If you’ve been following the Goodreads feedback discussion regarding Kara’s big announcement about GR’s new anti-author bullying policy, then you’ve probably noticed that Amazon/GR has already whipped out the Raid and begun to clean house. And boy are they doing it fast!
If you go our BBA Listopia Voters page and click on the , you will find this:
If you click on the , you’ll find this:
Victory is sweet, isn’t it? And this is just the beginning!
STGRB isn’t just going to sit back idly and watch this all play out, either. We plan to help Goodreads find these nasty, author-bashing reviews, shelves, lists, and groups by publishing links on our site and inviting our readers to flag/report them.
We also want to thank everyone who made this change possible. As Athena says in her comment:
This positive change wouldn’t have been able to happen if it wasn’t for all the supporters of the anti-cyber bullying movement on Goodreads and elsewhere. A BIG thank you goes out to all who put themselves out there and weren’t afraid to speak out against the abuse on Goodreads and Amazon.
Good job, everyone!
Now, getting to the topic of our post, Kara’s update. If you’ve been reading the , you will have seen some of the bully comments (written by pretty much all of the people listed as bullies on our site), crying about censorship and freedom of speech all because Goodreads is no longer allowing them to abuse authors. Now, remember what we said in Jenn Falls On Bullying and Critiquing?
Jenn, if you are reading this, we want to let you know that we did not create our lists (BBG and Amazon Fora Trolls) to chastise the bullies or try to get them to change their behavior (although it would be nice) because we already know that that would be a complete waste of time. They would never listen. They believe it is their right to be as nasty as they want to others. They believe that “freedom of speech” gives them the right to stalk, libel, threaten, etc. Basically, to behave anyway they want.
So, when we said the above to Jenn, this — this discussion thread attacking Goodreads’ new anti-author bashing policy — is EXACTLY what we meant. In response to their comments, Kara posted this update to set them straight:
And so what are they doing now? Well…
They’re stomping off like children, leaving Goodreads and going to other book sites. Hilarious that they’re acting as if they’re going to be missed. What they don’t realize is that this new policy is Amazon’s way of taking out the garbage to improve its newly bought site. So, contrary to what the trolls believe, they WON’T be missed.
Good riddance, bullies!
Goodreads is finally earning the “good” in its name.
« GR Now Deleting Author-Bashing Reviews! GR Shelves To Be Reported »
I feel really sorry for Booklikes now.
What’s funny is they actually think they’ll get away with it on another website. They just don’t get it, do they? Nobody will allow that garbage to take place on their website, not any respectable website that is. Goodreads was receiving loads of negative press due to them, and since Goodreads didn’t step in to clean it up, it spiraled out of control. If they think other book websites with any credibility, what-so-ever, will allow their bullshit behavior, they are out of their delusional minds. I guess Goodreads CAN and DID shut them up which completely undermines their popular belief. They can all go throw a pity-party on their personal blogs now and say whatever they want. Too bad nobody will read it.
LMAO! Can’t wait to see them get kicked off, ha!
Again, all thanks to STGRB
Y’all remember this article:
http://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/authors-readers-band-together-to-stop-goodreads-bullying
I distinctly remember Athena telling Goodereader:
GoodReads’s laissez-faire policy toward its users is really what has led to the bullying on their site and to be honest, we’ve seen much worse than online, written threats of rape and murder. We’ve seen the GR bullies actually cyber-stalk authors by digging up their PII online and then calling them on the phone to threaten them in their own home. We have police reports to prove this as well as screenshots. And it’s not just GR’s ‘open-use’ policy, either, that has led to this behavior. We’ve seen the Goodreads managers and moderators actually foster this kind of environment. We have a screenshot of Patrick Brown telling a user that she should feel free to say what she wants about an author. This kind of do-what-you-want message from the GR community manager himself has led to cases of libel and career-destroying. For example, one author we know was wrongfully accused of intentions of rape because of something one of the characters in his book said about another character. This is the kind of behavior that needs to be discouraged and stopped. And until it is, we will continue to blog about it on our site.
