I've begun reading books that were autoWL'd, and by the time I've finished, they weren't WL'd at all, or no longer on auto WL.  The AWL is just for the first person in line, so if someone else posts that book into the system before you're finished and the number 2 person moves into the number one spot, if they aren't AWLing the book, then you may go thru the same frustration again, or they may wait the full 48 hours to respond, or similar. 

When that happens to me (and I'm currently waiting on someone to accept a book I've offered) I try to remind myself that I'm doing the whole population here a favor by weeding out the inactive members.

edited for spacing

I've had it happen too.  The 1 wishers don't seem to go.  Last week I listed a book that had 22 people wishing for it, it went through 4 people before it was accepted.  I don't get it, are people not updating their wishlists?

i put several different versions of books on my wish list, and i frequently forget to check when a book is offered to me.  sometimes PBS catches it, sometimes they don't.

i had this happen on swapacd, but hey...it happens, and i've found that some books, when only wishlisted by one person and then not being accepted, is generally requested pretty quickly after that.

I had that happen to me this week, as well.  It's frustrating, but in the long run, so what?  You had the book, read it and posted it.  It's nice to see a potential credit, but if it doesn't pan out with that person, someone else will be along later.  Every time I've had a 1 wisher book end up not working out, I've had someone else scoop it up within 2 weeks. 

I had the same thing happen in the past couple of weeks with 2 books - yep, I read them first because they were wish-listed, and then I posted them and both were declined, or maybe fell off by date. Both were already in my TBR and then popped up on someone's wish list (one of whom opened a new PBS acct with it on the wish list). If ya don't want it, don't wish list it, is my motto!

I also requested a book recently that I had to wait for 3 people to decide whether or not to send it - I'm guessing it might have been vacation issues. I sooo wish people going out of town would put their bookshelves on vacation hold so I don't have to stare at my request for several days while person after person rejects it!

There, I feel better for ranting. Yeah, it didn't create world peace to get a book sooner or later, but sometimes the little things add up.Thanks for letting me vent a little!

Well I try to put any WL book that I am #5 or less in line on Autorequest, so all my 1 of 1 are autorequest.  On the other side of the coin, everytime I've posted what was supposed to be a WL book, only to have it declined and put on my shelf, the book has been ordered pretty quick.  I think the longest I've had one sit after being declined by the lone wisher was two weeks. 

Generally I find if the 1 WLer doesn't accept it than it gets snapped up right away anyway because there are no other copies and someone sees it on the books posted today lists.

I have the opposite problem though-it seems like eveytime I post a book with a long WL line it goes through several people before it gets accepted. I had one go through 7 before it was finally accepted.  With the long lines (WL or highly posted books) sometimes the top people are not longer active on PBS. But their account hasnt' had much activity so they haven't been flagged as inactive by PBS-until their WL and book request offers start going unanswered. 

I really wish they would come up with some way to put automatically put an account on hold if no one has logged in for 30 days or so.   That would weed out a lot of inactives. Then send an email saying, your account will be closed if you don't log in within is x number of days.  It only takes a minute to log in and see what's going on with your account.  I belong to another book site too and when you look at someone's profile it'll say when they were last logged in and it'll also say "possibly inactive" if it's been awhile.  I've noticed on here that some profiles will say the person's last log on but not all. 

I had a bizarre situation. I had a wish granted recently, but ended up missing it. I checked my e-mail on a Tuesday morning. Wish was granted late Tuesday night. Didn't get online again until Friday morning, and by then it had been cancelled by PBS and removed from my wish list. It was my mistake and I've learned I better use Auto-Request when I'm near the top of the line. Anyway, I then relisted it to my wish list and even though there were 5 people in line, and I assumed I was put at the end of the line, I got a Wish Granted within a few days again -- and this time I accepted immediately. (Strange though, that when I added it back to my Wish List, I thought I was at the bottom of the list, so I was surprised to get an offer again so soon.  (Unless a lot of them were all posted the same day.) Oh well, it's on the way to me now. We're not all ignoring our Wishes Granted or declining them. Sometimes we just need to use Vacation Hold, or AutoRequest. And sometimes we're just addled or don't get a chance to get online.

I recently posted a WL book with 1 wisher.  She declined, as she had found it earlier that day at a UBS and hadn't been back online yet to remove it.  No problem--it was snapped up within a day or two. 

I have several forms of a book on my WL.  I remove the duplicates when my WL book is received, just in case it gets lost in the mail.  Twice I've had a WL book in the mail get offered to me in a different format.  I declined the 2nd offers and trusted (and crossed my fingers) that the first copy would get to me.

