Why So Many Newby Writers Without a Device

[speakingtohe]

I don't equate good writing with owning a device. There are many authors who cannot afford a computer. I personally know two authors who are dependent on library computers and friends to email or browse the web.

Ebooks were around for quite a few years before dedicated readers, and many people use computers if they have them.

Ostracising or vilifying people because of what they don't own seems pretty unenlightened. Discrimination some might dare to think.

Should we brand them as riffraff and consign them to the workhouse till they can meet our economic standards.

Let them write books I say and let them advertise them wherever they want to or can afford to.

How else can they hope to buy that ebook reader.

Helen

[charmian]

I for one don't see why it matters unless they are posting inappropriately. If they aren't doing anything that causes problems, why must things be changed?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

Of course!

Everyone knows that in order to have an opinion on an eReader, you have to own every model of that brand (K1, K2, K3 or N1, NC, N2, etc.) and you have to have used it every day with every possible format it supports.

And if your opinion of that device isn't 100% positive, then WHY AREN'T YOU IN THE OTHER FORUMS COMPLAINING ABOUT THEIR DEVICES, TOO?

[edit by moderation].

(That was all total sarcasm, I swear. )

I posted my finding on the nook STR about the rendering engine and the most popular publisher embedded font family (Charis SIL) and I get shit from some of the users there when I know for sure what I saw with my eyes and what my comparison against my 650 showed me. I even posted a screen grab that shows the problem and they still are full of shit.

[JSWolf]

If I didn't have a reader but was producing eBooks, I'd use ADE & Kindle Previewer to look at the eBooks on the computer. But for iBooks, you HAVE to have an iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch.

What I don't get is given how non-standard iBooks can be, why do we want to help people make eBooks for iBooks when they don't even have a device to test their eBooks with?

[DiapDealer]

I'll take an honest (even if it is gratuitous) "Dine and Dash" over segue-challenged sock-puppetry any day.

"Hey, speaking of dangling participles, I just read this really cool urban fantasy by a brand-new author that I think you'd like."

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Completely different, queentess. You are an active participant in the community of MR. What you choose to list or not isn't going to get anyone excited. But the drive-by types who are here for a half dozen messages to flog their new selfpublished "masterpiece" are a very different story.

But Queentess had to start with an initial post; she didn't wave a magic wand and suddenly have 500 relevant posts at MR. The complaints about the authors are that their initial posts revolve around their books and that they don't list an acceptable reading device.

How come you are not complaining about those MR members who have been members for a couple of years but have near zero karma and fewer than 10 posts? Perhaps they are shy and prefer to follow discussions but not get drawn into the rancor that seems to rise on a significant number of threads.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

Also, +1 to this. The insistence on a Real Name is extremely problematic. (And I'd imagine that a quick poll of MR moderators would find that few of them have Real Names listed in their siggies. If we can trust "anonymous" moderators, then why not commenters?)

I've known people in Real Life whose Real Name participation online backfired in a bad way through no fault of their own. I would not presume to insist that everyone use their Real Life name online for these very reasons.

As the poster who raised the issue about real names, it is clear that my sarcasm didn't make it from my mind to the post . My point was -- and hopefully I am articulating it better this time -- that it seems to me that if we are going to tolerate anonymous posting for whatever reason, we should tolerate people who do not wish to identify electronic gadgets that they may or may not own. More harm is done to online communities by anonymous posters than by people who list none as a reading device.

As another poster noted, many of MR members do not provide details, yet we seem to be jumping all over the device one but none of the others. I see no rational reason why the device information is so much more important than any of the other tidbits of information, such as geographical location, date of birth, gender, real name, etc. More spamming is done by anonymous than by none.

[HarryT]

With the greatest respect, Richard, there's all the difference in the world between a member who chooses not to post much, and someone who comes to MR with the sole purpose of advertising their own products. MobileRead is (supposedly) a discussion forum for those who have an interest in reading on mobile devices; it's not intended to be a marketplace for spammers. I think we can all tell the difference between the two types of person.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by Tome Keeper

Therefore I do not use my real name for anything not professionally related or absolutely required online (i.e. facebook, online stores).

I guess I don't understand this. I would be more leery of using my real name on Facebook than on Mobile Read. Facebook's rules of privacy change so often that I don't understand why they even bother to pretend to have any rules of privacy. I don't know how many members of MR there are, but the number has to be a drop in the bucket compared to the number of Facebookers.

Seems to me that if your reason for not using your real name on MR is for privacy, then you shouldn't be on Facebook at all. But that is simply my view of things, and obviously not the view of most people.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by HarryT

With the greatest respect, Richard, there's all the difference in the world between a member who chooses not to post much, and someone who comes to MR with the sole purpose of advertising their own products. MobileRead is (supposedly) a discussion forum for those who have an interest in reading on mobile devices; it's not intended to be a marketplace for spammers. I think we can all tell the difference between the two types of person.

With the greatest respect to a moderator, I was under the impression that the whole point of the AUTHOR SELF PROMOTIONS forum was so that authors could have a place to be marketplace spammers.

I, for one, appreciate that forum as a reader -- there are a LOT of indie books out there to wade through and having seen the author in the AUTHOR SELF PROMOTION forum helps me to be a little more selective.

In all honesty, I really don't see the big deal here, and reading this thread I feel like I'm probably in the majority in that? If you don't like the AUTHOR SELF PROMOTIONS, you stay out of the sandbox for that particular forum -- I don't think it's bleeding over into the B&N forums.

I kind of see this as a proposal that the authors must be X tall (or have Y-many eReaders) to ride the self-promotions ride, and I don't see the point. I mean, you can always lie about your device, no?

OMG EVERYONE I HAVE A KINDLE NOW. MY PROFILE SAYS SO.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Seems to me that if your reason for not using your real name on MR is for privacy, then you shouldn't be on Facebook at all. But that is simply my view of things, and obviously not the view of most people.

Different people use Facebook differently. My husband "uses" Facebook with his real name so that he can be friend-ed by his daughter, mother, and sundry other relatives and see their update status. But he has never in all his life made a Facebook post himself.

In the same way, my mother "uses" Facebook, but her updates are deliberately vague and saccharine -- it's just a vehicle to let the family know she's alive, happy, healthy, etc. She's aware the posts may well be public and adjusts her posting style accordingly.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

. . . and they still are full of shit.

Perhaps it is your attitude that rankles, not what you say. Might be worth thinking about. Not everyone can be so consistently superior yet well loved.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Perhaps it is your attitude that rankles, not what you say. Might be worth thinking about. Not everyone can be so consistently superior yet well loved.

I'll vouch for him in the case of the STR font rendering.

At one point the [edit by moderation] he was engaging called Charis an obscure, esoteric font.

At MR, you really just have to learn to use that Ignore feature as needed, I think.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What I don't get is given how non-standard iBooks can be, why do we want to help people make eBooks for iBooks when they don't even have a device to test their eBooks with?

Because it is the friendly, community thing to do? Because someday we might ourselves ask for help and hope to receive it in a friendly manner? Because the gas is leaking from our balloon and we'd prefer a soft landing?

BTW, no one has suggested that you need to help. Why not simply ignore the posts you don't like rather than spend so much effort attacking? I bet your blood pressure would appreciate it!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

With the greatest respect to a moderator, I was under the impression that the whole point of the AUTHOR SELF PROMOTIONS forum was so that authors could have a place to be marketplace spammers.

That's right; it is. It gets all the advertising into one place, so that those who like that sort of thing can go there, and those who don't can ignore it.