Colored checkmarks

I've added colored checkmarks, as eventually decided here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/81530



They should be showing everywhere the green checkmarks were showing before—recommendations, author pages, tag pages, series, etc.

They don't—they couldn't—represent every possible collection. They show a simplified reality, as follows:

Green - Your library
Blue - Read but unowned
Purple - Wish list
Grey - Other collections

In case of conflicts, it prefers purple to blue to green to gray.

I don't like them. They should be opt-in. :p

Just for you, I'm gonna make 'em BLINK!

I love it - THANK YOU TIM!!!

Umm...when will they start blinking? :p

Wonderful. Thank you Tim!

Oooh, yes I want blinking for "highly wishlisted". But opt in only of course ;-)

Brilliant! This even solves my ebooks issue! Thanks!!!

I can only say Thank you.

You're the best;-)

I'm not seeing them on the CK series pages - on the pages in Statistic/Memes, yes, but not on the page with the covers (and recommendations and etc.). All the checkmarks there are green. For instance, here:
http://www.librarything.com/series/Gideon+Oliver

I have 1-6, 8-11 in Your Library, and I have read (RNO) 12, 14, 15. They all have green checkmarks.

ETA correction - they show up correctly on that page in recommendations, just not in the list of books in the series.

They seem to show up correctly everywhere else, though - tag pages, recommendations (which shows that I haven't listed an awful lot of books I've read and/or think I own!), the Statistics/Memes series list, author pages (yay!). Thanks - is great!

Firstly, great! One of my biggest wishes :D

Bug: On my frontpage (.com) the checkmarks are broken links on the "What members are reading" list in the right side...

That is just what I wanted, but didn't think I'd get. It has already enabled me to pick up some errors in my collections, so thank you very much.

Thank you... this is a huge functional enhancement for me.

ETA tyop

I like it too.

Thank you Tim

Yeah, fine. But what I really want....

Joking! This is absolutely wonderful. This feature just complements the Collections feature so wonderfully. Thank you for letting yourself be browbeaten into it.

I swear by all that I hold dear, not to ask for anything else. Ever. This month.

Thank you again.

Thanks Tim, it works beautifully :)

This is great -- can look at an author and instantly see what you have, want or have read but don't own anymore, without having to open up the library and go through the collections! Doesn't take into account multiple copies of course, but can use the library view for that and numbers.

As I don't use any of the collections related to the coloured checkmarks, mine have gone grey which is splendid. Far easier on the eye than lime green. I am a little puzzled though that when I look at another person's library the check marks are still green?

Love the idea, but sadly I have a bug: I have all of the Nevada Barr Anna Pigeon books listed in my library. The ones I own are in My Library, the rest are in Wishlist; all are showing as green checkmarks when I go to the series page.

Thankyou so much for the purple ticks - now I am going to have to seriously rearrange my collections (and thus tags), but I am very happy to be able to work out at a glance those books I own and those I want.

Pretty damn cool!

This is FicusFan, and I have my Wishlist and RBUO books in this account.

Thank You Tim. I also must report that when I go to the series page for each book, the check marks are still green for my wishlist. I don't have a RBUO series book to test if their checks will show up the new color or not.

Splendid! Thank you, Tim.

**Happy Dance**

Thank you, Tim!

Re messages 9 and 21. I'm seeing the same thing. Just checked and books that should have purple or blue in on the CK series pages still have green.

Also seem to be missing checkmarks on the Home page.

ETA: The titles on the homepage are slightly indented. Just no checkmarks.

Also: I already love this and will really love it once the wrinkles are ironed out.

Thanks Tim :)

Doesn't work on the series page though but hopefully it can be fixed fast :)

Would it be possible to have text on mouseover to remind us what the different colors mean?

Oh lovely, now I just need someone to actually organize my LT collection. Collections came out right before I had my baby, and surprisingly I haven't found time to fix them in my catalog.

Sorry - found another place where the checkmarks are coming up all green - "Books you share" in other peoples libraries.

I still love it!

> 1

In case of conflicts, it prefers purple to blue to green to gray.

What do you mean by "in case of conflicts"?

Do you think you could posssibly find uglier colors? I know it would be a stretch, but I'm sure you could if you tried.

I'm so glad I don't use Wish List as a collection. Any thought I had of doing so is now right out the window. The blue will be annoying enough. I do hate clutter, though you wouldn't know that if you looked at my desk.

(Copied from the Wishlist: Just one little code change thread)

Observations:

Books on author pages have correct colored check marks. Books on Series Pages have all green check marks. Books on "other library" pages have all green check marks.

On the author page: Madeleine L'Engle
http://www.librarything.com/author/lengl...

It shows the books I have with Green checks & the books I have in Subset with a grey check. I have the Time Quartet which has the first four "Wrinkle" books in it.

When I go to the Time Quintet Series page
http://www.librarything.com/series/The Time Quintet

All books have Green checks.

On a Series page where I have wishlisted books, they all show green, where there should be a purple check... The author page for that series shows purple & grey & green where they belong.

I also checked a friend's library & the copies of the Time Quintet that we share are all green checks when three should have grey checks.

edited to add: yes, private libraries can see what books we share with public libraries...
and
Thanks, Tim!! This is great!!

It doesn't seem to be working on the series pages for me, but still, thank you so much, Tim.

I love it! Thanks :)

Now I can make some sense of my Discworld books.

Looks good! Thanks, Tim!

Just a question, could we get checks to show up in the "connection news" and "tag watch" on the home page?

It looks really weird to have checkmarks on some books and numbers on others. My brain wants to see numbers on all the titles.

Bug?

I went to the page for The Duchess of Jermyn Street, and it shows, under "LibraryThing recommendations", that I own Douglas Sutherland's The English Gentleman. However, when I click on "see more recommedations for this work", the resulting list of "LibraryThing combined recommendations" does not show that I own that book (or E.F. Benson's As We Were: A Victorian Peep-show. If I then scroll down to the "Special Recommendations", the checkmarks are there.

I hadn't noticed it until you mentioned it, but it does look a little funny. There are both numbers and checkmarks on the "top wishlisted books" on the home page.