I read books based on what I choose to read next.  Never by what's on the WL.  If something I post is on the WL, that's a bonus.

Well, I admit I'm guilty of not accepting some wish list books.

The only reason I do it is when I don't have credits & can't afford to buy credits. I hate when that happens too since I've usually waited a long time for the book.

If a person intends to read a book regardless, then why does it matter if a person 'wastes their time' by reading it now rather than later? It was intended to be read anyhow, right? So how does this impact a person's life... really? Like others have said, books that are the only book on the site (or even one of just a few) go pretty quickly. If a person gets a credit for another book they want to read, whether here or on another site, i think that is all that matters in the end.

I just read and posted a WL'd book that only had 2 wishers. I read it and posted it... i was going to read it anyhow, so if it had gone through those people and no one had an immediate desire for it, i'd have chalked it up to bad timing.

I don't like to read WL'd books to get a credit because I feel pushed and the enjoyment factor is gone.  So I'm just reading books as they strike my fancy.  The books I look for WL's are the ones I'm not sure I'll get to soon and they might be wanted and I need credits.  Then I'll post a book I haven't read because I don't have the books that are before it in a series.  Depends a whole lot on which author it is.  posting because of it's veing WL'd is not a winning strategy for me.  I do try to make sure I clean up my WL frequently and I try to auto WL the ones I'm close to if I have the credits.

Ruth

I declined one because when it was offered it just didn't sound as appealing.  there were others behind me so I'm sure someone was quite happy!

Yes, it is very frustrating--which is why I don't even notice those W's anymore.  I had about 250 wishlisted books sitting on my TBR pile the last time I checked (a couple of months ago) but I don't make any special effort to read them first--after having many, many wishlisted books cycle through 2, 3, 4 or more people refusing the book or just plain not responding, I've decided that it's better for my blood pressure to just read what I want when I want to and that's that. I post the book when I'm done and if it's wishlisted (and the person actually really wants it!) GREAT. If not--no biggie. It will get selected eventually.

As others have said, reading books with a green W (auto-wishlisted) doesn't mean anything--someone else could have posted the book right after you looked and that green W could be gone by the time you get done with it. It can be an exercise in frustration trying to play guessing games with the W's.

Let the W's go.......LOL

Cheryl (who has the whole wishlist auto-requested)

I don't pay attention to WL books either. I read them when they strike me and if they are instantly requested when I post them more's the better.

I posted a hardcover copy of Gabaldon's Fiery Cross, which has over 100 wishers, a couple of weeks ago and was shocked it went through 5 people before someone accepted it. I had another book with 33 wishers go through 4 people and another book with 5 wishers end up on my shelf after having been declined by all 5 of them! It sat on my shelf for almost a month and ended up going in a box swap instead.

I've started reading what I feel like reading and if it happens to be WL great. If not than I can use it for a game or put it on my shelf. 

I posted My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding last month which had almost 300 wishers at the time.  I posted it before I was done reading it because I thought for sure that it would go through several wishers before being accepted. But it was snapped up right away by the first one. 

Occasionally I'll get a wishlist offer, and OF COURSE it comes at a time when I have zero credits. I always feel bad that 1) I'm not getting the book, and now I'm gonig to be last in line (argh!) and 2) It's annoying to the sender.

I am someone who actually goes book hunting and I buy wishlist books from the used bookstore. I have been lucky though **knock on wood*** that all the people actually still wanted the wishlist book. Not  that I paid a ton of money anyways. Plus, you never know, they may be out of credits or something.

Nancy, LOL at the "cat lady look." I live in an apartment and have bookshelves in every room except the bathroom--and I'd probably have one in there except I don't want to risk water damage. Ha!  Some of the shelves are double-stacked and my PBS shelf is now not a shelf at all, but a box on the floor next to the computer. Your DH would likely have had me committed by now. LOL

My DH has had the "love me, love my books" speech a few times now, so he's learned to keep any thoughts he might have about my books to himself. Besides, I remind him occasionally that as vices go, books are rather harmless. I mean, he COULD have married a shoe addict! :o)

Cheryl

Hey...one can be a shoe addict and a book addict at the same time! ;) 

One is definitely cheaper than the other and the neighbors don't give you strange looks when you stuff books on every unused flat surface throughout the house.

I have a huge WL, and so many of mine are ones for which I am the only requestor. I have only had 4 WL books offered and I am always ecstatic.

However, I have none on auto WL.

I would never read a book before others because it is WLed!