Merry Christmas, all!
It appears as though the environment on Goodreads is getting safer. We have just heard that Miranda and All Hail Grimlock (aka Coaxial Creature, real name Shoshana B.) were kicked off of Goodreads just recently. If you check their profiles below, you will see they have been removed:
Congratulations to all those who reported these two for their constant harassment and abuse of other people on the site! Good work!
Below is a post written by one of our blog readers, Anon92X, that really gets to the heart of the matter when it comes to the bullies, their hypocrisy, and their “freedom of speech”.
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First things first. Here’s some of the screenshots I promised of Ridley and KarlynP using the word ‘retarded’ as if it were perfectly acceptable.
There are more (in Karlyn’s case, lots more!), but these are enough to prove the point.
For some time, crazed blogger Angela has made banning the R word her particular hobby horse. She attacked one author in the past, and lately she has been leading the charge against author Mysti Parker for using it. If you look at the BBA Whisperer facebook page, you’ll see she has a photo of something called ‘Blogging Against Disablism.’ It’s funny in a disturbing sort of way, but not as funny as Ridley’s self-description on her Booklikes profile: “As someone who uses a wheelchair, she takes a particular interest in disability themes.”
When I warned in an earlier comment that I might post Ridley and Karlyn’s names if Angela kept attacking people, Angela tried to pre-empt me:
It’s no use for Angela to suggest that she doesn’t approve of ‘trolls’ using that word. Ridley and KarlynP are not ‘trolls’ – at least not by Angela’s standards. They are well-respected members of the BBA mob that has been terrorizing authors for years on Goodreads, Amazon, and now Booklikes. KarlynP is in the top 10,000 Amazon reviewers, and the top 100 Goodreads reviewers. Both of them were around long before Angela came along and decided to boost her profile by attacking SPAs. They have both used that word more than once. Why didn’t anybody say anything?
Because it’s all bullshit.
None of them care about how hurtful the word ‘retarded’ can be. But they do know that it’s politically incorrect to use it. So when an SPA uses it, it’s a smart tactical move to pretend shock and indignation. Kind of like Captain Renault in Casablanca, Angela likes to pretend she is shocked, shocked! To find anyone using that word. And not just Angela.
And that’s what makes them, but especially Angela, so disgusting. It’s all about what will strategically advance her ’cause.’ So when Mysti Parker, who just happens to be a rival Fantasy author, makes a slip of the tongue, Angela pounces on her, eager to destroy a rival under the guise of fighting for the rights of the disabled.
This is especially disturbing in light of their much touted defense of freedom of speech. Freedom of speech, as anyone knows, is freedom to use offensive speech. If ‘reviewers’ can shelve books under offensive titles, then it should be okay to use the word ‘retarded.’
But this was never about freedom of speech. This was about self-appointed mobs out to police other people’s behavior. Some of the worst offenders are SPAs like Angela, who thinks she can advance her career by attacking other SPAs. She should ask authors like Stacia K. or Anne S. how well it worked for them.
We received another request to post the following screenshots of . She makes some rather insightful remarks about the disdain and condescension with which authors are treated in one of the world’s largest bookstores:
Here, she is talking to Book World, a well known AFT (Amazon Fora Troll):
And a couple more:
If any of you see this happen on GR (see below), feel free to tell us and we’ll post about it to let our readers know that they can jump in and help.
We’ve been asked by a witness to post these screenshots so that our readers can help flag some of the abusive shelving and comments placed on .
As you will notice, it’s all the same culprits.
So why was she attacked? Because . And she also spoke the truth on her blog:
Let’s help report this violation of GR TOS so that the management team can put an end to the bullies’ behavior.
It has come to our attention that some of our readers are wondering why we haven’t posted much in the last few weeks. The reason is because now that Goodreads management has finally admitted that the site has a problem with bullying and has attempted to address this problem and correct it, our mission here at STGRB is accomplished. The fact is that the bullies have lost their “holy” war. So, we won’t be blogging about them that much anymore. We see no need. They have been relegated to petty insignificance by the Goodreads management team and by the vast majority of Goodreads users. In other words, they have lost their power and they won’t be getting it back.
The only regret we have is the fact that it took so long for Goodreads to acknowledge the abuse on their site and do something about it. It should have been corrected years ago. Our sympathies extend to those who were victims of the abuse and had no recourse or help at the time of their attack. If GR had been a respectable and responsible management team, they would have acted. They didn’t. To some, this still leaves a bitter taste in their mouths and we fully understand that. We also understand that many have seen fake ratings and reviews appear on their books as a direct result of GR policy changes and the bullies’ reaction to it (aka, their “Civil Protest”). We’ve done our best to give you solid evidence of this and to point you in the right direction so that this problem, too, can be addressed and solved. We feel that at this point, only a lawsuit will force Goodreads/Amazon to crack down on this. We wish you good luck.
We will be leaving our blog up as a record of what occurred and we welcome any of our readers to use it either to communicate with each other, to leave new information, or to publish guests posts (anonymous if necessary) when they wish to share a story or information with the STGRB community. In other words, the blog is all yours. Have fun!
All material on STGRB is the intellectual property of the owners of this site and is protected by DMCA. Any copying, quoting, or sharing of this material without our consent, beyond the terms of fair use, will be subject to DMCA takedown.
