General questions / discussions

[chesilbeach]

Thank you Michelle for a brilliant forum where I’ve nade some lovely friends. I’m not on Facebook so I’ll miss chatting to most of you about books, but if you know me on other social media and book sites, I’m sure we’ll continue to keep up our bookish nattering.  Best wishes to you all, and thanks again Michelle 

[Lau_Lou]

This is very sad but of course understandable. I adore this forum. Absolute credit to you, Michelle.

A huge thank you to everybody for making this place what it is.  

[willoyd]

7 hours ago, Michelle said:

Those of you who enjoy reviewing, there's always places like GoodReads or LibraryThing, or you could even start your own blog?

 

I don't use GoodReads - it is excellent in its own way, but I always seem to get lost in it.  I do however use LibraryThing, which made me wonder:  would there be interest in setting up a BCF group there - it wouldn't have the excellent organisation that we've been so lucky to have here, but it it would still be possible to have separate threads, including individual book log threads, which would allow for longer term discussion and recording that is not so easy on Facebook. Just a thought.  I certainly belong to a couple of groups which work really well (It may be that something similar would be viable on GoodReads - don't know, but someone else might be able to say). 

 

 

[Michelle]

There's already a BCF group on LT, but I've just checked, and it's inactive. I've gone back to there to update my records, and will be using it for my logs. I'm happy to start a new BCF group over there, although I'm not sure if many other people use it.

 

Same for GR, I'm sure there's a group already over there.. I'm not that keen on GR myself. 

[Michelle]

Ok, anyone on LT.. group is here: http://www.librarything.com/groups/bcfonlt

 

[vodkafan]

1 hour ago, Michelle said:

Ok, anyone on LT.. group is here: http://www.librarything.com/groups/bcfonlt

 

 Thanks Michelle , I just joined LT and the group.

[Janet]

I haven't used LT for years - I have joined the group but I'm not sure how easy it will be to add all the books that I've got missing...! 

[Loretta]

22 hours ago, Raven said:

Aw, but I just changed my avatar...

Ha, I was in the middle of sorting one out. ( will wait now)

 

I recognise yours from Black Books. Great series - very funny.

[~Andrea~]

On 7/29/2018 at 5:36 PM, Madeleine said:

I'm on another forum which is a lot quieter than this one and still carries on,

 

 

On 7/29/2018 at 8:07 PM, willoyd said:

I've explored one or two other forums in the past, and none have come close in terms of what you have provided over (for me) the past almost decade  (one was lovely, but as Madeleine says it only just about carries on).

 

What's the forum? Maybe a few of us from here could join it, and give it a bit of a numbers boost?

 

I've also just joined the LT group! (I'm on the FB one as well).

[Loretta]

11 hours ago, Michelle said:

Those of you who enjoy reviewing, there's always places like GoodReads or LibraryThing, or you could even start your own blog?

 

Thank you Michelle.

I’ve had a quick look at both GoodReads and LibraryThing. Visually, they are very fussy, like a busy cafe  - LT less so. No doubt  I’ll get lost, but might give LT a go 😅 

I love the layout of this forum best of all. It’s very calm.

[Loretta]

9 minutes ago, ~Andrea~ said:

 

 

What's the forum? Maybe a few of us from here could join it, and give it a bit of a numbers boost?

 

I've also just joined the LT group! (I'm on the FB one as well).

 

Yes, I’ll be interested!

[Madeleine]

I think it's a closed forum now, shame as it could do with a boost!  but thanks for the offer.

[itsmeagain]

Book Group Online is ok, I've just joined it.

😀

[muggle not]

Since this forum is ending it would be nice if many of us could end up in a same "other forum". Take a look at this forum and let me know what you think. Maybe we could change it a little to be more in line to Michelle's excellent format.

https://forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewforum.php?f=15

 

or the Forum that itsmeagain recommended. I just looked at it and it also looks ok perhaps.

https://www.bookgrouponline.com/

Edited July 31, 2018 by muggle not

[Kasei]

Ahh, so sad to see this place go, but I totally get it. Forums are costly to run and take a lot of time, energy, and money. Thanks for keeping it going so long! I hope to wind up wherever everyone else ends up. Maybe you could edit the first post or make an announcement with the links to the places people are flocking to?

[Onion Budgie]

I also like the look of Book Group Online.  I think I might join that one. 

[Madeleine]

Oh yes Book Group Online looks spookily quite similar to our dear BCF!  Will probably join one or both of those forums, see you there!

[muggle not]

I joined both forums but may like this one the best.

https://www.bookgrouponline.com/

[Talisman]

I haven't used the site an awful lot in recent years, but will still miss you all. I can understand the reasons though, having run forums myself - an awful lot of work goes into it, especially on something this size. I will miss you all though and will check out those other sites. 

[poppyshake]

Thank you so much for all you’ve done over the years to make this place an absolute haven for book readers Michelle. I’m so sad to see it go but totally understand why it’s become necessary.

Hope somehow that we can all keep in touch. 

[Athena]

3 hours ago, muggle not said:

Since this forum is ending it would be nice if many of us could end up in a same "other forum". Take a look at this forum and let me know what you think. Maybe we could change it a little to be more in line to Michelle's excellent format.

https://forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewforum.php?f=15

 

or the Forum that itsmeagain recommended. I just looked at it and it also looks ok perhaps.

https://www.bookgrouponline.com/

 

I don't think anyone on here knows this, but before I joined BCF, I was actually a member of those two groups. They looked different at the time. I didn't like either of them all that much and that's how I eventually ended up on BCF .

 

I'll elaborate. With the Online Book Club someone spoiled a book for me, and no one seemed to care that this person had done so, and I never really got on with anyone (this was way before I joined BCF though!), so eventually I just stopped visiting (it looked way different back then, and I didn't like the forum structure at the time. It looks like they now have switched to something more similar to BCF).

 

For Book Group Online, I was a member for a while and then something went wrong and they lost about a year's worth of posts (and the forum looked really different). So ALL my content was suddenly gone . And no one remembered me anymore .

 

After that, I decided to search Google again for 'book forum' and I found BCF .

 

But, I wish those of you lots of fun, for going to those other places. I hope you enjoy them more than I did !

[Michelle]

Every forum will have it's good and bad (I've certainly had people tell me exactly what was wrong with this place on more than one occasion! ) and things change over time. I really hope that those of you who enjoy forums find somewhere you feel comfortable in. I have limited time for reading, let alone discussing, so facebook and LibraryThing will probably suit me better.

 

When it comes to keeping in touch, it's impossible to find just one place, but there will be ways on Facebook, LT, GR and even Twitter. 

 

I'm going to miss here myself, despite knowing this is the right thing to do - I've put a lot of time, effort, blood and tears into it, and I am proud of it. But, things have to change.

[Janet]

1 hour ago, Michelle said:

I'm going to miss here myself, despite knowing this is the right thing to do - I've put a lot of time, effort, blood and tears into it, and I am proud of it. But, things have to change.

And so you should be proud 😍

[Raven]

3 hours ago, Michelle said:

But, things have to change.

 

She's regenerating!

[willoyd]

I was a member of Book Group Online before joining here.  This was before they had their big crash.  I remember it as being a friendly forum, and noted it changed to look more like BCF a few years ago.  I think the main reason I started gravitating more here was the fact we could all keep our own blogs, which helped made it just a bit more personal, as we could all follow what each other was reading/doing. I think it was best summarised as this forum has been more about readers and reading, whilst BGO is more about the books.  Initially, that was about it, and once I started getting involved more, everybody was so friendly, and we had interesting projects like the English Counties Challenge and so on.....

Edited July 31, 2018 by willoyd