Thanks everyone for the friendly tone and civility in discussing my blog entry A dangerous idea

I was trying to be a bit of a devil's advocate and not let people know what my current opinion of the idea was, so that it'd get as positive a presentation and listening as possible.

That being said, this comment pretty much summarizes my feeling about the dangerous idea:

This idea does not seem to fit in with Bookmooch overall, and reduces the majority who would not join into second-class citizens, without much benefit overall. I can see how Albiris would like this, but see it benfiting them much more than Bookmooch members. They sometimes have the lowest price, but much more often are beat out by Amazon and the rest. You have to check all the sites to find the best price, not just one. And while some albiris sellers ship international, more seem not too (and only small books). I could see many more complications if Bookmooch were to act as a middle man to the many people who sell books on Albiris, would Bookmooch give refunds? A whole new level of management for sure. I love the simplicity of Bookmooch and the way that books are traded so quickly and freely, with some execeptions. This idea would add so much complexity to the system and for very little benefit over Bookmooch members simply buying their own used books as needed.

I also found it extremely interesting that in a previous blog post (Wishlist griping) people complained about how they can't find books they want on BM, whereas here (A dangerous idea) the exact opposite occurred, with many, many comments like this:

Personally, I have no trouble finding books I want to mooch. I haven't been here long, and I like a pretty wide variety of books (sci fi, fantasy, horror, non-fiction) so I've managed to mooch quite a few books - mainly specific books or books by specific authors that I wanted. I managed to find a lot of them "locally" (ie from UK members), but don't mind mooching internationally so that gives me more options, and I send internationally too.

and

I am happy with BM as it stands now. My wishlist books pop up regularly to be mooched and I browse my recommendations. One just has to have patience, if not then the bookstore will welcome you.

and

I really don't see anything at all wrong with the books availble on Bookmooch, the current bestsellers always become available in time. I always get more books here than I did when at PBS.

and

At first I thought it's hard to find books to mooch, but then I realised that this is also an opportunity to find new favourite authors. Browsing inventories of people who list books I like, using the recommendations option (I use Amazons recommendations too, it's handy sometimes), and even getting author recommendations from other members - that just happened to me and I was pleasantly surprised.

and on and on and on... (grin)

If nothing else, it was *really* useful to me to bring up this topic, so that those actually finding things to read on BM were motivated to speak up!

Several commentators raised interesting points:

Before the USA, Britain had (and maybe still does?) "subscription libraries" that worked exactly like this. I don't think it's a bad idea, but it's going to take a lot of time, thought, and input from a variety of sources to tweak the model until it's going to optimized efficiency and results.

A few years ago, a friend took me to the London Library, a private, paid-membership-based library. You pay to join, and the membership dues go to buy books that members want. I saw a few famous writers working there on my brief tour, and the Library is still thriving, even in this age of Amazon. I suspect that visit is what gave me A dangerous idea

The problem of how the premium membership might actually work was raised:

John, is there any way you could do some simulations, getting an idea of what kinds of discounts there would be, what shipping costs, etc.? Alibris has many low-priced used books, and many others at much higher prices, so would there be a cut-off for moochable books?

I had started to run some numbers, but everything rested on a certain assumption of how many premium books would be re-given into BookMooch. If that percentage was low, this idea would simply be a volume-purchasing scheme, perhaps with a 20% discount, and not that compelling to me. Several people gave their opinion that their wishlisted books are the ones most likely to be kept by them, especially if they received them by paying membership dues. If that were true (and there's no reason to doubt it) then the math for the dangerous idea wouldn't look very good.

Two people raised the "auction" idea:

An 'automooch' wishlist which cost 1 point the moment you put something on the list _besides_ the point(s) the actual mooch will cost. Since it's expensive you won't put many books on it. The extra point will go to BM, so it'll act as a 'point sink', which is good

There are a few good reasons this is a good idea:

1) by introducing variable pricing, the price for in-demand books would go up, both increasing the motivation to list them, but also more accurately representing the value to the person who obtains the book

2) not all of the increased price need necessarily go to the book giver. Ie, if the book "cost" 8 points, perhaps 4 would go to the sender, and 4 would be absorbed by BM, as a de-inflationary force.

3) "net givers", those people who tend to give a lot more books than they ever mooch, would be more motivated to continue using BM

The negatives that I can think of are:

1) it adds a layer of complication for members

2) would book givers "game the system" and start not listing books unless they could receive multiple points for them? This *is* what happened a few years ago when I offered a 2x multiplier on giving books that were wishlisted.

