Whew! Things are getting a little heated here, and I think folks are posting at cross-purposes, discussing "apples and oranges", as it were. I do not believe any denigration was intended, and hope things calm down before it
does happen intentionally!
I do understand that MobileRead was designed as a forum, not a book depository, and this surely must make a lot of difference to how things are handled at dedicated online libraries.
I wonder if a key question might be
"how does MobileRead make books discoverable and accessible to the users?"
Do the majority of downloaders get their new book fix from info from RSS feed? (I can't subscribe from my work computer, my only internet connection, so don't know what is shown in the feed.)
Do they get it from the five "Latest Ebooks" display on the home page?
Do they get it by browsing the first page in the forum for their preferred format (Do they go the extra mile and browse page 2?)
How many downloaders actually use the search engine unless they are seeking a specific title/author/subject? And how would one use the search engine to find new (as opposed to old) uploads?
Suggestion -- Maybe there could be a counter posted on the home page together with the "five latest" -- "We have
xxxx new titles uploaded in the last
xx hours -- check your favorite format for new titles!"
thus, making a high number of uploads a bragging point
