Everything Booklikes & Leafmarks discussion

We are all in this group and on BookLikes because we are pissed off with Goodreads. There have been lots of protests by individuals and groups, and some have got media attention.

Here is one we can all contribute to by doing one or all of the following:

1. Go to Off-Topic: The Story of an Internet Revolt and 'like' one or more, or all of the reviews (if you do like them, if you don't well obviously don't vote),

2. Go to Best nonfiction books 2013 and go to the write-in vote section and add Off-Topic, if you think this is the best book (available for 99c here at Lulu or free here)

3. Go to Best debut Goodreads author and add Off-Topic if you think this author should be nominated as writing the best debut book.

Apparently to move on to the next round, a write-in book has to get not only a lot of votes, but a lot of likes. It will be even more of their draconian censorship and deletion policy if lots of of us vote for this book and they just ignore/delete it anyway. But with a lot of likes, it will be obvious that

If you could take a few minutes to read and rate the book, we might be able to make this happen--according to GR's rules, 5 write-ins will be added into the next round, and other than the number of write-in votes, the most significant thing is the number of ratings the book has:

"Write-in votes will be weighted by the book’s number of ratings to determine the top five books to be added as official nominees in the Semifinal Round."

**added a screenshot of the rules as of Nov 5 just in case GR decides to change them without telling anyone:

And G.R. Reader is now officially a Goodreads Author, so her book is eligible for Goodreads Author Debut Book. (Before people were writing it in, but it wasn't actually eligible.)

I've been voting like crazy. Thanks; I see I have a few days. I'll try to read the pdf and not wait for paperback.

I'd especially love this book to move on and win in the debut author category. I smile just thinking of it.

^^^

I added this one to the:
Debut Author
Non-fiction, and
Memoirs/biographies section - found this to be a logical addition in my mind.

Review up. Too tired to think. It feels good to try to do something though. Thanks for those first 3 posts Petra, Carly, and Lobstergirl. Will vote on a couple more reviews then off to bed, and more every day until the closing.

It's also important to frequently refresh the book page so reviews from community members will show up more quickly. Otherwise, there's the caching issue.

Voted as non-fiction!!!

Please tell all you friends to add the book and rate it.

I don't think we will get anywhere but if has more ratings than the books that do get promoted that will prove censorship is continuing and maybe we can get some media attention for it.

Rated/reviewed/voted on any review I find.

AH wrote: "Rated/reviewed/voted on any review I find."

^^ Except for that guy whose "review" consisted of "overreaction much?"

How about a write-in for history/bio? Last month is history...

Tracey, librarian on strike wrote: "AH wrote: "Rated/reviewed/voted on any review I find."

^^ Except for that guy whose "review" consisted of "overreaction much?"

How about a write-in for history/bio? Last month is history..."

Yah, what's up with that?

oh, almost forgot: when you rate/review the book, don't forget to fill out the meta data! :)

There are a lot of new reviews being written, and it can take a bit for them to show up. If it's longer than a few days, then I'd worry.

Having a private profile should not affect the visibility of your reviews, no.

You could try sorting by "newest," rather than default; that sometimes helps.

There are only 132 ratings. That is not going to get the book into the second round. There are over 900 of us here, if even half of us added and rated the book it would help.

The results of this Award thing will get a lot of coverage online and this protest book should be part of it, so please encourage your friends to add and rate the book

Also, could we all screenshot our votes? That way we have at least some concrete evidence of votes made to use when GR refuses to add the book.

A friend's book made it to the semi-finals last year based on writeins (poetry) and it still only has 34 ratings and 5 or 6 reviews.

I think this stands a chance.

Once it comes out in paperback, I plan on reading it. I refuse to use e-books, however.

Tracey, librarian on strike wrote: "AH wrote: "Rated/reviewed/voted on any review I find."

^^ Except for that guy whose "review" consisted of "overreaction much?"

How about a write-in for history/bio? Last month is history..."

I even liked that review. Isn't the right to post an honest opinion kind of the entire point?

Melissa wrote: "Once it comes out in paperback, I plan on reading it. I refuse to use e-books, however."

It is available free as a pdf. But, if you have been following this debacle you would have read quite a few of the reviews anyway.

There is no need to read a book to rate it. That is not in the ToS. People rate books all the time that aren't out yet. Publishers love that, creates a buzz. People also used to be allowed to rate and review books that they wouldn't read because the author was an annoying special snowflake but you aren't allowed to do that anymore. Which is a great part of what this protest is about.

So adding, rating and if you feel like it, reviewing this book whether or not you read it, is a protest against censoring and deleting reviews, against allowing people to review authors positively but not negatively, the whole hypocritical censorship-without-notice of it all.

So add it and rate it. There are 900 of us, and only 158 people have rated it. That is too, too sad!

The whole censorship thing was hidden from 99% of Goodreads, no one who wasn't on Feedback knew. We risk this book-as-protest disappearing too if it doesn't get through to the second round.

I know GrAmazon probably want us all just to shut up and go away but I ain't going quietly, I want to make them feature this book.

Randolph wrote: "What if we could get this sucker on the NYT bestseller list?"

Impossible in its current format. Nearly impossible when it is in paperback.

But, getting one, or a few, highly regarding columnists to write about it? That's possible, but would take a fair amount of work, unless one or more of them just happen to find out about this, from being on Goodreads, for instance.

Cphe wrote: "Bought, rated, reviewed, voted on

I looked on Ammie to review it there as well, but no go"

Yeah, if you're referring to Amazon, it won't be there. It won't be sold there, so they can't make any money off of it, so it's useless for them. Not a bad thing.

FYI, it's available as a free pdf - the link is in the book's description.

Lobstergirl wrote: "FYI, it's available as a free pdf - the link is in the book's description."

