I hate to do this. I've dreaded the day that I would have to write this.

It's taken seven minutes for this text box to work, just so that I could type out the words that I hoped I'd not have to write: I can no longer consider BookLikes my primary home for bookish chat and updates.

Over the course of this year, and especially the last weeks, it has become clear that BookLikes is running on the barest minimum of functionality. 

It takes forever to load posts. It takes forever for comment boxes to appear. It takes forever for comments to load. The search no longer works. The book database has been abandoned except for the valiant efforts of a few BookLikers. The place has security issues and is overrun with spammers. Hell, I can't even block spammers anymore because the page does not load.

So,  in preparation for Doomsday, aka the BookLikes Apocalypse, or just in case you want to connect on another platform, I am moving the bulk of my activity to other forums for the time being. I will still check in and try and catch up as often as I can but I just don't have the time and energy to put up with a non-functioning site.

I could spend that time and energy reading!

So, for the foreseeable future, I'll posting updates and reviews and non-reviews etc. in the following places in the first place:

Goodreads - I am not keen on returning to GR, but drastic measures are needed. I'll be mostly hanging out in The Outpost and The (Mostly) Dead Writers Society, two groups that are excellent homes from home.

Library Thing - I've gotten to grips with LibraryThing's quirks and really like it. The database is excellent and users seem to be friendly, too, even tho the forum does not lend itself to socialising as much as BookLikes or GR. If you're on LT, get in touch!

WordPress - I set up my own blog years ago as a back-up for BookLikes. In other words, I export posts to my WP account but I need to spend more time there to make it look pretty. I am keen to spend more time on the blog, tho. I would really miss the blogging activity if BookLikes went bust, and I love the place as a home for my reading projects.

As I've said so many times over the past few years - literally every time that Booklikes took a wobble - I really hope that BookLikes will get their act together, but if not please feel free to get in touch elsewhere.

BT

Eidelweiss. http://edelweiss.abovethetreeline.com/, my username there is donealrice (no idea how to link directly to profile).

No, I haven't started doing ARC reviews.  But, their book catalog and features look quite promising for someone like me who seldom reads (or publicly posts about) the indie books not added to Eidelweiss.

Unlike some sites trying (*glares* at LibraryThing), I can already figure out how to mark a book as currently reading and want-to-read.  And how to write a review.  

Bitching site for finding new releases even if you don't want to join; can filter all kinds of things when browsing.

Debbie's Spurts came up with this great idea to keep in touch. If you want to keep in touch if anything nefarious goes down on/with Booklikes, here is where I can be found:

Twitter: Whiskyinthejar3

Goodreads: Kyraryker

I'm thinking about joining Libib, let me know if you're on there and what you think.

I updated my about me section of my profile with links to my profiles on other book sites (with the exception of Leaf Marks, because why bother now*) or at least the handles I go by on other book sites. I figured that was easier than people trying to find a blog post here after about three days of new posts. I also posted a link to my blog, which I am working on reviving (please note I don't do reviews of books on my blog in order to avoid author drama).

*after I spent all of Sunday updating my account with copies of my reviews written here and requesting book additions....yeah, I am annoyed as that time could have been spent reading.

The link to export your data in Jacquie's farewell doesn't work for everyone.  

When you are logged into Leafmarks, glance to the right at the silhouette/profile icon (circled in screenshot below), click to see choices for your profile settings, import/export and logout.  You want the import/export one.  Then scroll down to the bottom "Bookshelf Export" option.

The link I see for it is https://www.leafmarks.com/lm/#/import which may or may not work for you but so far that menu does.

It will create a *.tsv file (tab delimited ascii format) that most spreadsheet programs and book sites will pull in.  Past experience says if on first try doesn't import on sites you want to import to, see if they have a sample file or import other site tsv or csv files -- then pull the headers from the tsv/csv files that site likes and adjust the Leafmarks data to fit.  

Depending on the site, I might be able to help you with more instructions (don't know all of them).  Comment on one of my posts here or message me on one of my other sites -- haven't gotten booklikes messages to work for years since they first introduced a book database.

Feel free to reblog.