Re: The stance on a Sticky Thread.
Aaahhhh ... the sticky thread lives again! Now that I have had the time to re-read it, I'd like to say that whereas Mason's sentiments are always highly appreciated, I can't quite see how they rule out a sticky with links to the best discussions for books.
<font color="red"> Warning: long and ranty! </font>
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There are many reasons why we are negative towards a sticky in this forum. One of them is simply that when it comes to books the opinions differ. So we prefer to let the discussion lead our posters to what is top notch versus what is questionable.
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Well, opinions differing is sorta the reason we have discussion forums in the first place, and, besides, opinions about how hands should be played is hardly a problem in the strategy forums and shouldn't be here either. It's what we're here for. As for the top-notch remark, see below.
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Another is the fact that new books are coming out all the time, and it's not just a few. In the old days I use to read every poker book that got published. Today, it's just not possible to do that. So this makes me afraid that worthwhile, but somewhat obscure books, would be left out of the post.
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First of all, the number of bad books is just one more reason to have a sticky, so we could give those in need an overview of good books and link to a discussion about them. Secondly, there's an invisible hand of consumer sentiment here, meaning that good books get much discussion, while bad books are either identified as such or simply ignored. Thirdly, if you believe worthwhile but little-known publications would be left out, by all means link to a review or a discussion in the sticky. This would lead to awareness of them which current state of affairs does not.
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A third reason is that we are often accused, though it's completely false, that the only books we give good reviews to are our own, and that we deliberately downgrade competitor's books. While this is certaily not the case, the fact of the matter is that there are only a small number of non-Two Plus Two books that we do recommend, and we of course have favorable opinions of our stuff. So this is an issue we prefer not to introduce to this forum since it has the potential of distracting from the high quality discussion that happens here.
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This notion comes up every so often anyway. A sticky won't change it to the better or worse. A sticky will link to these high-quality discussions you speak of and, as above, the number and weight of the discussions will reveal what books the users here like. This hardly turns it into a Chinese propaganda machine, which in my experience is a lot more driven by a small number of "saved" users than official 2+2 staff anyway. Bear in mind that a sticky with links to the best threads about the publications that have been debated here is not necessarily a lifechanging manifesto. There's always gonna be loud whiners whatever you do. It's not a good excuse for not providing something we need. And it won't distract form the good discussions here. Rather, it will free us from having to write the same things over and over again - leaving us more time for the high-quality discussions! [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]
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And finally, or the last one I will mention, we prefer not to deal with irate authors who would feel slighted because we did not mention their books. Most authors, even those who consistently produce a great deal of garbage, feel that their books really are quite good and can't understand our attitude towards them. Many of these authors are already unhappy with us, especially when we don't allow them to put glowing posts up about their books which are little more than press releases / advertisements, and it's not in our interest to make this unhapiness more extreme
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Hmmmm ... I can imagine. I'd still say that a sticky with links to discussions about questions that come up over and over again probably won't enrage these people even more. Specifically, if there is no discussion about a book because it's just horrible (and a thread in which this fact is stated by an unlucky 2+2'er whose aunt gave it to him on his birthday does not count), then there's nothing to link to and it gets no place in the sticky. Problem solved. I spend some time in currency trading forums and they have the same problems. Trust me, there are lots of shady sellers lurking there. They have no problem locking threads started by unknowns with 2 posts that say "Wow, have you seen investment service X's site. Doesn't it look good?" And neither should you. In fact, if your sentiments were stated in the sticky, you could simply point the poor slighted bastards to the sticky and waste no more time on them!
Ahh, man. Sorry for the length of this. I'm having my morning coffee and there's nothing of interest in the newspapers. I'll go away now. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]
Cheers,
Smurf
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