Is there a way to post a standard note to all the books you are requesting to ensure that they meet your requirements?  I can only have books from smoke free homes do to severe allery problems.  I would like the note to appear with my request.  Any idea how to do this

On PBS, this is called a Requestor Condition.  Also referred to as a RC.  There are several old threads that talk about how to word your RC.  (The wording is very important.)

Such as this one:  http://www.paperbackswap.com/forum/topic.php?t=166150

Do not ask for the sender to PM you if they have questions.  They can't.  To do so might lose them their FIFO place.  (If you really need to, be sure to include your screen name.)

From help:

Requestor Conditions allow you to specify what kinds of books you are NOT willing to receive from other members.   The specifications you write will appear verbatim on every request you submit.  You can set your Requestor Conditions in your Account Settings, from the Settings tab in My Account.

To apply Requestor Conditions to your account:

• Go to your Account Settings:

  • Place your cursor over My Account in the toolbar at the top of the site, and choose Settings from the menu that drops down.
  • Or, from My Account, click the Settings tab on the far right.
• In your Account Settings:
  • Click the link "Requestor Conditions" at the top of the page
    • Or, just scroll down to see this area.
  • Choose "Yes" from the dropdown menu at the top of the Requestor Conditions text box
    • Choosing "No" will preserve your settings but not make them active--they will not be shown on a request if you choose No.
  • Type your text into the text box: 
    • Please be very clear
    • Your conditions should be easily interpretable and should NOT require (or ask for!) further clarification in Personal Messages.   If a sender is confused, she or he may decline your request.  The sender will NOT be able to contact you before accepting the book, so the RC text should be clear.

• Click

After you have done this, you can "toggle" Requestor Conditions on and off:

• Use the "Yes/No" option above the text box in that area of your Account Settings to do this
• Click Update Request Settings each time to apply the change
• Choosing No will preserve your text but not show your conditions on any requests you make while the option "No" is chosen.
• When you toggle back to Yes and click to Update settings again, your Requestor Conditions will again be shown on all subsequent requests.
• This is useful if you are requesting books for someone else who does not have the same requirements  (ie, for a friend who is NOT allergic to dogs, while your requestor conditions say that you can't receive books from a household with a dog).
• This is also useful if your Requestor Conditions apply only to specific books (or specific categories of books).
  • Please note that any book you have set to auto-request on your Wish List will be submitted automatically with the Requestor Conditions you have active on your account.  If your Requestor Conditions are not active when an auto-requested Wish List book becomes available, the request will go through without conditions on it.

When your Requestor Conditions are active ("Yes" is chosen above the text box and Update Request Settings has been clicked), the text will show on every request you make.

Remember, the sender will see exactly what you type! Choose your wording carefully: most senders err on the side of caution. A vague notation like "Nice books only" is not easily interpretable, and will probably result in a lot of your requests being declined.

• Your Requestor Conditions should NOT ask the sender to "PM me if you are unsure"
  • There is no mechanism for the sender to PM the requestor from a request without accepting it
• If you want the sender to communicate with you about the book, you should phrase this "If you are unsure whether or not your book meets these conditions, please ACCEPT this request and then send me a Personal Message about the book."
  • If the sender does this, though, YOU will need to cancel the request if you decide that the book does not meet your conditions.
    • The sender would have to repost the book after cancelling it, so if YOU ask the sender to contact you to discuss the book, YOU must be the one to cancel the request if the sender contacts you and you don't want the book.
    • The exceptions to the above are:
  1. a sender who accepts and then sends a message about an unpostable book
  2. a sender who accepts and sends a message about a book that clearly does not meet your Requestor Conditions (no further communication or clarification was needed)
  3. A sender who accepts and sends a message when your Conditions did not ask to be contacted to discuss your Conditions
• To make this feature work properly, your Requestor Conditions should be
  • clear enough not to require any communication for clarification
  • applied ONLY to requests for books for which you have those conditions

How Requestor Conditions Work:

FOR THE REQUESTOR:

• Whatever you type into the text box for Requestor Conditions will appear verbatim on any request you make to another member's bookshelf.

