Hayley Posted September 1, 2022 Share Posted September 1, 2022 I guess this is partly me being nosey, but I was wondering what bought everyone here in the first place. How did you all find the forum? What made you decide to post for the first time? I joined when I started university. I had imagined that, doing a literature course, I would meet lots of people who also really loved books... but I didn't. I remembered one of my English teachers at school (who I loved) talking about a book club she was in, and I thought it would be really nice to have to have other people to discuss books with (and not just for the sake of assessments!). So, sitting in my little student flat one evening in Liverpool, I searched 'online book forum' and BCF popped up! Everyone seemed really friendly with each other, so even though I was nervous about doing something wrong, I decided to post and see what happened - and I never left . So, what made you join? 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunababymoonchild Posted September 1, 2022 Share Posted September 1, 2022 I was on another online forum - Book Group Online - when some of the members here joined as a result of this closing down. As it turned out BGO closed down, by which time I was a member here, I'm glad to say 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madeleine Posted September 1, 2022 Share Posted September 1, 2022 I wanted to talk about books, and had been on another forum which closed down, so like Hayley I searched for online book groups and this one came up. That was also how I found BGO, but I always preferred this forum. It's a shame that BGO closed, but nice to see so many people from that forum on this one! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted September 2, 2022 Share Posted September 2, 2022 I was on another book forum, BookandReader, where I met Muggle and quite a few other friends. He invited me to this forum and I discovered I liked it better 😊 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timebug Posted September 2, 2022 Share Posted September 2, 2022 I have always been an avid reader, and love discussing books with any other reader. Like Hayley, I have many friends who share many interests with me, but very few of them are readers; it is good to discuss a favourite book that two or more of you have read and enjoyed, but many of my friends just will not read, and so these discussions just never happen! My elder Son loved reading, his younger brother was more sporty/outdoorsy/active and many of the talks I had with elder Son, about what we had read were totally 'over his head' as it were. My Grandaughter inherited the reading bug from her aged Grandad fortunately, and we have some cracking chats on what we think is good and otherwise. Like music (I have friends who do not listen to any music!) reading is a personal choice and one which I am glad that my own Mother passed on to me. My Father was a reader too, but never had the time to read everything that he wanted to, where my Mother always managed to fit in at least an hour a day on her current book! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian. Posted September 2, 2022 Share Posted September 2, 2022 Looking at my profile I can see that I joined in January 2010. I has no idea it had been so long ago. I had been a site admin for one of the biggest football forums on the web but sadly it had to close due to financial issues at the end of 2009. I don't recall how long that site had been going, but i'd definitely been a member for many many years. As it had closed I was looking for something to fill the void but none of the other football forums came even close to the cameraderie we had. At the time I had just started to move away from reading only non-fiction books and I wanted somewhere to read and discuss books. I checked out a few forums but this one had the friendliest atmosphere out of those I visited. Apart from the friendly nature, the one thing that I have always liked about the forum is the mixture of reading tastes. When I was searching for a forum it stood out that in many, unless you read the same kind of books as the other members, the interaction was very limited. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted September 2, 2022 Share Posted September 2, 2022 1 hour ago, timebug said: I have always been an avid reader, and love discussing books with any other reader. Like Hayley, I have many friends who share many interests with me, but very few of them are readers; it is good to discuss a favourite book that two or more of you have read and enjoyed, but many of my friends just will not read, and so these discussions just never happen! My elder Son loved reading, his younger brother was more sporty/outdoorsy/active and many of the talks I had with elder Son, about what we had read were totally 'over his head' as it were. My Grandaughter inherited the reading bug from her aged Grandad fortunately, and we have some cracking chats on what we think is good and otherwise. Like music (I have friends who do not listen to any music!) reading is a personal choice and one which I am glad that my own Mother passed on to me. My Father was a reader too, but never had the time to read everything that he wanted to, where my Mother always managed to fit in at least an hour a day on her current book! It's interesting that our parents love of reading often rubs off on us. My mother loved reading, mostly fiction, although the Bible would have been her favourite book. My Dad was more of a non-fiction reader. I read many of the books they enjoyed. My grandmother was also a big reader, she loved Greek Mythology and classics. One of my earliest memories is of her reading to us for hours. Although I mostly read ebooks now, the biggest treat for me used to be a trip to the library. So it's really no surprise that when I looked for an online group to join, it was a book one. Apart from making some great friends over the years, it has been wonderful in the way I've been introduced to books I'm sure I would never have discovered otherwise. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muggle not Posted September 2, 2022 Share Posted September 2, 2022 I joined a book club forum to get ideas from other people on authors and books. There have been many authors I have read on seeing recommendations from other members. Same for specific books I shudder to think how many authors and books I may have missed reading if not for the recommendations. Now, I joined this forum as the forum I was on was lead by a nasty person and I discovered this forum. That same nasty person also joined this forum and began causing problems and making fun of individuals. That individual was planning a nasty trick on michelle and the forum and I told him i would expose him to Michelle and I followed through, however Michelle thought I was part of the guy's group and I don't think she ever did trust me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayley Posted September 4, 2022 Author Share Posted September 4, 2022 On 9/2/2022 at 8:36 AM, Brian. said: the one thing that I have always liked about the forum is the mixture of reading tastes That was the same for me, actually. I really didn't want a group who were snobbish about the 'right' or worthy kinds of books! On 9/2/2022 at 3:39 PM, muggle not said: That same nasty person also joined this forum and began causing problems and making fun of individuals. That individual was planning a nasty trick on michelle and the forum I had no idea that all of this happened, it must have been before I joined! An interesting piece of BCF history! But well done you for coming to the rescue of the forum . And I'm sure that, even if Michelle wasn't sure whether she could trust you at the time, she knew she could trust you after that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
France Posted September 5, 2022 Share Posted September 5, 2022 I was on BGO which was my go-to book forum though I've been a member on here for years and used to visit to get a different perspective on books. I also belonged to another online book which was run by a group who seem to positively enjoy looking down on the other members' lowly reading taste. Anyone who disagreed with them was liable to be chucked out. I stopped commenting, then stopped visiting as did a lot of others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunababymoonchild Posted September 5, 2022 Share Posted September 5, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, France said: I also belonged to another online book which was run by a group who seem to positively enjoy looking down on the other members' lowly reading taste. Anyone who disagreed with them was liable to be chucked out. I stopped commenting, then stopped visiting as did a lot of others. That wasn't Big Readers per chance? I was on that too and the moderating team were horrendous. I was picked on, they ganged up against me for daring to disagree, one of the other posters stuck up for me and she was ganged up on too. I left and joined BGO and I'm still FB friends with the other poster to this day. Edited September 5, 2022 by lunababymoonchild Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
France Posted September 5, 2022 Share Posted September 5, 2022 No it wasn't! It was Palimpsest, now defunct for some time. Mr HG and JfP on BGO were both refugees from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunababymoonchild Posted September 5, 2022 Share Posted September 5, 2022 15 minutes ago, France said: No it wasn't! It was Palimpsest, now defunct for some time. Mr HG and JfP on BGO were both refugees from there. I've heard of that. Was Nelly, she had robot dogs, a member there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayley Posted September 6, 2022 Author Share Posted September 6, 2022 Reading these is making me feel incredibly lucky that I happened to find a nice forum first! On 9/5/2022 at 12:16 PM, France said: run by a group who seem to positively enjoy looking down on the other members' lowly reading taste This was literally my fear. On 9/5/2022 at 1:43 PM, lunababymoonchild said: I was picked on, they ganged up against me for daring to disagree, one of the other posters stuck up for me and she was ganged up on too. And this is just disgusting behaviour! Honestly, what is wrong with some people!? On 9/5/2022 at 3:50 PM, lunababymoonchild said: Was Nelly, she had robot dogs, a member there? This is just intriguing though. She had robot dogs??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
