Sam Quixote > Status Update

maybe your content is just that great. dont sell yourself short!

I am spectacular Jesse - you are that right.

The same thing happened to me. Hundreds! And these folks are new to Goodreads, most of them, with no books read or reviewed, or 1-2. . I thought it was suspicious, actually, for unclear reasons.

I haven't checked follwers yet, but I've had a couple of Friend requests recently from people with 0 frends and 0 boos read. The one other thing they both had in common was a brief note assuring me that I could download a free copy of a specific book--a different book in each case--that I'd reviewed. Seems like bots.

I had a couple of friend requests along those same lines....but noticed Cyrillic script in their profiles....I just blocked them assuming they were Russian bots of some sort.

There's a lot of it about

Meanwhile I get friend request after freind request telling me to "click here for a free copy of [insert title fo a book I've already reviewed here]". *rolls eyes*

Wow, 1000. I thought I had it bad with 500.

I awake this morning to several of these, that should all be deleted. I also get heard we should change routers. . .

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/27/te...

I also will try to figure out how to alert Goodreads about it. .

I have to wonder about the logic of the download thing. Why on earth would someone be interested in a free download of a book they've already read, which would imply ready access to a copy already?

Stewart wrote: "I have to wonder about the logic of the download thing. Why on earth would someone be interested in a free download of a book they've already read, which would imply ready access to a copy already?"

Since when does spam make sense? I mean, who believes in dead African relatives who want to leave you millions?

Think lots of people is having the exact same issue...

Dang it. I only received around 250 Russian bot followers in last two weeks. feeling left out :p

I got a response from Goodreads and agree there is a new influx of Spam they are aware of and are dealing with it, he says.

I received no new followers. "Reviews too boring even for Russia,"that's me!

Stewart wrote: "I received no new followers. "Reviews too boring even for Russia,"that's me!" LOL. Well, since the USA and Russia are now in league for World Domination, I feel like I am in a pretty good place with like 35 new Russian bot followers.

I just don’t understand the point of it. It’s not like I’m getting hundreds of extra likes/comments/recs/friend requests/spam, the bots are just following me and will likely get wiped out in a digital holocaust once GR figures out how. Unless this is the calm before the storm and I’m about to be inundated with recs for “free ebooks” with links to dodgy data mining sites…

And here I am, blissfully unaware that this was going on! Why am I left out? Patriotism? Feels unfair...

It's not spam. Some of us are being added automatically to new Kindle sign ups to give them some content in their feeds. I got this from mod Jaclyn. I deleted hundreds of them (paranoia!) before I found out what it was all about.

I think you might find your first follower you didn't get a notification for was Garrett. New techie GR member who is probably behind its implementation,

Thanks Petra! It's good to finally have an answer. At least they're real people and not empty accounts.

I haven’t received nearly so many, but I have received about a dozen people following me and sending me messages trying to direct me to a suspicious site for ‘free ebook.’

Oh... I am a couple hours too late. Whoops.

I was not told about the Kindle angle, and I can see why. Automatic adds are problematic, and they should know it. But they instead said to me, "oh! It's spam, we're working on it!" Garrett, eh?

I wrote a long complaint to Goodreads about this idea of adding all these people to follow for one of their own experiments. I have been around on GR long enough to recall when Amazon began to assert its ownership over the site, and people began to leave in droves. I warned them about intrusion for their own (capitalist) purposes. I know this is an Amazon site, and they are using our unpaid reviews to peddle their widgets, but I don't like to be reminded of it too often.

Petra X wrote: "It's not spam. Some of us are being added automatically to new Kindle sign ups to give them some content in their feeds. I got this from mod Jaclyn. I deleted hundreds of them (paranoia!) before I ..."

Interesting, I spent a lot of time deleting about 450 of them, and I've turned off allowing people to follow me!

Petra X wrote: "your first follower you didn't get a notification for was Garrett. New techie GR member who is probably behind its implementation"

He's totally a douche. And I don't use that word lightly.

