The Demise of the Barnes & Noble Community of Readers

I see no other way to describe this “deletion” from the once great and wonderful Barnes and Noble University of readers. It is a “deletion”, and “demise”, a burial of sorts.

It’s been a progressive funeral that I’ve had the misfortune to watch since 2006….the year all hell broke into a fair and square community of honest reading population of discussants.  I was once a bit player in this evolution, from wonderful to god-awful, and my mixed feelings will be never ending, even with this Barnes and Noble ending.

We had high points, and we had low points, now I’ll try and sort through them, (which I doubt will be possible, but I’ll try).

Goodbye, fair thee well….good memories, bad memories, good days, bad days, good people, bad people, terrific authors, terrible authors, wonderful moderators, miserable moderators….Great administrators, and the worst administers of non existent rules and regulations.

The story is long and tedious, so I’ll keep it short and to the point, or not….

I have never stopped missing the “good old days” before the Beta-Lithium days of destruction. I saw the writing on the wall with this one, and it was written in such a way that made worthwhile discussions almost obsolete.  We had a good thing, once, but Barnes and Noble took it and destroyed it, along with their wonderful program of readers.  My question has always been…How do you expect to sell books, if you can’t maintain your readers and authors?  Money once well spent, flushed down the toilet when ignorance becomes bliss.

I date back to the Barnes and Noble University, as it was once called, in the 1990’s  I honestly don’t know how I stumbled upon it, or was lead to it, perhaps.  Maybe a friend guided me there?  I saw a notice, join a book discussion, make your choice, and join on these dates…. Pretty simple, to be sure.

I do remember the simplicity of the board layout, where no one had to ask how to use it or respond, you just knew by looking at it.  You weren’t given a bazillion individual options that no one knew how to use or navigate through; you knew who you were talking to, and you saw their responses, it was as simple as that.

The questions were all lead by a moderator, a friendly no nonsense leader.  The rules were posted.  Period  I remember, particularly, the Literary Fiction that was offered, wonderful authors, and great questions given to us by the publishers.  These were extraordinarily provocative and introspective questions.  I’m a thinker, and these questions and discussions made me think deeply about what it means to read and understand a well thought out story.  It made me want to buy more books along these lines.

I remember:  Having “off the board” friendly discussions and contact with these readers in the “community room”.  I remember the laughs and the tears of joy and some personal story of sadness, the advice that was exchanged to render in us the feelings of “togetherness” and “community”, transcending and recognizing the understanding which is learned through well written literature.

I remember making contact with these authors, off the “boards”; the “off the board” discussions that brought me closer to these writers.  I shared, and they shared.  Beautiful moments were shared.

I remember getting an email from Lisa Tucker, from Elinor Lipman, from Anita Diamant, and my never ending exchanges between me and Dorothea Benton Frank, a funny lady to be sure, but always worried about what people would think of her on Amazon’s reviews.  I remember the eccentricities of some of these authors.  Their personal points of views, some funny, some silly, some introspective and profound.

I remember getting an email, out of the blue, from Stephanie Moffett, a favorite moderator of mine.  She saw I was getting “pursued” by one of the readers who wanted to ask me questions which would take me off topic.  In those days you stayed on topic or you were reprimanded…..the three strikes and you’re out rule.  Stephanie supported me in how I wanted to respond to this reader.  She trusted my judgment, my words.  It felt good to know someone was behind me when having to make a decision on the boards.

The years went by, Stephanie and I became close friends, and I came across many intelligent readers over those years.  It was nice, relaxing, and it was also nice when new people came from all over the world, joining those discussions, revitalizing our readers.  New perspectives are always needed and refreshing.

I remember one gal from Europe, she was bored at work that night so she hopped onto our discussion board, she talked about her occupation…she sat in a night watchman’s booth, checking traffic for drugs, etc.  Another participant and I were up late into that night, and found we were joined by this reader….we had so much fun bantering, we forgot we were on a “discussion board”, and NOT in the community room where we should have conducted this personal conversation.  Oops…

The next day we were all greeted with a notification from the “systems operator. SysOps” to “delete” our conversation….we all laughed and one by one we each deleted out short sentences, and I laughed with each deletion.  It wasn’t a serious rule infraction, so I wasn’t worried, just a fun conversation I hoped was enjoyed by the rest of the world of readers.

Elinor Lipman was invited to the Literary Fiction board by Stephanie, I enjoyed Elinor’s novel so much, My Latest Grievance, that it inspired me to make my first set ceramic bookends for Elinor.  Stephanie wanted a set of her own, so I made hers for her family.

I hadn't realized what a monumental task I was undertaking, the creation and sending ceramics in the mail, another hurdle, and dealing with the rules and regulations of B&N over the years by their “Rulers”.  I won’t list the authors I’ve made sets for, but just say that my last set was to Shandi Mitchell for her novel Under This Unbroken Sky.  That box of bookends must have been touched by everyone, from my West coast to New York, to Nova Scotia!  

I turned to writing by then, and wrote poems, off and on the boards, and sometimes accompanying these wonderful stories in these novels.

When Barnes and Noble switched to the “new” formatting of their whole website, it was a mess to say the least, and we, as the old guard, lost many of our wonderful readers who couldn't handle the change, it was just too complicated to navigate around… I was one who stuck with it.  I waded through, at times knee deep in muck and crap that was thrown at us by some of these people calling themselves moderators and administrators.  It was sad days ahead.