Or in point 2 of the first post above.

Randolph wrote: "What if we could get this sucker on the NYT bestseller list? I think this group should change its name to Occupy goodreads. What would a corporation do if the main focus of their social network b..."

Bestseller list! First we have to get it into round 2. Many more people need to add it. Then there maybe some media attention, but it won't get further than round 2. If there aren't even 200 people who will add it and rate, there aren't going to be the numbers to vote it up to round 1 (if GrAmazon don't screw with the figures so that it just disappears, which is what I expect).

Petra smells something fishy round here wrote: "Randolph wrote: "What if we could get this sucker on the NYT bestseller list? I think this group should change its name to Occupy goodreads. What would a corporation do if the main focus of their..."
I'm hopeful. I think if we have at least 300 or so ratings by the 9th, we'll be up there. And I think we're in better shape than it looks, because a lot of people have shelved it "currently reading." So I really think we may be able to get to 300...
Keep it coming!
If we get to 500, there's no disputing its right to be on the list.

Has anyone thought about contacting some of the journalists who reported on this previously?
Then it's a victory, in terms of raising awareness, whichever way it goes, especially if we can prove/strongly suggest that GR cheated to eliminate it.

I was contacted by a site member today who had no clue about the whole situation - he found out by reading one of my "curtailed because of censorship" reviews and asked what it was about? So I gave him a bunch of links including to G.R. Reader's debut...

I wonder what percentage of active users are still unaware of what's been going on?

Robert wrote: I wonder what percentage of active users are still unaware of what's been going on? "

It's high.

I've been contacted by PM by at least 5 or 6 members - "what's with the 'censored'?"

Lisa wrote: "Robert wrote: I wonder what percentage of active users are still unaware of what's been going on? "

It's high."

Yep, undoubtedly.

It's frustrating.

I created an exit poll of sort to track the votes for Off-Topic but I can't figure out how to allow several answers... ETA: it looks like it's impossible to allow multiple answers. The alternative is to create a poll for each category...

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/1...

(or look under "polls" in the group)

Moderators: please delete the poll if you deem it not appropriate or useful. Or make any changes you want. :)

I voted for Off-Topic in fiction and debut GR author. :)

ETA: corrected the link to the polls

Polls on this site can't have multiple answers. The way around that is to post as 1st vote, 2nd vote, 3rd vote, etc. and to have all options for each poll.

Of course, not everyone who voted for this book in the awards will see the poll(s), so...

Lisa wrote: "Polls on this site can't have multiple answers. The way around that is to post as 1st vote, 2nd vote, 3rd vote, etc. and to have all options for each poll. "

That's what I figured. I'll change the poll.

Votes on the poll show in users' Update feeds (unless they unselect the option) so it might enhance the signal. :)

So I created 2 polls: one for nonfiction, one for Debut Author. Let me know if I should create others for other categories. :)

Xox wrote: "I started twitter about this as well.

My tweet.

"Voted for "Off-Topic" in the Opening Round of the 2013 #GoodreadsChoice Awards""

That's great! Please tweet 'add and rate this book, free pdf' link in first message. Ta!

Book Portrait wrote: "So I created 2 polls: one for nonfiction, one for Debut Author. Let me know if I should create others for other categories. :)"

Link to the polls: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/1...

(Posted, to be on the safe side, because I got a "sorry we can't find that poll" response when clicking on the link included in message no. 40.)

Themis-Athena (Does not and never will own a Kindle) wrote: "Link to the polls: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/1...

(Posted, to be on the safe side, because I got a "sorry we can't find that poll" response when clicking on the link included in message no. 40.)"

Thanks! I forgot to relink the new polls after I deleted the old one. No GR conspiracy here. :)

ETA: I corrected the link in the first message mentioning the polls.

Book Portrait wrote: "Thanks! I forgot to relink the new polls after I deleted the old one. No GR conspiracy here. :)

ETA: I corrected the link in the first message mentioning the polls."

Cool. I suspected it was because you'd deleted the original poll, primarily just wanted to make sure people can find the new polls without worrying about the deleted one. ;)

I also voted for Off Topic under best horror category.

Laima wrote: "I also voted for Off Topic under best horror category."

LMAO. Do you mean that should be a poll too? ;-)

Yes, it is a horror story that just happens to be true!

According to the official rules, "A book may be nominated in no more than one genre category, but can also be nominated in the Goodreads Author category."

I think that means voting for it in "horror" disqualifies your vote for it in "nonfiction" ...

But does not disqualify your vote in Debut Author.

Ok thx for the update!

Bunny wrote: "But does not disqualify your vote in Debut Author."

True. It's just that you can't vote it into two genre categories (i.e., three categories total) -- so among those, it has to be either "Nonfiction" or "Horror."

(I was pretty tempted to add other categories in addition to "nonfiction" as well, but after reading the rules I figured I'd much rather support the categories most other people were also voting for ...)

Agreed. So the best thing to do is to vote for it in the two categories that do not cancel each other out, genre and author. Then it is probably good to choose the one within those categories that already has the most votes so as to have more of an effect. Ie, non fiction, not horror, and debut author not some other author category.

I wish there was a business category. Yep, I was tempted by horror too.

Because I want to give it its best chance to move on, a long shot anyway, I voted in non-fiction and debut GR author. Boy, I'd LOVE to see it move on in that latter category. ;-)

Is there a place where people can post links to their reviews so we can all go "like" and support them?

UniquelyMoi Dhestiny Takes a Deep Breath wrote: "Is there a place where people can post links to their reviews so we can all go "like" and support them?"

I've been going to the book's page and voting for every review I find. When I got mostly caught up, each time I refresh the page I sort as new to find the new reviews. There are only a couple I haven't wanted to vote for so far.