Is BookMooch Slowly Dying? Part 2

At the request of some due to slow page loading; here is the new topic listing.

Link to old topic: http://www.librarything.com/topic/137497

Thanks, ZoeyEve!

There was discussion about giving points to new members. I am talking about giving away 1 or 2 points per person, I would hope that that would not upset the site administrators. I guess we'll see.

As an analytic site shows (there are a few on the internet - one is alexa.com I think it is) all the book trading/swapping/mooching sites are going through a great change. One might say slowly dying, yes. I think people who want books - actual paper books - will stay active if they can afford the postage. How many of us are left is anyone's guess.

Libraries were "slowly dying." Like bookstores, libraries had to change their game to survive.
Now that many people can download e-books and audiobooks from their libraries 24 hours a day for free, libraries have once again become relevant and busier than they have been in years.

All the sites will be much less active but depending on how much it costs, how labor-intensive the site is, etc. some will stay and some will close.

Newspapers and magazines are slowly dying. The ones who stay offer a lot of extras for their subscribers on the internet. To my dismay my favorite magazine offers extras to those who own iPads or Tablets or whatever, which I do not own and I pay the same as other subscribers but they get more because they own more techie stuff. "Who said life is fair?"

Change is hard. Bookmooch is an old-fashioned idea now. Really. Hard to believe but it is and some of us will hang on and some of us will find it irrelevant to needs or unaffordable.

If you see any Helene Tursten books I want some:)

Except I regularly find books on PBS and struggle to find them on BM.

I find more on PBS also, but nowhere near what it used to be. PBS population has always been much, much larger than Bookmooch hence more books but even now the activity has reduced quite a bit according to the statistics. Individuals may not notice a difference but I'm speaking generally. There are people who regularly find things on Bookmooch so to them it isn't slowing. Thats all I meant - generally.

I wonder why PBS has more members, when BM is international. That is the latter's great advantage.

7 - PBS is older than Bookmooch. If it wasn't the first book-swapping website, it was certainly the first one that took off. The site benefited from a lot of early news coverage. Their website is also more intuitive (at least, I think so) and newbie-friendly than Bookmooch, and the stricter deadlines probably ensure that more of the books posted eventually arrive at their destination since the system quickly weeds out the people who aren't actually sending.

Note that there is no "Is PBS slowly dying" thread. I think PBS has greater user satisfaction.

Though activity is down on PBS, I agree with you Irene. There are many more groups and club-like activities for members based on genre, for example, and this creates a lot of user satisfaction. Searching tools are superior, and what makaiju said. Still it isn't perfect and there are people who can't stand PBS because it is more restrictive and asks more of its members.

I think its fine because I don't mind having time restrictions and so forth. What I don't like is it cost extra money to get to send books closer to you to save on postage - whatever they call that.

The first two years I had absolutely no problems, now I get some really bad copies of books from time to time. I've only asked a few times for credits returned due to bad conditions and only one person absolutely refused. Still, I find more there because there is more there.

As you know, they also have a much larger pool of volunteer "Librarians" or admins who you write to with questions and things like that as well as people who volunteer to Guide the Newbies. Much larger pool of volunteers makes a difference. If there is an error in a posting, there is a way to edit it for correction and a very short wait for it to be addressed. But, its a business and Bookmooch is not. It is not doing as well for all the reasons I gave above. I'm sticking with both sites because for me they each have advantages.

>10 silverbooks: It's a common misconception that BookMooch is a non-profit. It's not. It's a regular corporation, Mooch Inc., incorporated in California.

I used to favor BookMooch until the admins came down on me. I liked the funky 90s look of the site, and I found some unusual books because it is less restrictive about what one can post. I also appreciate having a large wishlist that displays Amazon prices.

I didn't mean to say it was a non-profit. But, it isn't based on making a lot of money - its far less commercial is what I should have said. I'm sorry you had trouble with the admins.

IMHO (for the entire post)

BM while yes a business is run more like a hobby. PBS is run like a business.

Do I think BM is dying; yes. The site does not receive regular updates to features compared to early days, the owner has stated no interest in expanding the site in ways that would bring in more users such as additional languages or new features. Additions mentioned in previous blogs have not appeared yet; what every happened to the videos on how to use the site?

