Dropbox? No I'm not joining!

I have just refused an MG because I don't want to join another site. I wish authors would include this information when making the MG. Then I wouldn't have asked for it.

> 1

I completely agree. And not just MG - ER, too, though I think staff is more on top of that. I once won an ER book that I had to get through Netgalley, which required one to join before being able to access it. It really irked me.

I've had requests that reviews be shared elsewhere in the publicist's letters that often accompany ER books. I don't terribly mind it, as long as it's a polite request, not a demand; after all, that's why they offer the book.

Shared elsewhere is one thing. But only being interested in other places bothers me.

Dropbox is a file sharing site with no social component. It should not be necessary for you to join the site in order for an author to share a book with you through Dropbox.

I agree that something should be said in advance about any hoops a recipient must go through in order to obtain a copy of a book.

I am leery of most sites and go to creative lengths to avoid sharing personal info. However I trust Dropbox enough to use it constantly to share files with others, including people who don't have or want a Dropbox account.

When I followed the link I was asked to sign in. I didn't. I told both the author and LT that I wasn't taking the book.

I just "Won" http://www.librarything.com/work/15689255 in a Member give away. They never mentioned requiring Dropbox, something I'm jsut not going to do. I replied to the e-mail asking for the book to be made available another way. E-mail works just fine for Digital formats, btw.

I have received no response, so I am refusing the book.

Upon clicking the link enclosed in the e-mail I discovered I was ALSO signed up for some craptastic mailing list I had to UNSUBSCRIBE to.

I am NOT pleased.

I don't appreciate being signed up for anything without my will or knowledge.

You should report that. Members who offer giveaways agree that the ONLY use they make of your details is to send the book.

>8 Skylles: Yes, >9 MarthaJeanne: is correct, adding you to a mailing list is explicitly prohibited. I'll see if I can't track down this member to remind them of this rule.

Like >6 Muscogulus: I'm also confused as to the sign-up/in requirement on Dropbox. The member offering the giveaway should be able to change the settings for their file such that anyone with the link can access/download. We use Dropbox among LT Staff for random things all the time, and, even when I'm not signed in, I've never seen that prompt.

I just looked at the email again. Following the link I get:

David would like you to view 'School can be Cool by Maleka Mamuji'
What's inside?1 PDF2 other files
Join Dropbox to view this folder
First name
Last name

Password
I agree to Dropbox terms.Create an account
Already a Dropbox user? Sign in to accept this invite.

What is Dropbox?

>10 lorannen:

There's something fishy going on here. I don't think Dropbox is to blame, but authors or publishers may be making unfair use of the service. I'm glad you're looking into this.

The sad thing is that the author remains the only member on LT with this book. I wonder how many more of the other 29 winners also didn't want to jump through hoops. It looks like it could be interesting. This also happened with Mayfly back in September. There also the author has the only copy. I hope the authors aren't paying a lot of money for this bad publicity.

Somehow I get the feeling noone is looking at that account, and the email I got was from David via Dropbox no-reply@dropbox.com. (Who the heck is this David? The author is named Maleka.)

Actually, I also feel that giving my email address to dropbox was against the terms: "You agree to never share the mailing addresses that you're given, and never to send anything other than the book."

Wait a minute. There is an email address there in the body. I have sent an email and copied to Loranne.

"Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and client software."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropbox_%28service%29

Well that worked. I got an email back with the file.

However the file is such a mess that I can't read it. I am NOT paging through screen after screen of chopped up picures to get to the next bit of text. And even that hasn't gone through even spell check. Part single, part double spaced. The publisher/promoter seems to be incompetent in more than one field.

>15 MarthaJeanne: I'm glad you did get the file, though sorry it's come out a mess—still working through weekend emails. I'm definitely concerned about requiring you to sign up for a separate service in order to read your winnings. That said, considering that, depending on the file and format, files containing books may be too large to be sent directly via email, using a file-hosting service—like Dropbox—without the sign-up requirement is perfectly reasonable.