But, overall, I think it's a good idea and I've got it on my "possible" list to do.

---

A few people indicated fear that this meant BM was in financial trouble and might bring ads or worse:

And I hope you don't mean to bring in ads, or have the site be much different in the new membership area. I would hope we wouldn't have to indure those pop up adds, on some sites... or commercials/advertising

Not to worry, I really dislike ads, and the "give a little" system has been bringing in enough through donations that expenses are being met, and as I mentioned previously, the BM bank account has a bit over $3000 in it at the moment, enough to buy a new hard drive, or medium sized server, if an emergency occurs.

I liked this comment:

I'm not sure about the $10 a month — however, I'd probably be willing to both offer points back to bookmooch, or even pay a yearly or one-time fee (say $25) to kick off BM to use its data to pick the books that will seed the community the best. I don't need a "premium" privilege, but a "badge" would be fine to let other people know that I've contributed to the community.

because it suggests that we keep thinking of creative ways in which our power as a community of book lovers, readers and moochers might be leveraged to give us all more good stuff to read. Let's keep thinking!

-john

To keep members from listing books they do not have and/or do not intend to actually give, perhaps begin with the 1 for 1 system we have now, with the extra points being held in escrow until book is marked received might help keep people honest. And of course, if the book is marked lost, points would be returned to the moocher...

As I mentioned in the other thread, I have a few books I would list for more than one point, but will not list them for just one point; these are extra nice, gift quality books, that I feel are worth more... Under my proposal, If I listed these books, I'd get 1 point when the book was requested (at which time the full point value would be deducted from the moocher's account) and the additional "premium" points would be given to me when the moocher marks the books as received. I don't mind waiting.

Perhaps limit the number of such premium books that can be listed per member per month or per quarter

I would not object to paying a one time premium membership fee if it included the privilege of listing premium books, but I would want the books to be available to all members, regardless of their paid status.

Now postage and space for books, those are universal problems.

If you did this and it took off and it worked out really well, maybe you could even bring back 2/3 for international mooches, which I'm sure everybody would really appreciate!

And as far as people who complain that there's nothing good here: There's not necessarily supposed to be, in my opinion. If you want something that bad, buy it or wait for it because it will come around. Amazon's used books are usually like $4 - $5 including shipping. Also, in the US, Goodwill. Seriously. If you have one in your area, it can be awesome. Books at the ones around me are 99 cents. 99 cents! I've managed to pick up some more popular authors and books including "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy which is on over 700 wishlists! 700! So I'll be dropping that into my inventory after I read it soon (next on my list), and I really hope that it will get sent around to people.

It all reminds me of discussions on hulu, where people post just to say they hate a particular show and will never watch it again. That's great. Fantastic. Don't complain. Leave the people who are having a good time out of it. No one forced you to be here.

I don't actually even use the wishlist facility, really. I have 2 books on my wishlist, I think. Every time I log on, if I have points available, I search for about a dozen or so authors that I like, and occasionally a few specific titles, and mooch any that come up that I want, and so far I've found plenty of books I wanted!

I do tend to reread books, so I've now run out of ones to list - I have probably 1000+ books here and at my parents house but they're all ones I want to keep! So what to do to be able to list more books? I plan to browse the local charity shops for cheap books I'd quite like to read, buy them, read them, then list them on BM. I figure that, if I like the sound of a book enough to buy it secondhand, chances are there'll be someone around who likes the sound of a book enough to mooch it from me eventually!

Back on topic :-D the comment that John quoted as expressing his opinion pretty much agrees with mine too.

When a user adds a book to their wishlist, there would be a drop-down box where they could select the number of points that they'd be willing to spend to get it. When another user happens to add this book to their inventory, there would be a drop-down box for them to specify how many points they'd like to receive in exchange for it (Perhaps this person adding the book has the option to see what the highest bids are so that they don't price their book too high for anyone to buy). Then, after adding the book, everyone who can afford the book at its current asking price would see it pop up on their wishlist.

Users who like this option would have to opt into it (that is, they would by default be trading under the fixed pricing system), and wouldn't even see the higher-valued books until they did. New users would be under a probationary period in which they can not opt into the variable pricing system until after a certain amount of time has elapsed or until they've done a certain amount of fixed pricing trading and proven themselves to be decent people.

Because people would have to opt into the variable pricing system, that extra layer of complication would be optional. I'm not exactly sure what the problem is with people 'gaming the system' as it's so called, but that single disadvantage seems much outweighed by the advantages that come with this sort of system.

