Before we get to Old Rocker, who was originally on our sidebar for being an AFT, we want to share the following with our readers. We were tipped off to this feedback discussion on Goodreads created by a GR member who is now gone from the site:
In response, a GR member named Jenny attempted to shed light on the subject:
But as you may have guessed, unfortunately, the thread was hijacked by the trolls who spewed their nonsense and created 12 pages of hateful invective. So, let this be a warning. Tread carefully in the Goodreads feedback discussions. The trolls stalk those threads like there’s no tomorrow and if you post a comment they don’t like, they will come at you hard. You see, there is a reason Goodreads in the Goodreads feedback discussions and not site-wide. Because they knew that the small group of users it would affect (i.e. the GR bullies) would see it there. The majority of GR users don’t care. As PG said in one of his posts, he “doesn’t think the vast majority of Goodreads users are terribly upset about a few offensive items being removed from the site. Most have not even noticed anything.” We tend agree with him.
Now, as for the recent barrage of one-star ratings, we’ve heard from several sources that the appeals to Amazon and GR staff are working. The carpet bombs seem to be disappearing. However, if you feel that your books have not been cleaned of the crap left on them by the angry dung beetles and you’ve already contacted Amazon/GR about it, some information from another anon might help you:
Goodreads is located in California. I recommend reporting them to the California Attorney General for fraudulent business activity:
As for Amazon, it’s headquarters are in Washington. Here is the website for reporting Amazon:
Now, remember from that particular post, we showed you an attorney left a comment on Anne R. Allen’s blog, stating that customer reviews are a form of ‘endorsements’ or ‘testimonials’ and that:
“SELLERS HAVE AN AFFIRMATIVE DUTY TO ENSURE ANY CUSTOMER TESTIMONIAL THEY USE TO SELL PRODUCTS IS TRUE.”
If you find that Amazon/GR isn’t listening to your request to have false one-star ratings removed from your book(s), you may want to contact the offices of both California’s and Washinton’s Attorney General to report the fraud. Or seek the services of an attorney. Or both.
Now, for carpet bomber #7 of our Carpet Bombers Series, we want to show you some of the shots we got of and bookshelves before the carpet bombs were removed.
If you take a look at Old Rocker’s book shelves now, this is what you will see:
We hope this trend continues.
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An addendum.
I forgot to add to the post above. Now that Rick Coke Monkey is no longer in , we feel it is safe again for authors to join (or rejoin) the group. There is also a link on our sidebar.
« Carpet Bomber #6, In2books Jane Litte Defends Violent Readers »
I knew it was only a matter of time before Rick was kicked out of AAA.
Actually, from what I’ve heard, he wasn’t kicked out. He left. Well, he left before they could kick him out. I think he knew his days in that group were numbered. This is the second time he’s left the group, believe it or not. The story of Rick and the AAA group is hilarious. From the information that’s been handed down, it goes something like this. With a group of other authors, Rick helped start AAA. He was appointed a mod of the group. For some reason only known to him, he removed himself as a mod and later had a fight with one of the other mods. He left the group then and started a new, public AAA group, babbling about censorship and mods on power trips, which sounds eerily like something the bullies would do and something he would do later on to Athena. Really, we should have known then all the shit that would go down afterwards but you can’t predict everything. Ah well, live and learn. Anyhow, he eventually abandoned his failed public AAA group and asked to be let back in to the original AAA, which he was. He also requested to be top mod again, but was denied. Then later all that shit went down when he came to our blog as Mary Shelly and tried to undermine the effort to fight the bullies and flag abusive content on GR. When we exposed his lies, he went NUTS and began publishing all his crazy blog posts attacking Athena. Apparently, he was also causing a ruckus in the AAA group, trying to spread the same insane propaganda there, too. He was on the brink of getting kicked when he up and left. A wise decision if you ask me. We’ve never seen such a spectacular meltdown. It was unbelievable! The fact that he thinks I’m Athena, as well as all the others who run our blog, cracks me up! If only he knew the truth. Athena has been nice to him, IMO. I wanted to block his ass from our blog a long time ago, but she wouldn’t let me. I was ecstatic when she finally gave me the green light to do it. Ha! 😀
Another author we blocked from our blog is Jac Wright. At the same time as “Mary Shelly”, Jac started posting comments on our blog under the names of Spec and T.R. Mason. He was pushing Rick’s agenda, which we thought was weird. Then, I noticed “T.R. Mason” leaving comments on Carroll’s blog and so I alerted Athena. The reason is because Jac Wright had previously sent Carroll a bunch nasty emails when the whole thing with the M&CT group went down. He was a total asshole to him and then he turned around and pretended to be friends with Carroll as T.R. Mason. It was SO weird. Carroll knows now, but he didn’t then. So, Jac is another one you want to watch out for.
