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A few questions for you. Yes, you!
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ThomasBa2
Posted 2011-10-25 10:09 PM (#2764 - in reply to #2761)
Subject: Re: A few questions for you. Yes, you!



Member

Posts: 6
0
Location: Massillon, Ohio
Actually, I have come to SF late in life. I mean i always knew who PKD and Bradbury were and had read them along with a few others. I had spent most of my life reading classics and European and American literary fiction. So now I want to read the good stuff in SF and some Fantasy and i see WWE as a research tool to aquaint me with what is worth reading and what I can skip. I also use it to keep track of new authors who I might want to read. As for surprises, I have found that there are many worthy authors who would be considered major writers if they were not dismissed as writing genre fiction.

Edited by ThomasBa2 2011-10-25 10:15 PM
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lampak
Posted 2011-12-15 8:25 AM (#2818 - in reply to #1956)
Subject: Re: A few questions for you. Yes, you!



Member

Posts: 5
0
Location: Poland
I've always liked fantasy but didn't know which books were good. I used to choose books from a bookshop looking at their covers but they often turned out poor. I decided to google for some kind of a ranking. The problem with most of them was that they consisted mostly of 'pulp', generic high fantasy (never trust a ranking which lists Goodkind and Salvatore in top 10). Somehow I found WWE.

I've created an account mostly for the BookTracker.

The feature I use the most is still the list of award winners, blurbs, extracts and other basic stuff. Can't say I do much more here.

BTW, thanks for a great site. It's opened me to a bit more ambitious literature and, when it turned out not all the books I found worth reading were translated to Polish, encouraged me to read them in English
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Administrator
Posted 2011-12-15 10:21 AM (#2819 - in reply to #2818)
Subject: Re: A few questions for you. Yes, you!



Admin

Posts: 3942
2000
Location: Dallas, Texas

lampak - 2011-12-15 8:25 AM I've always liked fantasy but didn't know which books were good. I used to choose books from a bookshop looking at their covers but they often turned out poor.

Been there, done that and I've got a stack of crappy books to prove it!  That experience was the genesis for this site so I'm glad WWEnd is helping you find the good stuff.  Thanks for the response.

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splunge52
Posted 2011-12-27 11:30 AM (#2854 - in reply to #1956)
Subject: RE: A few questions for you. Yes, you!



Member

Posts: 14
0
Location: Rhode Island
How did you find your way to WWEnd originally? A link from Wikipedia

Did you become a member right away or did you visit a few times or lurk for a bit first? I became a member right away.

What made you decide to become a member? 2 reasons. I'm a lists person for one. Also I am a completist. I started off wanting to read all the Nebula winning and nominated books from the beginning that the library system in Rhode Island has to offer.Later I added the Hugo and Locus SF lists. All the town librarys in RI are on one database online and if a book is at a library I don't feel like driving to they will deliver it to my home library. Suprisingly I have found that my library between the some 40 or so branches have had about 75% of the titles I have looked for.

What WWEnd features do you use/enjoy the most? Book Tracker

Do you know any other members personally? No


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Administrator
Posted 2011-12-27 12:10 PM (#2856 - in reply to #2854)
Subject: RE: A few questions for you. Yes, you!



Admin

Posts: 3942
2000
Location: Dallas, Texas

Thanks for the response, splunge52!

You've come to the right place for lists.  With 12 awards and 17 best of lists there is something here for everyone.  We've got some more lists coming next year too so stay tuned.

I'm glad to hear you're getting good use out of your library.  We've got a decent library system here in Dallas and I've used the transfer service many times.  It's very convenient unless you just have to have the book right now.  Usually I've got something else I can start on if I need to wait.

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Blue gargoyle
Posted 2012-01-07 2:46 PM (#2877 - in reply to #1956)
Subject: Re: A few questions for you. Yes, you!



Member

Posts: 27
25
Location: Canada
How did you find your way to WWEnd originally? A link from Wikipedia - when checking up Hugo/Nebula awards lists - I think

Did you become a member right away or did you visit a few times or lurk for a bit first? Second visit, I think

What made you decide to become a member? To use booktracker I think

What WWEnd features do you use/enjoy the most? I know this for certain: booktracker

Do you know any other members personally? No
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Administrator
Posted 2012-01-07 7:10 PM (#2878 - in reply to #2877)
Subject: Re: A few questions for you. Yes, you!



Admin

Posts: 3942
2000
Location: Dallas, Texas
Ah, another Wikipedia recruit!  I should really thank them for all the links and new members they keep sending our way.  Glad to have you here Blue gargoyle!

