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Archive for the ‘New Features & Improvements’ Category

Upgraded Features: Newsletter – September 2008

Saturday, September 6th, 2008

Update to the Bulk Request feature. Upgraded feature.  Now when a member adds a book to the request she or he has submitted to you, you will be told that you need to reprint the wrapper to include all of the books.  This will make everything much clearer, and make it easier to send multiple books in one shipment to save postage.  No need to read more about this feature; it makes everything simpler and you don’t have to do anything to use it–it will work automatically.

Push a Book. New last month, but hey! we don’t think members noticed this. You can now suggest a book to a Buddy that she or he might like to read. The Suggest option is available from the dropdown menu under More Options on the Book Details page.   You can see all the books that have been suggested to you in a new My Lists item in the menu under My Account; you can order from there (this will order from the suggester, if the book is on the suggester’s bookshelf when you click the Order this Book button on the suggestion), and you can also click “Not Interested” to remove any item from the list.  Check it out!  Read more about the Suggest a Book feature here.

Member Homepage. Newsletter – August 2008

Friday, August 8th, 2008

You can expect the following changes (and more!) to be implemented the week of August 11th.  To read about all of the items below, you can go to the Help Center and read the items under What’s New on the left side of the Browse Help Docs page.

Member Homepage. New feature. This is the page you will see now if you click Home when you are logged into the site.  It has all kinds of nifty stuff on it, including recently-posted AVAILABLE books in the genres you are interested in, recently-posted AVAILABLE books in all genres, Recent Book Reviews, and the New Member Spotlight.   When you first go to the Member Homepage you will need to choose your favorite genres (you can edit these at any time!) to personalize the books displayed at the top of your Member Homepage.  The most recently-written Review will also appear on the Homepage (this will change frequently), and the New Member Spotlight will showcase  recently-joined members who have posted books.  So, for all those members who never click Home because it’s always shown the same old stuff…you can go home again!  Read more about the Member Homepage here.

Book Browser. Newsletter – August 2008

Thursday, August 7th, 2008

New feature. This new page under Search at the top of the site lets you do a kind of advanced search with a more user-friendly layout.  And there are new options: one example is the sort-by-star-rating, which will display your search results with the most-highly rated books at the top of the list.  The star rating system has been an underutilized feature on the site, so this sort will become much more powerful as members “star” their books.  (So if you have a great book on your shelf but no one knows how great it is, rate it! If you rate it, they will come…. Apply star ratings to every book you have read.)   Read more about the Book Browser here.

Reach for the Stars. Newsletter – August 2008

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

Upgraded feature. The first time you go to your Books I’ve Read list after the site changes go into effect, you will see the BIR conversion page which will ask you to star-rate every book there, before you can access the list itself.  If you have been using that list a lot, you may have a lot of clicking to do!  Think of it as public service, for the good of the club.  Star ratings really help other members by giving them an at-a-glance notion of whether they will like a book.  The more people who contribute stars to a book’s rating, the more helpful/representative it is.  Star ratings also contribute to the Similarity Index (read below) and make it a lot more powerful.  So get a-clicking!  Read more about the Books I’ve Read List Conversion Page here.

Widgets, we have Widgets. Newsletter – May 2008

Sunday, May 4th, 2008

Want a snazzy way to display one of your PBS Book Lists on your blog or personal web page?  We have just the thing for you–an easy-to-use widget that you can copy-paste into your webpage code.  See the list of Widgets by clicking the Developers link at the bottom of any page on the site.  Just copy-paste the entire code in the box under the  Book List you want to display, and you’re in business.  Your list will update automatically on your webpage or blog.  You can read more about using the Widgets here.   If you are a software developer, we also have APIs for you to download and play with.

Here’s an example of a Wish List widget and how it will appear (and we do have upgrades planned to make these even niftier!):

Follow-up for Problem Swaps. Newsletter – April 2008

Sunday, April 6th, 2008

This feature allows requestors to give follow-up on any problem swaps they have had.   Providing follow-up will allow the system to screen more effectively for those accounts that are sending problem books and NOT resolving the problems, and also allow us to avoid penalizing senders who might have made a mistake, but who do resolve the problem.  For information about how to use this new feature, see the Help doc “Follow-up on Problem Swaps” in the Help Center under What’s New > New Features.

Who’s Your Buddy? Newsletter – February 2008

Friday, February 8th, 2008

Now you know! The Buddy List is now reciprocal–which means that in order to be added to someone’s Buddy List, you must accept his or her invitation to be Buddies.  If you accept, you both go onto each other’s Buddy Lists.  We made this change in order to allow the programming of various things that have been requested over and over by members: blast PMs, for one (see below), and expanded privacy options (see below), as well as other upcoming features.   There is a one-time “conversion” step for your current Buddy List, which is explained in the Help doc Buddy List Upgrade in the Help Center.  Unfortunately, there was no way to keep any tags that you had applied to individual Buddies, so anyone you invite will not be tagged when they accept and go onto your Buddy List.  (Your taglists are preserved, though, so you can reapply tags once the inviting/accepting is done.)  Click the link “Buddy List invitations” at the top of your Buddy List to see who’s invited you!  Read more about the Buddy List upgrade in the Help Doc Buddy List Upgrade under What’s New in the Help Center.

Have a blast. Blast PMs = the ability to send the same message in a PM to multiple members at once.   You can do this from the Buddy List now. Limiting it to Buddies only means we shouldn’t have people spamming other members they don’t know.  This feature was requested of us over and over again, and we are sure many of you will find it useful.  Read more about how to send Blast PMs from the Buddy List in the Help Doc Buddy List Upgrade under What’s New in the Help Center.

New Privacy Controls. Now you can decide to share more…or less…with other members, using the Privacy Controls link at the top of the Settings page in My Account.  You can choose who can see your lists, personal info, online status, and more.  Each of these can be set to Public (everyone can see), Private (no one can see), All Buddies (everyone on your Buddy List can see, but no one else) and Full Buddies (only those designated Full Buddies on your Buddy List can see).  The system defaults before you make selections are the same as the system defaults were before.   Read more about the new privacy options in the Help Doc New Privacy Controls under What’s New in the Help Center.