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How to Make a Cookbook: a PBS recipe. Newsletter – February 2008

Saturday, February 2nd, 2008

Ingredients:

One extremely dedicated, energetic, organized PBS member, Sherry N. (royaltech)
Several assistant editors, also extremely energetic and organized
Tons of enthusiastic PBS cooks with great recipes and images for the book
Many, many hours of work

Instructions:

1. Agree with Sherry that this would be a great idea. Work up a cost estimate and all that number-y stuff.
2. Agree to fund the printing.  Give Sherry the go-ahead.
3. Ask for pre-orders in the Kiosk.
4. Mix Sherry with assistants and enthusiastic PBS members until well blended.
5. Work with Sherry to complete the final draft–choose images and options
6. Submit the final draft of the cookbook and $$ to the printers.
7. Wait 6-8 weeks.  When cookbooks arrive, ship them out!

Serves approximately 250.

Sherry is busy as a bee, doing the final draft of the Cookbook. When the draft is complete, we will submit it to the printers.    We currently have a little over 200 pre-orders!   So we are up to step 5.  Gee, cooking is easy when someone else does all the work.  🙂

You can pre-order the Cookbook in the Kiosk.

DEAR R&R: Newsletter – February 2008

Friday, February 1st, 2008

Dear R&R–Why do you keep making changes that no one asked for?  It’s just rude not to let us know in advance when you change something!  Don’t you care at all about what WE want? –Irate in Indiana

Dear Ira,

Yes, we absolutely care about what our members want.  That’s why a lot of the changes get made–they are in direct response to member feedback asking us for improvements to existing features.  Sometimes it may not be obvious how much would need to be changed, programming-wise, to incorporate what may seem to be a simple tweak to the site.  Pretty much everything on the site is interconnected, and often one change over here means a lot of changes over there, and over there, and over there.  We are grateful to our members who write in with suggestions: you all have really helped to improve the site!  We consider every suggestion, and those that we agree would be beneficial to the club we put on our To Do list, which is ranked in order of urgency.  Some items need to be done before others can be started on.  For each project, we hash out all the design features first, then work out the programming, and test it before we release it.  Right after a change “goes live” is the best time to tweak it–and we do, based on member comments in forums and in feedback.  We make a lot of little changes based on member comments in the first day or so after new programming is released.  So many times our members think of things we didn’t; constructive commentary about a new feature, especially if it seems to represent a consensus, often will result in a change.  Just saying “I hate it” won’t make the change go away, though.

We actually do try to make members aware of significant changes to the site.  We don’t send out an email for every single change: we are determined not to clutter up our members’ inboxes with emails.  For very major changes (like the change in Postal Rates by USPS in May 2007, and the site upgrade in the same month) we send out a club-wide email in advance to every single member; we also announce the change in the Newsletter, and update the Help Center.  Very significant changes to major features (for example, the Wish List) we announce in the Newsletter well in advance, to give plenty of notice before the change goes live.   For less significant changes (like the Buddy List and Bookshelf upgrades), we update the Help Center What’s New section, and also announce/explain in the Newsletter.  We can’t time the release of every single change to the site to coincide with the Newsletter–that’s just too restrictive a schedule, and not realistic.  Not everyone gets the Newsletter, and not everyone visits the Forums.  That’s why the Help Center What’s New section exists–it is accessible to every member with just three clicks, from anywhere on the site (click Help Center at the top of any page on the site > click Browse Help Docs > click What’s New! at the top of the list on the left).  For every change of any magnitude, we update the Help Center What’s New area, announce/explain in the Newsletter, and will often post a topic in the Discussion Forums (even though only a small portion of the club uses the Forums regularly).  In addition, the regular Help Center topics are continually updated to reflect smaller changes.

If you keep your eye on the What’s New topic in the Help Center, Ira, you won’t be taken by surprise!  And if you hate a change we make, we are really sorry.  We don’t do it to torture you, honestly.  We make changes only after much consideration and discussion, and nearly always directly in response to member demand.  We know that not all members will love all changes; that would be unrealistic to expect.  But each change is made with the membership in mind, to benefit the club as a whole.

Dear R&R–This Buddy thing is like junior high all over again.  My Buddy List is empty! I am too shy to ask someone to be a Buddy, and I feel like a loser.  I am having PTSD. –Shrinking Violet in Sheboygan

Dear Violet,

Don’t feel like a loser!  Some members haven’t gotten invitations because they lurk in the forums, and don’t post, so no one “knows” them to invite them.  And remember that others also may be feeling shy.  You don’t have to use the Buddy List at all, of course!  But if you want to, just try sending an invitation to a few people; you can send a PM telling them why if you like, but many folks have their Buddy Lists set to auto-accept all invitations.  You can ask members who have the same taste in books as you do, if you notice this while browsing bookshelves or the Forums; you can ask someone with whom you have had a good swap.  When marking a book received, you can say “thanks for the book–this was a really great swap!  If it’s okay I am going to invite you to be a Buddy so I can keep an eye on your bookshelf.”   There’s no reason they wouldn’t want to Buddy with you. A good buddy never harmed anyone, and they will probably be flattered.  You don’t have to know someone well to be Buddies–and you can set any or all of your information to private in your Privacy Controls so that your Buddy List doesn’t make you feel exposed.  And you won’t get “rejection” emails if an invitation isn’t accepted.

