Ok, so I ran a deal and a person selected such books and I place the 'freebies' on my shelf on hold so they weren't selected by another member.  Well, she ended up cancelling the order so I took those freebies off hold and now the posted date has changed.  Did I just lose my spot in FIFO?  I think I did and if that's the case, that is so not fair.  Oh well.

I'm sorry, Forrest, but you did lose your FIFO place.  You cannot put individual books on your shelf on hold without removing them from FIFO.

Well, at least they weren't books that had very many in the system.  Still, that stinks.

The only way to place a posted book on hold and keep your FIFO spot is to use Vacation Hold for your whole bookshelf.  Holding indivdual books is pretty much the same as deleting and then reposting them. 

Then why is the "HOLD" option there for?  I don't understand it's purpose then.  

I emailed them about this a while back, asking for them to put a warning about this so that when you're about to do this, they tell you about it. They said that they would put it on their list of modifications to make. I guess they haven't done it yet, though. :/

The Individual Hold came about when they added the function that places received books on Hold on our Bookshelves I believe. It makes posting them quick and easy when you are ready by just clicking on the Post button because they are right there on the Bookshelf already.

If they allowed books to be placed on Individual Hold and maintain their place in the FIFO line then people could just post all their books that they are not ready to swap on their Bookshelf on Hold so they can gain their place in the FIFO line early, getting ahead of those people who post their book when its available to swap. It makes it more fair to allow those who have to book available first to be in line first,

My guess is that it was created for use in the other direction, i.e. for books you receive that are pending.  Books pretty much automatically go on hold on your bookshelf whn you receive them unless you click otherwise.  I have a feeling they don't want people to be able to place individual books on hold that easily (as is consistent with their fairly serious Terms of Use in regard to posting).  But, yes, I competely agree that there should be a pop-up warning at the very least.

I wanted to read a certain book, and I notice it has several editions listed. I don't care which one I get. Do I have to add every single edition's ISBN to my wish list, or is there an option where I can ask for 'any' that come available?

Thanks

Yes, Emily you will need to add all of the different ISBNs because they are all have their own Wish List lines.

But once you add one, there should be a button on your wish list to add other versions.  Please note that not all versions are linked.

And just a note -- the individual wish list hold works differently from the individual bookshelf hold.  As Forrest learned the hard way, using the individual bookshelf hold takes you out of the FIFO line.  (A pop-up warning is a good idea.) 

But you can use the individual wish list hold and keep your place in the wish list line. 

When you accept a wish list book now, all other versions of the title* will be placed on individual hold.  (They'll show up with a dark pink background.) You can choose to delete them, leave them there on hold, or take one or more off hold if you also want a different edition of the book. 

*All other versions that are linked -- as Emily said, not all are.  Non-ISBN postings (the ones with the "short ISBNs") aren't linked, and sometimes the server will miss a link, particularly if the spelling of the author or title is different.