Buondì.
A couple of club members ‘commented’ on Wednesday’s article ‘Bologna thru rose-tinted spectacles (and how it really is)‘.
Several other people emailed me directly.
The feedback was positive, which is nice. People liked the videos, understood more of the super-fast one than they expected to, had fond memories of visiting Bologna , and made the same decision as I did, to avoid the out-of-town foodie theme-park FICO, instead patronising the eateries and food/wine shops in the center.
Thanks to Laury and Lynne for sharing their thoughts publicly, rather than with me directly via email as many people prefer. You can read what they had to say here.
It’s not that I don’t like getting emails, I absolutely do. Rather it’s that when someone like Lynne or Laury leaves a public comment on an article, it actually adds value for anyone reading it, which in my humble opinion enhances the whole experience. Read the article, read the comments – if there are any – agree or disagree and, if you wish, join in the ‘conversation’ by adding your own.
How to comment? It’s really, really easy! If, like most people, you’ll be reading this in an email, scroll right down to the bottom, where it says ‘Read more’, right there on the left above the footer, which itself begins ‘Daniel OnlineItalianClub.com’.
‘Read more’ is a link. If you click it, you’ll accidentally start World War III. Just joking – your device (bloody iPad or whatever) will open a browser window, which will take you to our website. In the browser (that’s the thing you paddle the internet with) you’ll see something like this, in my case Wednesday’s article.
Scroll right down to the end, after all the usual promotional stuff, and you’ll see Laury and Lynne’s comments. Or save the scrolling by clicking the text just under the article title: FEBRUARY 22, 2023 BY DANIEL 2 COMMENTS.
If you’d like to join in, look UNDER any existing comments (usually there aren’t any, though), where you’ll see this:
Leave a Reply
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Comment *
(A big box where you type your amusing, observations)
Name *
Email *
(it won’t be published)
Website
(No asterisk, so that one’s optional. But if you have a website that you want to promote, paste in the URL)
And then there’s a black button with white text in it – POST COMMENT – which, wise words added to the box, you should press.
What happens next?
Usually nothing, so don’t panic!! Comments are pre-moderated, which means I have to approve them before they become visible on the site. In Lynne and Laury’s case that took until this morning (so several days), because I wasn’t expecting comments, so didn’t check for them.
When I am expecting feedback, I leave the website open on my laptop after finishing the article, as I will do today, and look at it every couple of hours. If there are any comments, I approve them. Go on, try me!
Why aren’t commments visible immediatately? Because of ‘comment spam’, which is basically automated junk-mail, aimed at websites. There are ‘bots’ that target the comment form (above) and fill the box with all sorts of disgusting stuff that you wouldn’t want to see.
Along with Lynne and Laury’s comments, there were another fifteen or so automated ones, which I scanned through and deleted. I do that with hundreds of spam comments each day across our various websites. It’s not a full time job, but it is a job, and takes time. Oftentimes, it’s not time well spent, as PEOPLE DON’T COMMENT. Hint, hint.
There are systems which can automate identifying and deleting spam, but they’re not very reliable, or they are reliable but are very expensive. Even then there will likely be false positives, and frequent false negatives, meaning that genunine comments get marked as spam, just to be on the safe side.
Ideally we would have a system that allowed what real people write to be published immediately, while consigning the rubbish to Trash, all without my intervention. I could pour myself a beer and put my feet up, or go thow sticks for Roomie to fetch.
But there isn’t one, so I’m left scanning hundreds of filthy comments each day looking for genuine ones that almost never come, and THEN dealing with club members’ emails. Sort of the worst of both worlds, really.
Oh well, so now you know how to leave a comment, should you choose to contribute to the club’s collegiate vibe. Remember to be patient, as it might take hours for me to read and approve your words. Especially if I’m in a different time zone from you, so asleep.
N.b. ‘Reviews’, of ebooks, of lessons, whatever it is you might be thinking of buying, are just ‘comments’ under a different name, and work or don’t work in exactly the same way. No one much bothers to leave those, either.
Personally, I think the Internet is a poorer, duller place since everyone abandoned ‘websites’, like the club’s, in favor of ‘social networks’, such as Facebook, there to wallow in mostly-unmoderated content and so hasten the end of civilised conversation.
But that’s probably just me…
A lunedì!
P.S. ‘Io la conoscevo bene’ Offer Ends Sunday!
And here’s the usual Friday final reminder about the week’s ebook promotion, this time a new ‘easy reader’ ebook title, ‘Io la conoscevo bene’ (I Knew Her Well), part of our ‘eBook of the Classic Italian Movie’ series.