It's just what I always wanted!!!

thanks

I have lost all checkmarks on "Series in your library", this is particularly annoying on the all books option.

I'm seeing what other people are: the new colors are live some places but not others.

Working: author pages, work pages (recommendations), home page, statistics page (series).
Not yet working: series page, award page, other members' libraries.

There are no checkmarks at all on in some places where I might expect them: Statistics->Compare Connections.
(edited to add more)

I know there are bugs to be worked out, but overall, Thank You Very Much!

Just came to report what rsterling is seeing - not working on series and award pages...checkmarks are all green there. :)

Just to check: what are the series pages you are referring to? The one in profile/stats/series ("Series in your library")? I'm asking as I haven't used those stats much (never remember them even though it's a great feature!) so I'm not sure if there's another series page as well...

Mine are showing all colours just fine, both with "Your books" and "All books".
Awards are working as well as Characters, Places and Events.
Connections (connection news seems to show only green checkmarks.

>41 rsterling: "There are no checkmarks at all on in some places where I might expect them: Statistics->Compare Connections."

Were there checkmarks ever?
I'd like them there, it'd be interesting and fun!

44: For instance, this series page:
http://www.librarything.com/series/Chronicles%20of%20Narnia:%20Publication%20ord...

Not the personal series statistics page, but the site-wide common-knowledge generated page for each series, that lists every book entered for that series.

ETA:
44 Were there checkmarks ever?
Probably not, but I was just looking at Compare Connections, and noticed that several things in my wishlist were included (even though I've set my wishlist not to be used for connections). It would be nice, if these aren't to be excluded from Compare Connections, to be able to distinguish them from the books I actually share with these people.

45> Right, you get there by bringing up a work page, moving down to the CK Series section and clicking on the series name.

I like the change and the colors.

Pretty AND useful! I like it. Many thanks!

Not yet working: series page, award page, other members' libraries.

Fixed. Series, awards (and places, characters, etc.) should be working now.

Other members' libraries involves something I need to check with Chris about. I didn't even remember we did that... It's on my list.

no checkmarks

Checkmarks are not everywhere they might be. I'm going to treat that a separate issue, though.

I have lost all checkmarks on "Series in your library", this is particularly annoying on the all books option.

Really? Do this. Tell me if they're all green. Then make sure that some oguht not to be.

http://www.librarything.com/profile/MEMBERNAME/stats/series

Do you think you could posssibly find uglier colors? I know it would be a stretch, but I'm sure you could if you tried.

Shall I lighten them up?

I'm so glad I don't use Wish List as a collection. Any thought I had of doing so is now right out the window. The blue will be annoying enough. I do hate clutter, though you wouldn't know that if you looked at my desk.

It's good to know that, when I predicted some people would rebel at the change, I was right...

It looks really weird to have checkmarks on some books and numbers on others. My brain wants to see numbers on all the titles.

That hasn't changed. I think it's a good way to save space. Having both numbers and checkmarks would be cluttery.

What do you mean by "in case of conflicts"?

If a book is in more than one collection. For example, if in both Wish list and Your library, it chooses the purple Wish list color.

Tim! The series stats page is perfect! No longer will I duplicate purchases/mooches when acquiring books for my kid and husband.

I know I'm wasting my breath, but as more and more features are added that are dependent on the default collections, it might be worth thinking again about what default collections exist.... The current choices were made before anyone had actually used Collections at all.

> 49

Do you think you could posssibly find uglier colors? I know it would be a stretch, but I'm sure you could if you tried.

Shall I lighten them up?

Um, actually, that was a bit of a joke. Fact is, you probably need bold colors to differentiate, and multiple bold colors don't generally look well together. But this is not about interior design, after all!

It's good to know that, when I predicted some people would rebel at the change, I was right...

Well, we wouldn't want to disappoint you!

I think it's a good way to save space. Having both numbers and checkmarks would be cluttery.

True, but tell that to my brain! It keeps filling in the gaps!

If a book is in more than one collection.

That's what I figured. It seems a bit odd to have "My Library" subordinate to "Wish List" and "Read but unowned". To me, "My Library" is my primary collection. But I guess it all depends on how one is using the checkmarks.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! Such a wonderful late X-mas present. Since the collections became active, I was silently thinking it would be so much better to see at one glance by the checkmark color which book I have not read in a series but have on my wishlist. You made my day, no wait, at least my week, probably even the month!

True, but tell that to my brain! It keeps filling in the gaps!

See. The best software is meat-ware.

It seems a bit odd to have "My Library" subordinate to "Wish List" and "Read but unowned". To me, "My Library" is my primary collection. But I guess it all depends on how one is using the checkmarks.

It has to go one way. I think wishlist needs to stand out, because it signals—"Hey, you want this!" Some people include wishlist in Your Library, so... But, there's no right way to do this. It's taking collections and pushing them through a coffee straw.

Tim, that's brilliant now! Thanks a lot.

The more I play with this, the more I like it!

I checked The Gentleman Bastard Sequence -series page, saw the first book "blued" and immediately put the second one on wishlist (I really keep forgetting this series, don't even know how I happened to go there just now), then went back and got truly childish pleasure in seeing the purple checkmark prettily under the "blue" first title :D

And -- 'cause I don't like that the wishlisted books "look the same" on recent activity -- I changed the title adding (wishlist) after the name...

I'm happy :)

Hoo boy.

As someone who has only entered Owned books to date, I see an amazing amount of compulsive data entry in my future.

In a good way.

Tim, it's great!

Now to add more stuff to wishlist...

Does anyone have a series display that shows a variety of colors in a small space—something where it goes "nothing green green blue pink nothing" etc.?

I think that's the best use of this--the place is works best. But my data doesn't support this well. I don't read series as much as many people, and I don't commonly record read-but-unowned. Also, I own things compulsively :)

Yup - I have a series with all possible colors. http://www.librarything.com/series/Alex%20McKnight

>57 kristenn: Heh, me too!

>49 timspalding: Tim, have I said that I like the color palette? :-)

Thank you!

