Feedback or requests for help with the site.
Oct 9th, 2015, 10:28 am
I love this site, I really do. However, I have one little niggle. That being, in the sci-fi/fantasy ebook section, when I am looking to find a good fantasy or sci-fi book, I run across a lot of apocalyptic fiction (zombies, government breakdown. etc.) and I wondered if it was possible to create a new section just for that type of fiction?

Fair enough if it not, but sometimes i get tired of when I am trawling through looking for book, of finding 2 to 3 books of apocalyptic fiction for every 1 of sci-fi/fantasy.
Oct 9th, 2015, 10:28 am
Oct 10th, 2015, 8:25 am
Hello! Thanks for your post. As the Mod leading the Recat team, I wanted to respond with some thoughts.

As a librarian, I do understand your reasoning, however we feel that the current hierarchy is the best and easiest for both the users and the Moderators. Multiple sub-genres would become too unwieldy to maintain. Believe it or not, we actually get complaints from users who don't like the current structure and want ALL eBooks in ONE forum! If we were to have sub-forums under the SciFi/Fantasy/Horror we'd be looking at at least:

Alternate History
Arthurian Fantasy
Bangsian Fantasy
Biopunk
Child in Peril
Comic Horror
Creepy Kids
Cyberpunk
Dark Fantasy
Dark Mystery/Noir
Dystopian
Erotic Vampire:
Fabulist
Game-Related Fantasy
Gothic
Hard Science Fiction
Hauntings
Heroic Fantasy
High/Epic Fantasy
Historical
Magical Realism
Military SF
Mundane SF
Mystery SF
Mythic Fiction
New Age
Post-Apocalyptic
Psychological
Quiet Horror
Religious
Science Fantasy
Science-Fiction Horror
Social SF
Soft SF
Space Opera
Splatter
Spy-Fi
Steampunk
Superheroes
Supernatural Menace
Sword and Sorcery
Technology
Thriller SF
Time-Travel
Urban Fantasy
Vampire
Weird Tales
Wuxia
Zombie


Which, as I hope you can see, if just far too involved and complicated. :lol:

In a general way, we have modelled our genre forums on library standards. Zombie/Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian etc novels fall under the genre of Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror, all of which are sections you will find (I hope) in your local library. It's rare that there will be sub-divisions within those sections, at least in the libraries I have visited and worked in. The same principle applies here as it does there really: you browse the "parent" genre section looking for titles or authors that you know or you think might sound like a good read in its sub genres.

So, yes, the ratio of books in one category might outweigh another but there is not much we can do about that. Don't forget we also have a Reading Recommendations & Discussions forum that can provide you with suggestions for new authors etc.

Thanks for your feedback though, we always welcome and are glad to hear from people. :thumbup:
Oct 10th, 2015, 8:25 am
Oct 11th, 2015, 9:07 pm
Cheers for your answer :)
Oct 11th, 2015, 9:07 pm
Oct 20th, 2015, 8:00 pm
Yep , Sci-Fi has way too many categories.
Can I ask for something, though?
I would be ecstatic (!!!) if you could make an MM (man to man ) category! No more subcategories needed. It's time consuming to look every romance book to check if it's MM or not. My computer would thank you- especially my keyboard !
Oct 20th, 2015, 8:00 pm
Oct 21st, 2015, 9:59 pm
You can just use the advanced search feature. Search for 'MM Romance'. Make sure you have 'Post subjects and message text' selected under 'search within'. :D
Oct 21st, 2015, 9:59 pm
Oct 22nd, 2015, 4:47 am
NateStyles wrote:You can just use the advanced search feature. Search for 'MM Romance'. Make sure you have 'Post subjects and message text' selected under 'search within'. :D


You should also use MMM.

But some books use M|M or M/M and neither can be found with the search function, even if you put them in quotes.
Oct 22nd, 2015, 4:47 am
Oct 28th, 2015, 8:00 pm
fox2011 wrote:
NateStyles wrote:You can just use the advanced search feature. Search for 'MM Romance'. Make sure you have 'Post subjects and message text' selected under 'search within'. :D


You should also use MMM.

But some books use M|M or M/M and neither can be found with the search function, even if you put them in quotes.


So this is one more search. I don't know, from my perspective it's easier to have an altogether LGBT category that includes all types of gay/lesbian/mmf/menage romance. Or erotic. One category and we'll take it from there!!!
Although if it's difficult technical , I'll say no more... :silent:
Oct 28th, 2015, 8:00 pm
Oct 31st, 2015, 9:17 pm
I agree with the OP that this site is the best of the best and I enjoy it very much.

I do have a suggestion to go along with what was posted in the OP.

