Hi all, If you're not a member of the Goodreads Feedback group, you likely won't have heard about the new Terms of Service regarding reviews, as they have still not announced it to the whole site. I want to discuss this here and how it affects this group.
(I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but I hope you read it anyway.)
First, speaking as a Mod, I want to say this. We have many author members here, and we have done our best to support authors AND readers in this group. I respect and appreciate everything that has been contributed by every member of the group, authors included. I hope that, as I discuss "authors" below, you understand that I'm referring to a very small group of authors who feel as though every criticism is a personal attack, and who have decided to fight back against these perceived "bullies" and "trolls" which is how they refer to critical reviewers. Most of these authors have been banned from GR for harassment, and thus formed The Site I Will Not Name. (And I strongly advise against searching for them or visiting the site. They WILL harvest your IP address and use it against you. If you must, use a proxy server. )
With that being said, unfortunately, for the past year or two, there's been a growing animosity between readers and authors in the general book community, particularly self-published authors. With the kind of interaction that's possible online these days, it's inevitable that there will be conflict. Most of the issues I've seen are in the Young Adult/New Adult/Romance genres, and while there are definitely faults on both sides, I've seen many cases where these thin-skinned authors are making negative or critical reviews personally dangerous for reviewers, because the criticism is viewed as an "attack" on the author and/or their career.
For example, there's a post that is still up (at the time of this writing) on an author's blog with the warning that "trolls who attack authors" can expect to be tracked down with a bounty: "Spread the word, any trolls who attack writers can expect to be tracked down and exposed.
Every post they make leaves a trail back to them, don't let them forget that.
Every author they attack can potentially post a bounty for their real identity. Don't let them forget that." This boils down to the fact that your identity, and you, may not safe because you didn't like their book. Once you're outed, you could be followed, harassed, threatened or worse. Your family could be endangered. Because you criticized a book and the author took it personally.
This is one example. There are many, many, many more.
I bring this up, because Goodreads used to be a place where reviewers could post information about this kind of thing, but the new policy is that mentioning ANY author behavior in either your review or shelves is now forbidden, and will be deleted.
You are no longer permitted to shelve books as "avoid-author". You are no longer permitted to shelve books as "author-is-a-plagiarist" or "author-harasses-reviewers" or "author-is-a-nazi" even if you've literally shelved Mein Kampf that way. Technically, you're not even allowed to have "Nice-Author" or "Author-donates-to-charity" shelves, though so far, it's only the "negatively toned" shelves that seem to be deleted. (More on this in a bit.)
You are no longer able to comment on "author behavior" in your review space or review comments. You cannot post in your review that the author is a spammer, or that they manipulate ratings/reviews with multiple accounts, or that they harassed you because you didn't like their book, or that you refuse to buy a book by an author who supports a cause you don't believe in or agree with, or that they copied their book work for word from your own or from someone else's book, etc. Your review would be deleted under the new policy.
Listopia lists about author behavior have been deleted. So that is no longer a resource of unbiased information, either.
I don't honestly think that many people here will be affected by this change. I am not directly affected, but we are ALL affected by a change to the community, which is what this is. Essentially, Goodreads is censoring information. They are dictating what is "relevant" information to be posted here. And it reduces the credibility of the reviews on the site to know that others are being censored. In addition, these reviews were useful to remind the user of why they are avoiding certain authors, as well as serving a notice to other readers that they may be entering into a potentially volatile situation if they read and criticize their book. (For instance, Jackie purchased a book, disliked it, and only avoided potentially becoming a target because of another person's review warning her about the author's tendency to react badly to criticism, which caused her to decide not to review it at all.)
Goodreads decision to remove these reviews means that the authors who make it a point to name reviewers publicly, or send them harassing emails, or find their phone number and call them, etc now have even more incentive to do so, because the reviewers will be silenced if they bring attention to it here. Goodreads stance is that it will not tolerate harassment on either side, and to use the flag system for Goodreads to handle it. But, clearly, these authors can and do take the "fight" off of Goodreads, which leaves reviewers in a vulnerable position.
In addition to the potential actual, real danger, this decision reduces your ability to make informed choices about your book purchases. We are all consumers, who support authors with every book purchase. But I do not want to support authors who steal other peoples' work, or who actively campaign to reduce civil right for gays and lesbians, or... well, any number of reasons. I work hard for my money, and I have a right to choose how I spend it.
Because of this, many independent authors will suffer because fewer people will be willing to take a chance on an unknown author.
Goodreads used to be a site AGAINST censorship of information, thought, idea or expression, and now it is engaging in its own methods of it in order to protect authors who have been banned from the site for harassment, and in order to sell books.
