Good news! It seems that more groups are banding together and getting involved in the fight against the injustices done to both authors and readers on Goodreads. We were just tipped off to a new site whose mission is to unmask all the bullies who leave fake reviews and ratings on the books of authors they’re targeting. The new site is called Unmask Goodreads Bullies:
And their mission is:
And which bullies have they noticed so far?
Yep, they nailed it. We’ve had these bullies on our Badly Behaving Goodreaders page for a long time.
Good call, UGB!
To like UGB’s Facebook page, .
Apparently, :
Their states their campaign kicks off April 1st! Don’t miss it!
Great job so far, UGB! Keep up the good work!
AH claims she knows who’s behind the blog, and she says it was someone STGRB had “victimized”. Really, nothing she posts makes much sense, but I was wondering … and I noticed that Miranda has been absent for 3 days, then suddenly showed back up on the BBA Whisperer group on Booklikes. Color me suspicious.
Call me crazy, but I really think one of the bullies is behind this new site, and they’ve set up a contact form to get authors’ personal information. I don’t trust it at all.
Another good point our readers made was that UGB didn’t contact us before launching. They just copied us, which is suspicious.
Yeah, and thank you JBG for understanding my suspicions.
I noticed that when the person behind UGB used an ellipsis, it was written without spaces between the two separated words, such as: “sociopath…well”, and on AH’s post on Booklikes, she uses an ellipsis in the exact same way here, 7 posts down: http://booklikes.com/thread/216/asshat-updates?p=64 Normally writers leave at least one space before or after the ellipsis.
Similar ways of writing can be a dead giveaway. This really concerns me. Again, I would not fully trust the people behind the new site, at least not yet.
What’s more, she knew about the blog before anyone else did. How did she know?
Well, let’s be fair here. Wasn’t it one of the bullies who first found STGRB too? These jerks troll around the internet looking for anything to complain about! I’m sure that they are reading everything here and are just waiting until April 1st to start attacking the new site the way they attack and abuse everyone here.
I know, exactly. At first I was like “Oh yay, another blog against bullies”, then I began to wonder …
I don’t leave a space and have only seen it done in one book recently.
Creepy! These people will stop at nothing! The only site I trust is STGRB.
We’re still not sure if it’s legit or a prank, so we urge caution. We’d like to believe that they are for real because it would help us immensely, but unfortunately we’ve seen what some of the bullies are capable of and we wouldn’t wish that on anyone. We have to warn others. Time will tell.
We are still looking into it. We’ll keep everyone updated. Once we know for sure it’s either a prank or legit, we’ll let everyone know.
Thank you, JBG!
Hey Angela!
Did you notice how after I said I felt sorry for you out there, talking to yourself on your BBA thread, a bunch of your friends decided to show up and pay attention to you? Your Welcome!
*Giggle*
rofl!
Thanks for the tip off STGRB, it’s so hard to trust anyone anymore. STGRB is the only site I trust, you supported me when I was attacked by the GR trolls. There are a few sites blogging about the GR trolls, but I only read STGRB because you support all authors, you guys actually care about authors, even Anne Rice could see that. If the GR trolls are behind UGB then it will be more proof of how determined they are to target authors. Surely they can’t go any lower, can they?
Some people have already made a prediction: come April 1st, the date when their ‘campaign’ officially launches, all authors who have contacted them will be unmasked and terrorized. So authors, be careful.
I know, I really hope that no author contacted them and gave them personal information. This would be a disaster. It worries me that the warnings came too late. I hope not.
I guess I’m not as cynical as the cynical above. I don’t want to make accusations against the group or person who opened Unmasked yet. I don’t care if they copy what you are doing here or if they repeat information that has already of beeen discussed. I’m happy that there is another site that is willing to stick out their necks to discuss how terrible these bullies treat readers. I don’t think that we should be making accusations without knowing anything. All we know is this is a new site, so proceed cautiously, but let’s try to be inviting instead of make accussations that may not hold up. This is my opinion :o)
We agree with you. We were happy at first, too. Our original post on it endorsed the site, but this morning we had a wave of warning emails roll in, so we changed our post to warn people. If the site is legit, that’s great! The problem is that we don’t know who runs it. They can’t be identified. All of us here at STGRB can be identified by the bullied authors out there who know who we are and can vouch for us, but there is no one who can do that for these people. And we know for certain that there are bullies out there who would be capable of making a site like this as a prank or as a way to trick unsuspecting authors into revealing their stories and information. Until we know more, we can’t endorse this site, so we’re telling people to be wary.
