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I'm new to the site, but I've seen several book requests denied due to their rarity and going against some of the basics of the forums rules. Is there a way to add a Rare Books section or Hard to Find Books section that way there is no major expectation of fulfillment, just a hopeful outside chance that someone might have a copy or a lead to where to find the request similar to the main book section? And forgive me. If there is already a subcategory for this please let me know. Thanks
Whenever a request is declined, it doesn't mean that it's prohibited from being fulfilled (we've had such miracles before), it just means that it violates Book Request Rule No. 5: "The request must reasonably be able to be fulfilled (don't ask for super rare books that are not digitized and obviously no one has access to them)".
We've had requests for editions limited to 33 copies, and whenever an edition is limited to, say, 400 copies, Miskatonic Books and other fringe outlets more often than not have only one copy left (while probably flogging the rest on ebay for five times the price) to panick punters into buying those tomes without thinking their contemplated purchase through first. The proud owners will then be loath to ruin the binding of thrit expensive bibliophile and artisanal books by subjecting them to a scanning process, just to make them available to the common herd; once in a while such books do turn up in a photographed version, and from what I've seen so far, their content is rather underwhelming and the artwork even worse. These books are valuable because they're rare and look good on the bookshelf, not because they offer any revolutionary insights or brand-new magical tech.
Opening a rare book section doesn't increase the availability of these books. Everybody should know by now all the library sites and archives to embark on rare-book-hunt themselves, and some members even see a declined book request as a challenge and will look for it anway.
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Besides I can't help thinking that members requesting rare books often don't read the Book Request Rules and don't make a real effort of locating them themselves when half an hour of searching the web should have convinced them that their requests were pretty pointless. I've uploaded a total of 31 GB to our Library but gave up after mega cancelled my account for the second time, and what do you know? I STILL get reupload requests for books I've posted that can be easily found on various library sites anyway, it's like shooting fish in a barrel.
Either a free copy of a book is available on the net or it ain't, a special rare books section would be nothing but a dump for hopeless cases.
