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BOTM:Suggestions, ideas and opinions

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pontalba said:
Of course, the ground has to be fertile for anything to flourish. Plus a good selection to choose from.
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And the planets have to be in alignment and the fields have to be full of four leaf clovers... Bottom line nothing happens without participation. I've bought five books so far and personally I feel if you're advocating shutting BOTM down then you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
 
Conscious Bob said:
And the planets have to be in alignment and the fields have to be full of four leaf clovers... Bottom line nothing happens without participation. I've bought five books so far and personally I feel if you're advocating shutting BOTM down then you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
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That is, of course, your prerogative.

And you are correct in that nothing happens without participation. There does however have to be a general consensus regarding choices. Ten or twelve choices with perhaps four votes is not what I'd call a general consensus. I have seen successful book discussions here in the distant past, and elsewhere very recently.

BAR just doesn't seem to have the right stuff. For whatever reason., or more accurately, many reasons.
 
Conscious Bob said:
Why would a change of moderator equal success in your opinion?
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Evidently I was not specific enough. I meant the methods of the running of the BOTM. In general. Not any specific person. If present methods are not working, surely it is logical to change said method.

I have nothing else to add.
 
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pontalba said:
Evidently I was not specific enough. I meant the methods of the running of the BOTM. In general. Not any specific person. If present methods are not working, surely it is logical to change said method.

I have nothing else to add.
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I do.

You haven't been specific at all. All you've done is aired your general dissatisfaction which will somehow be magically cured by a change of personnel.

By all means advocate change but come up with ideas.
 
I don't see the point in putting BOTM on hiatus for the time being for lack of participation. It has been done in the past and participation hasn't gone up after BOTM restarted. I think that was a year or two ago.

As far as the selection of books goes. I honestly can't understand any criticism that consists of there not being any interesting choices up in the polls. Threads to suggest books for each month are typically up for about a week, thus giving anyone plenty of time to come up with interesting suggestions. The polls are usually limited to ten options (I've not tested whether the forum software allows for more...) but that number of suggestions is hardly ever reached. Obviously, the only way to get more books in the polls that you might be interested in is to suggest some yourself. Merely stating that there aren't any interesting ones after a suggestions thread has been over for a week isn't going to help anything.

I have deliberately kept the themes quite open in the sense that I've chosen not to limit options by themes (excepting June's crime-themed BOTM, obviously). However, I can't say of either approach that one tempts more readers to participate than the other.

Suggestions for change are always more than welcome, that's why this thread is in this section to begin with. Unfortunately, suggestions that go no further than "there aren't any interesting choices" or "there is a lack of participation" aren't really something I can work with.

Any sort of ideas as to how to change BOTM's approach are most welcome. Either post them in this here thread or, if you're shy, send me a PM.
 
Conscious Bob said:
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By all means advocate change but come up with ideas.
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Bob, Polly you asked for suggestion.

I suggest that the original question be called, and that a member of management post a straight yes-or-no poll on whether the BOTM be discontinued indefinitely, until a show of sufficient interest might arise again.

Respectfully
Peder
 
Why, though? Simply because you may not choose to participate doesn't mean that the entire thing should be called off.
 
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Polly Parrot said:
Why, though? Simply because you may not choose to participate doesn't mean that the entire thing should be called off.
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Polly, Bob,
You can't really both be serious in suggesting, that my posting or not makes a difference to the overall level of discussion in the BOTM. I, in fact, have been the solitary poster in both recent forum discussions. You assume I don't wish to participate. I am making the suggestion because of obviously low general levels of participation.

But, to answer your question: a poll would show overall level of interest in continuing the BOTM discussion, and one could proceed from there in a reasonable manner.
 
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pontalba said:
The best suggestion I could give is to investigate other forums that have successful discussions.
GoodReads comes to mind. There are others, I am sure.
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Ah, so not a suggestion for what to change then. Simply one to look at other places and compare. Gotcha.
 
Peder said:
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Polly, Bob,
You can't really both be serious in suggesting, that my posting or not makes a difference to the overall level of discussion in the BOTM. I, in fact, have been the solitary poster in both recent forum discussions. You assume I don't wish to participate. I am making the suggestion because of obviously low general levels of participation.

But, to answer your question: a poll would show overall level of interest in continuing the BOTM discussion, and one could proceed from there in a reasonable manner.
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I have always viewed BOTM as being something that is always there on the forum for people to participate in if they wish to do so.

I never suggested your participation makes (no) difference in the discussion, however, I don't see how your dissatisfaction with BOTM should be grounds to put it on hold for the time being.

I can't help but that that you are no longer interested in joining in the discussions when it is you who makes the suggestion for BOTM to be suspended for the time being. Sorry if I jumped to conclusions there.
 
Peder said:
recently
Polly, Bob,
You can't really both be serious in suggesting, that my posting or not makes a difference to the overall level of discussion in the BOTM. I, in fact, have been the solitary poster in both recent forum discussions.
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Crap.
 
Polly Parrot said:
Ah, so not a suggestion for what to change then. Simply one to look at other places and compare. Gotcha.
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Polly, if you don't want to take it seriously, that is your prerogative.

FYI, comparison can be a good thing when one's own BOTM is in the toilet.

What better place to look than at an item that is successful when your own is not?
 
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