It seems pretty clear that BookTrackr is the most popular WWEnd feature.  We've got a ton of new updates planned for it including some that will go out tomorrow night (if all goes well) so stay tuned for that.

Thanks for the response.

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DrNefario
Posted 2012-01-08 7:49 AM (#2879 - in reply to #1956)
Subject: Re: A few questions for you. Yes, you!



Uber User

Posts: 526
500
Location: UK
I don't honestly remember how I found the site - I guess I was searching for one of the Hugo Winners, since I am in the middle of my attempt to read them all. I started a blog not long ago about book prizes and best-of lists, and was having some trouble with the data tracking, so the BookTrackr is a bit of a godsend. The blog has lapsed slightly, lately, but was intended to cover other genres and general fiction as well as SF&F, but I am mainly an SF&F reader so I'm focusing on the Hugo for now, having had a good head start.

I joined straight away and don't know anyone else on here.

The problem with the BookTrackr is that once you've been through and set everything up once. There's not much else to do until you've read some more books.
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Administrator
Posted 2012-01-08 10:43 AM (#2880 - in reply to #2879)
Subject: Re: A few questions for you. Yes, you!



Admin

Posts: 3942
2000
Location: Dallas, Texas

DrNefario, we meet again...

Hugo searches have brought many people to WWEnd.  The Hugo award page gets more traffic than all the other awards pages combined and then some.  It's the most recognizable of the awards and indeed even non fans have heard of it.  I peeked at your stats and you're well on your way to completing the Hugo winners.  Well done, Sir.

You mentioned your blog but you don't have a link in your profile.  Where can we find you online?

There's not much else to do with BookTrackr?  Hmmm.  I see your point but I think there are a few things you can still do.  You've tagged an impressive 315 books as read so far but you haven't tagged any books or authors as favorites.  I always like to see what people include on their favorites lists so I can compare with mine.  Also, you can certainly post some reviews   We've got over 400 so far but with 4,000 books and counting there is plenty of room for more.  Lots of WWEnd members post extracts of their reviews here and link to their blogs for the full reviews which we absolutely love!  It's a great way to leverage some old archived reviews to draw some visitors your way and we get more content for our members to enjoy.

Aside from that we have lots of upgrades for BookTrackr on the slate so there will be more you can do with it in the near future.  We have a reading challenge that's just about ready to drop which uses BookTrackr and one feature I'm desperate to get off the ground:  custom lists.  More on that, and some other features, later so stay tuned!

Thanks for the comments!

 

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Tantara
Posted 2012-01-12 11:01 PM (#2894 - in reply to #1956)
Subject: Re: A few questions for you. Yes, you!



Member

Posts: 26
25
Location: Washington state
I originally found the site when I was looking for a good list of female science fiction authors. I came across various blogs mentioning the Mistressworks series, and when I searched for more information on that, I landed on WWE, where I found the best organized and most aesthetically-pleasing list of that series. As I am a total list junkie, I was immediately sucked in to the site and all its cool tools.

I didn't become a member for quite a while. Then one day during Banned Books Week, I posted in a sf/f group on Goodreads about the event and book banning as it pertains to sf/f in particular, and I linked to the WWE list of banned speculative fiction. Dave posted a comment in the thread, and I decided I should really become a member here. (Now I've finally determined to start getting involved in the forums, too...new year, new discourse!)

I most love the lists of all the features on WWE. They are so very helpful as both organizational tools and as vehicles for discovering new books and authors. I enjoy the articles and reviews, too, and I'm excited about the new Grandmasters Challenge. (I'm off to choose my 12 right now.)
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Administrator
Posted 2012-01-12 11:39 PM (#2895 - in reply to #2894)
Subject: Re: A few questions for you. Yes, you!



Admin

Posts: 3942
2000
Location: Dallas, Texas

Tantara,

Fantastic!  Glad you decided to join and I'm really pleased you found us looking for female SF suthors.  It's one of our major goals to help people find new books and authors to try even if they're written by *GASP* women!

Two things really brought to my attention the derth of women authors in my reading:  The Mistressworks list and the Authors I've Read list in My World.  Ian Sales has done the genre a great service making that excellent list and championing women authors.  He's made plenty of grumpy old men like me stop and think about who we're reading and why.  Add to that the author pics in the Authors I've Read list and it just became impossible to ignore that fact that I've read far too few women.  I'm working on improving my score and the Mistressworks and Award Winning Books by Women Authors lists are a great help.

The Banned Science Fiction & Fantasy Books list is another popular list.  We showed that list at RenoVation at the WWEnd fan table and it got a lot of attention and generated some great conversations.

