--- In [email protected], Gertie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Hello all!
>
> I've seen a few "releases" where one BookCrosser simply gave the
book to
> another BookCrosser - even in the same town. The book is then
marked "in the
> wild"? Somehow setting a book out to see if a stranger "catches" it
seems
> quite different than simply giving it to a friend. Does
BookCrossing register
> those as different? If not, how does one tell books truly "caught"
and those
> "caught by friend" (so to speak)?
BookCrossing only "understands" the difference between books for
which release notes were made and books for which no release notes
were made, not how the books were actually released. The site
recommends that when giving books to known individuals (this is
called a "controlled release") you make a journal entry, NOT release
notes. [This is the way I usually do things, so on my profile
the "books released" count is pretty close to my actual wild-release
count. Some BCers make release notes for all releases, controlled or
otherwise, and some never make release notes at all, so the "books
released" count could mean different things for different BCers.]
Since many BCers like to make release notes for controlled releases
as well as wild ones for one reason or another, there's a "Controlled
Release" entry in the "Country" list as a compromise measure - using
it will prevent the release-notes-for-controlled-releases from
generating release-alert email or from showing up on the hunting
pages [that is, they will show up under the "Controlled
Release" 'country' but won't be mixed in with the actual wild
releases to specific locations]. Many BCers are not aware of this,
and don't realize that by making release notes to "My Town, Texas,
USA" they may be getting the potential book-hunters in My Town all
excited about books that aren't really being released there, but what
can you do.
To confuse matters further, the site's profile stats for "releases
caught" will count any book of yours that's journaled by somebody
else, whether you made release notes for it or not - so if you wanted
to keep track of wild releases caught vs. controlled releases caught,
you'd have to do it yourself. And if you make release notes for wild
AND controlled releases, and want to keep those stats separate,
you'll have to keep track of that as well. [Some of us like fiddling
with stats, so I mentioned that; if you don't care, then never mind!]
I hope that someday the site adds specific "Release types" so that
everybody can use one procedure to indicate that they're passing a
book along, but also indicate the manner in which it's been released.
[I can dream, right? {grin}]
-GoryDetails
Have you told a friend today? http://bookcrossing.com/tellafriend
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