Topic: Shelving, what does it mean to you?

Looking around the site, I see shelves are in the single digits. This indicates to me that members do not have a good idea what shelving implies. I'm not sure myself. It's nondescript, it can mean as low as a facebook like to as high as definitely placing on my bookshelf. I wish there was more of a continum from mild interest to definite follower of every posting. Maybe we should have a five tiered shelf. Isn't that how most of us arrange our bookcases?  We place the most frequented books on the top shlef and in front of the others.

2 (edited by Don Chambers 2014-11-21 21:37:13)

Re: Shelving, what does it mean to you?

I agree. I'm not sure what the shelf is intended to be. I shelved all the works in progress I'm currently reading, assuming it would make it easier for me to find them to review on my home-page, but that doesn't seem to happen. I also notice that the only shelved books that appear on the crawl are published books available on Amazon, many not workshopped on the site.

I guess it's just a free-for-all at the moment and it means different things to different people. I probably won't bother using it anymore, frankly.

3 (edited by njc 2014-11-21 20:50:14)

Re: Shelving, what does it mean to you?

At the moment, I see it as a way to clutter other people's home pages with big, distracting images.  Since I don't want the clutter on my pages, I won't do it to anyone else.

But that risks the Electric Blanket dilemma: with a two-sided electric blanket, the controls get mixed up.  She's freezing, even though she has HER control cranked; he's baking even though he has his side off.

Re: Shelving, what does it mean to you?

I assumed it was a way I could keep track of works I had reviewed, so I shelved everything I reviewed. THen I noticed that shelved books seem to be published novels. So I stopped using shelfit. This does need clarification.

Re: Shelving, what does it mean to you?

It's designed for three different things.

1. For work being posted on TheNextBigWriter, it's a vote of confidence in the work, like a Like. Except it puts it on your TNBW bookshelf so others can see what books on here you think merit being included on your shelf.

2. For books you have published it's a way to show them off on your page and promote them.

3. And for books that you have read and enjoyed, it's a way of showing other writers your tastes and what kind of reading you like to do.

Re: Shelving, what does it mean to you?

Item 1 is how I am using it. Like a Like.

Re: Shelving, what does it mean to you?

I've done 1 & 3.