Thanks for the reply and the kind words about WWEnd.  I'm happy to hear you'll be getting more involved with the forums and the reading challenge.  We've had a number of members really step up and contribute in the forums and the blog and it's made the site much more interesting for everyone.  The GMRC is a bit of an experiment.  I hope folks will take to it and help us improve it as we go along.

Cheers!

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Engelbrecht
Posted 2012-01-31 7:06 AM (#2963 - in reply to #1956)
Subject: Re: A few questions for you. Yes, you!



Uber User

Posts: 441
100
I think I found WWE through a link, but I can't remember from where - sorry!

It was the large set of awards and lists that got me hooked - I'm a sucker for lists... I also liked the wealth of info on both the books and authors - it's great having the synopsis there to jog my memory about books read ages ago. The blog links are great as well - real value-added stuff.

I found the site a couple of days ago and have finally finished putting in my books (just the award/list books so far). I got quite the kick out of seeing the blue bars extend on My Reading Stats page - I expect that it will inspire me to push some of them to 100% before too long.

I don't know anyone here, but I'm sure that that will change.

Thanks for all your hard work in putting the site together!
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Administrator
Posted 2012-01-31 8:55 AM (#2964 - in reply to #2963)
Subject: Re: A few questions for you. Yes, you!



Admin

Posts: 3942
2000
Location: Dallas, Texas

Welcome to WWEnd, Engelbrecht!  However you found us I'm glad you did.

The lists are one of our best features and I see that you've gone to town with BookTrackr!  I saw you sign up the other day and tag a bunch of books.  I came back a few hours later and peeked at your stats and was blown away.  We've been watching your progress and were wondering if you'd ever stop.  I can tell you that you're by far the best read member we've got.  Truly impressive.

You are very close to completing a bunch of the lists and it sounds like you're already using the stats to help you find the ones you're missing.  That's pretty much exactly what BookTrackr is for.

Please do jump right in and mix it up.  We've got some great people from all over the world in our little community and we're alway eager to meet new folks.  Be sure to check out the Grand Master Reading Challenge too.  That's where all the action is right now.  We're getting tons of participation and many great reviews already.

Thanks for the complimant about WWEnd.  It's a labor of love and we feed off of the great ideas and input from our members so don't hesitate if you have any questions or comments.  There are lots of forum threads for member feedback.

 

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Engelbrecht
Posted 2012-02-01 8:49 AM (#2967 - in reply to #2964)
Subject: Re: A few questions for you. Yes, you!



Uber User

Posts: 441
100
Thanks for the warm welcome!

The challenge looks interesting - I'll take a look.
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iftyzaidi
Posted 2012-02-03 3:49 AM (#2980 - in reply to #2967)
Subject: Re: A few questions for you. Yes, you!



Member

Posts: 11
0
Location: Karachi, Pakistan
I discovered WWE when I was googling to try and find an updated list of the SF Masterworks series. I love lists and for a while I was religiously collecting the SF and Fantasy Masterworks. Then I lost track of them for a few years and wanted to find a list that had the newer stuff on it.

I became a member on my first visit. After spending some time browsing the site, I immediately fell in love with it. I already use LibraryThing to catalogue my books, but this seemed such a wonderfully attractive way of keeping track of a number of series and awards lists that I wanted to read from that I couldn't resist.

As well as the BookTracker service and the lists I also enjoy these forums, even though I didnt know anyone on here from before.
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Administrator
Posted 2012-02-03 8:36 AM (#2982 - in reply to #2980)
Subject: Re: A few questions for you. Yes, you!



Admin

Posts: 3942
2000
Location: Dallas, Texas

Thanks for the response, iftyzaidi.

The lists are a big attraction and the SF Masterworks is probably the most popular of them all.  It really is a great list.  We just added a bunch of new ones to the list a few weeks back.  Gollancz releases them with no fanfare it seems.  I just stumbled on one of the new ones and I thought I'd look and see if there were any more.  Found 8 more that way.  I wonder how the folks who've tagged them all as read feel when suddenly they're 9 short again?  I think the new Dangerous Visions cover is fantastic!  That's one I'll buy for the cover alone.

I'm really pleased that you enjoy the forums too.  You have to have a lot of members to support any real conversations and we're starting to get to that point now which is really great.  I've met a ton of great people through the forums from all over the world - South Africa, Farnce, Poland, Cayman Islands, other US states etc. and even a guy who lives just a couple miles from me here in Dallas.  Too cool.

Glad you found your way here and we really appreciate the kind words about WWEnd - they help fuel our enthusiasm! 

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