This has been my biggest wish for a site improvement since Collections came out. It makes me happy when I look at the author and series pages. I like the hierarchy of purple - blue - green - grey. Once it's fixed for viewing shared books in other people's libraries, it will be perfect. Even now, it is better than I was hoping for.

#60 - Okay, but I think Tim was hoping for a Screen Cap, because none of us can see the colors on your link, not having the same set of books sorted as you do.

Thank you!!
Thank you!!
Thank you!!
Thank you!!

This is GRREAAATT!!

With this, I'm able to fix some errors in my data! Now I'm going all OCD on my book data!!

>63 clamairy: yeah but my picture making abilities are... not so great. And he should be able to log in as me and get the picture himself.

Anyway here is my best attempt:

#65 - Oh, well please delete all those nasty things I said about him in private comments on your profile before he has a chance to do that, then. ;o)

Edited to add: Nicely done! :o)

#60 - Okay, but I think Tim was hoping for a Screen Cap, because none of us can see the colors on your link, not having the same set of books sorted as you do.

Oh, sorry. No, I just needed a reference. I can take a screenshot myself, as if I were you. (I can go in as you. Indeed, I often need to to diagnose and fix bugs.)

That's an awesome list. I'll use that.

private comments

Yes, when in members' profiles, I try to avoid hitting talk threads and profiles, because it resets what you've seen and what you haven't. But yeah, I can read them if I want to. Mwahahahaha.

not that it would apply to you, Tim...

"Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely"

Very cool. The series page is working now.

I think the colors are good, and don't need to be lighter.

>68 skittles:

You know, if this were true, systems administrators would be worse people.

A little thing - on my Home page, under What Members Are Reading, instead of getting the checkmarks I'm getting Safari's generic ? symbol for not being able to get the image.

Still broken image links for me on the .com front page in the "What members are reading" list.

I don't have anything except a number under 'What members are reading', though I own books on the list (using FF). Wishlisted books that I own are green.

Note to self: Never give Tim any excuse to sign in as self... ever. ;o)

#70: Sys Admins are "so wonderful & fantastic & just great people." Power would NEVER corrupt them!!!

.

Does anyone have any cough lozenges? I seem to need a few right now.

Wonderful. This really is a vast improvement!

What can we get Tim to work on next?

> 76

Retroactive use of the "other authors" field?
Allowing books to show on each author's Author page?
Full separation of authors with the same name?
Having "nevering" stick again?

This social stuff is all well and good, but I'd dearly love to see some of the bibliographic issues resolved.

What can we get Tim to work on next?

For the next week, I'm doing nothing LT.com-related. It's all about the impending American Library Association conference in Boston on Friday.

I can't believe it. Just yesterday I was reading the beginnings of the great checkmark change discussion (I realize it started before yesterday, I just came late to the party) and thinking oh, oh, oh could it really happen. And then this afternoon I added a book to my wishlist and drifted into the series page and the PURPLE CHECKMARK WAS THERE!....and I wasn't even looking for it.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. NOW I will change my "do not own" tagged books to the wishlist collection and all of its wonderful purple checkmarkedness in both of my accounts. I might even venture into the blue check area too.

PS: Thanks to all the discussion participants: it was entertaining reading after the fact :-)

I love the check marks! The colors are great. I wonder if you will see a lot of people adding to wishlists this week, now that the check marks are a different color. . . .

Betcha do - I've been adding to my Read but unowned collection today :-)

Thank you , Tim! This has been my giant pet peeve about LT. I've been waiting so patiently and now I'm happy, happy, happy! Off to add my wishlist...

Thank you! Thank you!

HOORAY! These are really fantastic, Tim!

I just noticed the the new check marks, what a pleasant surprise. Thank you!

OK, so I am happy and will refrain from clamoring for something else for at least a few days.

But it's also still showing only green checkmarks on touchstones.

But it's nonetheless excellent.

Any way we can get gray changed to yellow or orange or something brighter? I've lost all the green checks because I don't use Your library except for reference books so all my books fall into other collections and I have a grayish background as my default. So a color other than gray would be helpful.

Wow, thanks Tim!

I echo 71-74 about "Members are Reading" on the home page.

I'm still bouncing. :D

i just have to say, thank you Tim. thank you for listening to us whine, thank you for letting us act like the sky was falling, thank you for doing this even though it doesn't seem to benefit you as a user.

thank you. thank you. i am so happy to see this.

This is great - thanks Tim. Looks like you have made lots of people happy.

Same problem with 'Members are Reading' for me too.

Hooray for Tim!

>49 timspalding: my series are now displaying correctly. I am seeing green grey and purple. I don't use the collection that would be blue.

I like it!

Thanks Tim, this is pretty nifty.

Just one question - other then this thread is the key to the color scheme listed somewhere? I'm pretty sure I will forget it and have to look it up each time for a while before it makes it into my longterm memory. In the mean time I have this thread starred.

>94 CarolO:

A checkmarks article already existed on WikiThing, but I've expanded it slightly to include a list of the colours and the collections they relate to.

>94 CarolO: - I added a little section to the Collections Wiki:
http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/Collections#Colored_Checkmarks

Hate to be the downer in this thread, but this doesn't really do a whole lot for me.

This lumps my read and unread collections together as grey. Because of that it's no better than all green checks. In fact, it's a tad bit worse because now I'm bombarded with colors that mean nothing useful.

If I could set a check color for collections, that would make this awesome.

I particularly love the grey. Now my main series page is really useful, because all the thriller and heavy Sci-fi series that my menfolk read are grey, and easy to skip over. It makes that page (OK those pages) finally useable for me, since I don't get caught up on series that I don't recognize.

OMG! Purple. We may be rationing the heating oil at home and my toes are cold but there are goddamn *PURPLE* checkmarks! Love them!!

Neat! However, I'd like to suggest that in case of duplicates, the preference could be green to blue instead of vice versa. For example, I own a book and have read it, thus it is in "Your library". I have also read another edition of the same work, but I don't own it, thus it is in "Read but unowned". Right now these kinds of books have a blue checkmark, but I think the green one should 'trump' it.

I come back to LT after the weekend and look what I see! Thank you so much, Tim.

