Well, we can’t say we’re surprised, but the notorious bully who’s been trolling the internet for over a decade, Ginmar, was finally banned from Goodreads. If you click on her profile link, she is no longer there:
Why? Well, you all remember Ginmar’s Bully Review of a book by an author she has been attacking lately, right? Just recently, she did the same thing with another book (same series) by this author:
When this was reported to GR for violating TOS, management contacted her about the review and what did she do? She wrote another review:
This review of course was reported again, so she decided it wasn’t worth it, but hoping no one would notice, left her author-bashing shelves as they were:
When this was reported again, GR said, “Bye, bye, Ginmar!”
So, let this be a lesson to all the trolls. You cannot do whatever you want, because if you do, you will end up getting banned.
We here at STGRB are just glad to see Goodreads and Amazon enforcing their TOS and finally taking action against the bullies.
« GR Bully, Jennifer, Leaves Goodreads The Machin Shin of Amazon »
Thank you for the good news. You are making a difference and it is so appreciated. When will Amazon follow and start enforcing their guidelines and banning these people as well? —- Again, this is very good news. I’m glad to see Goodreads helping to make the internet a safe place for those who love books.
It’s one thing to have preferences, but to sit and attack the writer personally… that’s beyond too far. This sort of action should have been taken ages ago… also on the other sites as well.
Now’s the time to be adults and not bullies or supporters of bullies… Didn’t the world learn enough from the Limbaugh’s of the net and their cronies?
Good to know Goodreads are standing up for their TOS!
Almost every time I post on the problem of the book site bullies on FB, somebody —- one or more people — claim it’s the internet, it’s the troll problem, it’s this day and age, and there’s nothing you can do, it’s hopeless, it’s the way of the internet world, and so forth and so on. But they fail to understand. We may not be able to change the internet or the universe of trolls on it, but we CAN change what happens on one small but significant part of the internet — the book sites like Goodreads and Amazon and Book Likes —- places that have rules, guidelines, and terms of use. And we CAN do this by gently and tactfully pressuring book sites to enforce their existing guidelines and ban the abusers who have brought the darkness of the internet into the book world. —– Bullies in the book world can’t really function without these specific sites; they can’t do their damage without Goodreads, Amazon and the like — and these sites CAN stop what is happening. —- No, book sites don’t have to settle for the inevitable in the internet world; and we don’t have to settle for it either. We CAN push the internet troll darkness back out the doors of the book world simply by cleaning up the sites that have enabled these bullies to hurt others. —– And when I see an article like this one on STGRB, an article that indicates another abuser and offender has been banned from Goodreads, I say that is very good news. That is significant. That is progress. —- No, we may not change the internet, but we can do a great deal to make our part of it a safe place for those who love to write and those who love to read. Good work, STGRB. Thank you.
Exactly. We don’t have to fix the sociopaths. We only need to shut them out of our lives.
Most people don’t know that if their off time activities are seen to reflect poorly on their employer that they can be fired. Yes there are limits to do with human rights, and that is totally reasonable. (i.e. I can’t be fired for having sex with a gay partner, but I could be fired if I got caught doing it with my partner in a public park.)
I think the key to civility is that people must use their real names on any comments. Imagine that, having to take ownership for what I say and do. What a concept. Want to see the civility of comments and online behaviour improve instantly, force the use of a real name. That requires authentication via registration at a site that has no other purpose than to provide authentication that a person is who they claim to be. After that it is up to sites that allow comments and reviews to be posted to only accept comments from authenticated sources.
Now all every poster has to remember is that their online activity essential lives forever. It may result in a certain amount of self-censoring, but given the current state of things that may not be such a bad thing.
Using real names is a good idea, except for those writers among us who use a ‘nom de plume’.
Often this isn’t to hide behind, but because we write in different genres or fields. I use my ‘real’ name for factual articles, my real forename and my middle name for my crime fiction, and I’m contemplating a children’s book, which I shall write under yet another name as connections to my crime books for grown ups wouldn’t be appropriate.
However, those pen names are as important to us as our ‘real’ names… and as identifiable, so why not allow those as well?
Ginmar appears to have deleted her livejournal entries and taken refuge in her only two remaining outlets for spewing her hate: the Amazon fora and BookLikes.
This is good news. She’s in retreat. I’ve seen posts of hers in the Amazon Forums that certainly blatantly violate the guidelines. I hope participants will take the time to report those posts to Amazon. Let’s hope Amazon will take action.
She’s also made her Disqus profile private — https://disqus.com/by/ginmar/
It was public a month ago. She’d been commenting for years. She had over 4000 comments, most of them vile from what I could see.
It’s too bad she’s still on any site to be honest. Her one-star attack on my work is gone only to be replaced by one of her friends. It’s not that I care, that book isn’t so important to me that I’m going to make a fuss over it. But she claims to be the victim when she’s really the aggressor and she won’t see the truth for what it is. I have screenshots of an exchange I had with her on goodreads and mysteriously, after over a year and a half of having no activity whatsoever, I get two one-star ratings by her and one of her other bully friends. Solely on the basis of them not liking that I was standing up for a friend. Yet on this other person’s site they claim to be “against bullying and ratings abuse”. Ginmar has, multiple times, called me and others out on using our real name online as though it’s some sort of sin. All of my comments, all of my profiles to all social medias I use, is open and public. People can view my activity without restrictions because I’ve got nothing to hide and I don’t say things that I later feel the need to delete or destroy. My thoughts are just that she’s upset she has fewer people to attempt to doxx. She can’t exactly put out information we’ve already disclosed. She, however, hides behind the name “Ginmar” and her block button. She blocked me immediately after down-rating my book so I couldn’t see who had left the rating.
People like her need to be held responsible for the damage they do cause. They might not be able to ruin someone’s career but they can certainly ruin someone mentally. They’ve done it before and they won’t be happy till they do it again.
THANK YOU STRGB!!!!! Another bully bites the dust!!! Great news!!!! Next amazon will hopefully, kick her butt to the curb, too. Along with the rest of the troll parasites. Good riddance to that foul-minded loser Ginmar and may she be banned from the entire internet eventually along with the rest of her kind. Thanks again, STGRB. You are making a wonderful difference in the book world.
Yay – so glad GR as finally rid itself of that troll! Thanks for being a voice against bullying!
This is all new to me and I’m trying to understand the difference between negative or critical reviews of books and what is being referred to as “bullying,” if the references in what she seems to have written point to someone who was bullying her elsewhere? I mean, Goodreads isn’t the forum to deal with that sort of thing, surely, but can Goodreads be used for highly critical reviews that are honest? I’m asking openly: I just started an account there, and now I”m scared to review anything unless I adore the book.
Criticize fairly. If you find a narrative doesn’t hang together it is fair to say so. If you think a character is wooden then that is also fair game.
When I provide criticism I try to make it useful to the writer. Let the writer know why you feel the way you do, and provide examples. Saying that a book sucks contributes nothing. Attacking an author contributes less than nothing.
Be considerate. Why? Because that writer has put a lot of time and effort into their work, and none of us benefits when authors refuse to write because they don’t want to get slagged by a troll. So criticize fairly, the same way you would like to have your work criticize. It is not rocket science, just good reviewer etiquette.
Yay! Well done STGRB, good job.
Delighted to come across your site. THANK YOU for this blog. Thank you so so much.