Someone seemed to lose interest in the project and is letting it sit and make money through the ads on the site. That of course is the choice of the owner and the company.

Trouble with the admins is a long outstanding problem that has never been resolved is what I have noticed. This along with attitudes about so called point hoarders or point spenders. Hoard or spend too many points and you are considered somehow wrong on the site. Never understood the argument on that one.

and the fact we are on a 2nd forum posting about such a topic; amazing to me.

"What I don't like is it cost extra money to get to send books closer to you to save on postage - whatever they call that. "

The cheapest way to send books domestically is either first class or media mail. Both of those are by weight only, distance (within the US) does not matter. A Gold Key membership on PBS means your books may get mooched sooner, it doesn't affect what you pay for postage.

Some of the reasons PBS is more popular than Bookmooch (IMO):
- Better website design. First time visitors to Bookmooch might think the site is defunct.
- Better forums keep people coming back. The forums on Bookmooch are practically unusable, hence the reason we are all here and not so much there.
- You know your books will be halfway decent quality or you (probably) get a point back. We've all been burned by people not using condition notes on Bookmooch and getting a book in terrible shape.
- FIFO means you don't have to check the site constantly, and it weeds out inactive members.
- Inactive members and their books are weeded out.
- Generally helpful and kind admins.

I know a lot of us like Bookmooch's system of not using FIFO and using condition notes. I think the way PBS does things is more appealing to the casual user who doesn't want to have to check the site so often.

I don't know much about PBS but lack of a usable search function, and any apparent interest in developing one, is another of my big gripes with BM.

If the owner is no longer interested in the site why has it not been handed over to someone who is?

My booklist has been empty for awhile.

I emptied my wishlist and my save-for-later list.

Next for me is to remove my RSS feeds for various booklists.

I had an RSS feed for wishlist books, but I can remove that since there is no need for it now.

> 16
PBS is a USA based only book trading system. I have heard of a few people who get creative with "angels" since on PBS you can buy points from either other members or from the site. The person buys the points, has the book shipped to an "angel" in the USA who then sends the books to the person overseas. Between them they work out the arrangement for the cost of postage.

Is it worth doing all that? depends on the person.

Is there a way to easily export my BM wishlist?

(I could make a new topic for it, but it's related to this one.......)

#19: in the drop-down menu, there is an option to export your wishlist. I think it downloads in either an xls or csv format. You'll just have to try it. I did not export my wishlist or my save-for-later. I just deleted them.

>19 mene: and 20

Yes it is that easy; go to your wishlist tab; click on the drop down menu and click export. A link appears at the top of your page; click on that and depending on your browser you either save or download it.

Don't forget your save-for-later list :)
I saved both before I closed my account.

Yes, I saved both :)
I'll be keeping my account open till I've spent all my points, though it's not going very fast as no-one is really posting books I'm interested in anymore, or they won't send to other countries :P

Tell me about it. I've approached three angels, and even offering to smooch extra points hasn't worked. :-(

It's a crapshoot -- My last three international transactions have resulted in me obtaining one very lovely keeper copy, one ARC that had not been disclosed as such, and one book of mine sent across the pond to a newbie moocher who does not appear to have logged in since she mooched the book... 30-some days ago.

How do we "update" twitter" so we can actually see the ""recently added" books? without that, I can't do much more than check my wishlist... this is very frustrating.

My own RSS inventory is not working either, although many members' feeds are. I sent an email to tech support and they told me that Twitter changed the way they send data to BookMooch and they hope to do the programming required to resolve the issue soon. It sounds from their message that the "recently added books" feed is affected and will also be fixed.

So after complaining here, I got three wishlist hits today. Yipee!

I haven't been on BM in months. I used to check it daily. Neither my wishlist or my inventory has had a hit in ages. It maybe time to close my account. Like many others have said no one wants to ship internationally and as a Canadian it is frightfully expensive to ship within my own country. 90% of the books I've sent out have been to the US or international destinations. Some I've tried to request have been ignored all together, so maybe I should vacation myself. I got so many wonderful books on BM so this is quite frustrating.

