Howdy folks-- (Did I mention I'm from Texas?) Just a couple of minutes ago, when I came onto the site, something truly strange happened. The first thing I saw, the very first page, was as follows.*

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You are currently ordering a book from Anonymous. Please check below for additional books that you'd like to order. You'll help Anonymous save postage by ordering multiple books at the same time.

Search/Browse Anonymous's Bookshelf

Books Posted by Anonymous
      
Night, Sea Stars
Author: Heather Graham
    
[etc. about that one book -- Anonymous's Bookshelf has only one book on it.]

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So I clicked on Anonymous's name to see if he/she/it has a Profile. Nope--no Profile, which is only logical, for someone named Anonymous.

Hey--we could stop to have fun here, by composing an appropriate Profile for Anonymous. Everything has to be gender-neutral, of course. We could have him/her/it  on have an address of#17 Random Way. That's a hoary ol' mathematician's joke. I guess I should explain it. It's already dead: explaining it would really kill the mood. Probably someone here knows the joke, so they can explain it. (Help! Someone rescue me from my own lameness!)

All right all right. Cut to the chase. After ascertaining that I had no data about Anonymous, I looked at the situation vis-a-vis my book orders. I have transactions underway for 8 books that I've requested--8 books from 3 swappers. None of those swappers is named Anonymous: they all appear to be real people who have proper _bona fides_ and so on and so forth. What is more, not one of them has Heather Graham's "Night, Sea Stars" on their Bookshelf.

That's it. Is there a simple explanation for this event? Or is it time to call in the mystery mavens? It certainly seems to me, to be nada if not a mystery. I mean, it's awfully complicated and specific, to be a bug; and it's not especially funny, so why would it be a joke? April 1st has come and gone. When I came to the forum, I was hoping to see a thread underway, all about how bunches of people had had the same message about Anonymous. Apparently not.

So... I'm wild with curiosity, to hear what y'all will have to say.  =eager smile=

                                                               --Fiona

* -- All of a sudden I can't get the Indent to work. The reason why this posting shows so many edits is that even though I had no trouble selecting the text starting "You are currently..." and making it indent, every time I submitted it, the Indent went away. So I tried as many things as I could think of, and nothing worked. I've never had this problem before: the Indent feature--which you select from the little toolbar above the text field--if you  mouse over the icons, you'll see the ones that say "Decrease Indent" and "Increase Indent"-the Indent always worked just fine before. It indented the text I was quoting, while I was composing, and after I submitted the posting, it was still there, visible to all.  But now, at least as it looks to me, the indent isn't making it out to the forum. =arrrrgh= Hence, the two horizontal. Doesn't this footnote make for fascinating reading? =nods off=

I believe that there is a member here with the user name of Anonymous.

I think his name is Sum Yung Guy and he's married to what's her name.  :) J/K

Well, at least it will not cost you anything until you mark the book as received.

I think it is the memebr who made their user name Anonymous. Clever yet confusing.

OK, so there's a user named Anonymous. But that doesn't explain anything to me. I didn't *order* anything from anyone named Anonymous. I've placed orders, now in process, with 3 people, all of whom have "normal" names. So if a book were to show up in my mail from someone named Anonymous, that will be another bizarre episode in the history (*so* glad to have of it) of Swap-o-mania.

                                                                                                        --Fiona

Was it a book from your wishlist that maybe you had set to auto request?

What Paula said is what crossed my mind.  When I get a WL request I'm always a bit surprised and think where did that come from?  Can you tell it takes a while for me to get WL books?

You're not a Battlestar Galactica watcher by chance?

Your book sounds like a wish granted to me.

Yes, sounds like a wish list book on auto request.

Isn't it against PBS rules not to give your name? I tried to put my first initial instead of my first name when I signed up and I was not allowed.

OK, guys, this is kind of frustrating. Since the page I saw--immediately upon opening the website, I tell you--did not SAY what book I suppposedly ordered from Anonymous, how am I supposed to figure out if it was a book that was auto-requested off my Wish List? What I was shown, was the page you get *after* you've ordered a book, the one where you're shown the contents of the person's Bookshelf, and invited to order more books.

I mean, if that screen DID somehow get generated in response to a Wish List autorequest, then why is there no sign of it in my Main Account? Wouldn't I have been prompted to request the book? I looked in my account, repeatedly, for any sign of it. I looked in my Transaction Archive. I looked in my personal messages. No sign of this mysterious event.

And what about the circumstances?  I opened my Web browser. I clicked on the PBS Recycle icon. Let me assure you, I have not even changed where that's directed to: it goes to the Home page. I had every expectation, after clicking on that Recycle icon, that I would see the Home page--with the multiple bars across the top, the covers of books all lined up for me to peruse, just as we all know the Home Page looks like. That is all I have ever seen, when clicking on the PBS icon. Until this one day... when apparently I dropped into the Twilight Zone... and instead, I saw what I copied and pasted into my first posting.

Imagine: the first page you see when you enter the site, is a category of page you normally only see when you're in the middle of doing something--specifically, when you've just ordered a book. Wouldn't that boggle your world?

Where's Rod Serling?

                                                                       --Fiona

Sounds like it was probably a momentary glitch.  If you have nothing in your transaction archive, then I wouldn't worry about it.  If you're concerned, you can always contact the PBS team and ask.  It is weird, but I've seen weird things pop up here from time to time too.  Software can be strange sometimes.

Is it in your books mailed to me section? Maybe whoever posted it already marked it mailed.