We still think it’s very strange that they copied us without having contacted us first. Every single person who has read our site and wanted to help fight for the cause has contacted us before doing it. These people didn’t and that’s odd.
Well, I only know some people here by their nicknames, maybe they will give us nicknames as their site grows. It looks very new and they seem to talk on the Facebook page and they allow comments to go through. When this site started, nobody knew they they could come here to talk either, so I think I’ll give them the benefit of doubt first. I can understand being cautious and I would encourage restraint, but making accusations about who is behind the site is a bit over the top right now. I don’t think anyone wants to scare brave people away from a cause that this site is fighting for. We all want the same thing, right?
I’m not sure why they wouldn’t contact you first. Maybe they just wanted to do their own thing or maybe they are still sorting out how they want to approach the subject of bullying. Or they could be like me and are more introverted perhaps didn’t think that the new site would have been found quickly. Their could be many reasons why. We really don’t know. Maybe I’m a optimist. I like to observe everything first and then react later.
I want to keep a open mind, I guess that my main point. I hardly ever comment here because I don’t know too many here well and I’m shy and I like to read more than discuss. Let’s see what this new site does. If they continue to name and shame people, great! It needs to be said more. The more resources people have to go to, the better I think it will be for this cause.
The reason we believe it’s the two bullies we mentioned above is because we’ve seen them do it before. We’ve seen them fool and hurt people before. So, if it is a prank, it would be them. Optimism is good, and sure, you call your own shots, but we still have to take the stance of caution on this and warn others until this site has proven that they’re not out to harm others.
I understand, but maybe it’s better if it’s discussed privately, like through a newsletter or email. My fear is that we will scare this new site away if people are accusing them of being someone they are not. How do they prove themselves when we aren’t giving them a chance to play nice with others before pulling out our pitchforks?
I’m playing devil’s advocate here, Johnny Be Good. No harm meant. :o) This site is my go-to spot for who I need to avoid and to catch up on the dramas.
We’re not saying, “break out the pitchforks and go get them”. We’re saying, “proceed with caution”. Before you give them any information, make sure you can identify and trust them first. It would be irresponsible of us not to tell people this because if it was a prank and we endorsed it without a warning and people got hurt, that would be much, much worse.
I understand, Johnny! I know what you meant but thank you for the clarification too. :o)
Anon, when this site started, there was nothing like STGRB in existence. The bullies roamed free, leaving carnage in their wake. So of course no one suspected the owners of this site of tricking people. Everyone knew they were trying to make a positive difference. The climate is different now so when STGRB says to be cautious, you bet I’m going to be cautious. Also, fyi, I’ve never seen STGRB block comments unless someone started acting like an a**hole. Then they got the boot and rightly so.
I’m totally for acting cautious! I want to be friendly too. I wouldn’t give this new site my personal information or anything that could identify me to the bullies but I wouldn’t shun them either. I defiantly recommend being cautious as a precaution. haha. :o)
Anon, I’m like you. I was so happy when I saw this site. I thought, finally there are other people who are doing exactly what we are. Finally there are more people banding together to work toward the cause. So I immediately told Johnny that we had to write a post on it to endorse it. After so many of our blog readers sent us warnings today, I knew then we had to take a more realistic approach because Johnny is right. If we didn’t warn people and they got hurt, that would be awful. I would feel terrible.
Thank you, Athena! I was so happy to find out about the site but I totally agree that everyone needs to be cautious and not get our hopes up just yet. It was so refressing to see other people pick up the cause to. :o)
No, I didn’t mean to make accusations before knowing the full truth. All I wanted was for authors to take caution, and not to fully -trust- these people until we know for sure that AH isn’t behind the new blog. That’s all. Just use some caution for awhile.
I say, just don’t give them any of your personal information that they can later use against you. And before I trust them, I’m waiting until they out a bully who hasn’t already been outed. Let’s see if they do that.
And look at this, 5 posts down where AH says “giggles”: http://booklikes.com/thread/216/asshat-updates?p=73 She really thinks she’s smart, doesn’t she?
Well, AH, guess what? We’re not stupid, and we’re onto you.
AH says “JBG went from humping Unmasked (see the above comments) to complaining about a little competition. WAH! Unmasked stole our info and doesn’t possess our fantasy author level prose. We don’t trust them blah blah blah blah”.