I am still getting (and sending) a fair number of mooches. I do send internationally- sent one to Canada today. It does require checking my RSS feed daily to find wishlisted books. However, I've had to start checking PBS multiple times daily, too, because of the Wishilisht multiple listings in Book Bazaar now a lot of the wishlisted books that get posted are bypassing FIFO. E-books aren't cheap enough yet for most people to switch over entirely, so I think we have years before our book trading sites will truly die.

I know this thread is really old (about 6 months) and I took a look at BM stats today.

Looking at the entire year these stats show 17739 people listing books and 277698 books listed now down to 15464 people and 248180 books listed. 2275 less people listing books and 29518 less books. (about 12 books per person less). While this is not some super high drop in people it does show a continued downward trend.

If I did my math correctly there are about 10% less people offering books on the site. Do you think the further increase in postage will continue to drive down the number of people and books posted or is ebooks driving people away from the site or have people just lost interest and the site is slowly dying.

What is your take on the drop in people offering books?

Unless you are fond of mass-market romance, it takes a certain amount of work and patience to get the books you want, and a lot of people probably give up when they discover that it's harder than clicking the "buy now" box at a retail site.

Another damper is finding you have 50 points and nothing to mooch. You aren't going to want to add to your inventory.

I'm sure there are other reasons, but I think those are the biggest ones.

I used to find lots of books on PBS, but it seems like the selection there has really dwindled.

I've found a big increase in the numbers of people who just don't bother to respond to requests. Especially bad with the "ask first" situations. And a lot of people seem to have dropped out of Angelling, which makes it even more depressing for those of us outside the US and UK.

I haven't used BM much this year for a couple of reasons. One is that I just don't have the room to put any more books until I read a lot of the ones I have. So there's no reason to list more books and get more points that I might not spend. So now I mostly donate my books to the library for their sale after I've read them. Same reason I haven't really been doing much "angeling" either.

I haven't used the site for about a year now- nothing from my wish list shows up - I look every once and a while and should put myself on vacation- note- do that today.
I used to receive great books from Australia and the UK- and I did send my own mooched books all over the world.
no interest? bad not updated site?

Would still use the site if I could, but had to move in to take care of family members in something of a hurry a few months ago and my mooch-box got left behind, can't honor requests for those books and don't really want to lose my conditions notes, cover shots etc... by removing them so just put myself on vacation.
Going to the post office on anything like a predictable schedule has become much more chancy, anyway :|

I used to check my wishlist nearly every day. Now it's once a week at most. I rarely find anything to mooch now and more often get no response when I do. The site doesn't seem to have had any work for ages and just looks stale and neglected. That can't be helping to attract new users.

PBS is a better-run and organized site, but you can't have a very large wishlist, you can't get books from overseas, and you can't wishlist books that don't have an ISBN. BM seems like more of a hobby site.

I've gotten some wonderful books thru BM, however, partly because people list some unusual publications.

I had to move pretty suddenly from a large house to a small apartment due to a job. Consequently, I removed my entire (1000+) inventory and donated it to the library. I also spent down some points sending children's books to my nephew, since at that time I had nearly 300 points, and I was not in need of more books to put in storage, and also concerned that by the time I got back to mooching again, the site would be a ghost town and the points worthless.
I've still got about 40 pts left and will continue to troll my wishlist, but probably won't be posting more books until I get back into a larger space and have room to store inventory items, which might be a while --possibly years.

I'm still having infinitely better luck on PBS than on BM. I get more hits (most of the books I wishlist are graphic novels and manga) and, unlike BM, the books actually arrive instead of "pending" for months on end. I definitely still like Bookmooch, but I think the combination of people posting fewer books and my having already scored the "easy" books on my wishlists means that my use of the site will continue to shrink.

Simple. I still like BookMooch, but have too many "to read" books in my house now! I needed to stop offering them in return for which I was getting even more.

I've also become steward of my own Little Free Library in Maryland. People not only take books from it, but they also donate books. :D

Show moochable now
No books found.

Show moochable now
No books found.

Show moochable now
No books found.

Show moochable now
No books found.

Sigh...

