riccardo:

Re- point 1) Yes, you're right.  The reason I hadn't noticed this before is that the result I usually get from a search has a message starting, "Sorry, we couldn't find anyone with copies of this book available for swapping...."  This is what I misinterpreted when raising point 3).  So that leaves the quesiton of why so many search results draw a blank?  I've done a mini survey on 2 searches and in both cases, over 90% of the search results said there wasn't a book available.  And in each case I also had to click the link to discover this.

Not quite sure I understand what you mean here - is it that you search for a title and get a result like this:

 

I'm glad I have a few folk thinking!  I don't want the site to be another eBay either but I would like it to improve its basic functions as well as develop.  I did suggest that the site for DVD's etc could be separate.  The idea of a flexible fee really isn't workable but maybe an optional fixed fee of say £1 would be although postage at the least should be an option.

TBH I wouldn't like the idea of having the small fee, the reason I use this site is as I can't afford to buy new books all the time. 

I wouldn't want to pay extra to swap for a hardback, it would put me off swapping.

I can see a few good ideas floating around on this thread but I would like to point out that RiSi is totally free for us to use and that the Admin team do a wonderful job, all in their own spare time and on very little money.

Whilst they listen to our suggestions only some of them can be put into practice.  We saw quite a few improvements last year.  However, it is Evolution not Revolution!

gemsey:

TBH I wouldn't like the idea of having the small fee, the reason I use this site is as I can't afford to buy new books all the time. 

I wouldn't want to pay extra to swap for a hardback, it would put me off swapping.

I agree Gemma I wouldn't expect anyone to pay either just because the book is a hardback I just prefer to keep those for swapping as the initial outlay was higher for the original purchase and the postage is higher because of the weight.  However, for the hardbacks I have bought from a charity shop then postage is fine.

I also use this site to try new authors because when I have been buying books in the past I have tended to stick with authors I knew as much as I could but this site allows you to try new ones because if you don't like them you just swap them.

Wendy

riccardo:

I'm glad I have a few folk thinking!  I don't want the site to be another eBay either but I would like it to improve its basic functions as well as develop.  I did suggest that the site for DVD's etc could be separate.  The idea of a flexible fee really isn't workable but maybe an optional fixed fee of say £1 would be although postage at the least should be an option.

Totally agree that the site should improve and develop (and it has over the past 2 years, in many ways) and that books in return for postage should be an option (most of us already do this anyway)

If you had to pay a fee of even £1 on top of the postage costs, it would take the effective cost of most books to around £2.50 which starts to look quite expensive, especially for a 2nd hand paperback.  I think the two really big attraction of the site as it is are that 1) it is brilliantly simple to use, and 2) you can get books relatively cheaply compared with Amazon marketplace or even some charity shops.  I'm not sure it would be as popular or as successful as it is if fees were introduced and/or it became more complicated. 

I think a lot of people would stop using the site or use it less often if a fee was introduced (i know i couldnt afford it). We have a wonderful site and i think its simplicity is the main reason why. Sometimes increasing complexity is a bad thing!

Whilst I can understand and appreciate the suggestions given here, I'm with Aurora on this and certainly dont want RISI to start any sort of fee/charge or to incorporate other items to swap.  

New members will not realise that RISI is not a money making venture for it's owners, it was set up by a book lover in his spare time.  The owners/admin still work full time and run the site in what spare time they have.  Likewise the Mods - all done by volunteers in their spare time.

There are countless swapping sites around - most operate on a points system I think - but lots available out there.  

Over the past 2 years the developments made on RISI have been slow but sure - users have been consulted with and listened to - which is great.  

Sorry if I sound like a party pooper but that's my opinion - yes, lets have an extra option for not accepting a swap by all means, but to be honest I'd rather that was done by Internal PM rather than private e mail addresses too. 

This reply is really to all of you who have taken the time and trouble to respond to my (sometimes dodgy) suggestions.  I'll try to summarise today's activity here:

1) What is clear, and I agree, is that there should be no charge on top of postage.  But that option should be more easily available.

2) Many of you do believe that we need to be able to discuss swaps in more detail at times with members.  After some difficulty, I did manage to arganise a 3 for 1 swap.  The alternative would have been not to swap at all which defeats the object.

3) Nobody has said anything yet so I still believe that e-books should be a swap option.  There are more of these around than some might think.  The advantages of course are no costs and no trip to the Post Office.

4) Apparently "pennyt" is confused about my poor experiences when searching for books.  I have never seen the page she suggested when searching for a book but here is the the one I see in the vast majority of cases:

Me And My Piano - Part I by Fanny Waterman, Marion Marewood 

---

Sorry, we couldn't find anyone with copies of this book available for swapping. If you searched for the book, sometimes our search results are delayed slightly and the last copy of the book you selected must just have been swapped with someone else.