No, Angela, you’ve got it all wrong and you know it. We suspect that YOU and Miranda are behind the new site (funny how you don’t mention this, you only bring up “jealousy”. Avoiding the true issue, much? Also very suspicious). Nobody is jealous of another blog … give me a break. Really it’s telling that you’d think STGRB would be jealous of –your new blog– called UGB. You think everyone is jealous of you cuz you’re so –“awesome”–.
Again, I don’t know for sure that these two clowns are behind UGB, but like STGRB, I urge authors to take caution for awhile, just in case. The longer this goes on, the more suspicious AH looks, to be perfectly frank.
She’s an idiot, cynical. She still thinks that we’re authors. She was also dumb enough to let her hatred push her to do something so stupid she’s getting sued for it. She’s got some serious mental problems. Most of the garbage she says doesn’t make any sense. She likes to think she knows what’s going on all the time but the more nonsense she spews, the more she reveals her ignorance. It’s funny how she thinks we stalk her blog and BL pages. We never read her crap unless someone points us to something relevant or something important like when she started publishing people’s private FB conversations. She got in big trouble for that. It was stupid and she knows it.
I totally hear you, JBG. The woman doesn’t even have any friends left, the one’s commenting on her Booklikes thread are only there to enjoy the wank, not because they particularly like Angela. –No one– likes Angela.
I don’t think even Miranda herself likes Angela anymore, considering Miranda’s only posted once on the BBA Whisperer thread, posted one time in 4 days or longer.
Poor Angela … she’s all on her own. And she ought to be sued; she has the money, considering at least one of her Bijou books is priced at … $10??! Unbelievable. Not only is she a b*tch, she’s also a greedy b*tch.
I’ve never known anyone spew as much crap as she does, and not actually say much of anything at all, if you get what I mean. She’s full of hot air and has just as much substance, which is ZERO.
Well, stupid is as stupid does, as Forrest Gump would say. 😛
We were given new evidence that Miranda IS Angela. Check it:
Our blog reader said that when she put the link to Miranda’s Twitter account into Facebook and then did the same to Angela’s Bijou Hunter Twitter account, the same picture popped up.
Ah, it’s very telling she hasn’t said anything about running the blog or even of being suspected of running it. I wonder why.
AH has a private group on BullyLikes now so I am sure its been talked about there. Has anyone tried to contact the new blog to see if they are available for conversation?
BullyLikes, ha! That’s funny. None of us here have tried to contact them other than Athena leaving a comment on their Facebook page. There doesn’t seem to be any email address to use and none of us want to leave our electronic information on their site. You can track people through their electronic footprint. That’s why we haven’t used their contact form or left any comments on their site.
Ah, gotcha :o) I took another look at the Facebook page. If you scroll all the way down and look at who liked their first posts there is one person there that seems to have found the page right when it opened since she has liked everything. I’m very sure she was attacked by the bullies too. Maybe she know who is behind it. Its worth a shot! I’d ask myself, but I use my real name on Facebook and their are, um, lurkers, I’m sure! lol!
One of our blog readers already contacted her. She said she doesn’t know who’s running the site either.
Here’s another interesting point. The people at UGB still haven’t contacted us despite our post here warning people. We know they know about it, too, because someone posted a link to it on their Facebook page. If they were legit and wanted people to know it, you’d think they would send Athena an email explaining themselves, but they haven’t. That’s a bad sign.
Maybe they are busy? Haven’t seen the post here? I feel like everyone is getting too paranoid over circumstancial things. All of this evidence really isn’t evidence of anything. It’s almost April. Let’s see what happens. :o)
Yep, that’s why we’re waiting until April to see what happens. Then we will be keeping an eye on them to see if they really are who they say they are. Watch and wait. Best policy right now.
Sigh, here’s another attack on an author:
One of the book contributors said this to the reviewer: “i think you should know there’s a difference between what a character says and what the writer says. It’s not a mysoginistic book, it’s a mysoginistic character. There’s a difference. It’s a good book with a hateful character, that is all.”
Then all hell broke lose. The author has been called:
a) misogynist
b) racist
c) xenophobic
d) mother shamer (?)
The book has received 19 1 star ratings from the bullies. In one review, the woman tells him “f**ck you, author”.
According to the author’s blog, reviews and comments have been flagged, and goodreads have done nothing. I thought personal attacks against authors were no longer allowed? Not since Sept. 2013? I guess goodreads have grown lazy once again.
Just another attack by the bullies. And yet, they’re sick of being called “bullies”?