And worse, they've deleted peoples content without notice. After assuring us that they would not alter or remove our content without permission. Per Otis (Goodreads CEO), "Your content is yours. Forever." They've deleted hundreds of reviews, and only notified the members afterward, and many peoples shelves as well. Including some innocuous ones, like "Due-to-author", "taa" and "hormel". Kara justifies this by saying: "We don’t comment publicly on individual cases, but in general, what we do is look at a shelf and see how it is used in context. In any case where we have decided to remove that shelf, we are confident that the shelf was being used in a way to review author behavior."
So, now, it's not just clearly negative author shelves, but the INTENT behind them. They are deleting shelves based on what they think that the shelf is being used for.
There are currently 62 pages of comments (almost 3100) in the Feedback thread where this was announced. I'll be honest, I've been less than polite in many of mine, because I am appalled at a BOOK SITE engaging in censorship, and right before Banned Book Week at that.
People have raised many concerns over this, many more than I've recapped here, and I encourage all of you to provide feedback to Goodreads regarding this. Even if you disagree with me and think I'm overreacting. :)
So, what does this mean for the group? Nothing, really. We will be maintaining business as usual here, though we may go back to being a private group with hidden discussions, if we feel it's necessary to allow everyone here to speak their mind freely. I'm also willing to set up folders/threads for additional discussions, information, whatever, if anyone wants them. Just let us know, or go ahead and open one. You know the drill. ;)
I encourage you to discuss this new policy with your friends, and let them know so that if they have concerns they can back up their reviews and shelves and book data. That won't help with all of the comments that may be lost if the reviews are deleted, but it's better than nothing.
Tip: For those wanting to save all their books/reviews before they're deleted, or simply in preparation for leaving, you can export a .CSV file.
Go to "My Books". On the left side is as list of links. Click on "import/export". On the new page, upper right, is the link to export to a .CSV file. (Yes, your whole review IS in the .CSV file).
As for me... A few weeks ago, I received the email from Goodreads thanking me for being in the top 1% of reviewers. I LOVE the social aspect of this site, and the friends I've made here because of the reviews I've written and the groups I've joined. I love this site. But I cannot support censorship, not in any form. As much as it kills me, I will be drastically reducing my contribution to this site.
Unless GR revokes this decision, I will be removing all of my reviews from the site. I will stop making Librarian edits to update the database as well. I have already adjusted my profile settings so that non-GR members cannot see my profile, which means that any affiliates who might have used my reviews can no longer do so.
I will still moderate this group, and hope that GR will come to their senses... but so far, it's not looking very promising.
Feel free to comment here, but also please comment in Feedback where it counts. Tweet, Instagram, FB, whatever if you also feel that this is wrong.
If you're not a member of the Goodreads Feedback group, you likely won't have heard about the new Terms of Service regarding reviews, as they have still not announced it to the whole site. I want to discuss this here and how it affects this group.
(I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but I hope you read it anyway.)
First, speaking as a Mod, I want to say this. We have many author members here, and we have done our best to support authors AND readers in this group. I respect and appreciate everything that has been contributed by every member of the group, authors included. I hope that, as I discuss "authors" below, you understand that I'm referring to a very small group of authors who feel as though every criticism is a personal attack, and who have decided to fight back against these perceived "bullies" and "trolls" which is how they refer to critical reviewers. Most of these authors have been banned from GR for harassment, and thus formed The Site I Will Not Name. (And I strongly advise against searching for them or visiting the site. They WILL harvest your IP address and use it against you. If you must, use a proxy server. )
With that being said, unfortunately, for the past year or two, there's been a growing animosity between readers and authors in the general book community, particularly self-published authors. With the kind of interaction that's possible online these days, it's inevitable that there will be conflict. Most of the issues I've seen are in the Young Adult/New Adult/Romance genres, and while there are definitely faults on both sides, I've seen many cases where these thin-skinned authors are making negative or critical reviews personally dangerous for reviewers, because the criticism is viewed as an "attack" on the author and/or their career.
For example, there's a post that is still up (at the time of this writing) on an author's blog with the warning that "trolls who attack authors" can expect to be tracked down with a bounty:
"Spread the word, any trolls who attack writers can expect to be tracked down and exposed.
Every post they make leaves a trail back to them, don't let them forget that.
Every author they attack can potentially post a bounty for their real identity. Don't let them forget that."
This boils down to the fact that your identity, and you, may not safe because you didn't like their book. Once you're outed, you could be followed, harassed, threatened or worse. Your family could be endangered. Because you criticized a book and the author took it personally.
This is one example. There are many, many, many more.
I bring this up, because Goodreads used to be a place where reviewers could post information about this kind of thing, but the new policy is that mentioning ANY author behavior in either your review or shelves is now forbidden, and will be deleted.
You are no longer permitted to shelve books as "avoid-author". You are no longer permitted to shelve books as "author-is-a-plagiarist" or "author-harasses-reviewers" or "author-is-a-nazi" even if you've literally shelved Mein Kampf that way. Technically, you're not even allowed to have "Nice-Author" or "Author-donates-to-charity" shelves, though so far, it's only the "negatively toned" shelves that seem to be deleted. (More on this in a bit.)