ETA: Upon further thought, it occurs to me that the reason publishers/authors may be going with the Dropbox sign-up requirement is that allowing anyone with the link to download comes with the risk that a Member Giveaway winner could in theory distribute the link far and wide, and others who were not winners may end up downloading. Which is a valid concern.

Update for >8 Skylles:, I'm emailing with the publisher now to make sure this gets taken care of. Seems to be a problem of communication between the staffer who is listing the giveaways, and the folks distributing the files.

One of the current giveaways mentions ongoing mails.

Fragility http://www.librarything.com/work/15969471

"ePub and Kindle copies are distributed by a custom mailing list - if you stay subscribed, you automatically receive future review copies."

Another Dropbox book requiring sign up. Different author but again 'David' sending the file via dropbox. The Wild Irises

Beginning to wonder why David keeps getting my e-mail address when the e-mail addresses are not supposed to be shared.

Could this be Lulu.com promotions?

The author or publisher must have botched their settings somewhere, I definitely remember people sharing files via Dropbox without requiring downloaders' registrations.

So, I'm quite new on this site, however I've won a few books. I'm just wondering if anybody knows how to convert thr ebooks from email to my kindle?

I'd appreciate it!

>21 DarianM: If the author/publisher offers a .mobi /.azw3 file you don't need to convert, just sideload to the right directory on the Kindle via the USB cable.

The most widely known tool to convert to and from other formats is probably Calibre (https://calibre-ebook.com/), though .pdf isn't really geared for conversion and is probably better read on a tablet or computer screen.

Dropbox is now asking me to download an app instead of joining the site. I'm not doing that either. It would be good if the information for people setting up giveaways included something about mentioning any hoops people are expected to jump through.

I'm another here to add a grumble about an MG win requiring me to register with Dropbox in order to receive the book. In my case it was for Te’mar and the Immortals (listing closed in early July).

Like >11 MarthaJeanne: mentioned above, the notification came from a "David Publish (via Dropbox) no-reply@dropbox.com", and the text of the notice also provided the alternative contact information of "David Publish at Publish Nation, UK" -- which I gather is a generic contact at a self-publishing platform.

Like >23 MarthaJeanne: mentioned, Dropbox prompted me to install an app to complete the registration process. I hadn't been thrilled about needing to register for the service to start with, and I was pretty irked about an installment requirement. Happily though, I see the installment 'requirement' isn't actually one -- I declined to install anything and I was still able to sign in to Dropbox via an internet browser and down the book with no further trouble.

Re >10 lorannen: et al. above, I've also downloaded from Dropbox before, and this was the first time I needed an account with the service in order to download. I think Dropbox allows uploaders some settings control on how their content can be accessed, and this was just the lucky file where the settings control was set as restricted.

Not to mention that 'David' is passing the email addresses on to Dropbox. I thought that was strictly against the rules.

"You agree to never share the mailing addresses that you're given, and never to send anything other than the book."

The Dropbox login is required if the sender is making the download only available to certain people. Only downloads freely available to the public can be accessed without an account.

Dropbox is legit and secure so your info is safe.

It is completely understandable that an author or publisher wouldn't want to make their content free to the public if they want to make money selling it.

That said, they should specify in advance if they require a login to another site to access the content. Too bad LibraryThing doesn't offer a digital delivery service. I can see it being quite useful for authors/publishers (at a reasonable fee) who don't have their own means of delivery.

P.S. A LOT of people have accounts which will NOT handle the bulk of a digital download and my email has been brought to a standstill on more than one occasion because someone emailed a ton of junk to me that my pathetic, middle-of-nowhere-no-other-choice DSL service took forever to handle (causing all of the other emails to sit forever in the queue waiting for that one file to stop blocking their download). I would much rather download, at my own time and choosing, when I know I don't have anything else using the bandwidth.

I am happy to get stuff through Dropbox, but again, it should be mentioned in the offering.

That is what I said in the First post. Tell me, and I won't ask for the book.

Also, it is against the rules for the author to give my information to anyone else. I get email messages from dropbox.