I like BM better than PBS for general access. PBS's sight is too visually cluttered. Neither sight is perfect, and I do get frustrated by the fact that Literature (versus) popular fiction is much harder to find. However, overall, I do like BM over PBS.

Bookmooch sends me an email when a book is available to mooch. I never go into my wish list to see what books are available. It is true, those marked are never moochable. So, I do not bother w/ it; I just

I am an active user of PBS and have been finding it very useful for both my own purposes and the purposes of our little book collective: https://www.facebook.com/LAIC.BookCollective

We are intrusted with hundreds of books every month. My zeal in different ways has gotten me in some trouble with Book Mooch. Currently my account is under review. I feel really awkward in this. I am the kind of guy that has only gotten 1 speeding ticket in my whole life.

If Book Mooch kicks people like me off of their site... it will not do well. I love books ... work with them and have sent hundreds out for trade.

I have over 200 points on PBS. Currently locked out of using my Book Mooch point (I have accumulated over 100)... looking on the net I am not the only person who has been wondering if they made a good investment at BookMooch...

So are there other viable trade sites beside these two that function well in the USA?

I am admittedly and enthusiast. I promote what I like, think, care about... Bartering and trade is a good thing. I am sad about being off of Bookmooch because PBS does not have an active comic book trading culture. I have recently gotten over 3,000 comic books and am trying to decide what to trade, sell, give, or in other ways share... and what I want to collect. Comic books were my gateway into learning to want to read. Grateful for the worlds and creativity they opened up for me. I am enjoying that they are in a faddish way back in style since the many movies based on their story lines have come out.

So for me unless BookMooch opens up soon... I am going to write them off... and look for other places to Trade. Any suggestions? Both for books and comic books?

It's too bad there isn't a good alternative to BM. I know they want to encourage new members, but it's hard to recommend BM to people when existing members get mistreated.

Jaw1LA, didn't you have problems earlier with BookMooch? I remember you posting here a year or so ago and felt a little surprised you were still participating when I saw your post now.

I considered switching to changobooks.com, but I'm still procrastinating. Does anyone here have experience with it?

Hi ... yes I did have problems before... but for completely different reasons.

This time I eagerly tried to order a book from the same person twice... when I was supposed to wait for their email.

You ever go online and wonder if you did something or just thought about doing something. Well... I am not going to touch that button again... the one that says you may ask... not if a mistake here gets you cut off from the system for months.

I now have a date for them to resolve this all in April. While that feels like a long time. I will still want to share some in their system even while branching out to explore other options.

I just checked out Changobooks.com. They will need to grow ... currently their inventory is under 3,000 books. Not a big selection. Still I will watch and see if they grow.

I did join Changobooks, but so far no one offers to send a single book that I actually want to my country. And the people there don't seem to want my books either.

I also joined two Dutch book exchange sites:
https://www.ruilboek.nl/ which has a bookmooch-like system but is really small.
And http://www.boekenruilen.nl/ which has a large enough amount of books to be able to actually swap, but which only does direct swaps. My taste is not very mainstream, so if I go to that site I do find books I want but only from people that don't want my books. I did manage one swap there, but I find the whole process too frustrating to do regularly.

In the meantime, my bookmooch pending list is empty (except for some three- to four-year old mooches that I am only keeping on there because it seems a shame to let go of a 2-point international mooch as long as there still is an infinitesimal chance they might still work out). I think it's the first time since I joined that there isn't some book that I am expecting to get through bookmooch.

I find that I frequently find books that people are wishing for on Paperbackswap.com . I will soon have close to 250 points on that site. I am confident I will find books useful to our group and community. I really wish there were other trade sites that shined in my heart as brightly as this one.

I find that occasionally a book that i am wishing for also is posted... always brings a smile on my face... and their system lets people get in line to get certain books.

I wish that other trade sites worked as well as PBS...

Thanks for sharing.

I AM WORN OUT AND DONE... NEVER TO RETURN TO BOOK MOOCH ... AND VERY HAPPY WITH PAPERBACKSWAP.COM. THANK YOU ALL FOR LISTENING. I personally will point those in my network to paperbackswap.com. My last hope is to donate my points to a charity ... if they contact me.

Peace out.