I feel like this is worth discussing further.

although there are some who would like this "system", I believe that driving up the "price" of a book will only lead to less mooching. A point generally costs on average $2.50 (postage). If a book is going to be even 3 points that will cost more than it can be bought for at Amazon, as a used book. The most I have paid for a book at Amazon was around $6.00 and that included shipping.

Why would I spend 3 to 5 points mooching a book here when I could get it from Amazon or Alibris for less money? And that is what its all about right now for a lot of us. Money.

As for the 3 points per book international (coming April)...I might dwindle my mooching for a while and see what happened after this experiment before resuming to mooch. Since I can't wait for my favorite books to pop here anyway, I usually buy them and put it here after I read them a zillion times in a few weeks. I was a book collector before I found bookmooch and I had at least 300+ books to start with. Now I'm collecting books for my TBR pile that will already last me for a few years. Sorry but sending international will cost me more than buying them at Amazon "if" I send them as a single mooch. But still my expenses for postage are higher than my expenses than before (without BM), why? I think, it's just the thrill of mooching...the excitement of getting a book...against a hundreds of wishlister?

This could work in the following way:
* A Moocher would open an account with BM and put some money onto the account.
* Moocher searches for a book, but it is not available so they select to go to the group buy page.
* Here the Moocher would have the option of joining a list people already wanting to group buy the book or starting their own list.
* When the list is full (say 5 people) then the book is automatically purchased (the amount would be divided amongst the buyers) and posted to the first person, how reads it (within say 3 months) and posts it to the second and so on.

A group buy member could select to be the final purchaser of the book, i.e. they would be the person that the book ends up with. Maybe they should contribute twice as much as everyone else?

There will have to rules regarding what happens if the book is lost in the post, if a user badly damages the book and so on.

Sounds like a fun idea and could be a good way to get say 5 books to read for the price of one.

I do like the idea of a badge of some sort to recognize people that donate.

One thing I did like on Frugal Reader was on thier forums there was an auction section. There would be threads for different genres of books and people would take turns listing the books they wanted to auction, what they were interested in return and when they would close the auction (usually about 4 days). People would post offers and the one offering would say which offer they liked best. The back and forth was fun and some pretty funny things got offered. This might give some international people an advantage if they can think of something they could send from thier country that would beat out what US folks offer. Most wanted books from thier wishlist, points for PBS, points for BM, points for Frugal Reader, amazon gift card. But some wanted box tops for education, chocolate, candles, socks the bidder knitted, bookcover.

The forum auction section would allows books that might not be listed (because I have too many points or my book is too heavy) to be traded amoung members without changing anything in how the point system works.

It does go around the 1 point 1 book rule, but it does it in a way that is not baked into the system.

I do think I asked about auctions in the LibraryThing discussions a while back and was answered that you couldn't ask for more than the assigned points in BM, so never tried this.

I appreciate the desire to be provocative, but I personally wish we could get away from the discussion of radical ideas, and controversial changes, and just see what difference modest improvements in the site make. Several commenters (on this discussion or others) have noted a few of these:

1) inactive accounts;
2) cumbersome, unintuitive (and fairly hard to tailor) searching;
3) lack of wishlist email notifications until a good bit after they pop (which leads me checking my wishlist frequently as a favorite procrastination tool); and
4) lack of information when mooching whether someone has other wishlisted books in their inventory (this also takes time to sort through large inventories).

I doubt there would be too much objection to working on these and other things people have brought up--much like your "auto-focus. It may already be happening, but I'd really like to see bookmooch focus on the simple improvements. And see what happens then . .

I believe that driving up the "price" of a book will only lead to less mooching.

That would be true only of some books; however, we are not discussing raising the "price" of all books, only for those books which are harder to get in the first place.

"Why would I spend 3 to 5 points mooching a book here when I could get it from Amazon or Alibris for less money?"

You can't always find certain books available used or, if you do find them, they are not always cheap.

"If a book is going to be even 3 points that will cost more than it can be bought for at Amazon, as a used book."

That's not always true, it depends on the type of book.

For instance, the art books I seek rarely appear on Bookmooch. Why? Those who buy them in the first place often keep them. When that type of book does appear on bookmooch, it goes almost immediately and does not appear again for a long time, if ever.

So the alternative? Buy a copy. At $35 USD - used - that's barely possible, at $50, $100 or more, it's less possible than you can imagine. Quality art books are typically NOT available cheap, or even used - if you can find them at all. They are also large and heavy, thus costing more to mail.

