KOBO contest

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Got to be a mistake. It's a diamond, sapphire or similar gem mounted on an alloy tube. It's probably not a good idea to eat them just on mechanical issues.

Over-warning desensitises people. A version of "crying wolf", so serious threats get ignored.

I cannot say what all the materials used in the stylus are. But I would have to think something triggered the warning.

Given the size of the stylus, I would say whatever is used would not be harmful in such a small quantity.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

And now Quebec loses out because nobody who lives there can participate in any sort of national sweepstakes. So nobody has any chance to win.

Not quite. The bigger national lotteries are managed by crown corporations which cover one or more provinces. Loto-Québec manages Lotto 6/49, Lotto Max and Daily Grand/Grand Vie in Québec. For most others, the game isn't worth the candle.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I cannot say what all the materials used in the stylus are. But I would have to think something triggered the warning.

Given the size of the stylus, I would say whatever is used would not be harmful in such a small quantity.

I've not seen any made in last 60 years that are not simply the diamond or sapphire mounted on an alloy tube (maybe a press fit). There is a plastic moulding to mount it on the cartridge. No other materials. Someone is mistaken.

[Kindleing]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I've not seen any made in last 60 years that are not simply the diamond or sapphire mounted on an alloy tube (maybe a press fit). There is a plastic moulding to mount it on the cartridge. No other materials. Someone is mistaken.

Not necessarily - California's "Proposition 65" was a badly worded ballot initiative that has been widely abused to the point that some mail order companies will no longer ship merchandise to California. One example is with metal alloys; if an alloy contains lead, then any product that contains that alloy must carry the Prop 65 warning. Some brass alloys contain lead to make machining easier, so that content - no matter how trivial - triggers the warning.

California attorneys general have vigorously pursued companies they deem in violation of Prop 65 so some companies who do business in California routinely label innocent products with the Prop 65 warning as a precautionary measure. The label no longer means anything to most people.

[Quoth]

The rod with the diamond or sapphire is a simple aluminium alloy. No lead.

Yes, I'm aware that the Prop65 is mad.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why would Quebec has sweepstakes rules that cause Canada wide sweepstakes to exclude them? That (IMHO) is really stupid.

Quebec is a bit of strange place (and also consider themselves kind of separate from anglo-Canada).

[issybird]

My reaction to this originally was "why not?" I don't care about Kobo's knowing what or how often/how much I read.

That said, I have two issues that are already making me think the hell with it. First, I wish Kobo were more transparent about what exactly counts. I assume it's purchased content direct-downloaded only, and that's fine. But what about books that are mostly or entirely read offline? Will Kobo count them when you sync? What about devices that don't sync entirely, which is a problem for a lot of people? Also, I prefer to read offline because of battery issues.

And what I'm already finding extremely annoying is that syncing across devices isn't working all that well, i.e., sometimes it does, something nothing happens. I can work around it, but why should I be bothered?

I have to say that Kindle is much better at syncing and at limited battery drain from being online. I'm in Camp Kobo overall, but that's the reality. I can't help thinking that part of the point of this contest (aside from generally encouraging people to buy from Kobo so their reading "counts") is more/better access to reading data. As I said, I don't object to Kobo's getting this, but I'm also not going to go out of my way to provide them with it.

[ownedbycats]

I get the monthly 'here's how many books you've read' emails and they don't seem to count sideloaded. This makes me guess that they can't count those and thus they wouldn't go toward the total.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

In this case, if you have a Kobo and you've bought some books and have yet to read them, it costs you nothing extra.

There's also a lot of free books on store and no indication that those don't count.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I get the monthly 'here's how many books you've read' emails and they don't seem to count sideloaded. This makes me guess that they can't count those and thus they wouldn't go toward the total.

Yep; I assumed that. And even if they could count them, why should they? My question is whether or not a book read entirely offline and deleted counts eventually, the next time WiFi is on.

I'll note that "send to Kindle" books count at Amazon, but those are only ever for bragging rights.

[ownedbycats]

You can check the website and see if the book changes to 'read' after you sync.

[issybird]

Oh, and I have another question. I read a lot of nonfiction with a lot of end matter. Does it count if I just mark a book "finished" when I get to the text, or do I have to page through the index and sources?

There's actually something behind this; I've noticed that when I get close to the end of a book and exit it, I'll get a pop-up to ask me if it should be marked as "finished". But not when there's still a lot of pages (of stuff) left to go. Sigh. This is the issue with the time remaining data; no, I'm not going to read the index, thankyouverymuch.

[isarl]

Originally Posted by issybird

My reaction to this originally was "why not?" I don't care about Kobo's knowing what or how often/how much I read.

That said, I have two issues that are already making me think the hell with it. First, I wish Kobo were more transparent about what exactly counts. I assume it's purchased content direct-downloaded only, and that's fine. But what about books that are mostly or entirely read offline? Will Kobo count them when you sync? What about devices that don't sync entirely, which is a problem for a lot of people? Also, I prefer to read offline because of battery issues.

I contacted support asking a similar question. Only Kobo store purchases count, not sideloaded books. They did not answer my question as to whether there is any minimum word count…

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by issybird

Oh, and I have another question. I read a lot of nonfiction with a lot of end matter. Does it count if I just mark a book "finished" when I get to the text, or do I have to page through the index and sources?

There's actually something behind this; I've noticed that when I get close to the end of a book and exit it, I'll get a pop-up to ask me if it should be marked as "finished". But not when there's still a lot of pages (of stuff) left to go. Sigh. This is the issue with the time remaining data; no, I'm not going to read the index, thankyouverymuch.

Agree.

[isarl]

Originally Posted by issybird

Oh, and I have another question. I read a lot of nonfiction with a lot of end matter. Does it count if I just mark a book "finished" when I get to the text, or do I have to page through the index and sources?

There's actually something behind this; I've noticed that when I get close to the end of a book and exit it, I'll get a pop-up to ask me if it should be marked as "finished". But not when there's still a lot of pages (of stuff) left to go. Sigh. This is the issue with the time remaining data; no, I'm not going to read the index, thankyouverymuch.

This was not among my questions to support… considering the detail tracked in the activity table, though, I expect that if somebody is showing suspicious counts, they will investigate to see if the user actually spent any time reading, or just opened the book and immediately marked it as finished. But this is entirely supposition on my part.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I get the monthly 'here's how many books you've read' emails and they don't seem to count sideloaded. This makes me guess that they can't count those and thus they wouldn't go toward the total.

There's also a lot of free books on store and no indication that those don't count.

Oddly. my Kobo Plus Reading Life emails seem to count sideloaded books since that is a majority of what I read. I seem to remember that what is sent to Kobo for sideloaded books is page turns, time read and finished status. See the attached image for a sample of what I receive.