• For example, you can type "I want only books that are currently in a pet-free, smoke-free home. Thank you."
  
• Keep in mind when choosing to place conditions on the books that you will accept that if you are unclear you might get a significant percentage of your requests declined.
  
  Look at the two examples below:

  "I do not want books from a smoking environment."
  
  "I do not want books that are currently in a smoking home."
  
  

  • The first example may result in confusion, because many of the books on PBS are used and members cannot assure you that the books have never been owned by a smoker and have never been around pets.
  • The second example is clearer.

• No one will be able to see your Requestor Conditions until you request a book from him or her.
• When you submit a request with your RCs active, the other member will see your message in a white box on the request.
  • He or she will have the option to:
    • accept by clicking
    • or decline by clicking
    • or decline by clicking
    • There is no option to send a Personal Message from the request without accepting first.
• If a sender declines by clicking
  • That book does not lose its place in the "FIFO" line
  • It simply goes back into its previous place
  • The requestor's request is passed to the next person offering the book.
  • If this is a Wish List book
    • and there are other people Wishing for the book, the requestor goes back onto the Wish List at the same place "in line" and the book is offered to the next Wishing member.
    • and there is no one else Wishing for the book, the book is removed from the requestor's Wish List.
      • the book goes onto the requestor's Reminder List
      • the requestor will not be able to Wish List the book again until this copy has been sent out to another requestor (and there are no active copies in the system).
• If a sender declines by clicking
  • This is just like a regular book request decline:
    • The book is removed from the sender's bookshelf
    • The requestor's request is passed to the next sender in FIFO, if there is another copy of the book available
    • If there is no other copy of the book available, the book goes onto the requestor's Wish List.
      

• If a sender declined your request and you still want the book (and that copy is still available):
  • Change your Requestor Conditions - turn them off or adjust the text and click Update
  • Request the book again.
  • If the book was already offered to or requested by another member, you will NOT be able to re-request it, since that copy of the book is no longer available.

FOR THE SENDER:

• If a book request is submitted to you with active Requestor Conditions:
  • You will see the Requestor Conditions in a white box on the pending request when it "pops up" on your account page.
  • You will have these options:
    • accept by clicking
    • decline by clicking
    • decline by clicking
    • There is no option to send a Personal Message from the request.

• If you click  the request will proceed normally.
  • There is no need to communicate further about the book if the book meets the conditions.  See below for the case in which you are not sure if the book meets the conditions.
• If you click
  • you will have a chance to type an explanatory message to the requestor
    • this message will be included in an email from PBS telling her that the request has been declined.
    • This message is not for "negotiation" about the book request.
  • If this book is on a Wish List, it will then be offered to the next Wisher
    • If there is no one else  Wishing for it, it will go back to your bookshelf to await another request.
• If you click , this is just like a regular book request decline:
  • The book is removed from the sender's bookshelf
  • The requestor's request is passed to the next sender in FIFO, if there is another copy of the book available
  • If there is no other copy of the book available, the book goes onto the requestor's Wish List.
    
    
• If you are uncertain whether your book meets the Requestor Conditions and want to discuss this with the requestor
  • click
    • and then click (personal message) on the request to communicate with the requestor further.
  • This should NOT be necessary--Requestor Conditions should be clear and easily interpretable without further discussion.
  • If you send a PM about the book describing it or asking for clarification of the conditions:
    • If the requestor's conditions ASKED for contact, the requestor will have to cancel if the book is not acceptable.
    • If the requestor's conditions DID NOT ASK for contact, the sender will then need to cancel if the book is not acceptable.
      • This means that the sender will need to repost the book to offer it for swapping again
    • If this book clearly did not meet the conditions (no further clarification of/communication about the conditions was needed, whether or not communication was asked for) OR if the book is unpostable, the sender will need to cancel.  (If the book was unpostable in the first place, it should not have been Posted, and should not be reposted.)

You want to set up a Requestor Condition (RC).

Here is some information from the Help Docs: Someone beat me to it. :)