On what may very well bring the death of the Book Blogs Ning

[Maw Books]

SPAM! Lots and lots of spam.

[Bobbie Crawford-McCoy (NURTURE)]

I agree, it isn't a fun job but you never know, there may be some members who would like to help out in the capacity of a moderator.
You could ask specific people if they would like to help or you could ask people to volunteer their names. The only potential problem I can see with letting a bunch of people volunteer there names is that some people may be upset if they don't end up being selected as a moderator.

Or you could ask some long-time, trusted blogger friends who they would recommend, then message the recommended, asking if they'd like to help you out.

That's just my 2 cents worth. :)

[chrisbookarama]

I do think that the moderators should take care of spam within the groups if they can. The problem is some may have abandoned their groups and it becomes a Mad Max situation.

Honestly, I think it's just common sense that you wouldn't promote an Amish romance in a Vampire novel group (just an example)- unless they were Amish vampires.

Christina

[Tricia]

I agree. If the group moderators took care of their space, the two other administrators and myself can help out in the main discussion forum and wall posts. It's too overwhelming otherwise.

[Lisa Jemus]

Being brand new to the Book Blog Ning I have been slightly guilty of this practice, only because that is what I saw predominately on the site! I was even surprized that on the Hatchett Giveaway page there were giveaways posted there that were not even Hatchett! I remember the first few days I was getting used to the site I was noticing that people were posting the exact same thing on all the groups about thier giveaways, and have to admit was very disappointed as that is not what I thought the purpose of this site was. I am SO RELIEVED to hear you all "rant" (although it is the politest form of ranting I've ever heard!" that this is frowned upon and I look forward to seeing how this all transpires. It was starting to feel like a grand competition or MLM site for the most traffic! I do a book blog for pleasure, the love of reading and MOSTLY to meet like minded people like you all that have the same passion for books as I do.

Cheers!
Lisa

[Amy]

This is exactly it! I see all kinds of irrelevant posts in groups.. for example a group called Pocket Books Sci-Fi/Fantasy Blog tours should be about JUST THAT. Not every review someone has done on a sci-fi fantasy book. It becomes much too difficult to wade through the comments and find the good stuff. There's already another group for speculative fiction and that's the place those links should go if anywhere.

[Wayne Hurlbert]

It always bothers me to see postings for reviews and giveaways in groups run by publishers and by publicists, that are for other books. Those books are often not published by that publisher, or handled by that publicist. It shows a complete lack of respect for the publisher, their representatives here on Book Blogs, and the independent publicists as well.

This group is fortunate to have so many dedicated online publishers representatives and independent publicists as members. It would be a tragedy to lose them from the group.

[Deborah]

yep totally agree with this. I also think it's rude when the group is set up by the publisher ( ie. the Early Bird Blog Tours by Hachette is for Hachette to post about THEIR blog tours) and someone goes and posts in the main discussion forum about how they want people to join their own blog tour. that's not only rude, but it's spam to advertise your own work in another company's space.

i think i think the main problem is people are not reading exactly what the forums are and just posting everywhere, and then use the excuse that everyone is doing it.

[Eve Recinella]

I am confused as well, I thought that was the point of the groups I joined, to post your reviews. I post my reviews in the three groups I joined because I assume there are different people in all three groups. If that is spamming then I am sorry, there needs to be a clear set of rules posted somewhere...

[chrisbookarama]

Look at the group description. If they encourage all reviews, then that's fine. But if the group is for say Blogging Tips review links are not appropriate there. As well, don't post review links for genres not related to the group. See how your link may or may not fit before commenting. That's pretty much it.

[Deborah]

this here is an example of spam post in groups


http://bookblogs.ning.com/group/pocketbooksblogtours

This group is set up for POCKET Books blog tours, not any type of blog tours but blog tours FROM pocket books. but on the page, there are 6 comments for reviews/giveaways that are from OTHER publishers and have nothing to do with pocketbooks. the first comment even states that it is from Sourcebooks. if this is not spam, i don't know how better else to explain it

[Ann Kingman]

Deborah, that's a terrific example, and if I were a member who valued the various publisher offers here (hopefully that's most of us), I would be furious. Because if I were the publisher who set up that group and it was over-run with messages that had nothing to do with the topic at hand, I'd just stop participating over here -- and that would be to the detriment of everyone here who uses this site to get blog tours or ARCs and to get to know publishers and the world of books.

Certainly whoever set up the group could delete those messages, but if it is a publisher or publicist, they risk having an outcry that could reflect badly on them. Better not to play the bad guy and just find your participants somewhere else.

I appreciate Trish's perspective -- this ning has gotten so big that it's difficult to control. But because of its size, it needs that control. I suggest the following:

1. The purpose(s) of this group become defined. I see three off the bat, and I'm sure there are more:
a. A place for book bloggers to share best practices, tips, ideas, and information on how to achieve their goals in book blogging, whatever those goals may be.
b. A place where publishers, publicists and authors who want to work with book bloggers can directly reach them in an easy and controlled manner
c. A place for new book bloggers to introduce themselves to the community and to learn from the ones who have been doing it for awhile.

Once those purposes are defined, I think guidelines can be drawn up on how best to keep the group focused on those goals. For instance, I think there should be one forum where authors should post if they are looking for people to review their book. And that should be the only forum, so if a member is not interested in that, they don't ever have to go there. Similarly, if individual publishers have forums set, if the rules of the ning site state that only posts related to that particular publisher go there, then when the moderator does delete irrelevant messages, they have the rules of the ning to back them up, so that they are not accused of favoritism, etc.

As we launch into Book Blogger Appreciation week, perhaps it is a good time to further these types of discussions and strengthen our community even more.

[Tricia]

These are great ideas Ann. I will definitely be looking back to these as I draw something up. If you want to email me more ideas, please feel free!