Oh, and they went on to trash at least one other book, too.
Stupid bitches.
Yes, this should be removed by Goodreads staff. If they’re not removing it, they’re breaking their own policies. We will try flagging it, too. If that fails, we’ll send an email to .
Thanks JBG!
We’ve been reporting all the inappropriate reviews on Jayme’s book but they haven’t removed them yet. We’ll keep trying. If GR doesn’t remove them in a couple of days, we’ll write a post on how they’re failing to enforce their policies.
I’m pretty sure that the attack on this author got started when he contacted SuperTroll Shelby privately and asked her to remove a review. Being the SuperTroll that she is, she had to go public and call all her friends to attack. Here’s the thread where she attacks the author. I think it needs to be flagged as well :
I have flagged and reported so much bully garbage, my head is spinning.
If goodreads doesn’t remove some of those reviews and comments, then they’re definitely NOT doing their job.
I’ve been flagging too but nothing is going away. Goodreads staff is usually not available on weekends. They probably wont see flags until Monday I bet.
Oh okay, I forgot about that.
Didn’t the Facebook page say something about April 1st? I think that in of itself is an admission to a prank.
Or it could be the date they choose to start becoming more active? April 1st doesn’t mean much outside the US. I’m from Quebec. We don’t really celebrate it here. Some people but not many.
I still don’t trust them. Not yet. Others can at their own risk, but I stand by what I’ve said.
Amanda Welling from BBA whisperer: -Newsflash- Dear, you don’t know shit about it; you only think you do. Nice try at acting clever, and ‘piss poor logical thinking skills’ my ass. Why hasn’t either Miranda or Angela rebutted any of our accusations on STGRB? They haven’t even -acknowledged- any of this. They keep putting up the ‘jealousy’ smoke screen (if that much) and it’s been how long? 24 hours and counting? Tick, tock, tick, tock!
That’s what I thought, moron.
The fact that it’s Amanda who’s posted most often about the UGB site makes me wonder whether she might be involved.
Let’s wait until April and see what this site does. If they start outing bullies who aren’t on our list and if they contact us to let us know they really are who they say they are, then we might be able to trust them. If they do none of that, well, then…
Good idea. Just two more days!
I think they are talking about it in their private Whispers group on BullyLikes so we cant see what they are talking about. I think they only post things to upset us on the public group.
Have they posted anything recently in the public group?
It does not look like much. The other group looks active but its private so we can not see what is said.
They’re all probably confronting Angela about being Miranda.
It’s April 1. Weren’t they supposed to be launching some big campaign?
Yep, I don’t see it, do you? Hmm… *scratches chin*
Psst! Angela!
Quick! do something! Everyone’s waiting for the big April Fools!
Not happening. Mirangela lost interest after she was found out.
I really don’t like these kinds of accusations without any proof. It makes us (as in everyone who wants these bullies to go away) look uncredible because we are making statements without proof.
What I’m hoping is the the person or people that decided to start this new blog haven’t been scared away by us. It could belong to someone we know or talk to, maybe got cold feet after all of this discussion. Or maybe they busy and haven’t gotten around to updating anything. Who knows?
I am dissappointed that it wasn’t updated April 1. I wanted to see what would happen.
We’ll give them more time, but it doesn’t look good, Anon. I don’t think they were scared away. Also, they are welcome to contact us anytime to let us know who they are and yet they haven’t. But we’ll give them more time.
*Sigh* I am going to be SOOOO DISSAPOINTED if this day ends with no big shocking reveal!
Doesn’t look like it’s gonna happen and they still haven’t contacted us.
There’s two people pretending to still be interested in the lame BBA thread. In the last FOUR days one person said “Good work Ange!” while a second person piped in 4 days later, “Thanks for updating!”
Yeah, that’s proving Mirangela’s thread [or Mirangela itself] remains relevant … not! 😆
Amanda W says, “She’s so worried that people are going to leave her ugly site and go someplace else for their hate.”
Sure, and that’s why Athena and JBG originally supported the hell out of that site … until people got suspicious. I think you need to work on your own logic skills there, Amanda, before accusing others of lacking it. Just a thought. Further, you need to stop repeating yourself, because the repetition gets tiresome.
Clown #1 Angela says, “Melissa has decided Miranda and I are behind the Unmasked hate site. When she couldn’t prove her Oops-like theory, she decided Miranda and I are the same person.”