> 95, 96 - Added pretty colored checkmark screencaps!

As I said earlier, can we have orange checkmarks for stuff in "To Read"?

They'd trump green, but nothing else. Pleeeeeeease?

Thank you! This looks great - and as someone who pretty much always overlaps the Wishlist collection with Read but Unowned, I really appreciate the hierarchy choice.

What a great feature! I use the Read but Unowned collection a lot, since I borrow more books than I buy, and like to keep track of what I read. So I have lots of blues showing up on authors' pages with purples and greens here and there.

103>

Personally, I'd stop using "To Read" if that happened. Orange is *ugly*. Also, I generally know whether I've read a book, more so than knowing the "is this still on my wishlist or in my TBR pile" question.

>106 lorax:.

Orange completes a triangle with green and purple.

I'd be willing to budge on orange, though. I just want something not green, purple, blue, or gray.

I would also just like a color other than gray - yellow, red, or orange are not in use.

I'm happy with what we've got now. Thanks again Tim!

Perhaps a nice maroon. Nothing too robust, but with a hint of oakiness and a piquant fragrance.

I must insist on a good after taste.

As long as it's not magenta. We don't want T-Mobile sending LT a C&D! Too many consumers might confuse LibraryThing for a mobile phone company.

But, seriously, I'd take plaid checkmarks (or leery skulls with flame eyes, or ancient evil runes that cause ones eye to bleed) at this point; as long as I can distinguish books in the "To read" collection.

Great job Tim, really appreciated.

I request the following for my collections:

Reviewed: mauve
Art: a Jackson Pollock spatter
Bookbinding projects: tan calfskin
History: blood red
Literature & fiction: Yellow
Currently reading: striped - whatever color is assigned to its main collection + pink

Thank you in advance.

Tim: Tell your brother I thought of him today. See message 110.

>114 lilithcat:
Hot pink or pastel?

Hot.

Terrific! Thank you - works great for me, particularly for long series, and the wishlist data entry I was doing. As I get round to entering more books of the "read but unowned" variety, it will be increasingly useful too. I'm just limited by my memory now.

I love it - thank you! :-)

This is wonderful! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I wonder, though, if it might be possible to have a few "blank" colors that can be customized by each user for user-specific collections.

Ex:

Red, Yellow and Black

for me would be

"Read and owned", "To read", and "Favorites".

Or something like that.

Personally I think we've already got one more set than we need. "Your library", "Wishlist", and "anything else you've catalogued" would have done it for me.

But I like to keep things simple.

>121 gwernin:

Then do not use "Read but unowned" and you won't see the 4th color :)

122: Oh, I'm not complaining about it, I've even found a use for it. (For me it means "read but uncatalogued".)

I just think requests for more are going overboard.

Tim did say that this was going to be a limited pony...

I'm actually inspired to do more—custom colors. It's doable. But not this week.

Yes, I am very happy with 4 colors. Although I would not mind being able to mark a collection as one that shouldn't receive a checkmark (for my husband's books). If I could do that, then the only thing left to get a grey checkmark would be my to-be-read list. Perfect.

> 114

I think you might be intending to be at least a little humorous, but i do think in my ideal implementation of this there would be custom icons and if a book fell into more than one collection, a little row of icons would show. I've been poking around the apis hoping there was a way to do a request to find out what collections a book of mine was in just to add this type of functionality to a greasemonkey script.

Barring that, user-assigned colors would be good ;).

Even just what we have now is a great improvement. Already found one book that was in the wrong collection. Of course, part of is because I don't use the favorites collection yet so the four colors reflect the four collections I use. I might be adding collections soon so it might get less useful again.

Tim's original plan was to have the collections display on a mouse-over of the grey checkmark, but he found it was a lot more difficult than he thought. I'm not sure if he completely dropped the idea or whether he plans to tackle it later.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie ...

> 127

I think you might be intending to be at least a little humorous . . .

And you would be right!

Though the more I think about it, the fonder I am at the idea of those Jackson Pollock splatter checks.

This is fabulous.

Will the touchstones in Talk eventually be color-coded as well?

"Tim did say that this was going to be a limited pony..."

The site that offers the most ponies is the winner. LT is doing good in the pony wars. Most people just want a regular old pony with four legs, a head, and a tail. Some want to de-feature their pony by removing a couple of legs, the tail, and an ear or two. Others want a genetic toolkit to build ponies with six legs, two heads, numerous tails, and an ability to speak human. A few want a unicorn. I'm curious to see what develops next.

Does that mean I get my "To read" seahorse? I'm sure it's just a simple extrapolation...

It's like a pony, only smaller, and, apparently, since I'm the only one who wants it, more exotic.

132: Pegasi!

#125, Tim, I have been holding off requesting this, because I'm thrilled to have the new checkmarks just as they are, but if custom colors means what I think it means (being able to assign a color to a particular collection), I would love that. But maybe that isn't what you mean.

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of custom colors, but just to clarify for my pea brain, I would be the only one to see them for my collections, right? otherwise, wouldn't my purple for READ collection be different than others purple for their wishlist ? I ask this because I would really like to see something other than purple and gray (I don't use the default collections of Your Library and Read But unowned - so I get no Blue or Green - and they are two of my favorite colors!) I would be nice to assign the g=colors to the collections that you want highlighted for this purpose.

But don't stop!

125: Would LOVE it! I want to distinguish between "Have Read" and "To Be Read". I don't care so much about recording ownership, because my library is a revolving door -- the vast majority of my books are only owned a short time.

Idea -- if the book is a colored collection and also in Favorites, it could get a colored star. (yeah, i know, give a mouse a cookie...)

Strange the only module on the homepage where the check marks appear to show up is on the Top wishlisted books list. Doesn't seem to work for added this month and currently reading.

137> Couldn't you use the Wishlist collection for To Be Read? The justification would be that you Wish to read it instead of Wish to own it.

Or you could double-list them temporarily.

I just want to point out that I logged on today to look for some books for a friend, saw purple checkmarks, didn't believe it, logged out, pinched myself, logged in again and noticed that *they were still there*! This is amazing. Thanks, Tim!