5) I still maintain that members wanting to swap specialised non fiction books should include good descriptions to enable others to evaluate them properly.  Without that detail it is nearly impossible to judge whether a swap is viable.  It also saves the trouble of clicking through to Amazon where the book is sometimes not listed anyway.

6) As far as CD's and DVD's are concerned, there is clearly a swap market for these items which are of course fully copyright protected such as books.  RISI is in the ideal position to expand member services into this area but maybe via a sister site.

 Richard

I think that the way RISI works at the moment swap for swap is the way to keep it. If you have books that you feel are to new or to expensive to post then don't but I don't mind posting out a hardback book that may cost me £2/3  to get a book that I want to read. If we want to buy books then as people say there is always Ebay or Green Metropolis.

yes the  reason for not swapping could be improved but even that actually works out as it is.

Just read all this with interest and I'd just like to say that as far as I am concerned this is such a wonderful site and so simple to use, and I am so grateful to admin and the mods for all their hard work, that although some of your suggestions Richard are completely valid they are perhaps more relevant to a more commercial site. You point 5 above, for example, about descriptions of specialised non fiction titles, is a good one - but sometimes people don't want or don't feel able to write full descriptions, and it's important to keep this site accessible for everyone concerned. If it's a specialised title it's easy enough to find out more about it.

riccardo:

4) Apparently "pennyt" is confused about my poor experiences when searching for books.  I have never seen the page she suggested when searching for a book but here is the the one I see in the vast majority of cases:

Me And My Piano - Part I by Fanny Waterman, Marion Marewood 

Book Description (see Amazon or Librarything for customer reviews etc):

Piano teachers! This is the book you've been waiting for! By the distinguished authors of the Waterman/Harewood Piano Series, designed specially for the needs of the younger beginner. Delightfully illustrated in full color throughout, Me and My Piano takes the young pianist through the earliest stages of piano technique. Games and puzzles give elementary theory new life, and children will love the rhymes and songs introducing the Ostrich, Sammy Squirrel, and the Old Man with a Beard.

to get this book for the price of postage!

Alternatively find out more about how ReadItSwapIt works

---

Sorry, we couldn't find anyone with copies of this book available for swapping. If you searched for the book, sometimes our search results are delayed slightly and the last copy of the book you selected must just have been swapped with someone else.

How strange - I think that's happened to me once on all the time I've been using the site.  I assume this happens usually when you request a very recently-listed book - and by the time you request it, the book has already been swapped on.  I've never found there's much of a delay between books being swapped and the copy disappearing from the site - but perhaps that's because the books I want are less keenly sought-after.

5) I still maintain that members wanting to swap specialised non fiction books should include good descriptions to enable others to evaluate them properly.  Without that detail it is nearly impossible to judge whether a swap is viable.  It also saves the trouble of clicking through to Amazon where the book is sometimes not listed anyway.

I would agree with you about this, but unfortunately you're never going to be able to force people to put in a detailed description if they honestly can't be bothered! 

sparhawk:

I think that the way RISI works at the moment swap for swap is the way to keep it. If you have books that you feel are to new or to expensive to post then don't but I don't mind posting out a hardback book that may cost me £2/3  to get a book that I want to read. If we want to buy books then as people say there is always Ebay or Green Metropolis.

yes the  reason for not swapping could be improved but even that actually works out as it is.

Again I agree I have some expensive hardbacks on here but if I wasn't prepared to swap them for paperbooks or any book of a lower value I wouldn't have put them on.  As I said earlier if I had wanted money for them I would have gone elsewhere.  To me it's more about someone wanting the books I'm offering then what I'm getting out of it.  This site allows me to try out authors I wouldn't risk trying if I was buying the books and to swap the one I do have for others that I would like.  Aside from a way of indicating that I am prepared to accept the postage or even discuss a future swap I am quite happy as things are.

riccardo:

4) Apparently "pennyt" is confused about my poor experiences when searching for books.  I have never seen the page she suggested when searching for a book but here is the the one I see in the vast majority of cases:

Me And My Piano - Part I by Fanny Waterman, Marion Marewood 

Book Description (see Amazon or Librarything for customer reviews etc):

Piano teachers! This is the book you've been waiting for! By the distinguished authors of the Waterman/Harewood Piano Series, designed specially for the needs of the younger beginner. Delightfully illustrated in full color throughout, Me and My Piano takes the young pianist through the earliest stages of piano technique. Games and puzzles give elementary theory new life, and children will love the rhymes and songs introducing the Ostrich, Sammy Squirrel, and the Old Man with a Beard.

to get this book for the price of postage!

Alternatively find out more about how ReadItSwapIt works

---

Sorry, we couldn't find anyone with copies of this book available for swapping. If you searched for the book, sometimes our search results are delayed slightly and the last copy of the book you selected must just have been swapped with someone else.

If you are seeing the above screen when searching for books, it means you have not logged in.  When you log in you will see the screen Penny showed.