BookObsessed

I totally agree with every bit of what Shaunesay said!!

shaunesay wrote:database = love

marking mailed = at most day or two in future when packed and ready to go

other comments = none, others have already said

Yeah, that!

I do my JE's and mark mailed as I package them up - and I put the date I'm actually mailing in, not the date I'm packaging - no more than a couple of days ahead as I sometimes package on the weekend and always mail those Monday on my way home from work.

A few of us have been talking about this for awhile, so thank you Giz for going ahead and bringing it out to the group for discussion. I guess what I'd hoped to see here was some of the people whose books are marked mailed weeks or months ago coming in and letting us know if there's been any follow up with the intended recipient to see if some of these just haven't been journaled, or if they know of any other circumstances. As Giz mentioned, there are a few MIA people who we know aren't making J.E.'s any more, but there are tons of books unaccounted for - far more than seem likely to really be lost in the mail.

Does anyone have any ideas on other situations that could be behind this issue? or any suggestions on how we deal with it as it's something that will just grow...... or do we do anything with it at all?

CdnBlueRose wrote:Does anyone have any ideas on other situations that could be behind this issue? or any suggestions on how we deal with it as it's something that will just grow...... or do we do anything with it at all?

Why not PMing those folks and ask them directly what's the status of those books that are traveling for ages? (of course those BOers that are not MIA)

Personally I don't understand you who are marking books as mailed few days ahead. Not that I have any problem with that (as long as books are traveling) but what's the point of that? Why not mark book after you come back from the post office? I mean, you might find post office too crowded to wait or whatever and come back with unsent books. From my perspective it is far less harmful to send book and not mark it as "mailed" than vice versa. It happened more than once that I mark book as "mailed" few days after I've sent it.
Anyway I believe that habit could be part of the problem: that some of those folks have marked books as "mailed" thinking they'll send books in a day or two (or week) and then just forgot because whatever. Next time when they check which book they suppose to mail they don't see those books under "owing" sub-folder and they are getting in limbo.

That's why I think it might be a good idea to PM them in case they aren't aware they didn't send those books and also advise them not to mark book as "mailed" until they really send the book (and show them the same thing with personal example).

well said zzz

I love the database as a tool to track what I owe and what is owed to me. I only mark books as mailed after they have been mailed and I keep pretty careful track of rather they have been journaled after I mail them. I never mail anything without a Delivery Confirmation # anymore as I have had several books lost in the past.

I personally think that in order to straighten this out we will have to do some investigating. We need to figure out if there are certain people who have books that are habitually being marked as mailed and then not marked as arrived. If a person has more than a few books marked as mailed for a period of time, then something is up. I hate to say it, but I do think that one of the problems is that some people are trying to 'cheat' the system and marking books as mailed to avoid the 6 month list. It will be fairly obvious if this is the case, if a particular person has a large number of 'lost' books or a history of having books not arrive. There are also a lot of people who have disappeared either owing books ore having books sent to them and not journaling them. There is nothing that can be done about that, sadly. There are also members who habitually do not bother to journal books when they arrive. Short of hounding them to meet their responsibility to journal there is not much more anyone can do about that.

I mark a book as mailed after I have put it into the postal worker's hands. I do not create a "released" Journal Entry, though I do try to remember to change the status to "traveling". I do have to point out that several books mailed to me took 2-3 months to arrive. And, I know of 3 books that I mailed that never arrived; which is why I now use Delivery Confirmation on *all* domestic packages. And, one package was delivered last month torn open with only one of the three books still inside.

I agree elsi, some books do take an age to arrive - I send books surface outside EU and they can take MONTHS to get to places, esp Australia and NZ.

However that aside I do agree with zzz and others that it would be best to PM every member this applies to. I think the problem with that is time - it's really a task one person needs to do as the logistics of breaking the list of members up proved VERY difficult last time we tried to do a similar thing with the intro of the 6 month list. And for one person to set aside that amount of time is a big commitment - I for one just know I couldn't take it on at the mo, with the RL things I have going on. I could maybe do it in a couple of months but that's not ideal. And I am not saying this to guilt anyone else into taking it on - it's just opening up the discussion and trying to resolve it in the best way possible for the community

Just in answer to ZZZ'z question about marking mailed before posting...I did this for the very first time at the weekend ( typical hey!) becasue I had a number of books i was parcelling up to post on Monday and it was just easier to do it while the database was open.. I sometimes forget what I've posted after the event and was really just playing to see if it would let me make as sent in advance
I don't think I'm in the naughty corner though and if I am, I'm sure Giz will me at the weekend!

I only mark books as posted once I have taken them to the post office, I thought that was what everyone else did.

teachie wrote:I only mark books as posted once I have taken them to the post office, I thought that was what everyone else did.

Truly that's what your suppose to do but as you can tell it's not. I haven't gone through the mailed list to see who the offenders are but apparantly they aren't posting here.
I think the mods and admins are going to have to write up something and I can send it to those that need to be reminded.