For those of you who know Anne Rice, she’s been a beacon of hope and a heroine in the fight against online bullying, in particular, the online bullying of authors. Just recently she posted a of her intention to publish a pamphlet describing her experience with the online bullies she encountered while posting in the Amazon fora. Of course, we all know who these bullies are. We’ve been warning people about them for three years now. What’s great about this pamphlet is that it will continue to spread the word about the dangers of certain online hangouts for authors. After all, to protect them, education (and thus prevention) is the key. Below is a screenshot of her post.
We encourage all authors, Amazon customers, or anyone else who has been bullied online to share your stories with her. You can contact her through her or email .
Thank you, Anne, for giving authors this opportunity!
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Guys, thank you so much for picking up the story and for posting my email. I do indeed welcome emails from those who’ve been bullied, and I am receiving some quite incredible stories. —- It is my hope that I may hear from some whistleblowers, i.e. those who perhaps who have received emails from bullies urging them to attack authors, etc. I suspect there is a lot of material like that out there. And some who are disgusted by bully tactics might be willing to share their experiences with calls to arms against authors. —— It will take me a while to complete my essay but I hope and pray that 2015 is the year when I get this done. I want to write something of enduring value. Thanks again, and thanks for all you do to combat the poisonous bully atmosphere on in the Amazon Forums. I have linked to many of your articles from my FB page and will continue to do so in the future.
Anne Rice.
Not a problem at all. What you’re doing for authors is great! I know I can speak for all the authors we know here at STGRB when I say your efforts are much appreciated.
Anne, the bullies have formed private groups to egg each other on to attack authors. There are so many of them that emailing each other would be too labor-intensive.
There is a ‘BBA’ group on Goodreads where they plan their attacks, but it’s now secret. It won’t even show up on any group lists. Before it went secret, it had over 200 members.
There’s also this group on Booklikes, where they also co-ordinate attacks. Some threads are private, but take a look at the ‘Asshat Updates.’
http://booklikes.com/groups/show/12/bba-whisperer
I went ahead and shared my story. My own rep may be ruined (despite some 811 twitter followers), but I don’t want others to experience what I did with the water cooler.
I want to emphasize that all stories being shared with me by email are being kept confidential. I am receiving many emails and many horror stories. The problem that I’ve witnessed in the Amazon Forum exists all over the net. But much of what goes on in the Top Reviewers Forum on Amazon resonates with attitudes expressed all over the net. —- I’m learning more every day. And I’m grateful to those who are emailing me.
I am glad Anne is doing this. May she shine a light on these foul, sociopathic bullies.
What I don’t get is if she’s doing a good thing like this, what’s with all the hate then? You would think (if people were logical that is) they would appreciate it.
I don’t get people sometimes.
The hate is fear of being proven that their actions are indeed bullying. And if enough people are reached with information about the manipulation of the review system, which Amazon prides itself on, then that could cause some changes with anonymity on possibly many public networking sites to crack down on cyber bullying. Most importantly, it will reduce false product information being presented to the public at large, whether it be praising or negative. I’m not an attorney, however I do believe there may be some legal implications with “false advertising”. IMO.
Did someone send Anne the Carpet Bombing diabolical on Goodreads, and the screen shots? This from the series STRGB did some months ago?
I’m wondering, the situation your referring. What immediately comes to mind is this one review where the reviewer didn’t even address the merits of the book on ufology in question, but rather resorted more to a hit job on the character of the author who wrote the book.
So someone who wasn’t familiar with logic, might be misled into thinking that it’s a review with merit even though he’s not actually addressing the data. What scares me is that the same issue sometimes carries over into the fiction world.
Then with goodreads, I’m scared to even do a review there, because while I don’t believe in star systems, reviews that have merit (based on actual analyses of the book) are constantly pushed down in favor of reviews and friends of said reviewer that game the system.
It seems like a scary century to be an author.
Actually it continuously surprises me that online shopping centers have used this solution, though there are some disadvantages. Like having a system where a moderator approves or rejects a review based on relevance to the product. Though there would need to a system prevent abuse of this as well, in the situation where say a writing board scares a review site into not allowing certain reviews.
Thus the approval/rejection would need to be done independently of the reviewer/reviewee.
Bleck, grammar error. I should have said haven’t.
As many of us know, things have gotten out of control as far as reviews are concerned. Amazon.com allows their users to have as many user ID’s as they wish to have. Some reviewers, nicknamed “Bullies” by sites such as StopTheGRbullies.com, do their best to downgrade the works of authors who have somehow raised their ire.
Part of the problem is the prevalence of these “anonymous ID’s” and the fact that people are currently allowed to have as many ID’s as they want. Each e-mail address gets its own ID, so one bully can downvote an author’s book ten times by himself, and if he is part of a discussion list full of bullies, can get other people to do the same, often without even one person in that group ever reading the book.
