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Thanks, Herb! Appreciate the info.
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Joined: 3/16/2012
Posts: 5
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Well now, I'd sure like a threaded discussion. I'm late to this party and would like to add that I totally agree that the stars are a problem, and here is another reason why: When you first post, get a low rating (deserved), and then make improvements, the former low rating sticks, discouraging others to read it at all. I confess I've chosen to read based on ratings. It's a handicap all around.
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Joined: 3/12/2011
Posts: 376
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I've heard a lot of commentary on the Star rating, and I can understand why there are complaints, but I can also see why it's too important to remove entirely.
That said, my suggestion - Could a badge and category (like Favorite or Buzz Book) be added for 'most improved'? Something to show when a book has gone from goat to gem?
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Joined: 6/28/2011
Posts: 188
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I can't find any way to look at a complete listing of all the books in a particular genre. I'd like to be able to call up all the Fantasy books, then sort by title, author, date uploaded, star rating, number of reviews, sub-genre, etc. This would allow me to quickly find which books are new, which are in need of reviews, and so on.
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Herb,
Goto "Books." See "Waiting to be Discovered" for newest books in need of reviews.
From the pop-down menu under "Books" select "Search Books" & view any catagory listed under "Any Genre." You can sort this final list 5 ways.
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Joined: 8/21/2011
Posts: 394
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Not sure if this bugs anyone else, but I'd like to have some control over the number of drafts that appears on the book info page. If I upload new drafts of 5 chapters, it seems like the draft number for the entire book increases by 5. For example, one of my books displays Draft 44. Well, I've been doing a lot of revising, but not 44 times through the entire work! 
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 222
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@Angela -- The number of drafts directly corresponds with how many times you select "treat this as a new version" versus "small changes only" when you submit the chapters. So, if you update five chapters, selecting each one as 'treat as a new version or major updates', that is 5 drafts. You have complete control over how many draft versions are up.
If you don't want it to count as a new draft version, select minor updates only option when you're uploading it.
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Joined: 8/21/2011
Posts: 394
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Hi, RJ - I figured that that was what the system was doing, but it doesn't allow you to mark an entire work as a new draft. Some chapters are just minor revisions, whereas others had fairly extensive revisions - but as a whole, I would consider the entire book as a new draft. I guess I'm looking for a way to mark an entire work as either a new draft or minor revision - not just the individual chapters.
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Joined: 6/28/2011
Posts: 188
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@GD Thanks! I feel kind of foolish now for not looking under "Search Books." I guess I assumed it was literally just a search field.
Would "Explore Books" perhaps be a better name for that page, or am I the only one who didn't find "Search" an obvious descriptor?
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Joined: 1/31/2012
Posts: 8
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I think it is silly to have a special web app to allow you to read someones story. That is a lot of work for a sub-par product. It is painful to use and I hate reading at my computer.
I would like to be able to download an ebook version of the books/excerpts I want to review. Then I can read it whereever. I can annotate it, upload the annotation, change the fonts etc. Its all already written.
I don't really understand why you have it set up like this in the first place. If it is about rights management, then enable DRM on the ebooks.
I would have done a whole lot more reviews if this was an option.
-Scott
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Joined: 1/10/2012
Posts: 192
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I'm not sure where else to put this inquiry, so here it is.
Is it really necessary to thumbs down someone else's review? Apparently it reflects poorly on the person who was kind enough to take time to review in the first place. Can't we agree to disagree on a book, and move on? It just seems... unkind.
This hasn't happened to any of my reviews (that I'm aware of), but I've seen the thumbs down on some reviews for my WIPs, and I didn't put them there. Is there any way to discourage this? It just doesn't seem productive, since the reviewer has no way of knowing who did it or why. Maybe I've overly sensitive today, though.
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Joined: 1/9/2012
Posts: 22
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I'm with you. Maybe there should be a way to see who posted the 'thumbs down'?
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Joined: 8/21/2011
Posts: 394
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Personally think the powers that be should just do away with the thumbs down option everywhere: discussion threads, reviews, comments on reviews. If something isn't thumbs up worthy, then just don't click on the thumbs up button.
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Joined: 11/17/2011
Posts: 1016
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The only time I have been tempted to hit the thumbs down option is when a review is less than a thoughtful one, with real effort put into it. Fluff feedback (Exciting, really got into it, etc.) deserves a thumbs down.
I've wondered, but I've never checked it out, how many of the folks with nothing-solid-to-say do the required three reviews to fulfill their obligations, and that's it from them.
The kinder explanation is that they're uncertain of themselves, but eager to get into the game. Even when I am inclined to give a thumbs down, I resist registering my disapproval.
I haven't hit the thing more than once or twice since I joined up. So I guess I wouldn't miss it.
I don't use it lightly, and I don't think that others do. The one time (that I can recall) that I got a slap on the wrist, I understood completely why I got it.
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Joined: 6/1/2012
Posts: 1
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I may be blind, but is there a way to see a list of people that follow my book(s)? If not, then that's my suggestion! It taunts me to see "1 people are [sic] following this book". I'm a nosy person - I want to see! (;
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Joined: 5/28/2012
Posts: 43
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I know the boxes to type reviews/feedback have to be kind of small to fit on a computer screen next to a page of text. I'll accept that, and scroll up and down as needed.
What I hate is how slowly the text shows up as I'm typing a review. I type quickly and the words all show up eventually, but I can be typing word 15 and maybe the computer is displaying word 10, one letter at a time. (It's not the same in the discussion windows at all, that shows up in real time.)
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Joined: 10/20/2011
Posts: 350
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I don't know if it bothers anyone else, but I dislike how in the discussion section, we are told that a post was posted 1 day ago or 1 year, 5 months ago. Why can't we put a date on it? Please?
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Joined: 6/28/2011
Posts: 188
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Apparently, if you start a discussion and no one has yet responded to it, the "Latest Response" date for the overarching category does not reflect your new discussion.
This seems so important to me that I wasn't sure whether to post it here or in the thread for reporting bugs.
I guess I haven't started very many discussions, or maybe it's just that overall posting has slowed down in the community lately, but this seems like a critical flaw to me. When I see that no one has responded in a category for a day or two, I tend to ignore that category. I certainly don't click into it to see if there are brand-new discussions that haven't yet received any responses.
It was easy enough to fix by simply commenting on a couple of other discussions within the same category. But if I hadn't been paying attention, I wouldn't have thought to do that, and then anyone else looking at the overall category dates would have thought there'd been no activity in that category at all.
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Joined: 4/27/2011
Posts: 608
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It would be nice to have some way of sorting and categorizing our publicly-proffered writings into different styles/pen names if we wish. In my own instance, I've three very different styles of writing: (1) fairly straight-forward weird fiction, either science-fictional or fantastical in nature (2) dark whimsies, and (3) "guilty little pleasures". This would help cut down on the "this doesn't seem like you" comments from bemused readers who expect the entirety of a writer's output to be very similar in tone, subject matter and voice.
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