Board ideas

[laserlight]

One quick and dirty option that would get something up and running fast is to create a message board (similar to the Jobs board) specifically for book reviews. It could be moderated so that each thread is tied to a specific book; threads can be rated, which could stand in as a proxy for a rating for the book. Anyone who wanted to comment on a book could then add a post to the thread.

I am in favour of that idea. One of my gripes with the current book recommendation threads is that it is difficult to see what is good and what is not. With a thread for each book, books that are consistently highly rated with good reviews by reputable members can then be listed on a stickied thread, or even be stickied themselves (like, one per category or something).

[Daved]

I also think that is a good idea. I wonder whether responses would be restricted to real book reviews, or overall opinions on books.

For example, if comments were limited to people who have read the books, you might get a more informed group of reviews, but those reviews might be from predominantly new programmers who might not know why some books are good or bad. If you allow people to post opinions of books rather than real reviews, then you might get better input from more knowledgeable posters, but you could end up with ratings based mostly on reputation rather than on people's actual experiences.

Personally, I'd prefer posts and ratings to be based on general opinion rather than full reviews, because I value the opinions of the more knowledgeable posters over whether a beginner liked the book or not. But I think it's an important question to ask and allow others to chime in on.

[VirtualAce]

I like the idea. If we could have one major review to start the thread and then allow people to comment in later posts. This would give more than just one opinion but would give a good and fair balanced review to start out with.

When are we going to start this?

[MK27]

I think a dedicated board is a great idea. I'm sure in time people would start saying, "Gee, does this just have to be about books, or just have to be restricted in this way..." and mention something nobody thought of, and it's easy to expand and redefine the definition of something like that.

For usage I was thinking more along the lines of -- I'm looking for a book on a topic, so I browse amazon.com. I find a few interesting books, and after reading some of the sketchy reviews, I could come to cboard and search if anyone here had a review of it.

With a board, I see no reason why you couldn't come here and ask if anyone has read something like that. The "AI board" only gets a post every few months; even if someone only used it every few days it seems a good idea. You could even ask for advice on a book for a specific topic, without having an actual title. It also means people would probably ask the same queston repeatedly, as they do about everything anyway, which I think the result would probably be *better* than just searching the individual reviews.

The only concession I would demand is that it be restricted to programming, but not necessarily C or C++.

For example, if comments were limited to people who have read the books, you might get a more informed group of reviews, but those reviews might be from predominantly new programmers who might not know why some books are good or bad. If you allow people to post opinions of books rather than real reviews, then you might get better input from more knowledgeable posters, but you could end up with ratings based mostly on reputation rather than on people's actual experiences.

I don't think there'd be a need to worry; you could easily see the same kind of consensus as is involved in the main boards. I don't think people who haven't read something will be particularly interested in their big chance to spout garbage about it, and most people should have the freedom to ignore whom they please

[webmaster]

Ok folks, I've created a new board for this, and I've written up some basic guidelines, here. Let me know what you think in this thread (rather than cluttering up that one).

Taking MK's suggestion, I decided to make it a general "product reviews" board, rather than focusing just on books from the outset.

[neandrake]

Thanks for setting it up. The guidelines sound pretty solid.

[Daved]

>> I don't think people who haven't read something will be particularly interested in their big chance to spout garbage about it.

Actually, I'm not really worried about that. I'm one of the people who would like to share my opinion about some books despite not having read them (or in some cases only partially read them). I was referring to the opposite problem, not allowing people who haven't read something to "spout" their insight about it.

[Masterx]

by the way guys, why dont we have tanx addon here?
you know its a good idea for keeping a thread clean and thank you stuff post will be avoided this way!
and i think that will definitely add another virtue to the rest of the merits of this forum.