Bringing back the BOTM vote

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Amagine
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Bringing back the BOTM vote

Post by Amagine »

I've noticed that we don't really do the voting process for the BOTM anymore. I was wondering why it stopped. Maybe somehow we can revamp it and do it again. It'll be great for the community to vote on which books we want to read and discuss next.

Also, it would help to garner more of an interest in the books and get people to actually read the book rather than just reading the sample pages. So is there anyway we can bring back voting for the BOTM?
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Post by kandscreeley »

I wonder if there just wasn't enough participation on that. Everyone maybe just voting for their own books? Still, maybe once every there or four months if there was a book of the month that was voted on, that would be cool.
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Post by Amagine »

Yeah, if it was stopped because there was no participation then we should bring it back for a trial basis. If no one is taking the time to vote or particularly care about it, then we can just go back to the way it is now.
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Post by Heidi M Simone »

I agree on this as well. I used to read every BOTM regardless, but lately I've found myself not interested or invested in the most recent books. Also, I feel the posting contest is making people just say things and not read the books, which seems to defeat the purpose of BOTM and lowers my enjoyment of participating. So, maybe if we did a trial or every couple of months could be a book that the online community would choose, then that would bring back some of the joy BOTM once had (at least for me). Thank you for bringing this up, Amagine!
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Post by Gingerbo0ks »

I've only been here since April but I agree with hsimone really.
Might be an idea to bring back voting for the BOTM for some of the months? Maybe there's a way so people can't vote for their own as kandscreeley mentioned.
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Post by Amagine »

hsimone wrote:I agree on this as well. I used to read every BOTM regardless, but lately I've found myself not interested or invested in the most recent books. Also, I feel the posting contest is making people just say things and not read the books, which seems to defeat the purpose of BOTM and lowers my enjoyment of participating. So, maybe if we did a trial or every couple of months could be a book that the online community would choose, then that would bring back some of the joy BOTM once had (at least for me). Thank you for bringing this up, Amagine!
Thank you for agreeing with me! I haven't really had a strong interest in most of the BOTMS. When I saw the upcoming ones, I wasn't ecstatic at all. Also, I can tell that a lot of people aren't reading the books because they're not really interested in them either.

As Gingerbo0ks and kandscreely were saying, it doesn't have to be every month but every couple of months would be fine. It would make for some lively discussions and a stronger community feeling.
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Post by Gingerbo0ks »

I also think it would make discussions more relevant. We could discuss the plot, characters, writing, choices made by the author, the impact of the ending and do on. People can't participate in these if they haven't read the book and the topics in the discussion tend to be too general.
The last couple haven't appealed to me personally, but the next few look good. This is personal opinion though.
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Post by Gravy »

I have to agree, even if I understand the reasons for the non-member voted BOTMs. :(
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Post by Kourtney Bradley »

hsimone wrote:I agree on this as well. I used to read every BOTM regardless, but lately I've found myself not interested or invested in the most recent books. Also, I feel the posting contest is making people just say things and not read the books, which seems to defeat the purpose of BOTM and lowers my enjoyment of participating. So, maybe if we did a trial or every couple of months could be a book that the online community would choose, then that would bring back some of the joy BOTM once had (at least for me). Thank you for bringing this up, Amagine!

I definitely agree about the posting contest. Although I think it's great to have the discussions growing, it seems that some people are just posting random thoughts to get their count up.
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Post by Amagine »

I confess that I would read the BOTM and come up with good discussion questions about it. However,I noticed that others were posting random questions that had nothing to do with the book and it was obvious that they hadn't read the book or put forth any effort. So I stopped putting in too much effort too. I still read the books but it's frustrating when I can tell that I'm one of the few. If more people were actually interested in the books, people would whole-heartedly participate in it. That's why I wish the community can go back to voting for the BOTM. It would make it more fun.
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Post by Scott »

We do have an ongoing Book of the Month nomination and voting system at shelves/botm.php

In fact, every book's page on Bookshelves has a link to "Nominate/Vote for Book of the Month".

Books are chosen using the nominations and votes pending sufficient participation.

The March Book of the Month (Station Eleven) was voted in through that page. The current vote numbers you see there is how many have been collected since March.

We also have a Book of the Year voting ongoing. The current result are available at: shelves/boty-leaderboard.php

There is a lot more participation with that. So if a book wins that wasn't previously Book of the Month, then that book will be made into Book of the Month sometime in 2018.
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Post by ashley_claire »

I guess I'm a little confused with how the BOTM books are picked based on the requirements listed on the nominations page. I don't keep a close eye on the nominations but I do look every once in a while, and the book I've seen consistently at the top for several months is The Memory Painter by Gwendolyn Womack. But for some reason it hasn't been the BOTM yet. I haven't noticed the last couple of BOTM's anywhere near the top of the voting.

The requirements also state that the book must NOT be part of a series. The November and December books clearly say that they are the first books in a series. Is it because they are the first book in a series instead of book two or three that this rule was able to be ignored?

In my opinion, either the requirements for BOTM should be reviewed and changed or there should be more consistency with the BOTM following the current requirements.
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Post by Gravy »

The requirements are there only for the voted BOTM. The other books aren't voted on, but designated.
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Post by ashley_claire »

Gotcha, thanks!
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Post by Elizabeth Pass »

I haven't found an answer anywhere else so I thought I could post my question here. Why does it say books in a series shouldn't be nominated for book of the month? A lot of the books I absolutely love are part of a larger series and most books of a series can be read individually anyway.
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