A while ago (a long while ago) a member had set up a site where people could trade their Bookmooch points for items other than books (CDs, videos, other items). This site was not actually affiliated with BM so when that member left, the trading stopped. Another member offered to start another site, but I seem to recall her being told that this was something that was going to be integrated into the new Bookmooch Forums once they were up. So I was wondering if that would be an appropriate forum to start? Bookmooch Barter - where people could offer things other than books they were willing to trade for Bookmooch points, particulary since there have been quite a few postings recently about people having an overabundance of points to spend. Or are there plans to handle this some other way?

Bookmooch Barter - where people could offer things other than books they were willing to trade for Bookmooch points, /--/. Or are there plans to handle this some other way?

On this new forum bio:ccboehne asked about a possibility of John creating a specific Cd Mooch site (like BookMooch, but for cds) a few days ago. bio:buckman_ca said that he's not interested in doing a whole another site for cd exchange, but we're free to create a "Cd mooch" forum on this site, and people could exchange cds using the forum. The whole conversation is here: I wish there was a CD Mooch ...

So, I guess someone should just start a forum for bartering. :-)

when I log in my computer comes up with a message that I am being asked to send my information over an insecure connection.

Yes, that's because bio:buckman_ca hasn't implemented a secure connection for BookMooch. Essentially, if I understand it correctly, everything we type in, including our login and password, are sent from our computers to BookMooch's server openly and without encryption, meaning that if someone was able to grab and investigate our internet traffic, they would instantly see our passwords (and other things we type in, like our home addresses). While this is unlikely, it's certainly possible to do that for example on open wi-fi networks, where anyone can join that specific wi-fi network. Software to monitor other people's internet traffic is readily available on some sites on the net, if someone really wanted to do it.

If you use BookMooch from a computer that has a wired connection to internet or you have a password protected wi-fi connection to internet (and that wi-fi network is either your own or you trust the network and the people on it), I think there's very little risk of anyone grabbing your BookMooch password.

However, if you use BookMooch using an open wi-fi connection, where anyone can connect, and you don't know who those people are, then there's always a risk of someone nefarious doing bad deeds and monitoring your internet traffic. Currently I think it's still highly unlikely (and BookMooch password is probably not their first target - they would be more interested in credit card numbers and such) that someone would be that wicked, but it's good to know this is possible.

Thanks for bringing this issue up, Pippa. I've been meaning to suggest to John that he'd upgrade the BookMooch internet connection (http) to a secure, encrypted one (https), at least when we're logging in and changing our profile information.

If you know anything about dongles let me know, as that's what I use.

If you mean by dongle those things, which contain a sim card (like cellular phones do), I think you're safe. Dongles connect directly to cell phone operator's internet network and a cell phone gsm signal is much harder to crack than a wi-fi connection, so to my understanding, in practice, there should be virtually no risk of anybody being able snoop your internet traffic.

Taneli T's inventory (worldwide)