Moderators adding Tags to Books?

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If somebody recommends a book and doesn’t link to somewhere you can see it, the Moderators will add a link to Amazon where you can read the blurb and reviews and even buy it if you want to. How do you feel about this?
Should we Add Markup?
Yes, it saves me time.
No, I’d rather search for it myself.
I don’t care.

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There may be a potential legal exposure always using Amazon if the posting is modified by the moderator.

THe best way to search is to use the ISBN at http://www.bestbookbuys.com/%5B/url%5D to get the best price almost always.

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I think you are being unneccessarily alarmist. We do make it quite clear that this our standard practice in the Guidelines posted at the head of the Board and nobody is being forced to either use or follow our link.

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I’m afraid I voted ‘Don’t care’.
There is no great advantage in logging into the US site when I have an account in the UK – and probably one of the more important aspects of a book might be its price.
Unless you can have an alternative/additional link to the UK?
Or a nifty bit of code that would copy the ISBN to your clipboard ?

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Or a nifty bit of code that would copy the ISBN to your clipboard ?

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This would be a great idea.

I suspect everyone who is internet savvy has an amazon acct. (or an acct at another reseller) and the only reason i am opposed to adding urls to amazon accounts is that it would link to the moderators account who added it. links from here should be either be a generic link or all should use the same account – which should be one owned by wopr, since they host the forum.

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Unless I misunderstand you, I don’t think the links refer to the moderators account – they are just logged at Amazon so they know who the referring site is.

Unless, of course, we can all charge[/i] them to the moderators account…..

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right – the refering site – which earns them fees if the book is bought. (I made enough off of links on my personal site last week to buy a hamburg – too bad i’m not a meat eater )

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I don’t see a legal problem with linking to amazon, this is a private forum (that’s open tho the public) and we’re free to recommend any reseller. The reader is also free to shop elsewhere, after reading the reviews at amazon and deciding yes, they will buy it.

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IMHO, such a practice exposes the Lounge owners to legal action.

I’d hate to have to say I told you so.

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I don’t see why. Anyway, in the interests of full disclosure, I think it’s a good idea to tag any such links with a note such as “Support WOPR by buying at Amazon.com” (or whatever affiliate account it happens to be. Not a legal opinion, just a thought.

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I think I have an alternative that would satisfy everybody.
We’ll scrub the idea of having the Moderators (or indeed anybody) add links to recommended books and instead have the BestBookBuys Search Engine prominently displayed somewhere global. It would look like this:

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I will go for the link to BestBookBuys Search Engine.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Darn, you are no fun!
That’s twice in one week, I’ve had to agree with you.

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Hey, you’re supposed to be the resident grouch! What do you mean by agreeing with me?

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Note that I buy lots of books online. In 1999, about $1300, in 2000, about $800, and $225.36 this year already. That’s AFTER the 30-45% discounts.

My first stop is almost always to the publishers web site to make sure I have the right ISBN, then I plug it in to http://www.bestbookbuys.com. There are other book price search engines, but I usualy stick with http://www.bestbookbuys.com.

Important to note the special deals announced at http://www.bestbookbuys.com, e.g., some places give $10 off on first order, others on orders above a certain amount. When I see those, I adjust my place of purchase. I recently found Fastbrain giving $15 off on a purchase of more than $50. Cannot pass that up.

Last year, I purchased books online from at least 11 different places. 4 so far this year.

Note that I often buy books online without even having seen the books. The cost of my time and driving far exceeds the cost of the books I buy. I used to go to the local Barnes & Noble and Borders to look at books, then go home and order online. I won’t do that any more, unless I happen to going near those stores for other reasons.

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Howard:

Do you have any slightly used books for sale?

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Amazon does.

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No.

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http://www.alibris.comis a good source for pre-owned books, priced depending on condition. They also have new books, too, and some fairly rare stuff.

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I think this thread did it.. but as opposed to offering Amazon on a plate.. why not offer some sources which list potential book sellers? Personally, I use http://www.dogpile.com for everything, but i’m sure there are other sites out there which offer good resources for finding the elusive reading material…

P.S. If anyone finds a copy of ‘The Checkered Hound-dog,’ I’d love to know where to get it.. (Childrens Book)

Drk.

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