♥️Valentine's Day Treasure Hunt 2023♥️ (& general strategies)

The 2023 Valentine's Day Hunt runs from 14th February to 28th February 2023.

I found a lot of helpful links on the LT Homepage, in the News section.

I'm copying across hints from the Talk thread as they were posted. Feel free to jump in and add hints any time! (Don't forget to use the spoiler tags.)

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.

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 :)

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 the heart ♥️. 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 heart ♥️.

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.)

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.

Tagmash - alternative method

121 AnnieMod: 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.

there is a faster way I think but this one is easier - you do not need to remember where to go :)

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

218 Aquila: 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.

6kmg387: The whole tagmash thing was not quite clear to me based on the instructions provided thus far. Here's what I did:

1. In the upper right, search "valentines day, picture book" (just like that, without the quotations)
2. Click "tags" on the left-hand panel (under "bibliographic")
3. Above the list of tags, click the message: "See a tagmash of valentines day, picture book".
4. Do a browser page search (e.g., CTRL + F) for the number mentioned in other posts here. There is only one result. Click it, et voila, a heart.

(spoiler for clue 8)

240 SandraArdnas: 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 umber 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.