Becca:

"I don't think variable pricing is a good idea and it would wreak havoc with the international aspect of the site."

Not necessarily. If some books could be put up for 3 points or 5 points for US members, I would not expect international members to pay a lot more, perhaps one extra point to compensate for the international postage. The international moochers are already paying the one extra point for the 1 point books, which will soon be 2 extra points out of pocket.

For those who believe inactive accounts should not have their wishlisted items counted; I agree. In fact, I'd like to see three settings on vacation.

1. Inventory only
2. Inventory + wishlist
3. Entire account

With setting one, nobody sees your inventory, but you can still mooch books and monitor pending transactions, plus particpate in the forums. This is something like what PBS has for a vacation setting.

With setting two, same as above, but your wishlisted items aren't visible and you can't start a new mooch. You can still monitor pending transactions and participate in the forums, should you wish.

Vacation settings one and two would both be user selectable only, and not negated by a simple login. The user would have to turn off either of the first two settings.

With setting three, vacation would be very much like it is now, except, maybe better as regards inactive wishlists... To keep from having his/her account automatically put on vacation setting 3, the member should be logging in at least once in three months. I'd say once a month, but I know there are reasons why some can't always log in as much as they would like.

Once those things are taken care of, then larger structural changes could be considered. It feels like you're trying to build a fancy new freeway through the middle of town, when the surface streets desperately need repaving.

Some of us like the looks and simple design of this site. If you want shiny and graphic-heavy, go elsewhere *shrug*.

Ask first on pending would be much more useful, as that directly affects what mooches go through.

While many members have extra time and points to purposefully vacation accounts, I think seeing and requesting books that they have about a 0% chance of ever getting is a big disappointment to new members, one that often turns them away from the site (which keeps them from listing new books for the rest of us!).

As I've posted in other "blog posts", my proposal was that after 3 months of not logging in to the site, the member be sent an automated email by the site. If they click back to the site and log in, they are good to go for another 3 months. If they don't reply within a week, they are put on vacation. Of course it needs to be a real vacation where their wishlists also disappear.

I don't care if the site looks fancy or flashy, but it is 2011 and the site needs to do a better job of taking advantage of basic technology that's been around for 10+ years. I mean I don't care if the site has "fancy" forums, but I consider the current format of the forums to not even be functional at the moment... and I have a small business where the biggest thing I do is run a message board. I only reply to blog posts on this site since they show up on my main page. The general forums are basically unusable, and not generating nearly the traffic they should be because of this. If they were in a format that made it easier to read and post, people would spend more time on the site and be more likely to post books and "give a little"

Now the forums are another topic. Any suggestions on how to improve the forums? :)

If the problem is that there is too much deadwood in members' inventories (and by that I mean older bestsellers with many copies in many inventories that are not on anyone's wish lists), you could encourage members to take those books off their inventories and use them as trades for the "Most Wanted" books instead. When I have books to list in my inventory, I check first to make sure there aren't already umpteen copies of it in the system -- if there are, I take it to Goodwill instead, or trade it at a used bookstore.

Personally, I'd rather *not* see the 1 book/1 point system go away.

They need to be designed in a way that new posts appear first, comments appear in chronological order (oldest to newest) so that people can follow the flow of the conversation, people have the ability to quote other posts (so that context is easier to understand), etc etc.

They don't need to be fancy, just functional. Right now the forums are a jumbled mess, and confusing to figure out how to get all comments to show up for a post or just to find anything at all. If I am struggling to use them, I hate to think what's happening to newbies looking for help. The few non-blog threads I have tried to read seemed to often have off topic comments from newbies who couldn't figure out how to start a new thread, interrupting the flow of the conversation.

Well -- if we keep on bringing it up, hopefully he will realize the problem exists or a good solution will come from one of the conversations. Giving it some thought, I'd say that maybe after a set period of inactivity, and lack of email response, the WL could just be moved to the reminder list. No need for John to reprogram the WL system entirely to fix this.

- I really think the idea of paying 120 dollars a year to get second hand books is not too useful. 120 dollars a year it would get me a lot of wishlist books, and i could pick myself when and which books, and decide to keep them or not.

- something very appealing about BM to me is that i can relist or not, as I feel like after I read the book. I can take as many years as I want to read a book, I can keep it, I can push it to friends. that expectation that much wishlisted books will be relisted is perhaps not a fair thing to expect from readers.