You are no longer able to comment on "author behavior" in your review space or review comments. You cannot post in your review that the author is a spammer, or that they manipulate ratings/reviews with multiple accounts, or that they harassed you because you didn't like their book, or that you refuse to buy a book by an author who supports a cause you don't believe in or agree with, or that they copied their book work for word from your own or from someone else's book, etc. Your review would be deleted under the new policy.
Listopia lists about author behavior have been deleted. So that is no longer a resource of unbiased information, either.
I don't honestly think that many people here will be affected by this change. I am not directly affected, but we are ALL affected by a change to the community, which is what this is. Essentially, Goodreads is censoring information. They are dictating what is "relevant" information to be posted here. And it reduces the credibility of the reviews on the site to know that others are being censored. In addition, these reviews were useful to remind the user of why they are avoiding certain authors, as well as serving a notice to other readers that they may be entering into a potentially volatile situation if they read and criticize their book. (For instance, Jackie purchased a book, disliked it, and only avoided potentially becoming a target because of another person's review warning her about the author's tendency to react badly to criticism, which caused her to decide not to review it at all.)
Goodreads decision to remove these reviews means that the authors who make it a point to name reviewers publicly, or send them harassing emails, or find their phone number and call them, etc now have even more incentive to do so, because the reviewers will be silenced if they bring attention to it here. Goodreads stance is that it will not tolerate harassment on either side, and to use the flag system for Goodreads to handle it. But, clearly, these authors can and do take the "fight" off of Goodreads, which leaves reviewers in a vulnerable position.
In addition to the potential actual, real danger, this decision reduces your ability to make informed choices about your book purchases. We are all consumers, who support authors with every book purchase. But I do not want to support authors who steal other peoples' work, or who actively campaign to reduce civil right for gays and lesbians, or... well, any number of reasons. I work hard for my money, and I have a right to choose how I spend it.
Because of this, many independent authors will suffer because fewer people will be willing to take a chance on an unknown author.
Goodreads used to be a site AGAINST censorship of information, thought, idea or expression, and now it is engaging in its own methods of it in order to protect authors who have been banned from the site for harassment, and in order to sell books.
And worse, they've deleted peoples content without notice. After assuring us that they would not alter or remove our content without permission. Per Otis (Goodreads CEO), "Your content is yours. Forever." They've deleted hundreds of reviews, and only notified the members afterward, and many peoples shelves as well. Including some innocuous ones, like "Due-to-author", "taa" and "hormel". Kara justifies this by saying:
"We don’t comment publicly on individual cases, but in general, what we do is look at a shelf and see how it is used in context. In any case where we have decided to remove that shelf, we are confident that the shelf was being used in a way to review author behavior."
So, now, it's not just clearly negative author shelves, but the INTENT behind them. They are deleting shelves based on what they think that the shelf is being used for.
There are currently 62 pages of comments (almost 3100) in the Feedback thread where this was announced. I'll be honest, I've been less than polite in many of mine, because I am appalled at a BOOK SITE engaging in censorship, and right before Banned Book Week at that.
People have raised many concerns over this, many more than I've recapped here, and I encourage all of you to provide feedback to Goodreads regarding this. Even if you disagree with me and think I'm overreacting. :)
So, what does this mean for the group?
Nothing, really. We will be maintaining business as usual here, though we may go back to being a private group with hidden discussions, if we feel it's necessary to allow everyone here to speak their mind freely.
I'm also willing to set up folders/threads for additional discussions, information, whatever, if anyone wants them. Just let us know, or go ahead and open one. You know the drill. ;)
I encourage you to discuss this new policy with your friends, and let them know so that if they have concerns they can back up their reviews and shelves and book data. That won't help with all of the comments that may be lost if the reviews are deleted, but it's better than nothing.
Tip: For those wanting to save all their books/reviews before they're deleted, or simply in preparation for leaving, you can export a .CSV file.
Go to "My Books". On the left side is as list of links. Click on "import/export". On the new page, upper right, is the link to export to a .CSV file. (Yes, your whole review IS in the .CSV file).
As for me... A few weeks ago, I received the email from Goodreads thanking me for being in the top 1% of reviewers. I LOVE the social aspect of this site, and the friends I've made here because of the reviews I've written and the groups I've joined. I love this site. But I cannot support censorship, not in any form. As much as it kills me, I will be drastically reducing my contribution to this site.
Unless GR revokes this decision, I will be removing all of my reviews from the site. I will stop making Librarian edits to update the database as well. I have already adjusted my profile settings so that non-GR members cannot see my profile, which means that any affiliates who might have used my reviews can no longer do so.
I will still moderate this group, and hope that GR will come to their senses... but so far, it's not looking very promising.
Feel free to comment here, but also please comment in Feedback where it counts. Tweet, Instagram, FB, whatever if you also feel that this is wrong.