We decided to post this just to give our readers an example of what happens on Goodreads all the time. Here’s the story:
An unsuspecting booklover joins Goodreads either because she was invited by a friend to join or because of some advertisement she saw, paid for by GR, telling her how wonderful and great the site is and that if she joins, she will not only have access to honest book reviews, but she will also be able to receive free books via giveaways, participate in groups, and share her reading experiences with others, all in a very “honest and respectful place”.
Take special note of the words honest and respectful.
Then, something like this happens:
If you care to read Martha’s exchange with the All Hail Grimlock (i.e. ) and her troll buddies, we got the screenshots for you:
Btw, switched her account again. This is her fourth account. Yes, you read that right. Her FOURTH! If you remember from GR & Copyright, Part 2, we said:
I’d like to draw your attention for just a moment to . If you click on her name, you’ll notice that she has a brand new account. This is her THIRD account. To read more about Miranda, visit Miranda’s Request when she requested a reviewer remove her 5 star review of a book. Then, Miranda staged a fake exit from GR in Miranda’s farewell by creating a new, private account. Now she has deleted both accounts and has created an entirely new one.
Uh… wow!
Okay, so back to Martha and Emma. We know Emma’s real name, IP, and email address and we know Martha’s as well. Needless to say, they are not the same person. But it’s very telling that the bullies automatically jumped to that conclusion.
Immediately after Athena received Martha’s email, she informed her that “Grimlock” was , whose real name is Shoshana B. (a bookseller who trolls cyberspace launching personal attacks on independent authors). Then, when Athena read that Martha believed GR was an “honest and respectful place”, she also warned her about the abuse and corruption running rampant on the site and how GR management is involved in it. She pointed her to the following posts:
Something Rotten at the Core of GR
Something Rotten at the Core of GR, Part 2
Unprofessional, Thy Name Is Goodreads
Goodreads Premium Author Program
Goodreads: A new Venue For Prostitution?
And really, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There is much, much more.
(On a side note, we’ve been meaning to re-publish a post that many considered very instructive, which was called Thinking of Joining Goodreads? It was a post that warned authors and readers of the dangers awaiting the unsuspecting and the unknowing who join the site. We plan to repub that post this weekend, of course adding new 2013 material to it.)
Anyhow, after Athena warned her, Martha still vowed to “try to reason” with GR management about what she had discovered:
We already know how this is going to end and we want to say that we’re sorry, Martha, that you had to experience the muck that makes GR the cesspit that it is. We’re sorry in advance that GR management will blow you off like they’ve done to so many others in the past. But now at least you know the truth about the site and will be more knowledgable in the future about how to avoid the trolls and to also warn others. Please, feel free to spread the word. The more people know about it, the better off everyone will be.
