Non-anonymous smooching
September 2, 2007
I’ve been giving some thought to how the newly-added “give a smooch” feature would actually get used in the real world, and I think that perhaps I made a mistake requiring smooches to always be anonymous.
Say, for instance, that you get a very nice “thank you” note with a book you’ve mooched. You’d like to thank the person for their kindness, but you can’t use the smooch feature, because that would hardly be anonymous. You can use the “charity” feature and give them a point a note, but “charity” isn’t what you feel.
Instead, you really just want to send a “gee, that was a nice thing to do” note back. The “smooch” feature would be perfect for that, if it didn’t require you to be anonymous. You can simply “smooch” someone for their kindness, they get a point, and you get to explain why, in your note, you’re rewarding/thanking them.
So… I’m thinking of making smooches *optionally* anonymous. The bullet points would change slightly, and there would be an additional choice, like so:
and the two choices are:
BookMooch Blog 
Yes, that makes sense. I think in many cases people would be happy that smoochees know who smooched them.
Yes John
I think the smooch feature set up this way with the option of knowing the origin of a smooch would be better. I gave a smooch and it just so happened that the content of my message gave away my identity anyway.
Yep, I like having the choice to be anonymous or not, too.
I’ve always thought that giving other members points via the ‘Charity’ feature was a bit of an awkward name, so this would be a good replacement. But then it would be nice to be able to choose an amount other than one point.
I think the optional identification for a smooch is a wonderful idea! Sometimes the best thank you is not just the point, but the public smooch listed in the persons bio. When people are great, it is nice to shout it out.
Oh good…I’m glad for the choice:)
Ok, it’s done!
Smooching is now optionally anonymous. The smooch log and points log pages now displayer the smoocher’s name if it wasn’t anonymous. If it was anonymous, the ID column says “anonymous”
Enjoy!
-john
You can never go wrong with more choices!
I agree, the “smooch” feature should have the option of letting the “Smoochee” know who smooched them! 🙂
Oh, but you _can_ go wrong with more choices – when the interface gets too time consuming and detailed for the casual user. The fewer clicks the better. Nonetheless, I like the choice to be anonymous or not. I think it should stick with one point. If you want to give more, just send a series of smooches or give charity.
Sounds great – awesome that this is being imlemented.
I like this option very much for the reasons you gave. Good idea.
Yes, a great idea. Sometimes you want people to know why they’re being smooched. The idea of being able to choose the amount of points given is also a good one but on the other hand why make a simple idea complicated?
I just gave someone a smooch – and found that on the “Give a Smooch” page it does not say who you are smooching. I would like to be able to see just who I’m smooching right before I do it.
I just tried to give someone a smooch and ended up at an ‘oops’ page. 😦