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Archive for February, 2008

Dear Members, Newsletter – February 2008

Saturday, February 9th, 2008

Poor February.  It’s gotten such a bad rap.  It’s the shortest month, the waffling month (sometimes 28 days, sometimes 29), the coldest most dreary month…   It’s all W2s and still-paying-off Christmas bills and its peak is the one day a year that the florist can charge your mortgage to deliver a dozen roses.   Well, we have decided to see if we can’t turn things around!  We have given you some new features to play with this month.  See below to read about the upgraded Buddy List, the upgraded Bookshelf, the new Privacy Settings, the Blast PM feature, the new Facebook application…the new excellent PBS sweatshirt in the Kiosk…a chance to do some journalism…all in all, February 2008 is looking pretty spiffy!

Just a dip into the Reader Mailbag before you go on to read about the February bonanza of new features:  One new member told her Tour Guide recently (and the Tour Guide asked permission to share this with us) that PaperBackSwap “is absolutely wonderful for my whole family. We all LOVE to read and it has saved us a bundle! And it has helped us teach the kids to respect their books, so they can trade them for new ones! Fabulous!”

We hadn’t thought of that as a potential benefit of PBS membership…but we are very glad to be a part of the development of good habits!  If we all take care of the things we have they will last longer.  In this world of disposable everything, it is nice to know that some things can last a while.  Like a good read…and the good feeling you get when you share that great experience with another reader by sending that book out.  To all of our members: however you found your way to the site, and whatever you would say are your top reasons for continuing to post and swap your books, our thanks go out to all of you for helping to sustain something that just keeps on giving back…to all of us.

Have a wonderful month!

Richard and Robert
and The PaperBackSwap Team

Who’s Your Buddy? Newsletter – February 2008

Friday, February 8th, 2008

Now you know! The Buddy List is now reciprocal–which means that in order to be added to someone’s Buddy List, you must accept his or her invitation to be Buddies.  If you accept, you both go onto each other’s Buddy Lists.  We made this change in order to allow the programming of various things that have been requested over and over by members: blast PMs, for one (see below), and expanded privacy options (see below), as well as other upcoming features.   There is a one-time “conversion” step for your current Buddy List, which is explained in the Help doc Buddy List Upgrade in the Help Center.  Unfortunately, there was no way to keep any tags that you had applied to individual Buddies, so anyone you invite will not be tagged when they accept and go onto your Buddy List.  (Your taglists are preserved, though, so you can reapply tags once the inviting/accepting is done.)  Click the link “Buddy List invitations” at the top of your Buddy List to see who’s invited you!  Read more about the Buddy List upgrade in the Help Doc Buddy List Upgrade under What’s New in the Help Center.

Have a blast. Blast PMs = the ability to send the same message in a PM to multiple members at once.   You can do this from the Buddy List now. Limiting it to Buddies only means we shouldn’t have people spamming other members they don’t know.  This feature was requested of us over and over again, and we are sure many of you will find it useful.  Read more about how to send Blast PMs from the Buddy List in the Help Doc Buddy List Upgrade under What’s New in the Help Center.

New Privacy Controls. Now you can decide to share more…or less…with other members, using the Privacy Controls link at the top of the Settings page in My Account.  You can choose who can see your lists, personal info, online status, and more.  Each of these can be set to Public (everyone can see), Private (no one can see), All Buddies (everyone on your Buddy List can see, but no one else) and Full Buddies (only those designated Full Buddies on your Buddy List can see).  The system defaults before you make selections are the same as the system defaults were before.   Read more about the new privacy options in the Help Doc New Privacy Controls under What’s New in the Help Center.

Stylin’ in the ‘Hood. Newsletter – February 2008

Friday, February 8th, 2008


Yep, that’s Richard modeling his new, super-soft PaperBackSwap hooded sweatshirt.  Comfy and warm and uber-fashionable.  Any color you want, as long as it’s grey!   Come and get ’em in the Kiosk.

Bookshelf upgrade. Newsletter – February 2008

Thursday, February 7th, 2008

The Books to Repost area was under-utilized; it was a duplication of the TBR pile in some ways, and members weren’t using it very much.   In the spirit of efficiency, we have combined  the Books to Repost with your Bookshelf–now each time you mark a book received without a problem you have the option to have it put onto your Bookshelf on hold, for easy one-click reposting later on.  The default setting is to add the item to your bookshelf on hold–you need to choose Yes to prevent this from happening when you receive a book. You can view only Hold items, only Posted items, or All items, and you can sort All items to show posted at the top of the list.  Read more about the changes to your Bookshelf in the Help Doc Bookshelf Upgrade under What’s New in the Help Center.

Give Refund button. Newsletter – February 2008

Wednesday, February 6th, 2008

If you send a book that is received with a problem, and you need to give the credit back to the requestor, this is much easier to do now!  Just click the “Give Refund” button, and the credit will be given back.  No need to Buddy the requestor.  You can access the button on any completed (with a problem, or without a problem) transaction in your Transaction Archive, by clicking the Request Details link for any book you sent that was marked received.  The credit refund will match the number of credits the requestor “paid” for the book, and the refund button will disappear once you have used it.

Books on Facebook! Newsletter – February 2008

Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

Put your Face on. Now you can easily share your PaperBackSwap lists with your Facebook friends on your Facebook profile.  Just go to http://apps.facebook.com/paperbackswap and log into your Facebook account to install the PaperBackSwap application.   Then click the PBS icon in the left menu of your FB profile to choose what you would like to show: you can show your recently posted/swapped/received books, your Bookshelf, TBR Pile, Books I’ve Read list, your Book Reviews.  Don’t forget to check out the various PaperBackSwap Facebook groups, like PaperBackSwap and PaperBackSwap Rocks!

Writers, Front and Center! Newsletter – February 2008

Monday, February 4th, 2008

Some of our best members come from small towns and cities across the US.  But many communities have never even heard about PaperBackSwap or the sister sites SwapaCD and SwapaDVD because there has never been any media coverage where they live.  And unfortunately, many of these small publications do not have the staff to write about our club themselves.  So we are asking for some help from members who are writers and have previously submitted articles to newspapers/magazines for publication.  If you are interested in working with Richard on getting some articles written about PaperBackSwap – we sure could use your help!   Please send inquiries to the email address we have set up for this purpose: RichardPickering@PaperBackSwap.com.   Thanks in advance to all who step forward to help!