We are really sorry we brought back bad memories, Violet.   It may help to keep in mind that all members at PBS are required to be over 18, and that this is a friendly site.  Most members are terrifically kind and open to “meeting” others in the club.  We don’t think there’s anything to fear here.  And those who don’t have a lot of (or any) Buddies aren’t losers.  Not everyone uses the Buddy List.  We think it’s a great feature, but it’s not for everyone of course.  Don’t let it stress you out.

Dear Members, Newsletter – January 2008

Tuesday, January 8th, 2008

Happy New Year!

Time to hit the books!   Your TBR piles have mounted up while you ran around getting everything done for the holidays, and now you have to get to those books that have been waiting to be read.   We have visions of our members, curled up under PBS blankets, reading books by the glow of their LightWedges…humming “Though the weather outside is frightful…staying inside with a book is so delightful.  I have another 110 pages to go…Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!”

Oops did we just put that song in your head?  Quick, hop over to SwapaCD and order a some new music to erase that annoying sound.

What will 2008 bring to PaperBackSwap?  More books, more members, we have no doubt of that.  We have tons of new features in the works as always.  We are also working on the other sites (SwapaCD and SwapaDVD) of course, so you can expect new stuff over there too.   Yep, things are hopping all over Swapland.

We hope that 2008 is filled with great reads and great fun for all of our members, and we hope that it brings you all that you yearn for…or more of the same if everything is hunky-dory!

Best,

Richard and Robert
and The PaperBackSwap Team

It’s a dirty business, but someone’s got to do it… Newsletter – January 2008

Monday, January 7th, 2008

The Author Cleanup, that is!  Our database, which is compiled elsewhere, has author names spelled every which way, it seems: “I. M. Silly” could appear as “I.M. Silly”, “Ichabod M. Silly” or “Ichabod Marcus Silly”, for example.  This makes it tough on alphabetization of the system, and also can interfere with Book Recommendations and the Search. The system will work best if each author name appears exactly the same way wherever it appears.  That’s where the Author Cleanup comes in.  If you click the Approve Book Authors link at the bottom of any page on the site, you will see a screen with all of the books in the database that include a specific author in their author lists (if an author authored some books alone, and some books with other people, all of the books will be shown, but the screen will be ONLY for correcting that author’s name).   Each submission will be archived and we will add the corrections to the database periodically, in batches.  You can read more about this in the Help Center.

The SwapaDVD Team wants YOU… Newsletter – January 2008

Sunday, January 6th, 2008

If you have a hankering for helping, a passion for pointing the way, a burning desire to direct–you would make a good Tour Guide for SwapaDVD!   A Tour Guide gets assigned to each new member when he or she joins, and serves as a personal resource for help (by Personal Messaging) when the member has a question about the site. What being a Tour Guide gets you: Access to the private Tour Guide Lounge on the site, to mix and mingle with other Tour Guides; a spiffy-looking icon to dress up your profile and forum posts; the respect of millions…well, thousands…well, you’ll be respected by US, at least. What you need to do to volunteer as a Tour Guide for SwapaDVD: You need to have a SwapaDVD account (obviously), you have to sign the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) over at SwapaDVD, have a SwapaDVD nickname, and be familiar with how the site works. You also have to pass the Tour Guide Quiz–it’s short and pretty easy, and it demonstrates how well you can get around the Help Center, which you will need to do a lot of when answering questions from other members. If you are interested, sign the NDA and make yourself a SwapaDVD nickname if you don’t have one, and after you have done those things, send us feedback (over at SwapaDVD) volunteering for the job. You can also contact Beth L. (berlioz3) over there; she is our SwapaDVD Tour Guide Coordinator.  Thanks to all who apply!

New Credit-purchasing limit. Newsletter – January 2008

Saturday, January 5th, 2008

There is now a limit on each account for purchasing credits: each member can purchase up to 30 credits per calendar month.  Credit-purchasing is intended to supplement swapping in case of emergency; it is best for the club if credits are earned here by swapping books.   You can still buy Gift Certificates for others (these won’t be subject to the limit until they are applied to an account).   This limit isn’t meant to cramp your style, and it shouldn’t–only a tiny number of you purchase more than 30 credits per month, so this change won’t affect the others at all.

Member of the Month – January 2008

Thursday, January 3rd, 2008

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We just can’t say enough good things about Diane, and we are glad that so many of you wrote in to nominate her!  She is, of course, the head (= Coordinator) of our Tour Guides, and she has done a wonderful job.  She is tireless in her efforts to keep other members’ site experience running smoothly.  She is always friendly, always cheerful…a true PBS Ambassador!  Members have written in to tell us how she worked with them to solve a problem they were having, and many Tour Guides have told us how kind and helpful she is.  Diane has swapped many, many books here.  We hope Santa was kind to her…and her doggies, too.  She is a great Member of the Month to start off the new year!

If you have any nominations for Member of the Month, submit them to us here.  Your nomination will not “expire”–anyone you nominate will have a chance at getting Member of the Month if enough nominations accumulate over time. Each month the person who has the most votes accumulated gets to be Member of the Month. So go for it! Tell us who’s helped you in the Forums, who’s been a great swapper, who in your opinion is a credit to PBS.  We are keeping a list of all the nominated members.  Who knows–one of them might be YOU!