Then you’re finally acknowledging STGRB’s suspicions of that other site, after AN ENTIRE WEEK wherein you completely avoided the subject? No, that’s not suspicious at all, Clown #1. And why do you constantly feel the need to drag EP into everything? Is that the best you can do?
Clown #2 Miranda says, “Yadda yadda yadda.”
Honestly? Why don’t you two just grow up? FFS, Clown #1 posted GIFs of Oscar the Grouch.
You two [or one] are getting worse, more immature and more illogical with each passing day.
Do everyone around you a favor, and get professional help.
And … constantly promoting other successful authors’ books aren’t going to help your own sales, Clown #1, and don’t lie and say you’re doing it for purely unselfish reasons, because we all know how much shit you’re full of. It’s your BBA reputation.
We have more “pearls of wisdom” from the BBA thread.
Clown #2: Nawh, [derogatory pet name] sometimes we mock you, sometimes we laugh at you, and sometimes we pity you for all oopsies. And sometimes we pat you on the back for your poopsies too, ´Well done, [author’s first name]´.”
You can’t be serious, Clown #2. First it’s Sesame Street, then you resort to using BABY TALK when referencing an adult author you don’t know? Your childish posts are getting cringe-worthier by the second.
You Need Help. Your lack of self-awareness is staggering.
Your posts might be funny, but only if they weren’t so pathetic.
If I was the target of your silly antics, I wouldn’t get angry. I’d be embarrassed for you.
And the author’s meme was 20x more entertaining than your baby talk. Guess it’s a good thing you don’t write books.
I won’t bother trying to interpret Clown #1’s usual gibberish [along the lines of ‘we know something you don’t know, nananana boo boo, we’re smarter than you], as I’d rather not suffer a migraine tonight. Seriously, is Clown #1’s books as badly written and hard to follow as her blog postings?
I know. I’ve just given Mirangela the opportunity to say I’m ‘too dumb to comprehend’ her writing. Have at it, but I think we all know the truth. The only truth you know, Mirangela, is your own skewed version of it; and no one is going to convince me you weren’t behind the UGB fiasco.
Carry on, trolls.
(Rolling my eyes) WTF ever… I don’t discuss these two publicly and never will. I don’t bother writing about them on my public blogs and other forums, because I’m better than that. I don’t walk around with shit on my shoes, I wash it off.
So let them have their jollies.
…and by “discuss” I mean trash talk…What I vent about private is my business.
Get it?
Good news! We’ve been given information on the identity of the owners of UGB. We are currently investigating. If it turns out to be true, then we can endorse the site. More on this to come.
We have a positive ID on the owners of UGB and they’re not bullies. The site is safe. So this is great! We now have a sister-site helping us warn others about the bullies!
Hi, I have some questions.
a) Have the people behind UGB explained to you why they haven’t updated their FB and website since March 27, which was a day or two before the “fake” accusations began? Especially since they said they’d start posting on April 1. If you can’t list details that’s fine.
b) Will you be doing a private password-protected post about this? If so, will you be revealing the names of those behind UGB (as someone firmly against author bullying, I’d never screw anyone by revealing those names, I’m only curious as to whom is behind the site. That is all. I could’ve SWORN that Angela H. was behind it)?
c) Did they explain why it took them so long to reach out to STGRB? Again, if you can’t list details that’s fine.
d) For the Sarah Daltry post, can you list her other pen names so people can be sure to avoid her books? (to clarify I am against bullying, however I also think it’s okay to boycott authors who DO behave badly, BBAs like Angela H—-irony burns doesn’t it, lol.). It would also be nice to know her pseudonyms so we can do our own research.
I have seen a few authors that bully readers just as badly as the reverse. And IMO authors who plagiarize have reached a “low” level of bullying since they charge readers hella cash to give them stolen content previously available for free (or sometimes not for free), which is disgustingly lazy and greedy. Maybe bullying isn’t the right word for it; maybe “criminals” would be accurate although plagiarism isn’t illegal. If nothing else, plagiarisers should be arrested for fraud and other offenses. If this was reality Shey Stahl would be sitting in jail, instead of being free to write more “original” content to sell to sucker readers. As someone who’s “penned” a few bestsellers, she’s made quite a bit of moooolah from ripping
off others (ripping off both readers & writers). Shameful.
Yes, they did explain. Athena will reach out to you privately as soon as she can with answers to your questions. If anyone else has questions, please contact Athena through our Contact Us page.
Jusme, I emailed you the answers to your questions. Let me know if you got them.
Sure did. Thank you, Athena!