Short URLs

Merry xmas, from a snowstorm in Southern France where I was a few days ago!

I’ve made a teeny tweak to the bookmooch site today, enabling two kinds of short URLS. Namely:

• http://bookmooch.com/userid – this now goes to your bio page. It’s meant to be short and sweet so that you can include it in your email footer or your blog.
• http://bookmooch.com/isbn – this now goes to the book’s detail page. Also short and sweet so that you can use these URLs when you’re posting a message somewhere about a book, and want to reference it (much cleaner than those huuuuge Amazon URLs)

Here are two examples:

• http://bookmooch.com/johnbuckman – my public bio page
• http://bookmooch.com/0349111340 – a book’s detail page

You can find the short URL for your bio page on each person’s bio page, here:

So, if you’re emailing someone about a book and want to give a link to it, from now on you might try the short bookmooch book url.

I also added the short URL to the details page of each book. If you look at the bottom of a book details page:

you’ll see the short URL you can copy whenever you’re referring to a book in an email or blog posting:

-john

My holiday wish: help out the EFF

If the thought you’ve been having lately has been “Gosh, how I can thank John Buckman for running BookMooch?” then I have a solution for you!

I’m on the board of a charity called the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). They’re a civil-rights-for-the-digital-age organization, and do a lot of work that’s very, very relevant to BookMooch. Further in this blog entry, I give a few examples of the kinds of good works they do.

So … for every $10 you commit to giving to the EFF, I’ll give you one of my mooch points, which you can redeem to get one book for free on BookMooch.

These are my personal points, which I’ve gained from giving away 1381 books from my home. If you join as a member, I’ll give you one year’s equivalent (i.e. one year at $10/month = 12 book points).

Here are some books & reading-related topics they’re active in:

1) the EFF has defended the “first sale doctrine” in court. The is the fundamental legal right without which BookMooch could not exist. It’s the simple idea that “once you buy something, you’re allowed to give or sell it to someone else”.

2) A few days ago, the EFF came out with a guide to the various E-Book standards and what rights and privacy is provided with each.

3) Free press – large companies have been arguing that writing on the Internet shouldn’t have the same freedoms and privacy as traditional (print press). This is a busy topic for the EFF, as it’s constantly being attacked

and way, way more…

Once you’ve made your gift to the EFF, email me a copy of the receipt you get, as well as your BookMooch user name.

Thanks!

-john

ps: I tried this same idea two years ago, and it worked out really well.