General Strategies

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General Strategies

1humouress
Modifié : Oct 20, 2023, 10:39 am

A few years ago LibraryThing came up with a fun idea for us a way to learn a bit deeper to learn the various functions on this site, and it is called a treasure hunt. We need to decipher the clues and visit the corresponding LibraryThing pages to find an icon relevant to whichever hunt it is (jack-o-lantern this time). Each clue points to a specific page right here on LT. If there's an icon on a page, you’ll see a banner at the top of the page. Remember, they are not necessarily work pages, they could be tags, Author pages, List of the Month, Legacy Libraries etc.

Certain pages on LT are special for the duration of a hunt: if you land on them, you'll get a relevant icon. These pages can be a specific Work, a tag, an item in the shop, a List, an Author or anything else. The riddles on the Hunt page provide clues as to the pages you're looking for. If you've found a certain icon, refresh the hunt page: the riddle you ticked off will now be greyed out.

In the end, every member who finds more than five or so items is entered into a raffle where they can win some items from the LT shop. Those members will also receive a badge (yours will appear here) for participating in this hunt -- although those badges can be several months late. They are not the priority anyway.

These hunts are semi-regular and are a way for letting members find out about areas of the site that are not directly relevant for fiddling with your catalogue and that they may not know about.

The following are general tips given by different members, usually in answer to questions by other members, collected over many hunts.

Spoiler tags
To use the spoiler tag, type the following before whatever you'd like to hide:

<spoiler>

And this, at the end of what's hidden:

</spoiler>

It looks like this.


For those very new to the hunt:
Step 1: Make sure you are signed in to LT (LibraryThing.)
On your computer (vs. mobile) look at the way top of your screen on the right. You should see your user name there. If not, you need to sign in.

LibraryThing is a website for people who love books!

As far as the game is concerned, if you have an idea for one of the clues, put your cursor in the box under the set of words that begin with your user name and ends with the word "Help" as in the graphic above. (It also has the text, "Search LibraryThing," in faint gray.) Then hit Enter or click on the magnifying glass next to it and you'll be on your way!

The point of the hunt (well, one of them, anyway) is to explore the LibraryThing site, and discover some of the many things we have to offer. Good luck with the hunt!

One more small clarification - the hunt is not for things hidden ON the page of the hunt itself - as some other sites do. Think of it as a puzzle/crossword with clues on the side. The page is just the clue list/working area - there is nothing you need to click on that page itself. Once you think you know an answer, you need to find the answer on the site - it can be a page anywhere on the site.
The easiest way is to start from the search box with a solution you think you have and go from there.

It is worth pointing out that not only work/book pages or author pages are sought. Sometimes it's a tag page, or Common Knowledge (CK) page such as Character or Place, or any number of LT features since one of the perks of the hunts is that you get to learn about parts of the site and functionalities you might not be aware of.

Pay attention to the Hunt instructions: "Each clue points to a specific page right here on LibraryThing. Remember, they are not necessarily work pages!"

Tips from previous hunts:

Genres
Go to any work page. Genres are on the right hand side between quick links and ratings. If you click on the genres listed there, it will take you to the genre page.

Tags
You can use the site search to search for a tag, just click "tags" from the menu on the left after searching.

Tagmash
Don't type tagmash.

Just type the two words with a comma and then click on tags on the left menu. It will ask you if you want to search for a tagmash instead at the top of the result list :)

Tagmash - alternative method

Type one of the tags in the search bar at the top. Navigate to tags. On that page's search bar, add a comma and the second tag. LT will ask you if you want the tagmash - click on the link and you are there.

If you find yourself on a tag combination page while trying to do the hunt, back out of it, it's not the same thing as a tag mash.

ER = Early Reviewers (you should be able to find a link in the News section of your home page).

How do you know when you find the clues?
If you open the correct page, you will get a banner telling you that you found (for example) the quill 🪶. You don't need to do anything else special - no clicking and collecting required.

