book, and you know it's the same copy that you had in hand at one time (not somebody else's copy of the same book), and you still don't see any journal entries, you probably should contact bookcrossing customer service.

Another option for future books is to edit your notifications setting. You could receive an email each time one of your books is caught or if someone writes a journal entry. You could then click on the link directly without spending time looking through your bookshelf...
From an Abu Dhabi reader :)

I do find that there are a few really good features that are not available without wings. I see the wings program as a way to support BC since it is free, but there are some perks. One that I like is that I can sort my bookshelf by "recently journaled". I find that the most useful tool to see which of my books have been caught.

I just found out about Bookcrossing.com and I am still figuring out how the whole thing works.

I like the overall concept of Read and Release, but the details of how it is done seem pretty complicated. I'm not sure if it will seem easier over time, but right now I am struggling....

Shelley, I'll be glad to answer any questions. The basics are fairly straightforward, but there are so many different ways one can participate in Bookcrossing that it's sometimes hard to see the tree for the forest, so to speak.

Thanks for your offer of help, Cheryl. I will put together some questions and get back to you asap....

I'd also be glad to answer questions.