Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, guests may join or initiate a live chat to discuss a book when there are members available who have indicated an interest in chatting about that book. Guests are also welcome to join the subject-related chatrooms.

Each time you look at a book's page, we will check for members who are available to chat with you about that book. If we find anyone, we'll let you know on that page with a link to send invitations. When you click on that link, we'll send out the invitations for you and open a chat window on your screen. As members accept the invitations, they will join you in the chatroom.

Go to the page for each book you've read, and click on the option indicating that you've read it. Then, when other guests and members look at that page, they will have an opportunity to invite you to chat.

The more books you mark as read, the more chances you'll have to chat. You'll be able to encourage potential readers to read the books you've loved - and steer them away from the bad ones!

Yes, you must be logged in and have a Bibliochat page open in order for us to send you chat invitations. You can, however, be doing other things, including surfing other websites. Just keep a Bibliochat page open in another window or browser tab.

When you receive an invitation, we'll play a sound for you and show an invitation on the Bibliochat page. You can choose whether to accept or decline the invitation. If you decline, you may include a short message letting the inviter know why you are declining. If you are too busy at the moment, for example, you may suggest that they try you again in a half hour.

If you don't RSVP the invitation within a certain amount of time, the invitation will go away.

If you are busy or stepping away from your computer, you can temporarily remove yourself from the chat pool. While logged in, at the top of the page you'll see either 'Allowing live chat' or 'Blocking live chat'. Clicking on that indicator toggles your chat availability on or off.

Don't forget to turn chat back on when you're ready, otherwise you won't receive any invitations.

In addition to the chatrooms for each book, we also have chatrooms on various authors or subjects. For instance, the page for a Jules Verne book may include a link to join a science fiction chatroom.

We also maintain a "General" chatroom, where you can discuss whatever is on your mind.

So that others may enjoy a book without being exposed to the book's surprises, please tag spoilers in comments and reviews. Chapter summaries, by nature, will include spoilers, so you don't need to tag spoilers when writing summaries.

To tag a spoiler in your posting, simply wrap that part of your message between special spoiler tags. For example:

I was surprised to learn, at the end of the book, that <<spoiler>>the butler did it<</spoiler>>.

By wrapping "the butler did it" with the <<spoiler>> and <</spoiler>> tags, other readers can read the rest of your message, while the spoiler remains hidden. When hidden, the spoiler portion will appear as «spoiler». Clicking on the spoiler marker will toggle the spoiler visibility on, so that portion of the post can be seen.

When you preview your messages before posting, messages containing spoilers will be displayed with spoilers shown and hidden, so that you may see them both ways.

Because some readers enjoy spoilers, while others hate them, members may set their default spoiler preferences on their account settings page. If spoilers appear on a page, a warning will appear on the page, where visibility can be toggled on or off.

Example of how to handle spoilers in a book review.

Tagging spoilers is an art form. You can tag an entire sentence or paragraph, or you can carefully construct your message to tantalize the reader, yet hide the crucial spoiler text. Be creative!

Remember that sometimes pronouns outside of the spoiler tags can give away clues as to the identity in the hidden who-did-it spoiler.