But going precisely against that basic bookmooch principle, and something similar to a bookcrossing bookray or bookring, have you ever considered organized book loans? For books one is not sure they will want to keep. People can offer up books they want to have returned, maybe a list can be organized or something.

One thing I do find frustrating in that many people are listing books and once mooched they are not shipping in a timely manner. I realize that with the economy so poor it is hard to find the extra money to ship. If they really can't ship books then remove the books so they are not mooched.

Also is there a better method to remove people who have not been a active member for a long time. If find it frustrating that their books remain in the system for months on end. This clogs up the system with books that are really not available to others.

New/updated threads should be at the top of the forum but within that thread, the posts should display oldest to newest so that people can follow.

I wondered when I arrived, why there was no higher point system for new books, or "best seller" listed books, or even your most wishlisted type of books, here.

The idea that I could get more points for adding a book from my "Keep Stacks" or(personal library)would definately bring more possibility of my adding books that I had meant to keep for myself for many years to come.
Personally, I have to have some things pried from my grasping paws at times...my books are often "prised" possessions...pardon the pun. I don't mean to hoard them, I only mean to read them...(alas), when there is...IF there is ever AMPLE TIME for relaxed reading of each and every one I have collected over a lifetime of collecting books.
;~})

HaPpY DAy!
Yur pal, Tikay

@Becca and Karen re the Blog: If you click on the title of the main message for the thread you go to the view where the comments are shown oldest to newest and the paragraphs are visible. To add paragraphs, quotes, font colour you just need to add some HTML codes. I don't find the the forums difficult at all, but I have noticed a few newbies going completely astray so the forums obviously could be more user friendly. BTW, we could also use a more active forum administrator cleaning up message threads that have been hijacked and putting orphan new forums/threads which are actually questions into the threads they belong in.

phpBB forum:

http://www.phpbb.com/

I've always liked.... I am not saying they are the best, but they solve some of the complaints I have about the FORUMS here.

For example, early on I started a thread called:

ALL ABOUT BOOKS.

This should have had sub-threads or discussions about all the different sub-genres. It did not work out that way. NOW there are hundreds of genre threads and I refuse to go subscribe to all of them. If they were all under one place, they would be easier to browse.

Just like all open discussions are under:

BOOKMOOCH DISCUSSION

Perfect!

And all angeling requests, are under:

ANGEL NETWORK DISCUSSION

And all the different areas with MOOCH meets, should have sub-thread under one area:

LOCAL MEETUPS

But my complaint is minor, and John B. is doing a lot already for the site. I appreciate the forum for what it is.

I am willing to admin it if called upon.

Any forum that requires users to know html is not particularly user friendly, especially for newbies.

I do like the 1 point per book, it was the main reason I ended up here, rather than some other swap places, when I decided to overhaul my library.

I notice that someone above suggested the same thing I was scrolling down to write - I was wondering if it would work to have a list of "top wishlist books." I was in goodwill today, and saw several bestseller type books that I could've picked up. As I'm in bargain shops frequently, I might be able to pick up some "top wishlisted books" for next to nothing. Then list them in my inventory, and send them on to whomever mooches them. It would be nice to be able to contribute to the book mooch community in this way. I wonder if there are other people that feel the same way, and in this way the inventory could be broadened?

As a whole I'm happy with bookmooch, and want to say thanks for all of the work put into it!!

The padded flat rates really are pretty amazing. Clearly not everything is going to fit but it means I might be able to afford some multi-mooches outside of North America from time to time. This is probably the best thing the USPS has done for BookMooch aside from keeping Media Mail. A small apology for taking away surface mail, if you will. :)

I'm thrilled with how many rare or new things I have been able to find over the years, thanks to generosity and patience -- and especially thrilled with how many international gems I've gotten, because some authors I want to read are un-findable in the United States. LOVE BookMooch! I also do my best to seek out rare or new things for other people, to give as much as I keep. :)

"One thing I do find frustrating in that many people are listing books and once mooched they are not shipping in a timely manner."

My feeling is: If you do not have the finances to ship a book - DON'T POST IT!! (Common sense) It's no excuse to say "oh, i can't afford the postage" - okay, then why do you claim the book is available? When someone mooches a book from me i ALWAYS send it right away because i've got the postage in my budget BEFORE i post the book. However, there are books that i have TRIED to mooch and have sent reminders two and three times and they still have not been sent! - ANNOYING!

Also, with regard to Heather's comment: "BookMooch 100 Top Wishlisted" list, listing the most wishlisted books, how many times it's wishlisted, etc."

