FREE / BARGAIN genre threads

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Catlady

And why in the world doesn't the very popular and informative "Current Audiobook Specials" thread get a sticky when they're being handed out to just about every other thread?

Of course, even better would be an audiobooks subforum.

The thread is now stuck.

Personally, I no longer think audiobooks deserves its own subforum. I think it deserves its own major forum, perhaps between "E-Book Formats" and "E-Book Uploads - Patricia Clark Memorial Library." But that's my 2 cents.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

The thread is now stuck.

Personally, I no longer think audiobooks deserves its own subforum. I think it deserves its own major forum, perhaps between "E-Book Formats" and "E-Book Uploads - Patricia Clark Memorial Library." But that's my 2 cents.

Thank you.

Forum, subforum, I dunno--just someplace where we can discuss audiobooks!

[issybird]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

The thread is now stuck.

Personally, I no longer think audiobooks deserves its own subforum. I think it deserves its own major forum, perhaps between "E-Book Formats" and "E-Book Uploads - Patricia Clark Memorial Library." But that's my 2 cents.

It really, really does! But I think we could settle for a subforum.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by issybird

It really, really does! But I think we could settle for a subforum.

If you only want to talk about audio books a subforum could be ok but if we do audio we are thinking about all things audio so it is eBooks, audio book readers and reading, audio book generation, audio book formats, perhaps even TTS and other fringe audio discussions. Even audio for the blind. Audio in our wiki covers quite a few things. I suspect there may be even more.

Dale

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

If you only want to talk about audio books a subforum could be ok but if we do audio we are thinking about all things audio so it is eBooks, audio book readers and reading, audio book generation, audio book formats, perhaps even TTS and other fringe audio discussions. Even audio for the blind. Audio in our wiki covers quite a few things. I suspect there may be even more.

Dale

Given this info it certainly seems that there's a case for an audio forum rather than sub-form.....

[issybird]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

If you only want to talk about audio books a subforum could be ok but if we do audio we are thinking about all things audio so it is eBooks, audio book readers and reading, audio book generation, audio book formats, perhaps even TTS and other fringe audio discussions. Even audio for the blind. Audio in our wiki covers quite a few things. I suspect there may be even more.

Dale

That's better still. I was agitating slightly on the basis of what might be possible, but I agree with your thinking. In fact, I've thought that a perceived anti-audio bias was rather insensitive to those for whom audiobooks are the best/only option for consuming books, given disabilities. In any case, there's a fair amount of overlap, as Amazon's agressive marketing of whispersync titles shows.

[CRussel]

I'm going to be a dissenter, here. I see no need for an audiobook forum. Audio books are books. Yes, the narrator changes the experience, but it's still a book. I can happily discuss them in any thread or forum they appear in. When I want to talk about bargains, they happily belong in the bargains forum. When I want to talk about what I'm reading or what I thought of what I just read, they belong in Recommendations. And when there's news about them, they belong in News or possibly General.

Full disclosure: I happen to think that overfragmentation of fora makes it harder to find things, not easier. And our current level of activity doesn't overly push threads out of visibility, IME.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by CRussel

I'm going to be a dissenter, here. I see no need for an audiobook forum. Audio books are books. Yes, the narrator changes the experience, but it's still a book. I can happily discuss them in any thread or forum they appear in. When I want to talk about bargains, they happily belong in the bargains forum. When I want to talk about what I'm reading or what I thought of what I just read, they belong in Recommendations. And when there's news about them, they belong in News or possibly General.

Full disclosure: I happen to think that overfragmentation of fora makes it harder to find things, not easier. And our current level of activity doesn't overly push threads out of visibility, IME.

