BOOK CLUB: Final? version of our administrative guidelines for comment.

[crispini]

Ok, this thread is basically a collected and distilled version of what we said in the other thread, as far as our mission statement and how we're going to run it. Now is the time for feedback and thoughts! :)

MISSION: The DU nonfiction book club will discuss political and/or various nonfiction books. The aims of the group are to encourage reading of a variety of interesting books and to faciliiate friendly discussion.

GUIDELINES: We will discuss 1 book per month, more or less, with adjustments to the schedule for long or short books as requested by the membership.

We will maintain a running list of books which are nominated (and seconded) for consideration, and we will choose these books on a rolling basis. Right now at the beginning we will choose two for December and January. Then in December we will start the voting for the Febuary book. In January we will start the voting for the March book. And so on.

OPEN ISSUE: We may or may not do this in a Group, depending on the Admins and everyone here (and feedback is welcome). Right now several members prefer to have a Group for ease of organization (keep all threads together). However since non-star members can't post in Groups that would be a negative.

Thoughts, whines, bitches, etc? Do you like or do you not like? Yea or nay? :D

[billyoc]

1. Sounds great. n/t

[NMDemDist2]

2. looks good n/t

[Tafiti]

3. Yes yes!

On the open issue: I officially vote YEA on a new DU Group for us.

[crispini]

4. UPDATE.

The Admins have requested that we stay here for the time being to be more easily found by folks. Therefore, no group yet. If we try it out and we really don't like it in here, then we can marshal our reasons and request again. So there ya go! :) I don't think it'll break anyone's heart, we just need to start all of our threads with BOOK CLUB so that they can be more easily found. Not hard IMO....

[Tafiti]

5. Damn.

I really hope we get one eventually, and I'm not sure the reasoning makes much sense. The groups are just as easily "found" as any other forum. How is there a Dennis Kucinich Group, an Al Gore Group, and a Mark Warner (?!) Group, each containing a message total I can count on my fingers and toes, yet we can't get one? We'd actually use ours.

You're right, it won't be hard, but it'll still be a little annoying having to preface each thread with "Book Club". Ah well...

[crispini]

6. Yeah, well, we'll give it a shot this way

and Skinner said he was open to the idea if we really had some concrete reasons for not liking being here, once we try it out. :)

[DemBones DemBones]

7. Thanks for all the work you've done, crispini.

I haven't had much of a chance to read here the past few days and missed voting in the book selection because of working to get a DU group for Catholics and Orthodox.
It's kind of crazy here now, with so many new things going on, but it's fun.

[crispini]

8. You're welcome! and voting's not closed,

just nominations! we'll be voting this week!

(just hope I'm doing all this right, I've never done this before!)

[OrwellwasRight]

9. Your framework sounds good. Have I missed the voting

thread? And can we only vote for 1? No instant run-off voting?

[OrwellwasRight]

11. Found the Voting Poll.

For anyone else that has the occasional OTO (overlooking the obvious) disease:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[faithnotgreed]

12. i couldnt get there from this link...

[OrwellwasRight]

13. Try this one...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=209x307

Or it should be one of the top threads in the Non-Fiction Books Forum, if that still does not work.

[NVMojo]

10. Just let me know when, where, and what book!!!

thanks!

[212demop]

14. I'm in too! Can't wait to get started!

[fishnfla]

15. non star members can post in groups,,,,look

I lost my star due to payment lapsed (the checks in the mail ;) Non star members can post replies but cannot form threads....

[fishnfla]

16. oops i see I'm wrong

I cannot indeed, post in the "groups" section. I was thinking that this was that section. My apologies.

My vote then becomes "NO" to a group forum so as many people as possible can participate

[crispini]

18. Yeah, Skinner asked us to stay here

for the time being. Fine with me, the only reason for a new group would be for organizational purposes anyway, and this forum isn't particularly fast-moving.

[Baja Margie]

17. Yes, sounds good

I hope I can keep up with you guys !

[crispini]

19. Thread Management

So since we're going to get started really soon on our first discussion I had some thoughts on thread management.

Basically that we name our threads something like:

BOOK CLUB: (month name) (abbreviated book name) (number)

So the first one would possibly be:

BOOK CLUB: Dec. "What's the Matter with Kansas" 1

The number would be, in case the thread gets really long and unmanageable, say a few hundred posts, for the sake of people on dial-up, that we would start a new thread and continue the discussion in that. So the next thread would be

BOOK CLUB: Dec. "What's the Matter with Kansas" 2

Maybe when we do this we should have the admins lock the old thread?

Thoughts?

[Fleurs du Mal]

22. Good call

[crispini]

20. Spoiler Alerts.

So I had another thought. I don't think this is going to be as much of an issue as it would be with a fiction group, but it might be, with some books.

Can we ask everyone to use some discretion with posting things which come towards the end of the book, and knowing them that might spoil the enjoyment of the book for those who are just getting started? Especially towards the beginning of the month?

Like I said, I don't think it's as big of an issue with the first two books on our list, but there ARE some types of nonfiction books that are just as suspenseful as fiction books -- I'm thinking of "The Informant," the one about the ADM bust -- so we may want go go ahead and put this guideline out there now.

So the request would be, if you want to post something that seems spoiler-y, that you post it in white font. How you do this is, you replace the parentheses in the example with square brackets:

(font color="white")Spoiler text goes here(/font)

Then those who would like to read the white font can just highlight it with their mouse.

An example:

So I was thinking about that part in Chapter Five, (SPOILER ALERT), you know, the part where they reveal that the president was boffing the secretary of state all along, and I thought it had some pretty accurate parallels to the situation today. What do you think? :evilgrin:

Good idea, all?

[othermeans]

21. What's our first book? nt

[crispini]

23. Looks like it's gonna be

'What's the Matter with Kansas' most likely.

Vote here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=209x307

[WCGreen]

24. YEs, I am in

I have been wanting to read Kansas for a while now....

I think this type of practical instead of tactical book has more long lasting value in developing a true understanding of what our foes are up to as well as how to have at them.....

Tactics change, history and research give us the backbone for tactics that will work.....

[Eurobabe]

25. I may be out of the loop this month...moving

don't be surprised if i sit this one out...i'll try...

[crispini]

26. sure, come by and say HI

even if ya don't get a chance to read it. sometimes the best conversations are when you explain something to someone. :D