How about check boxes in a list ...(that would remove any hint of attitude)...put a check box where the dots are.

• No books from a smoking household (or smell of smoke)
• No books actively around cats (or dogs)
• Must have dustjacket on hardcover book
• In like-new condition
• No cuts or tears
• Must meet PBS guidelines
• No book club editions
• No ex-library
• No spine creases
• No writing anywhere on book
• No books that have been around monkeys in the last 17 days 
• Other________________

I'm sure ya'll can think of a bunch more....R&R what do you think?

I suggested that a while back and got the impression from the reply that they didnt feel it was needed.

That's too bad Chris.  I think that would be very helpful!

Sheila, how could you forget "no bookcrossing books"?

"Must meet PBS guidelines"  Wouldn't include this - gives the option of NOT meeting the guidelines to some!  Do think that it could be a 13 monkey limit, however...LOL...loved that one!

File me under the "I don't think it's necessary" crowd.  If you word conditions appropriately you will get what you want.  If  people don't want to send to me because I have conditions, so be it - no skin off my teeth. :)

Oooh-- I forgot about potential 17-day monkey exposure. Gotta go fix my conditions...

I personally like the check box idea, but it's the sort of issue where you'll never be able to please everyone...

I LOVE the checkbox idea and I have thrown in my name to the hat that wants it, but for some reason I think the founders don't want to do it. Some conditions I've seen are silly, there should be limits, but whatever...

I'd like to see the more common conditions made into checkboxes like this - and then also have corresponding settings in accounts, so I could, for instance, indicate that my books were exposed to dogs and cats in my house.  Requests with a "no dogs or cats" condition could then automatically skip me.

How about "No dog-earred pages"?  I got that one for the first time last week, and turned them down.  I don't bend pages when I read, but I don't have the time to check every page to make sure no one else did.

Interestingly, this was the only condition the requestor had. 

Katrina

The checkboxes are not a bad idea, but somethings are too subjective for it; smoke and "like-new" being 2 of them.  Although I can handle books that have been around smoke, I cannot handle those that you can smell across the room.   I don't have to have "like-new" books(thought I love getting them)  I do want a book better then "just readable."  I also like my spines readable which means to me that although there maybe creases, there are not so many that the spine looks like a pad of paper..  Guess I would have alot of "others" lol.  Dog-earred pages would be a nice one(I just want them undone if you see them lol)

It seems that many of the complaints about Requestor Conditions are related to the way the requestor stated their conditions..having check boxes would take the emotions out of it.

I'm with the group that thinks the general, published guidelines prevail. Anything else needs to be specifically stated by the user.

For allergy related requests, like smoke or pets - I scrupulously assure my books meet the condition or pass on the order. For personal preference requests, I'm less inclined to spend extra effort dealing with them. PBS is a used book site with well-defined parameters. Each user certainly has the right to specify additional conditions. But I have the right to decide how much time I want to spend catering to special conditions.

I just had a request from someone with conditions that (very nicely) explained she only wanted new or almost-like-new books. My book probably satisfied her condition. I bought it new and have been the only reader.  But I don't have the time (or inclination)  tonight to pull the book and verify how "new" it looked after being stored.  Thus, I passed over that requestor and let the transaction go to the next person on the wish list.

I worry that having the check boxes would encourage people too get too picky. Plus there seem to be such a range of needs - smoke exposure being a good one, people would still find it necessary to explain exactly what their requirements are. I don't see that the checkboxes would save much.