I want to say thank you all for the replies to and interest in the upcoming refresh! I would've liked to have responded sooner, but with many replies and much going on, I kept putting it off. Sorry for the prolonged silence but I'm glad to get to these responses at least before it all starts on the 1st.
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Originally Posted by paola
- Lottery Refresh: open mind on this one. I see the problems you mention, but I am not sure that concentrating it in one month would make a difference. One alternative could be that all members are included in the draw by default, and can opt out if they wish from the lottery month. Now how to know who all members are? It could be all those who nominated in the previous months (I think there may be noise in voting), or perhaps we could all "sign up" in this thread, but it may be intimidating for new members to put them forward - those who nominated in the previous month seems to me easier to implement, and we can also provide a reminder in the July nomination thread that if you want to opt out from the lottery, this is the time to do so.
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These are all interesting ideas.
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Originally Posted by paola
- Slight Categories Refresh : OK, though I would swap July and August, as I have more time in August to go for a Highly challenging read, and I suspect this may be the case for other people too, but if I am in a minority then no problem.
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I understand about the August situation and hadn't thought of that. However, for this year I'm going to leave them as is, partly because it's already upon us now and mainly because I'd rather the lottery not be the first month of the refresh. Also, I like the idea of the Highly Challenging month being next to the Short month (June) so that we can have a buffer of a shorter pick before we tackle a highly challenging one. But things can always change next year, and this year if you're too busy in July and so inclined you can wait until August anyway to read July's pick and just join in the discussion then.
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Originally Posted by John F
Can we get some wording to stress more ebook choices?
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As you see from the other responses, the opinions are divided, so I think I'll leave things as they are because I'd like for us to have the widest amount of options possible. But, so far most selections have been e-books and chances are many selections in the future will be too.
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Originally Posted by Hamlet53
Isn't “Contemporary” a “Time Period”? I know that some people prefer not to read literature written before they graduated high school so I like the idea of a month devoted to Contemporary literature, but maybe then drop that time frame from the “Time Period?”
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Your thoughts are wise! As there are two Region categories per year, I had thought of Contemporary really as the second Time Period category, only already decided and the same every year. So then I will drop that time frame from the Time Period choices.
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Originally Posted by Hamlet53
With regards to the “Region” category, now that the procedure for dividing the world into regions is done (complete with that spiffy map), maybe we could just rotate through regions, selecting a random region not yet covered, until all have been selected once?
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That's the plan!
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Originally Posted by Hamlet53
I like Paola's suggestion about including all active members in the lottery unless they decide to opt out.
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paola's suggestions are interesting, but I'm leaning against this one at the moment because (1) it'd be more work to compile the list of active members each time and (2) there'd be the risk that someone could be chosen who happens not to be around at that moment.
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Originally Posted by Hamlet53
Starting the discussion thread as soon as the selection for the month is made sounds good to me. The question becomes should those who tend to finish the book quickly make generous use of spoiler tags, or just let people realize that the whole thread maybe full of spoilers from the start?
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Hm, those are good questions! Without being too strict, I think there should be some guideline, so that in the beginning anyone who’s already read the entire book or finishes it early would be careful or use spoiler tags, so that everyone feels comfortable participating without worry of spoilers. But each discussion thread should eventually end up completely open to all discussion after an appropriate amount of time.
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Originally Posted by Synamon
I also suppport the early creation of the thread for discussion, hopefully that will generate additional conversation and perhaps encourage those who haven't tackled the book yet to start reading. Spoilers would probably be a good idea for the first week, or at least some reticence in posting details and instead posting a general impression of the book first (either while reading or when finished) and coming back later in the month with your in depth analysis of the work.
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Yes, I like these ideas!
Finally, I have a few other comments.
First, thank you issybird for the help! I agree with all your responses and even if it took me awhile to respond here, I’m glad you plunged in earlier to help clear some things up.
Second, we are all free to do as we please, but I do hope we can all be civil here! We have few enough members as it is! If an unchoice word was used in the first place that offended, I would think (hope) it was unintentional.
Third, the refresh starts very soon and here’s to a great second half of 2012!
