Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

I see a lot of potential in the site-wide polls ()that is currently being hindered by an abundance of polls about politics, sports, tv, and other non-book matters. This has bugged me for a few days, but I just realized there is an option to delete a poll. Before I go wild, is there any reason I should not delete polls that have absolutely nothing to do with books?

Some examples of the polls I would love to delete are "Which CSI is the best?" "Who is the best actress?" "Who do you want to win the election?" and "What is your favorite sport to play?"

http://www.goodreads.com/poll

*currently on a vigilante poll-cleaning spree, will comment later*

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Thank you Rivka!!!

Yay!

I left anything that was REMOTELY book-connected. But the rest of the cruft is gone. Which was a good way to work off some frustration at 2 am. ;D

I did notice that I cannot edit/delete posts in a group, except this one. Whether that was because I created the (test) poll or because I'm a mod (or both), that seems just as it should be (although I was hoping to be able to fix a grammatical mistake in another group's poll).

I applaud your desire to clean up polls, but I looked at the poll page just before reading this thread. Looks like they're being re-created just as fast.

What was the consensus? Just book related, or can general interest questions stay? And, if so, what constitutes whether a question is general interest?

*wants to help, but wants to be clear first*

I think the basic idea is site-wide polls should be about books or GoodReads in some way. Give as much leeway as possible, but if it isn't connected at all, it should go. I'm deleting some of them. The big offenders seem to be a group of middle schoolers.

Give as much leeway as possible, but if it isn't connected at all, it should go.

Exactly.

With the obvious exception of the Otis/Michael poll, of course. ;)

(And no one seems to have noticed me messing with it . . . )

Hmm...I don't see any changes to the Otis vs. MICHAEL poll???

Now. *twinkle*

Rivka, I must be blind. It looks the same to me. I've been known to be unobservant before but???

It looks the same to me:

http://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1....

As I said, it looks the same NOW.

Yesterday I switched the names. Today I switched 'em back. I wonder what I should do tomorrow . . . ?

Oh! That's too subtle for me. :-)

Have fun playing. Now I'll notice. Funny.

:D

I wouldn't mess with a real poll, of course. But that one was too tempting to leave alone. >:D

Petra, I don't like that Civil War poll either.

I was very conflicted on the Civil War poll.

It's probably that I've read so many Civil War books. ;)

But it's gone now, along with its friend.

Thanks Rivka. It was bothering me as it wasn't really book related. There are civil war books of course but those were not the subject of that poll.

Librarians, I've created this poll for purposes related to our October newsletter. Please do not delete!
http://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/22...

We understand the librarian preference of having only literary site-wide polls; however, sometimes it is interesting to pose non-literary questions to a unique literary community. We're debating how to use the site-wide polls section of the site. So please stay tuned. Thanks!

While of course I will respect GR's official wishes, I really hate that this is no longer one of the only places I can go online that is apolitical. :(

Rivka, I agree :( Especially as there are so many people on GR who aren't from the US (myself included), and it just sets a bad precedence. If US political polls are allowed, then what about non-US political polls? I loved that this site wasn't (too) Americanized.

Kiwiria and All,

Yes, I definitely wouldn't want any members to feel left out.

My friends from out of the U.S. do have opinions about this Presidential election so it's not of interest only to Amercians, and any Goodreads member can vote on any site wide poll.

I do hope this is the only non-literary (books, reading, related) site wide poll that gets put up though.

Does this mean that all polls that aren't related to literature (books and reading habits and etc) should be deleted? Because there are plenty of those, especially within groups.

How do you delete a poll btw? :|

Leila, The polls within groups can be about whatever group members want.

Up until now the site wide polls were supposed to be about books, reading, and related topics. Librarians, at their discretion, have deleted site wide polls that are about other matters, when they find them.

Oh okay . Well, that explains it and that's actually good. It would be otherwise a bit sad for the groups that weren't book-related, after all ;)

Thank you :)

Lisa: Yes, people from outside the US do have opinions about the Presidential election - I do too, so it's not that *this specific* poll is of interest only to Americans. I just think it's a very unfortunate precedence to make - allowing a national political site-wide non-literary poll.

If this poll is allowed, then so should other political polls - regardless of nationality. And I'd really hate that. I loved that this place used to be apolitical and (mostly) un-Americanized.

Kiwiria, Yes, I understand and I basically agree with you. I hadn't voted in the other similar non-official poll that was up for a while partly for this reason and partly because it wasn't book/reading related.

I actually did vote in this one because I've voted in all the official Goodreads polls, but I do hope that there are no more like this.

The other option would be for all/international polls allowed. I would rather this stay a neutral books/reading only site that welcomes everyone equally; I do love "meeting" people from places I have no chance to visit. I do like that this has been somewhat of an international site and I've been hoping more & more non-U.S. members will continue to join.

Sherri, I couldn't agree more: "to expand on things that unite rather than divide us." Beautifully said.

This is one of the polls that I refuse to answer from principle - it has no place as an 'official' poll on a literary forum. I'm glad to hear I'm not alone in thinking so.

Kiwiria, Sherry, All,

I think it would be most useful to express your displeasure in the Goodreads Feedback group because that way Otis & Goodreads staffers are sure to see your messages. I'd start a new thread in the suggestions & questions folder. I'm sure many members would add messages to the thread because many members want this site to be limited to books/reading, at least in the site wide areas.