My longtime friend, Mair, couldn’t deal with it, and left.  She came back only once during a discussion, because I asked her to join.  I was being harassed by one of the participants, and she gave me support to get through it.  She was someone I could discuss the book with, logically and sanely, and not get pushed to the wall to defend my thoughts.  When the discussion ended, she left and never returned after that, and I don’t blame her.

I encountered mean and rude participants who dragged me out of conversations, who plagued me, and questioned my every word, from book group to book group, from board to board with snide remarks between these followers of this one person.  I tried to smooth it out in private messages, but it couldn’t be resolved.  I asked Stephanie to help out, she couldn’t make it stop.  They attacked her with snide remarks.  I tried to get the Administration to get this woman to stop plaguing me on these boards, and they didn’t have a clue what I was talking about because they didn’t have a clue what went on with their boards, or with most of their moderators. Stephanie intervened, finally contacting the Administration.  By then it was too late.  They had no rules, and they had no systems operators to enforce what little was left of their rules.  After a while, I was feeling lost.  I tried to help all of these lost people, off the boards in private messages, but some were simply overwhelmed by what they didn’t know, how to handle a board without rules.  They left one by one.

Eventually all the moderators were let go.  Rachel Kubie, another favorite of mine, was the last to go when B&N did away with the best thing they had, The First Look Club.  A discussion board that brought in new authors with new and terrific novels…we spoke with the writers, we spoke with graphic artists, with publishers, with editors, we got a picture of not just a story, but how that physical book was created.  But, unfortunately, it went through a horrible transition before Rachel got onboard as the moderator.  I even tried my hand at helping those moderators, but they didn’t have a clue.  Rachel knew what to do, and did it, but by then B&N didn’t care about their readers, and let her go too.

The formatting of the website of Barnes & Noble changed several times over the last eight years, and we were all given a “title”, starting with Reader and ending with Distinguished Bibliophile, which was my ending title…we were also given the ability to give “laurels”, a reward system of “likes”.  All ridiculous moves, where every day at least a dozen people would ask, “what’s that about?”  I spent most of my time explaining to these people how to navigate around the “place”, instead of being involved in discussions – it was tiresome, and heartbreaking.  

....And then I witnessed one of our moderators get into a knockdown no-win argument with another reader, and that was the last straw.  I intervened, and found my posts deleted.  My rights didn’t exist, and nether did our words or our readers.  I had no idea who was in charge any more.  Administrator became buddies with moderator, and this was a no win side for anyone to have a complaint.

Another participant and I started a discussion in the Community Room, bouncing off of each other about the titles and laurels and standings of each participant.  We laughed a lot about it, because it was a joke by then.  One of the Admins thought it would be a good idea for the two of us and our entourage to have “our own” board, since the thread of discussion was getting to large for anyone to handle.  I gave the new board the title of, The Kingdom of Wordsmithonia.  It was a board where fantasy writing, with the leadership of Ryan Groff and I, took off.

The Garden Club, with Becke Davis, was being cancelled, after many years with the old BΝ it was a place where I could spend a lot of my time talking about everything in nature.  I got to know Becke and the nice people who came to her board.  It was pleasant to spend time there.  We didn’t discuss books, per se, but they were introduced none the less.  Becke was kind and gave me a thread to write my poetry, and anyone could participate. 

When B&N shut her board down, I asked Becke and the Admins if I could have that link of poetry, and they set it up into our Kingdom’s board.  It was fun for the new people who liked to write creatively, but interest waned as the stats for readers waned.

The Writing Board, the Literary Fiction board, the Current Events Board, and others, all the boards that were created to promote discussions amongst readers, all  where going by the wayside…I think the only one left was the Mystery board, where books and authors were promoted, and the Literary Fiction board, which no longer interested me because of content, where the only ones left….other boards, where volunteer moderators lived, were being abandoned….by now Barnes and Noble wasn’t interested in their readers on these boards, no matter how hard their moderators tried…. B&N was only interested in promoting their new acquisition, the Nook.

E-reading was now the new rage.  Blogs were introduced, but they didn’t encourage readers to participate, since most bloggers weren't interested in anything except dropping their blog thoughts down, then leaving for the duration until the next week, or next time it was their turn to “blog”….mostly informational….other blogs introduced talking about book cover design, which I liked, but no one wanted to discuss…..how many times I have said I hated that word, blog, I can’t count.  I was talking to myself, most of the time.  I now have two personal blogs of my own, not on B&N.  I guess I got used to telling stories and talking to myself.  I did become a participant on Ilana Simons' blog, Literature and Life....to my dismay I was drawn into a vortex I wasn't prepared for.  I'll leave it at that.

At one time, I tried to go back to my beloved Kingdom board, but now it only makes me feel sad at the thought of it….abandoned, the castle is in ruins, as are the gardens, the pools, and the landscape; it has all gone to the trolls who lived under the bridge.  No readers and writers…all gone.  Landscapes change, and too many of us, now, have changed and can never go back.

Too much technology and not enough hands-on for the book lovers, as B & N did away with the website’s access to this Community of book lovers….no one could find a way into these boards, now it’s impossible, as they cut the links.  I put a link on my computer, or I could never have found my way back to read their announcement.

This is the physical demise they seem to want:  I still order my books through them, but that’s the extent of my connection.

This is it, my recollection in a nutshell, the funeral, the liturgy of this time and once great age of the Barnes & Noble Community of Book Readers, lovers of books and discussions of those books.  RIP, B&N