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Re: Math Trade for books?

Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 2:52 pm
by tapir
Chew Terr wrote:
John Fairbairn wrote:You don't think western go publishers, authors and booksellers have enough disincentives already? Many books struggle to sell 50 a year.


I figure, if I can afford to buy 10 go books a year, but a legal way to read 20, I'll do that. I would in no way want to stop buying new books, have no fear. =) Just trying to stretch limited funds a bit.


You want to read twenty go books a year? That is you want to buy, read and study a new book every two weeks? (And still have time to play, post here etc.?) I can't imagine how people are doing that. I figure most sales are to collect the books, not to study them. (Swapping probably isn't attractive for collectors.)

Re: Math Trade for books?

Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 2:57 pm
by judicata
Araban wrote:Could we end the communism/socialism debate? From the forum rules: "Religious, political, and sexual topics are not allowed." and "Keep posts relevant to the topic..."

Thanks.


I was about to post something, but I want to make sure I'm okay with the TOC.

Discussing whether such a project would be harmful or helpful to the community at large is certainly okay, right? If we can drop the political tags?

Re: Math Trade for books?

Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 3:04 pm
by Chew Terr
tapir wrote:You want to read twenty go books a year? That is you want to buy, read and study a new book every two weeks? (And still have time to play, post here etc.?) I can't imagine how people are doing that. I figure most sales are to collect the books, not to study them. (Swapping probably isn't attractive for collectors.)


That's fair, I aimed my ballpark a bit high. A more accurate estimate is that I can probably afford to buy 5 books per year, and I would probably have time to read a few more than I buy. I had not really thought about any impact on booksellers/writers. I really just like the idea of having a new book to read, despite the fact that it's probably a bad time to buy one right now. =) Sorry if I made a ruckus, I wasn't intending harm to anyone... I typically don't.

Re: Math Trade for books?

Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 3:05 pm
by Solomon
judicata wrote:Discussing whether such a project would be harmful or helpful to the community at large is certainly okay, right? If we can drop the political tags?
:scratch: Nothing wrong at all to discuss the trade project / staying on topic with OP's topic of discussion. Just not this system of government debate.

Re: Math Trade for books?

Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 9:17 am
by hoshizora
I have participated in two of these Math Trades on BGG and know the general theory (it's about finding cycles in a directed graph where vertices represent trade items and arrows represent wants). Usually people use programs to work them out in an automated fashion, but if the volume is low enough you could probably work it out by hand...