If you did not see that, you are not on the correct page for that clue - it may be the correct answer but there is another page which is similar but fitting the clue better. :)

Searching LibraryThing
Use the main search. Then look on the left side of your screen and start clicking through the different options - books, authors, tags, the common knowledge submenues. And on these screens, click on what looks like the answer. :)

The point of the scavenger hunts is to take you to places in LT that aren't your own books. The best starting place for a scavenger hunt is usually the Search Librarything box in the upper right corner of every page. (In your catalog you'll see two searches in that corner, you want the top one.)

When you have search results, there will be a bunch of different options on the left side. Exploring all those options is a great education in how to use LT's sitewide search and what information is available! Usually the answer for the hunt comes up as a result for one of those options. If you click through the search result pages, you know you found the correct page when a bar appears at the top of the screen saying you found a quill 🪶 (or whatever the relevant icon is for this hunt).

Part of the point of the search is to get you trying things you don't know yet and learning them.

(Even experienced users asked for help, but most of them you can find that way.)

2Yamanekotei
Sep 1, 2023, 5:42 pm

Thanks for posting! :D

3LibraryCin
Sep 7, 2023, 9:48 pm

This is a great idea to post these general tips. I might point a friend here...

4mnleona
Sep 13, 2023, 7:53 am

Thanks for the information. It will help for the next Treasure Hunt.

5LC3library
Oct 19, 2023, 3:28 pm

Your hints are totally confusing to me; I don't understand your terminology without a specific example.
I cannot understand anything you've written here. :(

6LibraryCin
Oct 19, 2023, 5:05 pm

>5 LC3library: Have you don't a treasure hunt yet? I wonder if it might make more sense once you've done one or are trying to do one.

If you've not done one yet, maybe start with these suggestions above about half way down, where it says "For those very new to the hunt:"

I wonder if that will make more sense?

7Yamanekotei
Oct 19, 2023, 5:15 pm

>5 LC3library:

Welcome! Sounds like it is your first time around. A few years ago LibraryThing came up with a fun idea for us a way to learn a bit deeper to learn the various functions on this site, and it is called a treasure hunt. We need to decipher the clues and visit the corresponding LibraryThing pages to find a jack-o-lantern (this time). Each clue points to a specific page right here on LT. If there's a jack-o-lantern on a page, you’ll see a banner at the top of the page. Remember, they are not necessarily work pages, they could be tags, Author pages, List of the Month, Legacy Libraries etc.

The hints posted here in this group’s threads are aggregation of random members posted in the Treasure Hunt talk thread, sorted by each clue. That way, hint seekers do not need to dig through hundreds of posts one by one. We just collected them, copy-and-pasted here on the corresponding threads.

https://www.librarything.com/hunt/27

Have fun finding all 12 🎃 pumpkins.

8humouress
Oct 20, 2023, 10:26 am

>5 LC3library: On re-reading, I see that it may be confusing for first-timers. I have now edited it, so hopefully it's more accessible.

>7 Yamanekotei: Nice intro! I'm going to borrow it and add it to >1 humouress:

9humouress
Jan 3, 10:25 am

I think looking in the New Features group would tend to help solve a few clues since the LT staff use the Treasure Hunts to point us in the direction of new features.

10LucindaLibri
Fév 25, 11:16 am

My most common errors/oversights (that I need to remember the next time):
* I always forget to try the plural of a word when the regular doesn't work . . . sometimes the clue is ambiguous, sometimes I'm just not reading it in a way that leads to the plural.

* I also forget that sometimes there are alternate spellings . . . especially of ancient or mythical names.

* Much of what LT calls "Awards" are things I look for in "Lists" instead . . . so I have to remember to search both places.

11roberthamby
Modifié : Mai 15, 4:32 am

tldr - Too Long, didn't read - Is there a YouTube video of this Topic? LT Treasure Hunts

Dah - librarything/videos" rel="nofollow" target="_top">https://www.youtube.com/librarything/videos

Ok - 60 Videos - still too much AND how do you properly format Video links like the one in the sentence above?