Barbara <3~Andrew Loves Me~<3, is number two in our Carpet Bombers Series. This DEFCON 1 troll we found self-righteously spewing her verbal nonsense about authors and reviewers on Mercy Pilkington’s article, Goodreads Modifies User Terms. Her arguments seemed to be rather convincing, that is, until someone called her out:
Oh yeah, you really love authors, Barbara. You love authors SO much, you carpet-bombed over 100 of their books for no other reason than you were upset with GR’s new anti-bullying policy. Sorry, but at this point, you have lost all credibility.
Anyhow, Christine contacted us and told us that after she called Barbara out on the discussion thread and linked to her bookshelves, Barbara privatized her account. Then later on, Barbara was reported to GR/Amazon and apparently, her account was deleted from GR:
GR also just kicked Barbara off after multiple complaints were lodged. Her ratings and bookshelves likewise were deleted. GR is indeed cleaning house.
I encourage all Goodreads members to lodge a formal complaint against Miranda 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.
You can click the to see for yourself.
Fortunately, we were able to get a screenshot of her GR profile before she was deleted (she was a Goodreads librarian):
And her friends, of which there were several well-known trolls:
And there were several well-known trolls among the people she was following on GR.
Also, a blog reader and helper sent us screenshots of her carpet bombs before she privatized her account:
Since she’s been gone from GR, Barbara has migrated over to Booklikes. For those BL members wishing to avoid the trolls, we created a list for you. Just click the links and block. It’s that easy.
Wow, looking at those screenshots, it’s just so shocking. Who would do that???
So, I just want to add kudos to Mercy for writing this article. Just recently, she would have been bombed and persecuted for doing so. But I think the bullies are getting a little smarter. They know that if they bomb Mercy, it is too public, they’ll be proving the points of those who speak against them.
On the other hand, the bullies are used to being able to punish and persecute anyone who speaks out to them. It’s rather enjoyable to watch the conversations where they can’t do that. I’ve noticed that once they start losing, the bullies tend to leave those conversations fast. They don’t know how to deal with opposition if they can’t intimidate and threaten their opponent.
Interesting. Thanks for pulling all of this together. Outrageous. I reported Barbara’s antics, her being kicked off of GR and her migration over to Booklikes to CEO Piaskowski. I encourage others to do the same:
I really hate to say this. But I’m not shocked. This type of bully behavior, the low one star ratings and fake reviews that say things like “This book needs editing,” are just a few of the nasty tricks these assholes have been playing over the years with books, authors, and publishers. And honest readers get hurt most of all.
I’ve noticed a slight increase in 1 star ratings since Sept. 20. I’m not sure if it’s due to the goodreads changes or not. No matter. I’d never take the bait, so if they’re rating for petulant-toddler reasons, they’re wasting their time because all I do is shrug it off, because I know that bad ratings sometimes help sell books.
Hell, I’ve seen one book with thousands of horrible ratings, and only a few good ones, and the book is still a best seller.
::snicker::
Linda H. is STILL at it.
She needs SOMETHING to boost her ego, because she can’t sell any books!