Hi All, just wanted to report the existence of a new spammer, who's been posting a link to buy stuff in various groups, including the one I moderate on children's literature:

http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/18771...

Thanks in advance for taking care of this! I'm off to delete the post in my group

Abigail, Did you also send the link to the contact us link at the bottom of the page? I'm sure at one or the other location, when Goodreads sees this, this "member" will be deleted promptly.

He/she is in spammers hell in TNBBC. ^_^

Another one.

Link

What you probably can't see anymore is the one "book" she/he/it had shelved. It was called "Dating site" and it has been deleted. :P

Rivka. "Dating site" is back.

Oh no, you're right, but it's still showing on the profile.

Heh. Even though it's no longer shelved anywhere (it was "her" currently reading).

Bizarre.

TNBBC members love the Spammers Hell....
:)

Its fun for them to torment the spammers till I get there to knock and lock em out!

ok..i am getting so sick of MICHA..the infamous spammer.. he has struck again..he spammed my college students group..and the Chicks on Lit group..where clearly he is not a chick. And the problem is that he just keeps deleting his old profiles and makes new ones. Is there anything that can be done? I'm just so sick of him spamming my group. He is one of only a handful I have ever gotten in my group..and he does it allll the time.

here he is:

http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/22306...

Back again? He's like the Energizer Bunny on crack. :P

Back again? He's like the Energizer Bunny on crack. :P

:-)

He's even more annoying, and I honestly don't think he understands what he's not accomplishing. This really makes me wish we could flag entire member profiles.

Lisa wrote: "I honestly don't think he understands what he's not accomplishing."

Clearly. He is actively ensuring no GR member will read his book.

He is actively ensuring no GR member will read his book.

Exactly! Well, many, MANY fewer at the very least.

WHAT IS TNBBC!?

Hope it's not "Bobo" with another name...

The Next best Bookclub.

It isn't Bobo, it's some moron called Micha spamming his book. With Bobo you could hopefully put it down to him being a young immature child, Micha though seems to be an adult.

Has anyone sent a message to this Micha telling him how he is actually hurting any chance his book has with GR members with his tactics? Could he possibly not be aware of the author page option?

I think he must be aware by now, he's been at this for months! Profile gets deleted, he comes back again etc I guess he's going on the idea that all bad press is good press.

Makes sense -- although there are some terribly clueless people in the world. I didn't want to send a PM if he'd already been contacted, of if he'd responded badly.

Will just keep an eye on him.

Sherri wrote: "Has anyone sent a message to this Micha telling him how he is actually hurting any chance his book has with GR members with his tactics? Could he possibly not be aware of the author page option?"

haha yes..i sent him quite the message yesterday..explaining how marketing and advertising actually works..and telling him how unappreciated that his spamming his.

He used to have an author account, several deleted accounts ago.

Ok, sounds JUST like a terribly clueless person, or just a dumb vengeful one. Why do some people think they can annoy their way to success?

Dunno. I only visit NYC occasionally.

*rimshot*

;)

A new spammer has surfaced. Click here to view profile.:-(

S/He's posted that same comments on book reviews, too.

Kathrynn, I was just about to post about the same one.

Maybe we need a way to flag a profile.

I came to post about "milooe" too Kathrynn - it seems to be an advertising spammer for basketball shoes.

We kind of have the same problem at Barnes & Noble with authors. Especially the Small Press ones. For most of the time Small Press books are non-returnable book for us. So these authors know we will not carry them in the stores. What they will do is like order 5 or more under a different name and not come to pick them up.

Instead of trying the correct way of getting their books in the store, like trying to do a book signing. Or the publisher doesn't help them to push the book like they should. A lot of this small press authors are first time authors and they just don't know or understand how to promote their books. And no one shows them.

Some of the problems is the Publishers will tell the writers that the book is returnable so when they have come in the store and asked why we don't put in the store. I have had to tell them it was non-returnable. They will ask even then if if they ordered the book would we put them on the shelves. I have to say no. I will only order them if the a customer is going to pick them up.

I have to admit this has slowed done some. But it it is still a problem from time to time.

Kathrynn, Last night I flagged/reported 2 of their posts/I got emails about them because they were comments on reviews I was following. (I didn't click on any of those links!)