I noticed Rick’s story changing too. Whatever objective he had at the time, his story would change to match it. It was obvious.
Jac’s happy he’s out.
Well good for him, or her I should say. Jac wasn’t an innocent bystander on the Lauren Pippa thread in M&CT group. He is also Jenni Wickham who caused the whole uproar within the group in the first place. We have proof that the two are the same person. They have the same IPs. She, or he, lied to us and told us that she had been deleted from Goodreads for commenting on the Goodereader article, much like Rick lied when he said “Mary Shelly” was deleted from GR for commenting on STGRB. Both of them were removed from Goodreads because the two had multiple sock accounts there. When Jac/Jenni/Spec/TRMason came to our blog, she tried leaving comments saying how a cop had told her that hacking into someone’s private account was legal. Bullshit. There is no cop in the United States that will tell you that. It’s like trespassing on private property or breaking into someone’s house. Hacking into a private account is very much illegal. So Jac/Jenni/Spec/TRMason lied twice. Once when she got booted from GR and the second time when she tried to post lies on our blog. She’s not allowed here anymore.
So, to help you keep track of their socks:
Rick Carufel = Mary Shelly = N. = Squa Tront
AND
Jenni Wickham = Jac Wright = Spec = T.R. Mason
I don’t know how they keep them all straight. It’s mind-numbing. Jenni and Rick are perfect for each other.
There’s more. He tried to get back into AAA just recently as Squa Tront. That’s another one of his socks. It was deleted from GR a few weeks ago. The AAA mods didn’t let him back in. They knew it was him.
Woot! I love seeing that new screenshot with the troll reviews completely removed. That’s totally awesome, and you guys can completely take credit for that. Without your efforts, the trolls would be getting away with this. You bring people’s attention and give them permission to complain!
And yes, it’s tempting to go onto threads and engage the trolls, but it is a very bad idea. They don’t have targets right now, and they will swoop in and give you their full attention. Stay away!
Hear! Hear! Good job, you guys!
I’ve been keeping an eye on my books and noticed a big difference lately. The carpet bombs are slowly disappearing. The effort to fight these trolls is really paying off. Thank you, STGRB!
In a weird way, by Old Rocker and the rest of the trolls consigning five of my books to their hate lists with one star beside each, they have actually done me a favour. What better way to get people curious about a book than to broadcast the fact that it exists? 😉
This might be a little catty, but I wish these trolls who post the photos with duct tape and masking tape on their mouths would realize they look stupid now. It was cute and funny for about five minutes last Friday, so to speak, but when I see it now it’s just UGH, here comes another trite clueless know-it-all troll who is trying too hard to be cute. It’s like, yeah, you’re so scary, ah yeah, troll. I’m shaking in my shoes
Old Rocker’s making some asinine claim that he removed his carpet bombs in protest.
What a crock of shit! He put all of them back up. Time to report him again.
Is it just me being paranoid or does this Old Rocker look a lot like a bully mentioned on this blog a few times? A new sock perhaps? This one has done it before, many times. It wouldn’t surprise me. They always leave clues. This time the real bully has been too quiet…lurking.
Old Rocker has been around for a while. Which bully were you thinking of?
Looney.