Integration within the existing forum structure would work, provided additional categories were added (additional categories in purple). Here are some examples:

E-Book Readers

• Which one..., Amazon, Android, Apple, Audiobook Players, B&N, Kobo, etc

E-Book Software

• Calibre, Calibre Companion, Sigil, etc
• AudibleManager, iTunes, OverDrive Media Console, Windows Media Player, etc

E-Book Formats

• Workshop, ePub, Kindle Formats, PDF, Other formats
• Audible, MP3, OverDrive, WMA, etc

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by CRussel

I'm going to be a dissenter, here. I see no need for an audiobook forum. Audio books are books. Yes, the narrator changes the experience, but it's still a book. I can happily discuss them in any thread or forum they appear in. When I want to talk about bargains, they happily belong in the bargains forum. When I want to talk about what I'm reading or what I thought of what I just read, they belong in Recommendations. And when there's news about them, they belong in News or possibly General.

Full disclosure: I happen to think that overfragmentation of fora makes it harder to find things, not easier. And our current level of activity doesn't overly push threads out of visibility, IME.

I can see what you're saying, but while audiobooks might be books, they're a specialized subset of books. I think topics related specifically to audiobooks would easily be crowded out in the other forums. I also think that a dedicated area is not just for the convenience of those of us who enjoy audiobooks, but would make it easier for people who don't give a darn about them to avoid the topics.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I can see what you're saying, but while audiobooks might be books, they're a specialized subset of books. I think topics related specifically to audiobooks would easily be crowded out in the other forums. I also think that a dedicated area is not just for the convenience of those of us who enjoy audiobooks, but would make it easier for people who don't give a darn about them to avoid the topics.

A dedicated forum is the best option. It keeps everything audiobooks in one place, making it extremely easy for even the newest member to find something. For those not interested in audiobooks, a simple tap on the "-" sign in the forum header (far right) will collapse the entire forum so that it disappears.

[Dngrsone]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

A dedicated forum is the best option. It keeps everything audiobooks in one place, making it extremely easy for even the newest member to find something. For those not interested in audiobooks, a simple tap on the "-" sign in the forum header (far right) will collapse the entire forum so that it disappears.

As a disinterested party, I would concur with this assessment.

[cromag]

Just my observations after living with the expanded "Sticky" section for a while.

I can adapt to just about anything, but the expanded sticky section is much less convenient for me. I do a lot of my browsing on my netbook, and the sticky section now takes up nearly the whole screen. In the past, with active categories "bubbling up" to the top, it was easy to keep track of new entries, while inactive entries would slip to back pages. Now, new entries that don't make it into a "Monthly" thread are below all the stickies, even the inactive ones, and may not even be on the first page.

Again, I can learn to use the new set-up, and I appreciate it, but it is less convenient for me.

As far as Audiobooks go, they are sufficiently different from etext, and a large enough field, that I think they'd work best in their own forum.

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I also think that a dedicated area is not just for the convenience of those of us who enjoy audiobooks, but would make it easier for people who don't give a darn about them to avoid the topics.

It would also make it way easier for those of us who are just starting to discover audiobooks to get technical help, or any other help we might need with exploring this very unique medium that we know next to nothing about. If I am having issues with navigating my new audiobook on my mp3-player, which current forum do I post that in? Alternative Devices is the only one that makes sense, but I have no reassurance at all that the community's audiobook experts frequent that forum, so personally am more likley to turn to google for assistance.

A dedicated audiobook forum would make considerably easier for those who need it to get help with not just how to use audiobooks, but where to find them, how to configure and use software that manages them, and so on and so forth. Those who don't use audiobooks at all will never have to see anything about them. Win-win.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

If I am having issues with navigating my new audiobook on my mp3-player, which current forum do I post that in? Alternative Devices is the only one that makes sense, but I have no reassurance at all that the community's audiobook experts frequent that forum, so personally am more likley to turn to google for assistance.

I never look there. Moving threads to that sub-forum is the kiss-of-death as far as I'm concerned.

[Billi]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

making it extremely easy for even the newest member to find something

If this would be a valid argument: why make all these proposals in "FREE / BARGAIN genre threads" and not in the thread "Audiobook or Audible subforum" that sits directly beneath this one???

Like CRussel I see the problem that a separat Audiobook subforum could split book discussions that should go together. But I also see the point that it might improve the structure, tidiness and organization of this forum.