France Posted September 6, 2022 Share Posted September 6, 2022 On 9/5/2022 at 4:50 PM, lunababymoonchild said: I've heard of that. Was Nelly, she had robot dogs, a member there? I can't remember to be honest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunababymoonchild Posted September 6, 2022 Share Posted September 6, 2022 1 hour ago, Hayley said: And this is just disgusting behaviour! Honestly, what is wrong with some people!? I never did work that out. 1 hour ago, Hayley said: This is just intriguing though. She had robot dogs??? She did. She posted some photos too, it was amazing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted September 6, 2022 Share Posted September 6, 2022 3 hours ago, Hayley said: Reading these is making me feel incredibly lucky that I happened to find a nice forum first! This was literally my fear. I think the atmosphere of a forum depends largely on the administration, what behavior they allow and their general attitude. Here, the luck is definitely on our side, Hayley. We have you to thank for this being such a lovely, warm, friendly place. Under your guidance it's become the nicest forum I've ever been involved in 😊 (I could tell you some stories about bullying on other sites that would make your hair curl 😱) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KEV67 Posted September 6, 2022 Share Posted September 6, 2022 I was on a forum called www.online-literature.com, or it might have been www.literature-online.com. It was quite good, but the site kept getting attacked by hackers. Some idiots kept posting loads of spam messages. Eventually the administrator beefed up the cyber security, but it made the site difficult to logon to and to post to. Most the people I most liked stopped posting. Another slight issue was that it was an American site and I am a bit biased towards British books. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kudz Posted September 7, 2022 Share Posted September 7, 2022 I used to be a book blogger back in the day and was a member of a couple of non-book related forums so it seemed logical to join a book related forum too. I’ve had to look back at my old posts on my old account to find out how I found BCF specifically and apparently, I joined after seeing a link in the original owners profile on Amazon, which I came across after reading one of her book reviews. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayley Posted September 7, 2022 Author Share Posted September 7, 2022 13 hours ago, poppy said: Here, the luck is definitely on our side, Hayley. We have you to thank for this being such a lovely, warm, friendly place. Under your guidance it's become the nicest forum I've ever been involved in 😊 Aww, thank you but I can't take credit for that, it was already a really friendly place - that's why I really didn't want it to end! We just have lots of very lovely people (like you!) contributing to our forum 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissy Posted September 11, 2022 Share Posted September 11, 2022 I needed to reach out into the world a little, and the internet was the way to go. Only had to ponder for a little while to think about what my interests are, with books and reading at the top, so looked about to get a feel of different sites. I felt drawn to BCF, but also felt quite tentative about it. Our Poppy changed that by engaging with me in such a friendly way, I just HAD to stay. Over the years (I think I joined in 2008?) there has been an ebb and flow of people, and recent years have seen me far too absent as my reading takes an extended holiday. (dammit!) I don't think anyone other than Hayley could have re-opened the forum with such aplomb, keeping the best of the 'old' forum, while bringing a fresh, encouraging and welcoming vibe to the 'new'. Thank you Hayley. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayley Posted September 12, 2022 Author Share Posted September 12, 2022 On 9/11/2022 at 5:27 PM, Chrissy said: Our Poppy changed that by engaging with me in such a friendly way, I just HAD to stay. This proves my point above On 9/11/2022 at 5:27 PM, Chrissy said: I don't think anyone other than Hayley could have re-opened the forum with such aplomb, keeping the best of the 'old' forum, while bringing a fresh, encouraging and welcoming vibe to the 'new'. Thank you Hayley. This is far too kind, the feel of the forum really is so much more to do with all of you! But it was still lovely to read and I appreciate it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsmeagain Posted September 19, 2022 Share Posted September 19, 2022 (edited) On 9/1/2022 at 12:48 PM, Hayley said: I guess this is partly me being nosey, but I was wondering what bought everyone here in the first place. How did you all find the forum? What made you decide to post for the first time? I joined when I started university. I had imagined that, doing a literature course, I would meet lots of people who also really loved books... but I didn't. I remembered one of my English teachers at school (who I loved) talking about a book club she was in, and I thought it would be really nice to have to have other people to discuss books with (and not just for the sake of assessments!). So, sitting in my little student flat one evening in Liverpool, I searched 'online book forum' and BCF popped up! Everyone seemed really friendly with each other, so even though I was nervous about doing something wrong, I decided to post and see what happened - and I never left . So, what made you join? I did a search and BCF came up. 😊 Edited September 19, 2022 by itsmeagain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NikkiJayne Posted January 28, 2023 Share Posted January 28, 2023 I typed into google today book club online communities… purely cause I was sick of Goodreads and storygraph… I like how you can monitor what books you have read and books in your TBR piles but there was no real connection to talk to people, then I came across here this morning and I’m already hooked! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madeleine Posted January 29, 2023 Share Posted January 29, 2023 Yes, Goodreads is good for keeping track of your books and what you've read etc but this is much better for connecting with people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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