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! You.... You..... NOOOOOO!!!!

Tim you sneaky little devil! I had *finally* gotten over the whole Collections thing, deciding I would never USE Collections, and NOW you put Purple Checkmarks?! You are determined to make me rearrange my library until the end of time, aren't you??

(In case it didn't come through: OMG OMG PURPLE CHECKMARKS I LOVE IT!!!!)

Custom colours would be nice, especially if we could choose to show the same colour for multiple collections. I have some books that I removed from my Library for recommendation purposes, but I still own them.

139 - Nope.

My "Wishlist" is for books I want to borrow or acquire. This lets me know what to look for on BookMooch, or in used bookstores, or on friends' bookshelves.

My "To Be Read" is books that I currently have in my possession (own it, or borrowed from a friend). This is used for "Let's see, what I should read next".

Very different purposes.

I logged in this morning, intending to chime in with my $0.02 in the "Just One Little Code Change" thread. Imagine my surprise when I found this had already been implemented!

Fantastic. Thanks, Tim!

Will the touchstones in Talk eventually be color-coded as well?

Damn. Didn't see those because they use a smaller version of the graphic. Adding them to my list.

You are determined to make me rearrange my library until the end of time, aren't you??

Certainly not. Your lifetime membership will have expired!

>146 timspalding:
Not if Heather19 gets cryogenically frozen.

She's 19. By the time she's 80 we'll be freezing her in carbonite.

Actually, by the time she's 80 lifespans will be longer. Or at least I hope they will be -- I'll be 90!

Love the Purple checkmarks!!Thanks Tim!!

Actually, by the time she's 80 lifespans will be longer. Or at least I hope they will be -- I'll be 90!

Oh, please—a moratorium on advertising how young you are!

Shakes his gnarled late-30's fist!

Stupid Question maybe-but where are these checkmarks? I do not see them anywhere. Do i have to do something in order to see or use them? Oh, tell me do. 8^)

Go to an author page that you have books on. Or click on your recomendations, or check your series page (Home or profile; Statistics/Memes; Common Knowledge series.)

>151 timspalding: I'd hardly call myself "young." This September I'm hitting another a 0 age.

>152 Vanye:
Try looking at a work page. Or an author page. Or a series page.

>154 AnnaClaire:

29 year olds who don't think of themselves as young... oh, it's wasted, wasted.

> 155: I don't know. If they thought of themselves as "young" they'd be adopting the mindset of those of us > 35. So maybe the essence of being young has something to do with not thinking of yourself as young ....

No word on the duplicates issue (see message 100)?

153> Yes there is something. In order to see the checkmarks you must have cataloged some books in LT.

#115; Ah, you want him marooned?

Not necessarily. But a hint of oakiness should be fun.

>157 MaidMeri:

I'm sure there are many different opinions as to which color should trump which depending on how someone uses LT.

I would be curious as to how many people keep an edition they have read in the Read but Unowned collection if they actually own a different copy.

I'll have to observe how I use this - now that we have the differently colored ponies - er, I mean checkmarks - I think that I will feel a lot free-er to catalogue books that I read prior to joining LT. But I don't know that if I owned a copy I would add another copy that I read before I owned the one I have now. (**PortiaLong checks for internal logic of that sentence...er?**)

Hmmm...work-around (since Tim said previously that there might not be much/any modification after this went live) I'd probably move the "Read but Unowned" copies of books that I also owned a copy of out of the "Read but Unowned" collection (blue check) into a different "Own Different Copy" collection (which would get a grey check that would be trumped by the green check).

(And if I wanted to be really OCD I could put all the books in the "Read but Unowned" collection and the "Own Different Copy" collection into yet another collection and call it the "Total Unowned but yet Read" collection in case, for some reason, I needed to seem them all in one place.)

161: I would consider if I liked the older edition better and it was unobtainable. Of course, then I'd probably put it in wishlist, but still.

Hey! I just noticed that all the checkmarks are white. It's the background that has color. Do we need to start over?

Awesome! Thanks Tim.

>163 suitable1:
Darn, I think you're right. ;)

161> I think I have a few - generally, when I've read the hardback from the library or bookstore and then bought the paperback. If they're the same edition (or I don't remember what edition I read without owning), I just put it in my library and take it out of RNO. But if I actually entered it as a library book...

So if the blue checks ever bother me on that, I'll transfer my notes/reviews/read dates/etc to my owned copy and just delete the RNO copy. Or put it in a spare collection. Or something.

It's actually been a problem, when I have two different editions with a review on the earlier one - should I copy the review to the other? Leave it just on the one I read (which means it looks like I didn't review the new one)? Transfer it to the new one - hmmm, I hadn't actually thought of that, that would work. Or just delete the old copy. But then there's the ones where I read individual books and bought the omnibus...bah. /threadjacking

>161 PortiaLong: I would be curious as to how many people keep an edition they have read in the Read but Unowned collection if they actually own a different copy.

I do not.

I replace the Read but Unowned edition with the one I actually now own.

I know there are some works where exact edition matters in terms of reading as well, but not in the areas that I read. If I got a hardcover from the library and then bought a paperback, that's definitely not enough reason to have both on my account. It doesn't affect conversations.

Edit: The omnibus thing (#166) has already been a pain in the butt for that though, yes.

I do think it was weird that Tim put the 'Your Library' so far down on the list, since if it is in my library, that would be the most important one. If I have one in RbU and in my library, I would care more that it's in my library and against the wish list even more so. If I got a copy of a book and forgot to remove it from my wish list and only added it to my library, now I might accidentally by another copy.

C'est la vie

>161 PortiaLong:

I am using Read but Unowned in a bit different way - for books that I used to have but I am giving away - mainly for tracking purposes - reviews and series. If I ever buy the same title again, I will just move it in Your Library again and edit the ISBN/publisher information. What I am planning on using it for is also the parts of an omnibus as separate books... But at least for now I do not plan on keeping track of what I had read before joining LT.

168: He had it at the top originally, and then people complained.

That's weird, it makes the most sense, I guess I missed the complaining or I would have thrown in my 2-cents.