Edit: I've expressed the wish for the books/reading only content and would be eager to add a message to any thread that's started.

Goodreads Feedback group:

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1...

Or on the blog post's comments (link on the home page).

Should we remove polls that have no context associated with them? I have no idea if this is a book related poll or not.

http://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/99...

Rebecca, This is a book poll: they're all kids books by Lois Lowry. I'd leave it.

Edit: I'm trying to decide if it would be a good idea to edit the poll to say Which of these three Lois Lowry books do you prefer, but I'm going to let it stand as is. If another librarian believes it needs editing, they can do so.

Thanks, Lisa. I've been skimming through polls and some of the initial questions are extremely vague. I've edited at least one poll to add an author reference.

I'm sort of curious as to why it's a-ok to go and "cleaning up" the polls by deleting anything one particular librarian deems "not book related." As we've seen in the quiz there's a pretty varied view about what is and is not "book related." Why is that a legitimate action to take without the approval of the site owners or community consensus, or both? I had understood that librarians' mandate was to correct mistakes in authors' names, book titles, publishing information, and so forth, so as to keep the book information accurate. I didn't understand that librarians were given a mandate to enforce their own view of what sorts of material is or is not appropriate for the site.

If you don't care for political (or other non-book) polls, well, no one is forcing you to read them. In fact, they're extremely easy to avoid by simply not going to the page. Seems pretty simple to me. Why is it necessary to delete them entirely?

Laura, Librarians are authorized to delete polls because in general it's been determined that site wide polls created by members should be book/author related. There are many groups on goodreads and polls of all types can be created for these groups. Also, frankly, some of the polls have been gibberish. They're not about politics or any other subject of interest to Goodreads membership, but only possibly to a few friends of the poll creator who wants to know whose sneakers are the prettiest or ones that make even less sense.

Lisa, a thread has been started here http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/6...

Kiwiria, Yes, I saw it. I just posted.

Since GoodReads is now not only allowing but officially sponsoring political polls, do these have to stay as well?

http://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/25...
http://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/25...

The can of worms has been opened.

Rachael, See Jessica's message 21 in this thread. Maybe you should post your question in message 41 in the Goodreads Feedback group in the questions folder. I'd have said they could go (although I doubt I'd have deleted, or even seen them) but I am not sure. But the can of worms was opened from the beginning actually.

If you go to http://www.goodreads.com/poll there's a section for books and a section for authors but some polls do not fit into either category.

>>>in general it's been determined that site wide polls created by members should be book/author related

In general? Determined by whom? This seems like a pretty thin, unspecific reed to hang this kind of irrevocable action on.

Jessica,

I rarely see the site wide polls to even think of deleting any. I just figured out the direct link.

See Otis's message 21:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5...

Otis & Jessica have posted other such messages although Otis does seem conflicted and Goodreads did add the political poll although Jessica posted about that one instance in both the librarians and feedback groups about this exception.

Obviously, the guidelines are not yet clear.

But if gibberish polls are allowed to stay in the site wide area, they could really take over so that books/reading polls could get lost.

At this point I'm waiting to hear more from Otis & Co. But this discussion would be better in the Feedback group because that's the group Goodreads staff follows.

Hi librarians,

Sorry for all the poll confusion. We had not formulated a firm policy on polls (what's appropriate for site-wide polls, what should be deleted, etc.), mostly because we weren't sure how polls would be received and used on the site. We've just added some new guidelines on the create a site-wide poll page:
http://www.goodreads.com/poll/new

Most pertinent to this thread is:
"If your poll does not reference a specific book or author, it must have universal appeal to members of a literary community."

We know this is still a little vague, but it is designed to help eliminate some of the clutter. The long-term vision is to add some more browsing options for site-wide polls, so that individual users can focus more easily on the polls that interest them and ignore more easily what does not (for example, if you are opposed to political polls). Thanks for helping us figure out the nuances of this new feature!

Thanks Jessica. The instructions are much clearer.

Thank you for clarifying that Jessica. I'm sure the librarians who have been diligently working to get rid of nonsense polls like "which of my new shoes are the coolest" appreciate the information.

Yes, thank you! I especially like the fact that it helps someone who really is trying to post a poll just for their friends or for a group do so, instead of making it sitewide.

Thanks for the clarification, Jessica.

The long-term vision is to add some more browsing options for site-wide polls, so that individual users can focus more easily on the polls that interest them and ignore more easily what does not

That sounds like a great feature.

"If your poll does not reference a specific book or author, it must have universal appeal to members of a literary community."
Great rule. I hope this means the political poll will be the last of its kind :-)

The current presidential poll is political and has great appeal here, being the most voted on and most remarked upon poll on the entire site. It is popular.

If you don't want to participate in political polls, there is an excellent and beyond-easy solution: don't participate in them. Obviously, there are many people here who do enjoy the political polls.

Gary, it's worth discussing how people feel about non-book polls. Librarians have discussed the merits of including other non-book things before, and usually came to the agreement that GR is not the place to catalogue, for example, single issue comics or non-book items that Amazon puts in the database. Rather than just avoiding things people don't want on GR, it makes sense to talk about them.