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Create your Reading Page, and a forum Reading Bar

47K views 348 replies 68 participants last post by  gdae23 
#1 ·
We've developed a Reading Page where you can list books. The books are listed in categories of Reading Now, Recently Read, and Reading Next.

You can also get a Reading Bar for your forum signature, that shows a few of the books from your Reading Page.

Your Reading Page is here: http://kboards.com/reading

From there, you can click the [setup] link to get started.

Please let us know your feedback on this new KBoards feature! If you have problems or questions, check the FAQ below. If your issue isn't addressed there, please do post in this thread and we'll help you out.

- Your KB moderator team

Example Reading Page:


Example Setup Page:


FAQ:

How do I get to my Reading Page?

Here's the link: http://kboards.com/reading

How do I get to the page to set up my Reading Page?

Click on [setup] from your Reading Page. Or, here's the direct link: http://kboards.com/reading/setup.php

How do I view someone else's Reading Page?

Click on the Reading Bar in their forum signature.

Or, if you know their KBoards member ID, you can append it to the URL like this: http://kboards.com/reading/?id=XXX, where XXX is the member ID. Example: http://kboards.com/reading/?id=2

On the Setup page, when I press Save Changes, I don't see my book covers in the Reading Bar graphic.

We pull those book covers from Amazon, and sometimes not all of them get retrieved.

First: try right-clicking the mini-preview of the Reading Bar graphic, and select the option to View Image. That refreshes the image just in case your browser is displaying an older cached version of it.

If that doesn't work, press the Save Changes button again. The page will try again to retrieve the covers from Amazon.

If you continue to have difficulties, post in this thread and we'll see if we can help.

What are the little Up and Down arrows in the Setup page?

The Down arrow 'pushes' the list of ASINs down by one notch. If you have an ASIN in the bottommost position, it disappears, and all other ASINS move down by one notch.
The Up arrow pops the list of ASINs up by one notch. If you have an ASIN in the first position, it disappears, and all other ASINS move up by one notch.

I've set up my Reading Page. Now I've finished a book that is in my Reading Now list. What's the easiest way to move that to my Recently Read list?

1. Click the little "M" button beside the book's ASIN. The book will be removed from the Reading Now list, and added to the Recently Read list.

2. Click the Save Changes button.

I've from the UK and it's not finding my books.

Make sure that you've selected the UK option at the top of the Setup page.

The setup page tells me the ASIN is not valid... but I'm sure it's correct!

First, double-check the ASIN. Make sure you copy/paste it from the Amazon page (or the Find ASIN page). Don't re-type it or you could easily transpose a zero for the letter O.

If you're sure it's right, it may be that the book is not accessible through the Amazon web services that our setup program uses. This occasionally happens, for reasons that are unclear. But it should be a pretty rare occurrence. If it does occur for that book, you won't be able to add that book to your Profile Page.

I've added the Reading Bar to my signature and now my signature is huge!

You may have to remove other items from your signature. Be aware that our forum signature size limits still apply, so make sure you don't exceed those. (You can read about our forum signature size limits in our Forum Decorum post.)

I'm reading a book that's not available on Kindle. Can I add it?

You can use a book's 10-digit ISBN in place of the ASIN and it should work. The 10-digit ISBN is available on the product page on Amazon.

It takes a long time for the screen to refresh after I click on Save Changes!

Yes... it does. Sorry about that. We had to put a little delay in there so we don't exceed our query limits when pulling the book's cover, title, and author from Amazon's database. We also create your Reading Bar graphics during that time. After you click Save Changes, it can take about one second per book for the screen to refresh with the saved changes... so if you have 30 books on your Reading Page, about 30 seconds.
 
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#8 ·
Thank you for the kind feedback!

Chad Winters said:
I like it, I never updated my sig line, it was full of books I was reading a year ago
Downside is my most recent reads were paper with no ebook versions
Ah, that is a limitation - it only works for books available on Kindle. It looks good, though, Chad. Thanks for being an early adopter! :)
 
#12 ·
Isn't everybody just going to put their own books in there? I assume, perhaps incorrectly, that most people use their sig to promote their own stuff.

I think it's neat though. I just don't get why anyone would want to know what I'm reading?
 
#14 ·
jimkukral said:
I just don't get why anyone would want to know what I'm reading?
Hmmmm... 2 reasons I can think of: (1) it creates more of a 'community' feel where you share what you're reading and what your impressions are; (2) think of it as banner ads, it will drive more traffic to Amazon and hopefully create sales, and at the same time, support KindleBoards through affiliate revenue and increasing the site's value. Overall, I believe it is a great idea without being obtrusive (like banner ads sometimes are). If this turns out to be simply self-promoting for authors, it's equally easy to turn off signatures. Just my 2 cents. 8)
 
#15 ·
jimkukral said:
Isn't everybody just going to put their own books in there? I assume, perhaps incorrectly, that most people use their sig to promote their own stuff.

I think it's neat though. I just don't get why anyone would want to know what I'm reading?
Contrary to appearances and popular belief, not every KindleBoards member is an author
 
#17 ·
intinst said:
Contrary to appearances and popular belief, not every KindleBoards member is an author
*Shocked!*
I need to grab KindleMarketingBoards.com.....

Its amazing how many think that is the "be all and end all"

jimkukral said:
Isn't everybody just going to put their own books in there? I assume, perhaps incorrectly, that most people use their sig to promote their own stuff.

I think it's neat though. I just don't get why anyone would want to know what I'm reading?
Any author with their own book in there is likely to get the eye roll and avoidance.
 
#18 ·
jimkukral said:
Isn't everybody just going to put their own books in there? I assume, perhaps incorrectly, that most people use their sig to promote their own stuff.

I think it's neat though. I just don't get why anyone would want to know what I'm reading?
No, in fact many of our readers manually set up sigs to showcase books they have read recently. This is a feature to provide a convenient way for readers to share their reading lists with other readers.
 
#21 ·
Most of our members are readers and Kindle owners who regularly share what they've been reading on sites like Goodreads and in their signatures.  We thought it would be fun to have a way to do that here and Harvey made it happen.

Betsy
 
#22 ·
Seleya said:
Not quite, The Inklings in my bar is a paper book, the trick is that for paper books the ASIN is the same as the 10-digit ISBN. :)
Ah, good to know! I assumed the Setup page wouldn't find that, because it looks in the Kindle Store in order to retrieve the covers. Like all good users, you have found a way to outwit the developer. :)
 
#23 ·
DreamWeaver said:
This is a great idea, Harvey!

One suggestion... If one or more categories (Reading, Recently Read, Reading Next) are blank, it'd be good if that section didn't show. For example, I am currently reading a book, but I can't remember (and keep no record of) which books I recently read, and I have no idea which book(s) I'll be reading next (that's subject to my whims :D). If I add the Reading Bar to my signature, there will be a lot of useless blank space in the Recently Read and Reading Next sections.
That is a good suggestion. It would be time-consuming, but not impossible, to program it. But I will probably save that idea for some future release, as it would take the development of over 100 templates to manage the various permutations.
 
#26 ·
As a reminder. . . . .the signature size limits are still in play . . . I'm seeing a couple of signatures where folks have added the reading bar and now exceed the sizes :eek: . . . . Since this is a new feature we're not going to put anyone in the stocks right away. . .but will probably start contacting folks after a few days to help you get them sorted. :)

I also will note, these are NOT supposed to be for your OWN books. . . unless, of course, that's all you read ::) . . . though, of course, no rules against including your own books. :)

 
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