> 170

I don't think so. His original post had the "In case of conflicts" list in the same order.

I have 4 collections (Wishlist, Your Library, En route and Read but Unowned) which are mutually exclusive and every book in my library is in one of them... So do not care for the order really :)

172> It was discussed in this thread, http://www.librarything.com/topic/81530, before this one. If you want to be in on the design of new features you really ought to join Recommended Site Improvements.

173> The order should matter a great deal to you actually if every book in your my library is in one of those other groups as you say. If My Library was at the top then it would override the others and all you would see was the green checkmarks, the same as before.

>175 jjwilson61:
My library is everything that I had ever catalogued (call it all collections, all books, whatever). Each book is in one of the 4: Wishlist, Your Library, En route and Read but Unowned.

Your library is the collection; My library is what I have on the site. Poor choice of words on calling the whole thing My Library I guess :) Sorry

> 168: I can see your point. But I can also see it the other way. A title showing up in "your library" but also in "wishlist" could simply mean you want another copy (nicer, other edition, etc.). So it's not like it doesn't make any sense.

177 > ya, but I would consider that to be a minority position.

I hadn't been using RbU since Collections debuted. I wanted finer distinctions from the start, like "Removed" or "Borrowed". But with the checkmarks, I realized I could just make a "union" of my other Collections. It was easy to do with Power Edit. And I can make use now of that checkmark too.

@172 No, it didn't. The original post in the RSI thread was edited to reflect a new order.

@175 AnnieMod's collections are mutually exclusive; nothing's overriding anything.

#180: katieinseattle: every book I currently own is in "your library" but if I am looking for a different edition, it is also on my wishlist. Then it shows up with that beautiful purple graphic with a white check in it. If a book is in more than one collection, then the wishlist &/or the Read but not owned "over-ride" it.

If I have given a book away, then I have it in my "archived" collection & it appears with a grey graphic with a white check in it. I use the checks a bit differently than others do but the hierarchy works for me for the way I catalog my library. I also get a grey graphic with a white check in it for any of the short stories or novels in an omnibus where I have cataloged the individual work. In my library, the grey means that I don't actually have that work. I note the distinction in my private comments field.

I use the "blue graphic with the white check in it" for books that I am waiting to receive. I get some books from BookMooch & PaperbackSwap & this is one way I can catalog the books & keep track of their progress to me. They are in both the "your library" & the one with blue graphics. So they show a blue graphic.

180 Sorry for being confusing; I didn't mean that any collections in general were mutually exclusive but that AnnieMod (173)'s collections were mutually exclusive. I understand the hierarchy works very differently for different people.

The hierarchy works fine... it is how different people use LT & the "colored graphic with a white check in it" marks.

>161 PortiaLong:

Good points. I don't even have all that many duplicates myself, but I foresee some in the future. I often read a library book in one language and end up buying it for myself in another, which then results in two editions of the same work being catalogued in different collections.

But I don't know that if I owned a copy I would add another copy that I read before I owned the one I have now.

Well, I wouldn't, except when it's a translation and the original.

I happen to have two editions like this of The God Delusion, which is particularly annoying, since it's pretty much always recommended for any atheism-related book. It displays the blue checkmark, which bugs me because I tend to think that the copy I own should be the default one. But I'll live. :)

> 172

If you want to be in on the design of new features you really ought to join Recommended Site Improvements.

And you might want to check before making snotty remarks, because I am a member of that group.

However, being a member of a group does not mean that I read every single thread in the group. Why would I bother with that thread when I have no interest in, or knowledge of, coding?

Maybe people should use subject lines that reflect the actual content.

185> I apologize if you thought the remark was snotty. I thought of it more as a playful "dig" myself.

Love the colored checkmarks! Thank you Tim!

I think a couple people mentioned this, but just wanted to report that I'm having checkmarks show up perfectly on "Top Wishlisted Books" but no checkmarks at all on "What Members are Reading" on the home page module, even though I definitely have some of these books in various collections. Everything else looks great, though - oh, and my browser is Firefox 3.something if that makes a difference.

>188 bell7:

I get the same thing -- no checkmarks on "What Members are Reading".

Otherwise, the coloured checkmarks are fantastic! Thanks Tim!

Nice feature. I'll have to start using collections now :-(

>188 bell7:

There's a bug in whatever is generating the "What members are reading" content - I'm seeing it trying to use http://static.librarything.com/pics/1.gif for a checkmark, rather than the http://static.librarything.com/pics/cm_1.gif that is working in the "Top wishlisted books" pane.

Bug: When I'm looking at someone else's library, the books we share are marked by a green checkmark, regardless of my collection.

Touchstones are still wrong too.

And "What members are reading" on the home page.

Didn't Tim say that he is not working on anything this week because of some library thing or another? So I doubt that these will get fixed before he is back to doing fixes...

Where's the best place to remind him, when he comes back from conference - otherwise this feature will join LTs long list of could-be-so-much-better-if-only-they-finsihed-it-properly ones.

I like them.

Hi, Tim

The checkmarks show on my Connection News page, but they are all green, in spite of a lot of them being in my Read but not owned collection.

>197 staffordcastle:

Your "Read but not owned" books appear to also be in your "Timeline" collection. There's no way Tim's algorithm can know anything about your created collection. It's probably somethng like "IF THEN ". Try temporarily removing a "Read but not owned" book from "Timeline" and see if the color of checkmark changes for that work.

Hi, fugitive -

Those books are NOT in My Library, so should show up with either a blue check for RBU or grey for Other (Timeline).

I deleted a book, and it continues to show on the author page with a grey checkmark.

When I click on the title of the book from the author page, I see a copy of the book with no owner data (usually, I see my name and my info about my copy of the work).

Sounds like the caches again - a few nasty reports were showing up lately...

> 200, Which are the books that bother you?

> 199, How do you see them on the authors pages? And it should be blue. (but I believe Connections was not colored ? yet?)

>201 AnnieMod: You are correct about the cache -- my problem has disappeared -- but I thought I waited 36 hours for updates before I posted ... who knows???