As always when we launch a new title, the first week it’s 25% off the usual ‘easy reader’ ebook price of £7.99, so just £5.99. That offer ends on Sunday night, 26th February.
Antonio Pietrangeli’s 1965 movie, ‘Io la conoscevo bene’, features Stefania Sandrelli as beautiful Adriana, an aspiring movie star who’s looking for something more than just a career on the screen…
Giovanni Galavotti’s re-telling of the story of the film for learners of Italian makes a great introduction before watching the movie itself (ideally in Italian!) Or it can be used simply as supplementary reading/listening material, guaranteed to liven up any study program!
- .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
- .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
- 8 chapters to read and listen to
- Comprehension questions to check your understanding
- Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
- Suitable for students at B1 level and above
- Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)
Buy Io la conoscevo bene just £5.99 | FREE sample chapter (.pdf) | eBook of the Movie (1) | eBook of the Movie (2) | eBook Catalog
How do I access my ebook?
When your order is ‘completed’ (normally immediately after your payment), a download link will be automatically emailed to you. It’s valid for 7 days and 3 download attempts so please save a copy of the .pdf ebook in a safe place. Other versions of the ebook, where available, cannot be downloaded but will be emailed to people who request them. There’s a space to do that on the order form – where it says Additional information, Order notes (optional). If you forget, or if you have problems downloading the .pdf, don’t worry! Email us at the address on the website and we’ll help. Also, why not check out our FAQ?
P.P.S.
Thursday’s bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news came out yesterday. There’ll be another tomorrow.
The thrice-weekly bulletin (text + online audio) is FREE, as is subscribing, and so receiving each one directly in your email inbox.
Read/listen to them and you’ll establish a habit that will, over time, improve your comprehension of Italian.
+++
OnlineItalianClub.com | EasyItalianNews.com | Shop (ebooks) | Shop (online lessons)
Helen says
Hi Daniel, having read the above i now understand why my review of easy reader Fantozzi hasn’t appeared. It isn’t that you don’t like what I say, you just haven’t read it.
With regards to your article on Bologna I too was pleasantly surprised by how much I could understand of the two videos. I just wish my ability to speak in Italian was half as good.
Daniel says
Ciao Helen
The last ebook review we received from you was in May 2022, Le italiane. I check reviews and comments daily, and always publish anything genuine. It’s possible I made a mistake, more likely that there was some other issue. As I have written on other occasions, we used to get ebook reviews daily or several a week at least, and then they dried up completely, back in about June or July last year, and we had nothing for months. I tried everything I knew to understand what the problem was, including writing my own test reviews, but could not identify any technical issue – my tests worked, and were then deleted. So I wrote an article, moaning about it, that would have been in the autumn. Plenty of people replied to say they no longer leave reviews as they get too many requests. I’m still convinced there’s something technical going on but it’s hard to identify what when tests work just fine. We had two reviews in January, none at all in February.
For you or anyone else willing to write a review, your input is hugely valued and all ebook and lesson reviews are published no matter if negative. If you don’t see your text in a day or so, please write to let me know!! That would be a huge help in understanding what’s going on.
N.b. It’s always a good idea to keep a copy of what you write, just in case the Wifi fails or something…
Helen says
Thanks for your reply. It was a positive review so I’ll try again.
Daniel says
Don’t feel you have to be nice about it… Our best customer, who has bought everything we ever published, hated it. And said so.
Helen says
Yes I saw that one. Don’t particularly like the story but was very good fir learning new vocabulary, working out sentence construction etc.
Diane Harcourt says
Hi Daniel. I hadn’t found this bit. I’ve read a lot of your easy readers and have enjoyed all of them, in different ways. It’s wonderful to read beginners’ material that I have difficulty putting down because of the story! My favourites so far were ‘la montagna and the two ‘Dante’ stories. I’d like to write proper reviews for them. In all 3 I abandoned the exercises and looking up the odd useful word and read to the end. Then I went back over them in more detail. Same for ‘il campo di papaveri’.
Where can I write a review so that it links to a specific book?
Also, is Dante going to have any more ‘avventure’? I’m hooked.
Daniel says
Ciao Diane,
Good to hear you liked the ebooks. Personally, I always skipped the exercises and focused on the story, like you.
Reviews are welcome. The shop software sends a ‘please review’ email automatically, but it clearly isn’t very effective… For people who missed our pleading, there’s a ‘Leave a review’ page on the ebook website, with instructions and pictures. You’ll find it here:
https://easyreaders.org/how-to-review-easy-readers-and-parallel-texts/
If you give it a go but don’t see your review published within at maximum a day or so, please write and tell me. As I wrote elsewhere, we’ve had technical problems which I’m trying to resolve, so the more information, the better!
Daniel