In our post Guidelines for New Authors, we said:
Guideline #3: Don’t do giveaways on GR. That attracts trolls. Trolls like free things and they are usually the harshest and many times the most unfair critics. For example, take a look at this screenshot where a troll says: “It was free and I’ve heard bad things. I’m so excited!” This particular troll was trying to get her friends to do a buddy read so they could trash a book they got for free.
In a recent HuffPo article, Maddie Crum elaborates on the same subject: 
Some of the examples she gives are priceless. Literary masterpieces trashed by those who shouldn’t be reading them: 
This is why we counsel authors not to do giveaways on GR. GR is swarming with readers like this (not all of them are like this, but many are). In this case, we recommend listening to the words of the Apostle Matthew:
“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.” King James Bible, Matthew 7:6
Wow, kudos to Maddie Crumb for doing this article. Have the bullies graced the comment section yet?
STGRB, one guy in the comment section said, “The sad truth is that the average American barely knows what day of the week it is. To expect the average person to read, let alone comprehend what has been read, is asking an awful lot in today’s society.”
How accurate is that?? 😀
Great post, as always!
If anything should show clearly to every writer on the Web that the bullies’ “reviews” don’t really reflect the quality of the works reviewed at all, this does. There is no book in existence that is so great that it won’t eventually be the target of a review by some aggressive know-nothing git who found it easier to sneer at the book than to understand it.