Had seen it taking a week and even more. And sometimes someone needs to do something stupid (uncombine/combine or just open a page) to flush the caches. That's why I asked which book. Good that it cleared :)

I have to object to the wording of the announcement: "Your books now have colored checkmarks! You can distinguish, at a glance, what's owned, read, wishlisted, etc."

There's actually no way to distinguish what you've read from what's in your TBR pile, unless you ignore the names of the collections and use them for other purposes.

Of course, the announcement is indicative of what would be a more natural way of looking at books: there should be "Owned" and "Read" defaults, with corresponding checkmarks.

>204 _Zoe_:.

I'm just hoping that said wording is a contractual obligation for Tim to add a colored checkmark to the "To read" collection.

(,;;,)

Good idea. I was wondering what the different colours were until I spotted your message.

Well done, and thank you!

So now that the ALA conference is over, any word on when the colored checkmarks will be fully implemented (in touchstones and member libraries)?

Not to mention the original ones fixed ? The green are gone on What Members are Reading ? Its just spaces on FF, and small blue boxes with question marks on Safari.

Bump.

Illustration of the much mentioned missing checkmarks from "What Members Are Reading":

It would certainly be nice if the implementation of these checkmarks were completed. I'm looking forward to my green ones turning grey.

v

>210 divinenanny:

This list does not have any checkmarks on my home page (and I have a few from the books). Strange

> 212
It all depends on your browser. Like FicusFan said in 208, in Firefox it is just an extra space...

What Members are Reading

Fixed.

Talk pages

Fixed.

Bug: When I'm looking at someone else's library, the books we share are marked by a green checkmark, regardless of my collection.

Still out there. I'll ask Chris about the file I need to edit.

The checkmarks show on my Connection News page, but they are all green, in spite of a lot of them being in my Read but not owned collection.

I don't see checkmarks in connection news ever. Can you give me an example?

I see checkmarks in connection news under "ratings".

Thanks Tim!

They are in my connection news whenever someone adds/rates/reviews a book I have - green instead of grey, which I guess is related to them showing green in someone else's library.

v

eta: ie not on the home page but on the connections page

> 214:

Bug: When I'm looking at someone else's library, the books we share are marked by a green checkmark, regardless of my collection.

Still out there. I'll ask Chris about the file I need to edit.

But shouldn't that rather be ruled by which collection that other user has them in? If I visit some other user's catalog I would like to know if that person actually has that book (instead of just having it wishlisted) so I could ask for advice or value their opinions.

If you can, give me an exact example from your library of a checkmark in connection news. My connections ain't doing it. It's probably their fault.

219: This book http://www.librarything.com/work/362583 - is this what you are asking for? You don't see anything if you log into my account, or bluesalamander's etc?

v

I've posted one in a private comment to you.

Thanks Tim!

218> You have a point, but its also useful to know whether you actually have the book or have it wishlisted since you might not remember. I also think its less confusing for the checkmarks to always refer to your own library.

I think the only way to make your idea work would be to include checkmarks against both your and the other members library. Maybe your checkmarks could be on the left as it is now and the other members' checkmarks could be on the right.

219> Everything that Rothfaust added on Oct 28, 2009. They all have green check marks on my Connection News page. The First Law trilogy should be blue, and Best Served Cold should be purple.

218/223 - Add "Collections" as a column in the view, to see which collections the listed items are in.

Awesome. Got it. Fixed. Thanks.

225> We aren't talking about the catalog, but the Books You Share box on other people's profiles.

226: Ah yes, lovely grey ticks. Thank you :)

v

I was just looking at books in my wishlist account (ImaginaryFicus), and all the checkmarks are green, even though they are in the wishlist collection (purple). I also have a Read-But-Unowned in the wishlist account that is in my regular account and it was green too (Blue).

I tried it both ways: being Ficus and looking at imaginaryFicus and being imaginaryFicus and looking at Ficus and they were all always green.

Ticks still wrong colour when viewing others' libraries.

v

Love the colored check marks! Thanks, Tim!

>17 vaneska: As I don't use any of the collections related to the coloured checkmarks, mine have gone grey which is splendid.

I know this is a really old thread... :-)

I just found out about these coloured checkmarks because I also don't use any of the collections with the colours. :-(

I'm thinking Favorites is one collection that should stand out. Red for Favorites? Just a suggestion to add it. :-) Or, even better, a red heart for Favorites.

Helpful for me would also be the "To Read" collection to be a different colour, but that's just the way I use my shelves. (The ones I use are "To Read", "Read", "Currently Reading", and "Favorites".)

>232 LibraryCin: Helpful for me would also be the "To Read" collection to be a different colour, but that's just the way I use my shelves. (The ones I use are "To Read", "Read", "Currently Reading", and "Favorites".)

The checkmarks are only ever going to work on built-in collections and two of yours, "To Read" and "Read" are custom (that is you added them). That is, unless Tim implements the suggestion to allow people to specify the colors for each of their collections, but I believe he's already said that that's too fiddly.

>233 jjwilson61: That's too bad. (I don't even remember adding those collections myself!)

I still think Favorites is one that might be nice to have stand out.

How difficult would it be to have "mouseover" text prompts on the checkmarks saying what they signify?

ie "Your library", "Read but unowned", "Wish list", "Other collections"

I'm colourblind and I love the concept, but I can't tell what colour the checkmarks are.

>236 Collectorator: you may be right. I'm used to my color issues not bothering most people but it might help new users get acclimatised to the site.

>235 anxovert:

Honestly, good practice for UI these days is to at least check how the page looks to people with red-green colorblindness. (Total achromatism is much rarer.) Designers might decide that for non-critical elements like these checkmarks it's okay to just have hovertext clarifications, but doing nothing is just lazy. That said, with virtually every design element including color (bug tracking status indicators, inventory, etc.) someone says "You know, this is really confusing for people with colorblindness" and there has yet to be a peep from staff on the issue, so I suspect they just don't want to be bothered.

For those of us with normal color vision, here's one simulation of what the image at the top of the thread would look like to someone with red-green colorblindness:



Those two "blue" colors are awfully similar, especially when they aren't both right next to each other.

