I am getting ready to add a meet-in-the-real-world-and-exchange-books feature.

I'm struggling a bit for names to describe this feature. Some ideas I've had:

"events"
"meetings"
"moochmeets"
"moochups"
"meet and mooch"
"moochings"

And would love suggestions (via the comments feature) of names for this.

Namely, you'll be able to:

• create a "gathering", specifying its time and place. This will create a dedicated forum for the gathering.

• people can click an "attend" button, which joins them to the forum.

• people can view the members of a forum, which in this case means they can see who will be attending the gathering

• people can browse the inventories of others attending the gathering and send "ask first" requests other attendees to bring certain books with them. This will not mooch the book, but it will reserve the book for them, so others cannot mooch it. The reservation expires the day after the gathering.

• each time someone clicks the "attend" button, a message will be auto-posted to the forum saying they're attending, with a link to their inventory (or maybe list their inventory, if it's under 100 books). In this way, you can keep on top of what books are available to you by attending this gathering.

• gatherings occurring within 100 miles of you will automatically appear on your home page, so you're aware of what you could go to. You can opt out of seeing gatherings altogether, or shorten the distance you're willing to travel. With this feature, gatherings automatically notify likely attendees.

• since the gathering feature is actually a forum, people can discuss the gathering and post messages to each other.
  

I'm planning on having a Mooch Gathering in London in November, and then another one in San Francisco in January. By then, hopefully I'll have done a decent job with the feature and other moochers can run with it and have their own self-organized gatherings.

-john

Could it be possible to give an opportunity of take 100 miles or your country? Even in Germany or others there are not so much "Moocher", so someone like to go father than 100 mils.

It would be *much* easier programming-wise for me, if you were shown "Meet and Mooch" events in your Country (if not USA) or in your State (if USA or Canada). That might be how I do it on a first pass, just to save me work, as the "100 miles" idea is several days work.

How would this work? Would you have to set up one-to-one trades for the Meet and Mooch, or could you spend your BookMooch points there, if no one was interested in your inventory?

If you "reserve" a book from someone attending, they bring it with them. You look at it, and if you like it, you do a regular mooch. If you don't like it, you give it back to them and the next day the reservation is automatically canceled.

I also think people should bring books that they believe others _should_ be interested in, and they try (in person) to get others to mooch them.

Moochups sounds great! I love that there might be one in London in November - I'm based in London, so if you need any help organising that, give me a shout. I'm a PA by job, and work for a company with a media/news side, so could alert a lot of colleagues about it (part of the Green Team maybe).

Thanks, that would be very helpful.

I'm planning on having it at a friend's apartment in Covent Garden (central London), and can probably accommodate 50 people. My plan is for each person to bring a food or beverage, so we can mooch food off each other as well!

It says what happen or is the idea from this event.

Could it be possible to give an opportunity of take 100 miles or your country? Even in Germany or others there are not so much "Moocher", so someone like to go father than 100 mils.

Great idea btw.

Mooch-a-palooza
The Moocher Faire
Mooching Man
Mooch 2.0

Okay, that's all I've got for now...

Like the Meet and Mooch, Moochups and Moochmeets.

Any way that we can list those large/ heavy books that are just too heavy to mail as available only at one of these events?

"Where are you going tonight?"
"I'm going to a meech."
"What will you be doing?"
"Meeching."

Okay, I'm having too much fun with this.

It sounds like it could be alot of fun....and we all need more fun, don't we?

I want to have one in Houston, too, so Houstonites, contact me and I'll get one set up.

As for the names, I like "meet and mooch", "moochmeets" or "moochings". Even when you're not speaking in English, you get what it means, as the word "meeting" has become common in other languages.
Not a fan of "Mooch-a-palooza" for the same reason: too English (American?)-specific.

I like many ideas above for a name mooch meets, meet and mooch or a book mooch book meech.

Moochers seem to be a neat bunch of people, a meet up could be fun!

I would suggest though that a list of those who can come with links to their profiles and wishlists would be useful, because we could see what other people planning to come are looking for - I might be able to bring books for specific people. I have books which I haven't listed because I'm short of time, and others which are a bit bulky to post.

For that reason, if you're going to create something specific to bookmooch, it should be different from another company's name.

Just my thoughts, M

I really understand that it would be difficult to add both options (meetings within your country and/or within ... miles/KM distance), but just wanted to add my 2 cents...

BookMoochers Pilipinas does meetups regularly, usually in party form, and it helps us save a lot on shipping. We usually announce promo mooches before the meetup and bring the books to the party. We also bring our slow moving inventory to let other people check it out, in case they'd be interested after seeing it face to face. The meets have been a great bonding activity for members of BookMoochers Pilipinas.

We also have a potluck for the food, and have activities such as BookMooch jeopardy, book swaps, white elephant swaps, and even live chats with members who can't join us physically.

Here's a recap of one of our meets: http://sumthinblue.com/bookmoochers-pilipinas-summer-mixer/

John, if you ever find yourself in the Philippines, let us know!

Tucson would be a great place to have one ...

Mary
Czechmate