I love this because i've got a large inventory and i check 'top wishlisted' now and then - if i've got a much wishlisted book in my inventory that i don't mind parting with i will post it because i know it feels great to have a book you've wished for become available (of course i DO have the money to ship it BEFORE i post it-DUH) and i also keep those books in mind when shopping at second-hand bookstores, etc.- it makes me happy when i know i've made someone else happy by posting a book they've wished for!

Overall i think this is a great site - if moochers would just use common sense and care about other moochers it would be even better.

one question for John- is it possible to make it so that when you are in the pending section marking several (or many) books sent or received, after you click on 'sent' or 'received' and then click on 'back to pending', you could be brought back to where you were on the page instead of to the beginning of pending, requiring you to page through again and again to continue with this task? i find that time consuming and not fun.

i would join, subscribe, pay memb fee, and all else w/regard to the new ideas-thanks john!
i love bookmooch - and (most) of the bookmooch community i've had contact with!!!!

Thanks for clarifying. I agree with others that I probably wouldn't want such a change but it would be a nice option, eventually, when John has done some of the other things on the list. I am most excited about John's proposed improvements to the database and search engine. I think those changes will do a lot towards improving the appeal of Bookmooch to newbies

@eve s it possible to make it so that when you are in the pending section marking several (or many) books sent or received, after you click on 'sent' or 'received' and then click on 'back to pending', you could be brought back to where you were on the page instead of to the beginning of pending, requiring you to page through again and again to continue with this task? When I am marking multiple books I use the "back" button on my browser rather than the "back to pending" button so I don't have to search through the whole page to find where I was. You can also use a right click "open in new tab" for each book you are marking and then return to your original page each time.

i'm sorry i didn't make myself clear - i have absolutely no problem with delays either - if upon accepting the request the sender states there will be a delay.

What has been happening to me FREQUENTLY is that the sender will accept the mooch and say they will send book "tomorrow" for example or "in a week", then i don't hear from them again for weeks or a month so i have to send a reminder. When the sender receives the reminder they respond saying they will send it, they didn't have the postage funds - okay w/me - but then they STILL don't send the book!! - and i could have received it from another moocher or elsewhere twice by that time! My list of books "accepted but not sent" is sooo long!

this scenario was the impetus for my comment. Upon re-reading my comment it sounded so harsh!! i MUST apologize for that! but- i would bet that you notify the moocher with regard to any delay (which is being a GOOD moocher...i can't believe you have gotten into actual arguments!!)

I never really thought about:

***Limited income. Limited transportation. Multiple international mooches. It all adds up, and what it adds up to is a month-long delay for any new mooches***, so i guess i should lighten up - however i believe it is just a matter common courtesy to let the moocher know what the situation is!

Cara, thank you sooooo much for the tips, don't know why i didn't think of those myself - really i am not stupid, i just sound that way!!-THANKS AGAIN!!

i love bookmooch and tolerate paperback swap. i use paperback swap a heck of a lot more for one reason - there are more books.

I suspect that bookmooch has a book economy problem. it might be your perfect book sharing site, but if the trading stops the site will die.

I've been hypothesizing this is due to: 1) Over time one's wish list becomes a list of hard-to-obtain books, as the easy books *are* obtained. At this stage, if a person is mooching *at all* it's a book he learned about recently. 2) Hobby saturation. Interests change, trading books takes a back seat to another interest. At this stage the member adds to inventory when he needs to accumulate some points to spend or needs to literally make room for another interest. 3) Living space saturation. There are only so many books a person can amass. There's the oppression factor--"How am I ever going to read all this? I'd better stop mooching." The space factor--"Where am I going to put the latest mooch? I'd better stop mooching." And the changing tastes factor--"Ya know, I'm never going to read that series which used to be so in demand. I'll see if I can trade off the volumes I have so I'll have the points to get those red wishlist books I can't afford right now. Hm, apparently it's not so in- demand these days."

Bottom line: After the bloom is off the rose, it looks to me like a person's trade tends to drop to the point that it fulfills his needs, nothing more. Do "net givers" skew that average very much?

I have been a member of Bookmooch for awhile and I know there are some books I will never find here because of the rarity of the book or how dear it is in financial terms. I'm okay with that and because of that I see an A Libris add on as redundant.

maybe you're right - maybe it doesn't mean much. i find it worry some.

"How am I ever going to read all this? I'd better stop mooching"
"Where am I going to put the latest mooch? I'd better stop mooching" Yeah, right!

I'm not addicted, I can stop anytime I want.
(I just don't want to)

Virginia