The name Old Rocker says it all for me. Yuck. Having real life encounters with old rocker types, leaves me feeling completely depressed and empty. I think a more realistic name for that type might be JustOld&OffMyRocker…lol
Danger, Will Robinson! LMAO! Perfect!
Yes, we thought the hacker connotation was appropriate.
Is Athena okay? The crazy one has threatened her yet again, this time her parents. He’s a whackjob if I’ve ever seen one.
She’s fine. She doesn’t live in San Francisco and he’s going to have a hard time contacting her parents since they’ve already passed on… unless he can talk to the spirit world or something.
These are idle threats. Just let him spout off his nonsense. He’ll eventually get tired of it and move on.
Johnny’s right. My dad passed away 5 years ago and my mom just last year. And I don’t live in San Francisco. I’m a little concerned about the person whose address he has, in case he does decide to do something to them. But it doesn’t appear that he’s really doing anything. He seems to be all bark and no bite.
The carpet bombers say that they one starred books in protest against the Goodreads announcement that stated: (1) Reviews should be about the book, and (2) Members are not permitted to harass or threaten other people. The fact that these people felt the need to protest against these rules says it all really. But its not really a protest against Goodreads, is it? Its just another way for those nasty trolls to attack authors.
The main thing is that Goodreads has now admitted there is a problem and they are willing to make changes. The trolls were never going to go quietly, thats not their style. They were always gonna go crazy when these changes came into effect. They’ll get over it. Well, they’ll have to or else Goodreads will delete them.
Many of the bully shelves, bully reviews and even the bullies themselves have already been deleted. Its happening slowly but surely! It has taken a long time to get Goodreads to clean up their act, I was beginning to wonder if it would ever happen.
STGRB has had a lot to do with bringing about these changes on GR. STGRB has always documented everything fairly and squarely, so people could clearly see what the problem was on GR. I feel the reason that STGRB works so well is because the crew at STGRB are so selfless. STGRB are here to support authors and not themselves. So many people get support from this blog. Its great to see everything starting to come together now. Brighter days ahead!
Can you believe this bullshit?
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/23/how_amazon_and_goodreads_could_lose_their_best_readers/
That’s annoying and disappointing. She is not looking at the full picture. It’s unfortunate that she is picking sides, and it’s a shame that she doesn’t understand that victims of the bullying needed protection,. But I think she’s found an angle that makes for good press (Goodreads and money) and is going to milk it. All I can do about that is lose respect for her as a journalist.
On the other hand, it doesn’t really matter. Goodreads is not going to budge, and no one really sees Salon as legitimate journalism anyway.
This issue will get quieter and quieter. I expect a few pieces like this to try stir it up again, but it’s pretty much a done deal. The bullies lost, at least at Goodreads. Thank goodness.
That’s pretty much how we feel about it, too. We are embarrassed for her. She is acting as if their behavior is so rational and justified. She also fails to mention how abusive these people are to others on the site. But as you said, it doesn’t matter because GR won’t change back their policy. It’s done and the bullies lost. Too bad for them.
“At least four of them have abandoned the site?”????
Jane Litte wouldn’t be one of those, would she?
I wouldn’t worry too much. They’ll all be sneaking back in when they realize goodreads is the only way to drive traffic to their dismal little bogs, er…sorry, blogs.
LMAO!
Yeah and most of the comments are about how authors deserve the right to speak out about the reviews. At least they (some of the comments) realize how childish some of these reviewers are.
That Salon article is typical of the low information writer. Investigating the subject of what these bullies actually do to people is something that not many are willing to do, but if they do really investigate what they do, it’s pretty clear that their B.S. propaganda is just that …B.S. that they have managed to spin about why they do it.
I have looked at too many examples of innocent authors who were attacked for no other reason than they made a comment somewhere that these trolls were hanging out, and then were immediately attacked afterwards.
This subject matter has never been about authors not being able to handle a bad review, it’s never been about that. At this point in time, it’s up to whoever is looking at these issues now to look at them closely, because as of today, the trolls have altered their behaviors everywhere….well, hey, that was the goal all along, so I’d call it success!