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How successful is the project?
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How successful is the project?Hi, When I look at all of the successful releases I only see a rare found journal listing. Nearly all of the journal listings are by the people who released the books.
How is the project's success measured? Is it measured by the number of books released or the number of found journal entries? If I had found a book and come to the Web site I would not have had a clue about what I should do. When I showed the Web site to someone without an introduction, the couldn't find easy access to how to use it. They looked around the site for several minutes before they could figure out vaguely what the site was about. The Web site seems to suggest that a visitor has to have prior knowledge in order to understand and use it. The about section doesn't really say clearly what the project is about and the FAQ doesn't help much either. After reading both sections my test person eventually figured out kind of what the project was about. The NPR program did a great job of explaining what BookCrossing was about. I suggest borrowing some of the script to summarize the concept. I'm making these comments as constructive criticism. I believe strongly in the concept and want to see it succeed and spread around the world. Thank you Ron for the gift of the idea and for its implementation. Max Lent max@maxlent.com http://www.maxlent.com/ Having the announcement to book finders at the top of the home page is a great idea.
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Hi, When I look at all of the successful releases I only see a rare found journal listing. Nearly all of the journal listings are by the people who released the books.
How is the project's success measured? Is it measured by the number of books released or the number of found journal entries? If I had found a book and come to the Web site I would not have had a clue about what I should do. When I showed the Web site to someone without an introduction, the couldn't find easy access to how to use it. They looked around the site for several minutes before they could figure out vaguely what the site was about. The Web site seems to suggest that a visitor has to have prior knowledge in order to understand and use it. The about section doesn't really say clearly what the project is about and the FAQ doesn't help much either. After reading both sections my test person eventually figured out kind of what the project was about. The NPR program did a great job of explaining what BookCrossing was about. I suggest borrowing some of the script to summarize the concept. I'm making these comments as constructive criticism. I believe strongly in the concept and want to see it succeed and spread around the world. Thank you Ron for the gift of the idea and for its implementation. Max Lent max@maxlent.com http://www.maxlent.com Having the announcement to book finders at the top of the home page is a great idea.
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I was wondering the same thing. Do you measure "success" by the number of books released or the number found? If a book is never reported as found, is the release considered successful?
I could 't find any information about people picking books up and reporting in or passing them along. I wonder about the rate of response vs. rate of release.
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I totally agree. Also heard the exciting program on NPR. Had errands to run and could not get out of the car, so I could hear all about it. But I am interested in reading the romance of others finding the books, what they thought when they found it. How about the sticker being put on the front easy to see?
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A "successful release" is defined as a book getting a journal entry made my someone else, so it could be one that you left in the wild, or one given to a friend, as long as someone came back to the site with its BCID number and left a comment.
Regarding the success of the BookCrossing project as a whole, I'll let the site's growth, press coverage, testimonials, and <a href="/theBuzz">Buzz</a> speak towards that. I've updated the FAQs on some of the more basic questions, and made the "3 R's of BookCrossing" more prominent on the home page.
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One more thing - as for finding books that have traveled, check out the <a href="/leaderboardbooks">Leader Board for Books</a> page.
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I also referred a friend to the bookcrossing site without telling her what it was about, and she came back and asked me if it was place to sell books. So, I think you're right... maybe the concept could be more clearly stated.
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