It’s been a long time since I asked you to tell us what you loved best about the site and what you would like us to change. I admit I’ve been very afraid to open this can of 
worms because it usually means a lot of work for poor Christian and Aunt Lynn if it involves technology changes. Christian has been making improvements as small issues were identified so hopefully, most of the recommendations for changes will be on me.
First up, what are the features you love best on the site?
1. Book Reviews (I hope that’s your #1 since this is a review site and the guest reviewers work very hard on your behalf) 🙂
2. Movie Reviews (We haven’t had movie reviews recently – the reason being that the reviewers can’t find any films worth reviewing so if you have recommendations please list them here. You should check the list of movies that have already been reviewed before making your recommendations.)
3. Author Interviews
4. Author Profiles (these are like interviews except I don’t ask the questions, you do)
5. Free Books
6. Guest Bloggers
7. Author Contributors
8. Special Posts for Readers such as Diverse Books, Readers Favourite Gay Books, Nominations for Favourite M/M Author, etc.
9. Fun Posts (e.g. Burning ‘Gay’ Questions) :blush:
10. Friday Guys
11. For Love of Books Interviews (I do these interviews with readers a couple times a year to find out what they love about books).
12. Holiday Smileys (Christian installs them at Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter or whenever he damn well pleases – I love them). 🙂
I’m sure I forgot some of our featured posts but this should cover most of them. 🙂 Here’s the poll – you can choose as many categories as you wish. The more the merrier.
[poll id=”28″]What are some of the features that you would like to change or delete? Sorry, the Friday Guys say they are not leaving. 🙂
Are there things on the site you can’t find that you would like Christian to highlight/rearrange? (Poor Christian)
Are there topics you would like us to tackle – something new, perhaps? I probably won’t be able to do “Ripped from the Headlines” types of posts but I’m willing to consider others.
I’m thinking of interviewing a few readers – would this interest you?
Aunt Lynn came up with what I think is a wonderful idea. If you have won a free book what do you think of writing a quickie review giving other readers your impressions of the book (s)? All you would have to do is write the review and submit it to Aunt Lynn who will format it (she’ll send you a short guideline if you’re interested). Update from Lynn: note that this would be completely voluntary on the part of the winner and not a requirement of winning.
Give us your ideas so that we can make the site easier to navigate and the content what you would like – this is your site and home away from home. 🙂
I could only vote for one category!!!! It wouldn’t let me add Friday Guys, Author Interviews, etc.
I’ll ask Christian to change the poll. Sorry.
It’s been fixed now. 🙂
Thanks for this! I think it would be wonderful to interview readers – I’d love that. Plus I’m really keen on the quick book reviews from Free Book winners – it’s great to get other people’s opinions on stuff. Fab idea 🙂
Anne
xxx
I like the idea of free book winners reviewing–very cool! I also like the idea of interviewing readers–that might be lots of fun!
To be frank I love this site as it is–it is fun, informative and always surprising!! kind of like you Wave!! 🙂
I really enjoy everything about the site, the format, and the fact that you guys keep it fresh. It’s a fun part of my day to visit and see what the latest review is about.
I do like the idea of the free book winners writing a review. I like the easy access to buy books from the site also.
Regarding the free book winners’ reviewing suggestion – I don’t necessarily agree. Some that win are lurkers who feel uncomfortable in their writing skills for something even like a review. If you decide to add this as an option, then perhaps you should consider providing the questions that the free book winner would answer (Q&A) as the ‘review’.
I would imagine that if it becomes a requirement that the free book winner must write a review or answer questions, there will be some that quit participating in that because they feel daunted at the possibility of being required to write if they win.
There will be no requirement, Jb, don’t worry. It will be totally voluntary. My thought is that there will be some who will jump at the chance, plus it would give some additional flavor to the site with non-regular guest reviewers, but I know that some folks, for whatever reason, have no interest in or are daunted by the prospect of writing even a few sentences. They’ll be asked if they want to do it, and if not, no problem at all. Sorry if we weren’t clear about that, and I’ll update the post to reflect it.
I admit I stick to basically the home page and don’t venture to far off of it. I love the refiews and unfortunatly have a list of books way to big that I want to buy in tme. I love the free booms and the Friday guys . . . Uhm yeah keep that feture. I admit I don’t read a lot of the interviews but sppreciate they are here, if that makes senss. I can’t say I have critsism or much to say. I don’t post often but am here daily checking out what’s new.
I ticked all the boxes. 😀 I love pretty much everything about the site. Can’t think of anything that I’d change.
I like the idea of reviews from winners of the free books being in a Q/A format, with set questions (optional, of course). That would be interesting.
Jb’s suggestion of a Q&A works for me if it does for everyone else. I had the general thought, not the specifics, in my head, so I am happy to consider suggestions.