What we’d like to see Goodreads do is eradicate from its website anything that has to do with this culture of personally attacking and abusing authors. In other words, we want them to get rid of the ‘BBA culture’ on their site. This hatred toward authors needs to stop. We’d like to see GR remove author-bashing shelves, as well as comments and reviews that are also author-bashing. Not only that, any member who personally attacks an author in a comment, a shelf, or a review should be immediately removed from the website. GR should follow in the footsteps of professional blog tour companies who remove abusive book bloggers from their recipient lists. They should protect their authors. As it is now, if an author is attacked, the only recourse the author has a right to is to flag the abuse and contact the GR managers for help. And in most cases, the GR moderators really do nothing to help. They let the abuse continue until the author’s reputation is shattered and their will to write gone. Until GR (i.e. Amazon) decides to clean house, we recommend that all authors (and publishers) steer clear of Goodreads altogether. If not in protest, then for the simple reason that just being on the site will more than likely hurt their career.
Then Mercy wrote:
It will be interesting to see if Amazon, now that they own Goodreads, will put a stop to a behavior that has apparently been occurring for quite some time, especially considering Amazon’s support of–and reliance on–self-published authors.
Looks like Amazon heard you, Athena!
While it is to some extent good news, only time will tell if it is successful. Hopefully in the future authors won’t become incensed when the product of their work gains negative reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. But then again, authors are people, and people do tend to let their emotions get the better of them.
Will I be reviving my Goodreads membership? Not just yet. I’ll give it a few more months just to be on the safe side. lol
I will NEVER renew my Goodreads membership. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Goodreads has always been great at lip service but they’ve proven themselves time and again to be all talk and no action. Time will tell if they’re serious about maintaining site integrity this time. I doubt it. They’ve allowed the bullies to ruin their site for too long. It’s like trying to put the genie back into the bottle.
YAHOOOO! Goodreads has whipped out that Raid can and sent the cockroaches scurrying. It’s about time!
For every troll they lose (and experience tells me they seldom actually leave), at least 10 normal users will return, or not get disgusted by the trolling and leave. I’ve been noting the publicity expanding for some time so that GR’s troll problem has become common knowledge across the Internet. It had to burst eventually.
One of the bad things is that the fleeing bullies, some of who have GR librarian status, have targeted several self-published authors and give rashes of 1-star reviews as a parting shot. And these are not BBAs, but authors like Elle Casey, James Bruno, Hugh Howey, and others. One of these reviewers is Barbara Lindt-Ninja, who uses threads on KB to single out her next victims. I think the ratings can be flagged, but Amazon would do better to remove all the ratings done by confirmed bullies…
What Amazon should really do is DELETE the accounts of confirmed, fleeing bullies. They all seem to be doing the same thing. They’re like the Nazis after the war was lost, destroying everything in their path as they retreated. It’s sick.
Hugh Howey’s books are now being targeted? Yikes.
This whole crusade was never about book reviews or even about “badly behaving authors.” Claims that an author is “behaving badly” was always just an excuse (seeing how quick the “reviewers” have been to gang up on an author when it was somebody else who was “behaving badly”). This was always a war on self-published authors in general, so a self-published author never has to do much of anything to become a target.
The motive for the war was always either envy or stone-cold sociopathy. Either the reviewers are seeing a flood of amateurs self-publishing and finding readers when many of the reviewers once tried to find readers and failed, or the reviewers are simply sociopaths who, bored with existence, look for people to torment who are not in a good position to fight back (e.g., authors who are supposed to be “professional” about unprofessional reviews).
“Barbara Lindt Ninja” has been kicked off of Goodreads, and her ratings and bookshelves vacated. GR indeed is now taking cleaning up their site seriously (thanks Amazon!). One of her accomplices, however, is still on the loose: Miranda Koryluk.
I encourage all Goodreads members to lodge a formal complaint against Koryluk for malicious behavior. You can do this via the “Contact” icon at the bottom of the GR page. GR is now taking action against these trolls by kicking them off the site and vacating their ratings and bookshelves.