This escalating problem is why I support some kind of “Verified Real Name” (for people who wish everyone to know who they really are) and “Verified Pseudonym” (for those people who wish to remain anonymous). In addition, Amazon could still allow people to use the old system of anonymous unverified ID’s.
In other words, users who object to restricting people to one ID each could simply do what they’re already doing, and not request a verified ID.
Here are the points that I have sent to Amazon CS. If you think that this is a good idea, at least in some ways, I urge you to also send your ideas to CS. The more people who request it, the sooner we might have a system that would allow us to ignore the bullies.
MY TENTATIVE DESCRIPTION OF HOW SUCH A PROGRAM COULD OPERATE
1. Before applying for the “Verified Single ID” program, the user would have to have already ordered one or more products which were shipped to their home address, with billing and shipping address matching. If a person does not have a credit or debit card, they could pay with a pre-printed check that includes their home address and phone number. I’m sure Amazon could come up with a system that would allow people unable to use the first two methods to still participate. P O Box addresses would not be allowed.
2. Person would click a link for “What is the Verified Single ID program?”
3. That next page would describe the program and its terms, and give the user the ability to agree to the terms and apply for the “Verified Real Name ID” or the “Verified Pseudonym” program (whatever Amazon chooses to call it).
4. This page also displays the billing name and address associated with user’s account, and the user would click to verify that it is his home address.
5. User will have option to click a link that says that is no longer their correct address. They might have to order another product with their new billing address and have it shipped there to implement that change.
6. My guess is that Amazon might want to restrict the “Verified Single ID” to one person per physical address, or they could allow verification of other people at the same address with a similar method, or in the case of youth or others without their own card or bank accounts, with State ID card, Driver’s License, College ID card, or other professionally printed authentic ID that includes the user’s name, address, birthdate, etc. Amazon might include a statement that it reserves the right to call the institution to verify the information.
7. If the person chooses “Verified Real Name ID,” the Amazon web page could then suggest several available IDs including, John Jones, John J Jones, John J. Jones, J. J. Jones, J. James Jones, John James Jones, any of those with state or country added, any of those with city, state; or city, country added, etc. They could even add an approved occupation. If the person’s existing ID already includes their real name, they should be able to choose it.
8. If the person prefers to remain anonymous with a “Verified Pseudonym ID”, as many of us would do, (s)he could then pick a preferred Pseudonym ID, which could be their current ID, if it is indeed a unique ID that nobody else uses.
9. User would agree, as part of getting this ID, that he would not use any other e-mail address to get additional un-verified Amazon ID’s for him/herself, and that if he is caught using a second ID in violation of the agreement, that he could permanently lose his verified ID, and be forced to go back to the old unverified ID’s, but not with the one he had used under the verified system.
10. With a system like this, if “Doc Smith” chose to have a real name ID, he could choose E. E. ‘Doc’ Smith, Edward E. ‘Doc’ Smith, E. E. ‘Doc’ Smith (Sci Fi author), or other valid “real name combos” as an ID. He would probably not be allowed to use “Doc Smith” because the “Doc” part was a nickname.
11. With a system like this, “Real Reviewers” could get a verified Amazon ID, even if they choose to use a Pseudonym,
Further ideas that may or may not make sense to use
12. Reviews that are written by users with verified ID’s could be weighted higher than those with anonymous non-verified ID’s when averaging reviews.
13. Reviews with more than twenty words could be weighted higher than reviews with no words or only a few words.
14. Customers could click links on any product page to ask for reviews only from people with verified IDs, averaging only those reviews’ stars; or they could ask for only reviews from reviewers who have written more than “so many” reviews with 20 or more words, etc.
—————
Like I said, if you like what you see in what I wrote, please rewrite it into your own words and send it to Amazon CS and urge them to implement a system that takes the power back from the people who post spurious reviews (without reading the books for example) or who post reviews that do not even review the book but instead attack the author’s beliefs or whatever. We need a system where honest reviews will rise to the top, and spurious reviews will fall to the bottom or be eliminated.
JohnWm.
I would argue why verified non psuedonym would even be an option? Some of us use psuedonyms to protect us from harassment by goodreads, absolute writers water cooler, and other such toxic communities who wish to ruin our reputation.
But I could go with a verified psuedonym. As long as it’s really anonymous.
I can think of several reasons. One would be an ex-spouse trying to avoid her real name ending up on any web pages where an ex-partner might find it on a web search. I’m sure that there are other valid reasons.
Uh no, your misrepresenting what I’m saying. I’m asking why someone would not use a psuedonym.
I apologize.
I looked back at your first message and see that I totally missed what you wrote.
Yes, I would imagine that most people prefer pseudonyms, but people who have built a business around their real name, like the Robert Heinleins and H G Wellses of the world (to avoid mentioning an alive author) might wish to have such an ID.
In some cases, like actors, I would imagine that their “public IDs” are answered by their assistants, but I know some authors who answer their own mail.
Again, I apologize for totally getting your message reversed. I do have a bit of ADHD.
John
Well hey to be fair, I have it to. I appreciate everything you do here.