BiblioPhil is BACK!

20 years ago

Hello. Mike from BiblioPhil is here to announce that we are back! We've put in some extra time over the Thanksgiving to fix all of the problems. I wanted to thank everyone who hung in there and gave us the benefit of the doubt. In any case, it appears that everything is functioning 100% again, and we are adding new features every day. Check out the new Labeling/Tagging system that lets you label any book!

If you have any of the features that you'd like to see, now is the time to ask! We've been banging away at this monster for weeks now, so shoot them our way while we're hot.

I don't have many excuses for the reasons why BiblioPhil broke, but for those who are interested in knowing the facts, they follow below. To the rest of you, thanks and come visit!!!

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What Happened To BiblioPhil ?

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About a year ago (Nov 2004), BiblioPhil became a bit expensive to run. We also had database limitations with our current host, who wanted to charge us an arm and a leg to continue using them. There were other options, but none of them were cheaper, unless we would rewrite BiblioPhil from scratch in another language! Original design was all Microsoft based, and other open-source free options meant lots of work.

That's like starting everything from scratch again. So I hired an overseas developer and paid him to do straight up conversion (translation of the languages if you will). As you can guess by now, all he did is screwed it up, wasted 6 months of my life, my money, and ran away. The same lesson keeps on coming - if you ever want anything done right, do it yourself!

For months BiblioPhil was crawling with broken legs, while competitors came up, improved on the idea and took away our users. I am never against the competition, since it only creates better products. If someone could do it better then me, then let them! That was the whole reason behind BiblioPhil in the first place - I wanted Amazon.com to literally STEAL my idea.

But it's not until BiblioPhil started to collapse and other sites started to advertise their features as "This is not an abandoned project", that my heart started to ache for BiblioPhil and I ended up spending lots of sleepless nights bringing it back to life.

I have never advertised BiblioPhil on a single place - it was always through a word of mouth (people like you), and I will continue to make improvements to it, and yes, did I mention(?) it will continue to always be FREE...

So... come on back, folks!

-mike

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Comments (15)

Marial34
20 years ago
Do you have a link for it?

Maria
asmadeus
Original Author
20 years ago
LOL yeah...
http://www.bibliophil.org

Here is a link that might be useful: bilbiophil.org
Chris_in_the_Valley
20 years ago
Mike, it looks great. I love the tagging feature! Now we can sort by genre, and whether it's fiction or not, ....

Er, couldn't get the bookmarklet into my toolbar, however. Either way. Anyone else having problems with it?

Hadn't been there for a while. Thank you for getting up and running again and for letting us know.
sheriz6
20 years ago
I've loved the Bibliophil site since I first started listing my books there in 2004 (it had been recommended here by Magda, I think). I'm very glad to see it's back up and working better than ever.
twobigdogs
20 years ago
Horray! I've also been a bibliophil user for a few years and finally, FINALLY, I almost have my books entered. Thanks for the update.

One feature I would like to see is a "re-read" box to check. If I re-read a book, Bibliophil searches and finds the info for the last time I read a book so I cannot re-enter a title a second time. This messes up my annual reading lists. Just a little quirky thought.

Thanks Mike.
PAM
mummsie
20 years ago
I couldn't play the RP GAME without my handy list of books on Bibliophil! ;-)
biwako_of_abi
20 years ago
I'm so glad to hear that it is back, though I regret all the books I read and didn't enter into my library while it was having problems. Thanks, Mike!
asmadeus
Original Author
20 years ago
Thanks for the suggestion re:re-read.

We are currently working on adding a Multiple Dates Read feature, that will allow you to log various dates. This way you can see which books you've re-read more than twice and when.

Also, if you want to mark a book to re-read in the future, use the Tagging/Labeling, and tag it as "re-read". This way you can search all of the books that you basically noted to re-read later.

Does that address your request?
mike
netla
20 years ago
Mike, since you're accepting suggestions here, how about a Next Book button in the edit window that saves the edit and goes directly to the next book instead of having always to go back to the list? It would come in handy for those of us who want to label all the books we have already entered.
twobigdogs
20 years ago
Thanks Mike.

I think the "multiple read" feature may work. But I don't think the tagging and labeling will help me because I still can't enter a title a second time. It won't let me. I can only enter a title once. If I attempt to enter it a second time, I am automatically referred back to the first time I read it. If I change the "date read" field, then the book is erased from the previously entered date.

Will we be able to sort by genre?

Thanks again Mike. I've already been back to enter more titles.
PAM
phoebecaulfield
20 years ago
I had given up on Bibliophil a while ago because so many of my books have no ISBN numbers, and getting them entered on Bibliophil was a bit of a project. In the meantime, I've found a different place where it's easier. I'm not advertising it, just mentioning it as an alternative.

Here is a link that might be useful: LibraryThing
asmadeus
Original Author
20 years ago
cool! thanks for all of your feedback. We've added the multiple dates read feature. There are some tiny bugs to iron out. I'm also gonna add a way to add the same book more than once. This way you can have different reviews and ratings for the same book if you want. This would be a bit different from multiple dates read, since the review will be tied to multiple dates in the first instance. And, to answer jwttrans' feedback, yes - the no ISBN issue is a big one. And that is (at this point) the next top priority! Allow to enter a book without an ISBN.
magda
20 years ago
Thanks Asmadeus! Happy New Year!
sheriz6
20 years ago
Asmadeus, thanks again for getting things up and working again, I really love the Bibliophil site!
twobigdogs
20 years ago
THANKS MIKE - for all of your hard work and for listening to our suggestions. Can I make another suggestion/request? While I love to enter my books on bibliophil and will continue to do so, it would be lovely to be able to download all of them (as opposed to only 200) onto Excel at home so I can re-arrange them and shuffle them and keep a printed list handy. Is this possible or is this against your vision for bibliophil? Happy New Year and thanks again. It is truly appeciated. ~~~~~PAM