I have read this thread all the way through, and see it has been answered by a mod, BUT:
Daneom wrote:I love this site, I really do. However, I have one little niggle. That being, in the sci-fi/fantasy ebook section, when I am looking to find a good fantasy or sci-fi book, I run across a lot of apocalyptic fiction (zombies, government breakdown. etc.) and I wondered if it was possible to create a new section just for that type of fiction?
Fair enough if it not, but sometimes i get tired of when I am trawling through looking for book, of finding 2 to 3 books of apocalyptic fiction for every 1 of sci-fi/fantasy.

I would like to add that zombie/horror books are NOT really scifi at all - whereas dystopia/apocalyptic fiction can be scifi.

Fantasy is not really scifi either; but those other things could be dropped into a fantasy section - thereby freeing those of us who crave scifi MINUS all the horror/zombie stuff from scanning 20 horror/zombie titles to find every 1 or 2 scifi titles.

Given the recent (seeming ?!?) flood of horror/zombie stuff this would sure make it easier for scifi freaks like myself who will not indulge in any reading of the horror/zombie varieties.

Thanks.
Oct 31st, 2015, 9:17 pm
Nov 1st, 2015, 12:27 am
smallhagrid wrote:I would like to add that zombie/horror books are NOT really scifi at all
Yes, they are. At least according to authors, publishers and librarians, who often refer to them as "Science fiction and Horror", "Horror and dark Fantasy", "Science fiction, Fantasy and Horror", all interchangeable. This seems to have been explained before: viewtopic.php?p=1592757#1592757
Nov 1st, 2015, 12:27 am
Nov 23rd, 2015, 3:29 pm
I would like to see just a division between SF and Fantasy.

max...
Nov 23rd, 2015, 3:29 pm
Dec 23rd, 2015, 6:24 pm
Whilst separating sci-fi/fantasy/horror would be the perfect solution, i appreciate there is a lot of work involved. But just getting Horror a forum of its own would do, it's bad enough having to trawl through loads of books about dragons and princesses, without having vampires and werewolves included as well.

Sci-fi and Fantasy are often lumped together (unfortunately, and I've never understood why) so most are used to that, but horror?

Another solution would be stick everything in one forum but with "tags" so you could filter what you wanted, but I appreciate that would probably involve a rewrite, so pretty unfeasible.


merry60 wrote:Totally unfeasible, sorry about that. Please refer to post #2, thank you.
Dec 23rd, 2015, 6:24 pm
Dec 24th, 2015, 1:46 am
For folks who are not scifi readers - or possibly folks who stick by whatever parochial definitions they have chosen - these things are all the same & to be lumped together.

Personally:
I have been pleasure reading scifi for almost 5 decades - almost exclusively, when not needing to read tech manuals.

Horror, vampires and werewolves have never interested me - and the recent obsessions that folks are having with zombie stuff is simply disgusting to me.

For me, pleasure reading is used as an escape from this (often depressing) world - preferably to someplace light-years away - and perhaps more of an uplifting place at that.

The above does not include anything that is written with the intent of scaring the snot out of its readers like all this other stuff lumped in with it seems intended to do.

All that having been said - even with having to open & close many listings here just to zoom in on the REAL scifi stuff, along with what must be megabytes of wasted bandwidth & server load in so doing - this is definitely a top shelf place for really great goodies and VERY appreciated by this user.
Dec 24th, 2015, 1:46 am
Dec 24th, 2015, 3:06 am
I appreciate the choices available here. Sometimes a little more work or searching but so much is here. Thanks to all contributors. A little effort goes a long way.
Dec 24th, 2015, 3:06 am
Mar 9th, 2016, 7:29 am
maxwelledison wrote:I would like to see just a division between SF and Fantasy.

max...


I agree. It's difficult enough separating all the urban-fantasy/horror/paranormal from sword & sorcery fantasy.

I appreciate jaysee's point that it would be a lot more work... but would it be possible to maybe make some kind of tagging system for each title (maybe a bot that grabs info from amazon/goodreads?).

Or you could allow some kind of prefixing system some boards have (that allows each thread starter to pick the prefix within the Sci-Fi/Fantasy forum).

Or maybe just adding some kind of icon (indicating sword & sorcery/horror/urban/paranormal/sci-fi) when browsing??

CAN THE OPS CHIME IN ON THIS? Thanks.
Mar 9th, 2016, 7:29 am

Please PM me if I've unintentionally infracted on a contest rule. I'll likely miss it if only informed in the main thread of the contest, since I don't go back to check previous posts. Much obliged!
Apr 8th, 2016, 3:24 am
Well, as long as all Romance novels *DISGUISED* as fantasy, horror alt history and/or scifi get properly shoved into Romance, I'll be happy. :)
Apr 8th, 2016, 3:24 am

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