Thanks for all the great comments so far. Your feedback will help us do better in those areas you identify as needing some work. As for the rest, onwards and upwards. 🙂
The Friday guys are playing with the Hot Tub Guys so who knows what’s going on there. :blush:
I did my voting and some thinking, I don’t have any complaints, I really like this site 🙂
I think I’d prefer the q & a rather that reviews of the free books, just to make it a little different and less daunting for us non-reviewers
First, I think Wave and crew have done an outstanding job on the site. :skoal: I don’t use all the features (not enough time!) but that’s the beauty of a blog. Love the Friday guys – part of my Friday breakfast routine now – and I enjoy the interviews and book reviews. As another commenter noted, my list of “to –read” is too long! 🙄 🙄
Which brings me to my objection: I’m not enthusiastic about winner’s reviewing books for a couple of reasons: one) you review so many books as it is right now, and it seems 75% of the books that were offered as freebees get reviewed anyway. Two) of the fabulous crew that are reviewing books, I’ve figured out who’s tastes are similar to mine and can be more objective in my reading choices. I don’t know the reading tastes of any given winner (other than the commonality of mm books) and it becomes harder to assess if this is a book I wish to spend money on. With the number of books out there, narrowing it down is key. It’s kinda like reading a Goodreads.com review. Those who like the book/author tend to gush and those who don’t, rarely post anything. I think a winner would be disinclined to say if they didn’t care for the book because it might hurt the authors feelings. A gushing review doesn’t help me.
Just my humble opinion.
Keep up the great work! You’re part of my day. :bravo:
Kris
You make some excellent points about knowing the reviewers’ tastes, which helps you in your book selections.
The idea of winners reviewing books was just a suggestion and should in no way be taken as something that anyone had to do in order to win future books. Many readers are shy about offering their opinions about books because they don’t want to offend the authors, so I agree that most of them would not want to actually review a book they won.
This site has many lurkers who bid on books and they only come out to play when they see something they can’t resist. Book reviewing is probably not something that’s top on their list. 😆 Also, as you pointed out, many of the “free” books are reviewed on the site so we could end up with two completely different reviews for the same book. (not that that’s a bad thing – it could be like the dueling reviews). 😮
Thanks again for commenting Kris.
I love the site as is too, it’s the only review site I hit pretty much daily. I don’t comment very much anymore cause I am *gasp* working! Holy Crap Batman, how do you guys do it all? Anyway, I have always loved the site, the interviews, the reviews, the author insights, etc. I found it first for Friday Guys….but, believe it or not? I totally stayed for everything else. Love what you ALL give us, so Thanks!
Hi Elaine
Holy Crap Batman, how do you guys do it all?
We do it when everyone else is sleeping. 😮
We love what we do so even though it’s a tough schedule it’s worthwhile.
Thank you for sticking with the site – we ALL appreciate it.
This site has been my go to review site for the past 4 years or so, and I really appreciate all the hard work you guys put into it.
I like the authors contributor posts and guest bloggers.
I have to admit that even though I pull up this site at least once a day I do not read the book reviews until I’ve read the recommended books. I know kind of backwards, but I hate spoilers and if I know too much about a book most likely I will not pick it up, even if it has a 4 star and up rating.
Here a few movie recommendations for reviews:
Weekend
Undertow
The Green
Cachorro (Bear Cub)
Hi mrb
I understand that some readers don’t like to read reviews before they read the books. We do try to avoid spoilers and when we absolutely have to include them we put a warning on the review.
Thank you for the movie recs. I will pass them on to our movie reviewers.
Ummm… I voted… for every item. 🙂 I REALLY like everything you do here. Besides the book reviews I love reading all the other posts, whether they are guest blogs or interviews or whatever. I try to check in once a day and if I get too busy and skip a couple days I still always scroll through the posts to see what I’ve missed.
In reading the suggestions pro and con about reader reviews for books they’ve won, maybe a compromise would be winners can send you a short reaction to the book IF they want. Just a couple of sentences, and then once a week you put up a post with any you received that week.
Hi Cheri
Thanks for your vote of confidence in the site which makes up for all our hard work.
That’s a great suggestion about winners writing short reviews – (somewhat along the line of the GR reviews) and a weekly roundup of opinions. I’ll pass this on to Lynn.
A question: are the reading rooms working out and getting the activity anticipated? 😕
I confess that I logged in frequently at first but haven’t visited for months as there were very few comments. I used to also track the comments on the chat line and occassionally participate – but no longer do.
I think my “problem” with the reading rooms, if you can call it that, is having to go to several different links to catch up rather than a single click.
That would be my wish, is to somehow encourage those and simplify their use. It seems like it’s lacking something but I don’t know what that something is!
Otherwise, I check in every day to read the books review, interviews, etc etc. I love the “burning gay question” interviews w/ Ethan Day….he does crack me up! 😯 ….and he’s a Midwestern boy!
I’m so glad you mentioend the Readng Rooms. I emailed Christian just last week asking him for suggestions but maybe I could also ask the readers. This is really frustrating. Anyway, one problem at a time.
I’m so glad you enjoy Ethan – we all do. He’s definitely a Midwestern boy and very proud of it. 😎
I love the variety. It’s perfect!
Thanks Mary. I appreciate your vote of confidence. 🙂
I do hope that “the more the merrier” wasn’t just a figure of speech. ‘Coz I went a bit crazy picking stuff, err voting.
The idea of reviewing books you’ve won sounds fun, if a bit scary.
Also, why do holiday smileys have so little votes? Those always put a smile on my face when I see them and I’d hate to see them go.
Trust me, the holiday smileys won’t go. 🙂 Christian loves them (and so do I) and they brighten up the different holidays.
BTW the more the merrier wasn’t a figure of speech. You can choose ALL or none of the different categories. We just wanted to get a sense of what you guys liked best, and if I had to let something go I know which posts would be prime candidates.