It seems to me that it wouldn't be that hard to have one check in a square, one in a diamond and one in a triangle (as well as the colour difference).

It would be nice to have a separate color for "To Read". The grey is a little confusing for me.

The Electronic Luddite here. I see no checks at all. How about someone looking at my library and tell me where I should go to see one.

>241 ulmannc: We, of course, can't see your checks. But if you go to an author page, you can see the checks on books you have entered: http://www.librarything.com/author/blewjohn
http://www.librarything.com/author/americanguideseries
http://www.librarything.com/author/clarkebh
http://www.librarything.com/author/bernhartbenjaminl

And your series page http://www.librarything.com/profile/ulmannc/stats/series (Actually, these we can see.)

http://www.librarything.com/tag/Philadelphia should also show some.

>242 MarthaJeanne: Thank you very much for the help. I missed the word 'author' and the pages you brought up I never go to SO that's why I didn't see them!! I appreciate your patience with the EL here. Job would be proud of you!!

Hmmm….. I don't think I have ever had grey check marks.

>244 krazy4katz: The grey shows up for any book you have that's not in any one of the pre-made collections.

My pre-made collection for "Read" (not "read but unowned" I still have that) seems to have disappeared entirely and I know you're not able to delete those so I'm not sure what happened. Can someone help me?

There is no such pre-made collection.

https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Collections

"There are 6 pre-defined collections: Your Library, Wishlist, To read, Read but unowned, Currently reading, Favorites."

There is no such pre-made collection.

https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Collections

"There are 6 pre-defined collections: Your Library, Wishlist, To read, Read but unowned, Currently reading, Favorites."

No you can't delete them, but you can set them to inactive.

Opening this thread again to check on the current status of the check marks. Sorry if this has been dealt with elsewhere, I haven't been able to find it.

If I understand / remember correctly, a grey (gray) tick indicated any book within a library but not in a pre-defined collection, yes?

Since the re-do I have lost the ticks associated with my self-added collection, 'ebooks or PDFs', so that it now looks as if those books are not within my library. As this is a very large and important part of my library, I would really like those ticks back. (I would also like to be able to assign different colours for self-made collections but I'm guessing that's still off the table?)

Is there a way to bring these back?

>250 gilroy: Can you be more specific? Where are you not seeing these check marks?

>250 gilroy:

In the list of books on the right hand side of my thread in the 75 Books Challenge, which comes up due to the touchstones in the talk posts. Previously books which I have classified as 'ebooks or PDFs' had a grey check mark in that list, now they do not have one at all.

Ah, this looks like a symptom of the new talk pages. You might want to post your bug over here:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/325602#7296104

Make sure you are specific of where and what's missing.

>252 gilroy:

Thanks!

I'm going to add this here rather than re-opening a dormant RSI thread:

Would it be possible to link the tick marks to the wiki (or wherever) where it tells you what colour represents what? I can never remember which is which. As in, if you clicked on the tick, it would take you to the key. Or even bring up a pop-up box.

What I would like see (and I'm sure it's been requested before) is a checkmark for books that are indirectly owned. That would be invaluable for series where you may own a collection rather than the individual titles included in the collection (and possibly vice-versa).

Of course, that depends on the work-to-work relationships for the collection being correctly set-up.

>255 Maddz: That has been often requested, so perhaps there's a chance it will be implemented at some point.

>255 Maddz: As in, if you have - say - an omnibus edition, it would tick all the individual books within the omnibus? I need that. I hope it's possible to programme.

>254 humouress: A key to the checkmarks would be helpful. I have no idea what the colors mean.
>255 Maddz: I agree that a checkmark for indirectly owned books would be great.

>258 NinieB: There is a key: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Checkmarks Although, the new color scheme seems to have changed the checkmark colors, too.

>259 lesmel: Thank you, that's helpful! I find the new checkmark colors hard to distinguish, at least the purple versus the gray, but having the key will probably help me understand them better.

"Watched but unowned" would be a welcome addition, with the same functionality as RBU but nice to keep separate.

>261 zetetic23: IF you want to make that collection, you can.

>261 zetetic23: But there is no difference between movies and books you DO own, both come with the same green checkmark. Also, for this to be implemented it can't be based only on collections as it is now, it would have to somehow read the media data to recognize non-books

>262 gilroy: I can and have made the collection, but the collection is not knowable from the colored checkmark on an artist page

>263 SandraArdnas: They have different colored checkmarks, green vs blue.

RBU is totally manual to add, no reason WBU shouldn't be the same, no need to read media data. Just a new delivered collection with a different colored checkmark.

Even better would be custom collections with a choice of colors for checkmarks.

>265 zetetic23: Yes, but again, you need a new feature, a new default collection for Watched but unowned and it still wouldn't differentiate between books and movies you do own without further new features

"it still wouldn't differentiate between books and movies you do own without further new features"

>266 SandraArdnas: I don't understand what you are trying to convey, I haven't mentioned anything about differentiating between books and movies

>267 zetetic23: What do you mean? What is the difference between 'read but unowned' and 'watched but unowned' if not book vs movie? I was merely pointing out they are all lumped together if you own them. It seems pointless to make the difference only for those you do not own, but not for those actually in your library.

>267 zetetic23: >268 SandraArdnas: I think you're both looking at it from different angles. If you expected the system to show a tick on the list if you've read the book Pride and Prejudice or watched the film of Pride and Prejudice it would have to differentiate between the media which it can't do at the moment.

But if you want it to give you a blue tick if it's from your RBU collection and a pink tick if it's from your custom collection that should be do-able.

>269 humouress: The book and the film should not be in the same work. In fact there are several works for different film versions.

https://www.librarything.com/work/803723
https://www.librarything.com/work/938728
https://www.librarything.com/work/3493131
https://www.librarything.com/work/7107900

>270 MarthaJeanne: I was just trying to pull random theoretical examples out of the air for illustration purposes. Often the novelisation of the film or the film of the novelisation has been added to a series by people. Sometimes they get included as a work, too. Just pretend it was a decent example 🤗

A manual selection like RBU or WBU would not need to automatically differentiate between media because it is manual.