I just flagged a third one, on one of my reviews, then because it was my review, I was able to delete the post myself.

It's more worrisome to me that a spammer is spamming on reviews. In groups, there are enough members that someone will know about flagging; also the spammer has to join groups in order to post. Anyone can post on any review and members participating in those threads may have no idea what to do about it.

Re flagging profiles, not a bad idea, but you can always copy & paste their URL into a message and send it at the contact us link at the bottom of the page.

Stephen wrote: "We kind of have the same problem at Barnes & Noble with authors. Especially the Small Press ones. For most of the time Small Press books are non-returnable book for us. So these authors know we wil..."

The things that some will do to misuse the system...........it never fails to amaze me. Don't suppose it would occur to them that they are abusing B&N's kindness in ordering without pre-payment.

Lisa wrote: "Re flagging profiles, not a bad idea, but you can always copy & paste their URL into a message and send it at the contact us link at the bottom of the page."

It's actually easier if you flag the review/post/etc. than the profile anyway. That way we can see what they're doing that is problematic.

Stephen wrote: "We kind of have the same problem at Barnes & Noble with authors. Especially the Small Press ones. For most of the time Small Press books are non-returnable book for us. So these authors know we wil..."

My bookshop is in the Caribbean and so no books are returnable for me. I have to sail over to another island ($55 ferry) to even post them.

I do try and show local authors what they should do to get their book sold, but they confuse selling with promoting. When the Gvt. offers them a reception in the gvt buildings they take it. All A-list partygoers there for the freebies who will sadly have left their wallets behind and most never buy the book (or any other one). I tell the authors have a booksigning in one of the few bookshops here, especially in mine cos I have a cafe and the only proper bookshop. I know, same as you do, that I can sell from a signing. But no, they take the gvt freebie and later come in and say they only sold 5 books but they have promises of at least 50 people who are going to come and buy.

Stephen do you buy or have you bought from PGW - Publishers Group West, because I had some terrible security problems with them.

Another spammer.

Same guy different groups:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2300...

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2300...

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2301...

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2295...

^All of his Recent post are the same^

http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/28728...

I saw him post in two of my groups yesterday but I had to leave before I could do anything. Glad someone else caught him.

I deleted his comment in Poland group, where I'm a moderator. I also saw him in two other groups.

I removed him and his comments from the groups I moderate.

I didn't know if I was suppose to

Couture.Dior.Megan wrote: "I didn't know if I was suppose to"

You certainly don't have to, Couture. I delete the spam because it clutters up the posts, imo. (in my opinion)

Yes, I removed the post (Kathrynn, thanks for reminding me to remove him from the group) from a group I co-moderate, and just flagged him at another group.

Goodreads will delete this "member" but I'm sure they'll be back with another screen name.

Ok, so here's a question (just found a spammer post in the Nora Roberts group)...

Anyway, I flagged it and was about to delete it but I wondered if GR still has access to the post if we delete it from the group, or if we should leave it there for them to see and decide on an appropriate action.

Isis FG wrote: "Ok, so here's a question (just found a spammer post in the Nora Roberts group)...

Anyway, I flagged it and was about to delete it but I wondered if GR still has access to the post if we delete it ..."

I didn't delete from my groups for this reason

If we flag it, Goodreads sees it within the message and they see who posted it. I think enough of the posts have been flagged that it's okay to delete some of them, but that's a good point.

I wonder if we first flag with a message and then delete whether that would work.

I wondered about that, too. But the last I read, when a member was deleted their group posts remained. If I remember correctly, people were concerned when members canceled their membership that their posts in groups would be gone; thereby, (possibly) voiding the flow of the discussion.

Of course, that doesn't answer the question of whether GRs staff need to see the SPAM posts in order to determine if the member needs to be deleted.

Oh, that sounds like the best avenue to take, Lisa. Good idea.

Members have a choice whether or not their posts remain if they leave or are deleted from a group. I forget what the default is; I think it's that the posts remain if a person leaves, but I'm not sure, and I don't know if it's the same for moderator deletions.

I deleted him from the NR group, but left the post there for now.

Don't people have better things to do with their time than be obnoxious like this?

You could always take a screen shot of the spam before you delete it, so if GR has a question you would have a record of it.