For several months, the Book Wikki has been at the bottom of each book's page.  Why did they add that?  I have scrolled to it on numerous times, and there is never anything posted about the book there.   With reviews, etc. I think that it is a lot of work to fill all that stuff in, and it appears that no one has filled it in.  I sure haven't, nor do I want to...too much like a book report from days long gone-lol!   Does anyone fill it out?  Isn't the descripton enough???  

if you click on the links, it is searchable. So, if everyone fills some in, eventually you could use the links to find books that have things in common (characters, places, etc). Like if you wanted to find books where "Abraham Lincoln" is a character.

Having said that, the most useful field to me is the "awards" field, because I would like to be able to quickly find books that have won particular awards.

I fill them out for books that I have read, usually when I post a book. Or, I will do a series of books as I am reading them.

I don't know if many people look at it, but I fill some in occasionally - often when I'm posting a book without an ISBN, or when it's an old book - I posted one the other day from 1966 (I want people to be of aware of that), or if it's a mystery series and the info doesn't appear in the listing.

I haven't been filling them in either.  If I'm going to do a search about something I would end up doing the advanced search simply because I know the BookWiki won't pick everything up.  It's the same reason why I don't use Tags to search. 

I ask myself the same question. IMO, if they're adding new featues, there's a lot of other much more useful things they could add than another one of those useless bloated 'book information' features. You could spend hours entering information in various guises, and then never have time to actually READ the darn books. LOL

Cheryl

I agree. I find it totally useless.

I've filled in a few, and hope to fill in some more on my favorite series.  I think the problem is, people got kind of burned on the tag issue.  Lots of people pitched in to help the tags become more user friendly, only to find that the Book Wiki has seemed to replace the tags, so it feels like there was some effort wasted. 

I add location, original pub date, and series (character) info - easy and only takes a minute

I add a few bits of info if it seems useful, but mostly it doesn't.

Not all books have a description, many have very little or no information.  IMO wikki is a way for members to add information for other members without overloading editing volunteers.

The books with no description still need a description added and that only takes a minute to submit an edit for that.

I've filled out a few, but I found it took more than a few minutes to go through and fillout all the character names, (which I couldn't remember the full name and my spelling sucks) and then dig out the locations included. The series info was easy, but that can be found in the book title, where I much prefer it than leaving it buried in inside. I'd rather see the series info on a book search, right away.

I'm not sure I'll ever find the Wiki info useful. I don't read books based on where they're located, and if it's in a series (which is included in the title if I'm lucky) I don't need the names of all the main characters or how important they were to the story. I'll get that while reading.

So while I'll still try to get series info put into the title of the book, size, weight and upload pictures and include back cover blurbs when they're missing, I doubt I'll bother with the Wiki anymore. The rest I don't mind, but I do hate paging through the book trying to remember names and plot details that I don't find useful.

Cindy that's why I haven't bothered filling them out.  Unless I've just read the book I don't really remember the exact character names and where the book took place and stuff like that.

I think it was added because "Wickies" are so popular now.  Quick look to learn most stuff other people know about something.  This doesn't mean it is correct knowledge.  But it's the latest "great" thing...so trying to keep up it looks like a progressive feature here on PBS for Marketing reasons.  That is my take on it.

Ruth

I've added back cover blurb (or something similar) to book pages that are totally blank, that can be so frustrating when researching books just to find zero info.

Denise, I agree that when you look for "More Details" and the new page has nothing on the book either, that is frustrating.  And I have to agree with the other posters about listing characters, location, etc. takes some research in itself.   

I'm not sure I'll ever find the Wiki info useful. I don't read books based on where they're located, and if it's in a series (which is included in the title if I'm lucky) I don't need the names of all the main characters or how important they were to the story. I'll get that while reading.

Exactly!  Isn't that what the reading is for = to discover those things and picture them in your own mind.  Personally, I'd rather read the book than all this extra time-consuming stuff that means very little.  Perhaps for a history it would be userful, though.  But even then....         I know I'm not going to take the time to fill any of this out.  Ruth is probably right = it's the current "thing" to do.  lol          D.

I fill in random bits of data, if I happen to think about it.  Usually, I don't even remember it's there.

I think they added it to replace the Tags with a more controlled option since that function went way off the track they wanted it to, and those of us that spent a lot of time on personal Tags get a bit crotchetty when we are told we shouldn't use them that way anymore and must just do club useful Tags. With the Wiki, they control the data more.  To me, I am not going to re-enter data that already shows up at least once on the details page already, in most cases.

I like some of the wiki type info, but I use it from a different site than PBS.  The other site has much better info (probably because it is not a new feature).  I don't spend time updating wiki info on this site or on the other, but when it is updated it can be useful.