Marcia - 5:08 am on Feb 18, 2001 (gmt 0)

Well mousemoves, to me a book on Perl would be fun..but I will give you my opinion on where they missed it. They have NO content - just sales areas.

They should have hired themselves a few women who know how to give hugs and recruit and manage volunteers to run chats and message boards, and they could have had a booming readers and writers community with global growth potential.

I can personally vouch for the fact that author chats and book discussion chats are thorougly packed out - sometimes needing 4 hosts moderating. They had all the publisher/author connections, and a built-in opportunity for instant community, flowing naturally, with nothing contrived. People love book discussions, and they lend very well to message boards.

And it's amazing how many aspiring writers there are among avid readers - online writing classes are also consistently packed, and boards with publishing and writing market info, as well as writing exercises and critiques are extremely active.

They lacked the feminine mind and the feminine touch. ;)

Note: This is a slightly prejudiced opinion - there's nothing I love better than packing out a chat room - and I know how much cross-promotion can be done with boards.