I am very curious about why members would put their Books Received and Books Mailed on private.  I notice this alot.  I received an unpostable book (tore pages and staining) from a member and she informed me she had mailed over 1000 books and never had a problem. She stated I was too particular and in her eyes that was not an unpostable book.  That I just wanted a free book and she refused to credit the refund. Of course, I checked her profile and the Books Mailed and Received were private.  So, what is the reasoning behind putting it on private?  If you had mailed over a 1000 books it seems to me that you would want the other members to know that you are a very active member and know the PBS rules.

I think private is the default setting and some people probably never bother changing that.

Also, quite awhile ago now, I remember some members posting in the forums that they had been harassed via PM by people for having an uneven balance.  One was accused of hoarding credits for having sent way more than ordered and another was harassed for not having mailed out enough book compared to what they've received.  Which is stupid because why would anyone else care but people are weird.

At one time, several years ago, there was a bunch of nastiness in CMT about how some members had ordered more books than they had sent. Or sent more books than they had mailed? It was all about the evils of selling and buying credits. Very nasty. It caused a bunch of updates on privacy settings.

It would not surprise me if members changed their settings way back then and never updated the privacy settings.

Well, that makes sense if people were being harassed.  Like I said, I have seen alot set that way.

The uneven number of books sent and received doesn't make a lot of sense.  I have sent way more than I received because I order a lot of two credit audiobooks which just appear as 1 book received.

Private is the default setting. So you have to go and change it. I'm sure a lot of people just haven't bothered to change it.

Yeah, there have been different times when people's statistics were used to harass them in some way or another. IIRC, some members believe/believed that this is supposed to be a lending site, so any book put into the system isn't supposed to be kept. It's supposed to be put back into the system. So if you took out more than you put in, you were not using the site correctly. They also didn't want to send you their books.

Also, at one time, there was a long discussion about not ordering from new members. Some were checking a members stats so that if their order in the FIFO line brought them a sender who had no trades, or under some number they deemed 'safe', then they would cancel the trade. I think the idea was that most problem trades come from newbies, so if you avoided newbies you'd have better trades.

Then there was some talk about people hoarding books or credits. If you had too many of either, then you were not using the site 'correctly'.

I don't know that a lot of members really thought any of that, just some vocal few, but it's been pretty apparent to me that a person's statistics can be used against them in various ways, by anyone that wants to. I usually have mine turned off, just because I don't think anyone else needs to see it. It's more for me than anyone else.

I don't care how many credits someone has.  People should order books they WANT, not order just to order.  Whose business is it anyway?  You can't tell someone they need to order a book.  What kind of reasoning is that?  

And what I've found is that people with loads of extra credits often donate them.....either to the school donation program, military donation program, in memoriam when a popular member dies here and the family sets up a school to receive donations, or even as Raoks.

It's always bothered me about the 'private' settings too, but I understand if someone has been harassed.  However, the 'problem' senders I've encountered have never been new members!  They've always been members for 4-6 years it seems.

I have wondered that myself.  I like seeing how many books people have sent/received.  It's pretty sad that people would harass others about it...it's not a rule that I have to send and receive the same amount of books.  If I want to order 100 books and send out 4, that's my perogative.  (I haven't, but I could if I wanted to!)  It's too bad there are so many miserable people out there that try and make others miserable too.

Thanks for all the comments.  It gives me an understanding of things.  I understand that the mailed/received might not even be correct.   I order alot of books for my grandchildren and received freebies.   I have received alot more books than it shows.  I just recently started using the mail to a friend option, so I have mailed out alot more books than it is showing.  And, it doesn't figure for receiving unpostables, then not being able to mail them back out.  I

Personally, I could care less how many credits a person has, or what they are doing with them.  Or, if the mailed/received is not even.

But, if someone says they have mailed over a 1000 books, me being the nosy one, checks to see if it is anywhere close to that.   

When I get unpostables, 99% of the time, it is new members, members with no profile, no forum post, and their mailed/received private.  

Like I said earlier, in my view, when they have profiles, forum posts, mailed/received not set on private, it shows they are an active member, know the rules, and try to follow the rules.

I guess I set everything to private that isnt needed for me to swap books and the bookshelf and wishlist I set to private since I think its safer. I go with the premise on anything internet related if it isn't necessary, then I mark it private. The number of books I have sent and received isn't necessary to someone so I have them marked as private. That's just me.I look at something and see if there is a benefit, and if I see no benefit, I go with private.

It seems like the forums have become a friendlier place in the last year or two.
 

Lisa, I just checked my sent/received numbers and the difference is more than the number of credits I have so I'm pretty sure those books 'mailed to a friend' are counted in the outgoing number.  I, too, order books for my 3 daughters so those won't ever come back into circulation unless my youngest daughter eventually hands over her YA collection!

Yes, once I started using the mail to a friend option, they were counted as books mailed.  But, I didn't start using it until about 6 months ago (I didn't know about it until then) and have been a member for 6 years.  

I have extra credits - I've never made that a secret. Years ago a certain few peeps noticed. And PMs 'suggested' that I wasn't playing fairly and that 'maybe' I should share those credits.

Ummm... no. I keep extra credits for deployed troops. I joined PBS just to find books for deployed folks (that has since morphed and I've found that PBS is also a wonderful source for DH and I, as well).

When the option became available, I set my stats to private.

I know it is not good for the PBS bookkeeping if we collect too many credits, but golly. It was really nasty.

Now we have the school donation program, with the option to donate credits all year. Wish we had that books for families of troops again.

I just looked at my books shipped vs. books received and according to the Site I should have a whopping credit balance--and nothing could be farther from the truth!

I just have 6 credits but I am going to "hoard" 10 credits constantly. I don't get too many WL offers but someday, I know it's going to be like 10 in a week :-) and I'll be ready!! Bring those WL books on !! 

If you look at my stats it looks like I'm hoarding 183 credits.  I have 10.  I've donated to the military book thing, the school one, I've donated some back to PBS and sold a lot. I was never harassed about it though. 

Ok, everyone.  I am going to ask a silly question.  Was everybody just checking the books mailed to books received and figuring there were more credits if the ratio was off?  There is no other way for a person to think they "know" how many credits a person has.  Right?  Because by using that, I would have 16 credits.   I only have 8.

No one has a clue how many credits you have.  You can buy credits and/or buy credits.

It has never occurred to me to wonder or check to see numbers of books sent or received

I keep my books sent private because I mail 4 times as many books to friends as I do FIFO. It looks as if I'm sitting on a huge pile of credits when I'm not.

I think that's what happened in those cases. People just assumed that someone just had to be hoarding credits because they had mailed so many more out then they had ordered.

It's not something I would ever try to figure out, I couldn't care less who has mailed out how many books and how many they've ordered. It's none of my business.  The numbers also don't take into account books mailed using the "mail to a friend" option.  I used to play the games and do that to mail game books so several dozen of that 992 sent is game books mailed for no official credit.

Some people just like to created trouble and stick their noses into other people's business.

I will check the statistics if I have a problem swap. Look to see if it is a new member. I'm much gentler to newbies. Still mark it, just gentler, with links.