Trish wrote: "Since when does spam make sense? I mean, who believes in dead African relatives who want to leave you millions? ."

But what about the ones trying to flee their country and want to share their millions? That's okay, right?

Sam wrote: "I am spectacular Jesse - you are that right."

I'm with Jesse.

Carol. wrote: "But what about the ones trying to flee their country and want to share their millions? That's okay, right?"

Because people with money needing my help to flee and therefore generously sharing their riches. Uh-huh, totally, you're absolutely right. ;)

Jan-Maat. Only 450?! You need to step up your game if you want Follower World Domination. Garrett is trying to help you with your Goodreads popularity problem!

David wrote: "Jan-Maat. Only 450?! You need to step up your game if yow want Follower World Domination. Garrett is trying to help you with your Goodreads popularity problem!"

450 or so, but you are right, I fail to appreciate how much and with what disinterest he was attempting to help me out, such in gratitude on my part!

I haven't noticed any weird (-er than usual) friend requests AND I'm not getting spammy offers for sketchy free e-books. This Garrett person needs to step up his game.

Garrett is only responsible for the following, I think. Not the free e books spam or the friend requests. But I agree, if he were really going to destroy all of our accounts as he seems intent on, he should step up his game and flood us with friend requests, too. This doesn't feel so much like Big Brother surveillance from them as it does capitalism, using our reviews to more widely push books. They must have discussed this as a strategy. But I have sent a few messages to (Big Brother at) Goodreads about this, unresponded to.

I had someone approach me like that about a month ago. She was located in Brooklyn but there was cyrillic writing in her profile. I've just unfriended her. I thought it was weird at the time, but know there are lots of Russians in Brooklyn. Hope I acted soon enough.

I approached Goodreads about this weird "following" issue, and I have not gotten a response, except I am suddenly fallen off the Most Followed list, dropped like a hot potato or some other cliche, in one week had thousands of followers removed, with no explanation.

Since I last posted, I've had two approaches like the one I've mentioned, though the last one had a few books listed, Tolkien, Harry Potter and the like. Again, Eastern European language used to describe oneself. And a name like John Smith as the person. I've started to investigate a bit before I say yes.

If you really do not want non friends by the hundreds following your reviews, you might want to make your profile private and just viewable to GR friends, for then you generally would not have to worry about followers anymore (that is what I did a few years ago because I was getting too much author spam and strange friendship requests and I really do not miss having followers). And if you really want to massively limit spam, you might also consider only allowing friends to comment on your reviews (but that can also and easily backfire).

David wrote: "Garrett is only responsible for the following, I think. Not the free e books spam or the friend requests. But I agree, if he were really going to destroy all of our accounts as he seems intent on, ..."

Since your message David, I cautiously amended my settings to allow followers again, and what ever you wrote and who ever you wrote to seems to have done the trick because I'm not gaining dozens of followers every hour anymore so cheers for that!

well. . . I never got any direct response from them, so won't take any credit. I know that I lost a few thousand followers,

Manybooks wrote: "If you really do not want non friends by the hundreds following your reviews, you might want to make your profile private and just viewable to GR friends, for then you generally would not have to w..." In general, the idea of allowing people to follow you is a good idea, especially for people who just might want to check out your ideas. As for me, since I post a lot of reviews, I think this is a good idea to see if you want to hear from me every day. . .

David wrote: "Manybooks wrote: "If you really do not want non friends by the hundreds following your reviews, you might want to make your profile private and just viewable to GR friends, for then you generally w..."

I had to weigh the advantages of having a private profile with having people following my reviews and for me, the former won.

For over two years I had no following of any kind and few GR friends. I wrote for myself and had no response. I prefer response. But if you don't like the interactions you have with people here, you can block people.

I spotted a response that finally explains this all from this thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

"We're proactively displaying content from top reviewers like you to new members of Goodreads. We hope this will help them quickly connect with readers who share interesting reviews and updates, and provide them with a more positive experience. While these are brand new accounts, they are real people!"

Thanks for the heads-up, my friend. I jumped on the thread.