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A Plague of Dreams
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fluctuating review/ratings numbers
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I do not believe there is a way to retrieve a review that the member has deleted. And yes, it seems like there is a lag time in the way numbers are tabulated.That said though, I would humbly suggest that you try not to check it too frequently. It is enough to drive a person batty. I'm saying this as an author who realised that I was spending too much time worrying over reviews, and not enough time on my craft.
I really think that reviews are there for the readers, not for the authors. As a reader, I review books to show the next potential reader what I liked or didn't like about it. And I think once we, as authors, put our work out there, it has to stand on its own merit.
Another author gave me some very good advice early on. That advice was to spend the bulk of my time writing the next book, and not spend time looking at Amazon/Goodreads reviews.
It looks like you have some wonderful story ideas and I think your book is appealing. But I hate to see you worry over numbers. ;)
I mean this in the nicest way possible, and I sincerely hope I have not offended you. That said, GR ratings/reviews seem to have weird lag issues.
E.B. wrote: "I do not believe there is a way to retrieve a review that the member has deleted. And yes, it seems like there is a lag time in the way numbers are tabulated.That said though, I would humbly sug..."
thank you. I hope I wasn't obsessing too much, in fact I even asked for more lower star reviews to fix my bell curve! haha.
I just thought the review that's missing, although a 3 star, made a valid observation that might be helpful to other readers.
But I agree otherwise that moving ahead is the way to go. was up late last night working on volume 2. :)
I've occasionally noticed fluctuations in the "added" number - for example, it goes down by a couple, but then the next day it goes back up. That would make sense if two people removed it from their lists, but then two people would have to add it the very next day, which seems improbable, given the slow speed at which my 'added' numbers go up. I think there are a number of glitches of various different sorts.
Some times the ratings get confused. I have refreshed them and you know have 17 ratings with 14 reviews
Paula wrote: "Some times the ratings get confused. I have refreshed them and you know have 17 ratings with 14 reviews"thanks!
I don't check reviews too often, but last night checked Amazon. Lo and behold, there was a 1 star review from earlier this month. As with the other 1 star in the midst of 3s, 4s and 5s I think the newest one is "personal." The person did not give a name, has only reviewed my book and the tone was similar to the other bad review my book received. I agree - my reviews are given for the future readers. I either like a book or I don't. Rarely would I give a bad review. Grammar screw ups throughout a book do make me crazy and I'd say so, but that's about it.
Marilyn wrote: "I don't check reviews too often, but last night checked Amazon. Lo and behold, there was a 1 star review from earlier this month. As with the other 1 star in the midst of 3s, 4s and 5s I think th..."interesting, but not what I was starting the thread about.
Sometimes the accounts might be bots or socks that get deleted for spam. I've definitely had some people add and rate my books five-stars without having read them and when I went to see who they were they had names that didn't match their stated gender and thousands of books marked as 'read' - some of which weren't even released yet. It was very strange.GR has also been a little glitchy lately since they've been (I assume) doing updates.
In either case, I wouldn't worry about it! (:
I have noticed that ratings of multiple books sometimes suddenly turn up from readers who appear to be new to Goodreads, and who would also appear to have read multiple books on the same day. Recently I received such a rating from someone I strongly suspect has not read my book? What to do? Just ignore?
KimberlyThanks for the feedback and advice.
Maryann
Kimberly wrote: "Have to ignore. It's so sad what is happening. I hear from other authors daily who are crushed by multiple reviews tearing their work down after they received miltiple 5-star ratings. I will neve..."Downvoting is an absolute industry. I've seen it on so many sites. Extremely popular, previously highly rated stuff is the usual target. This is "trolling by other means". Ignore it. These guys usually think they're geniuses, which pretty much describes the problem.
There is a GR Librarian who has reviewed one of my books with one star, which is perfectly fine, but the rating has been been hidden in filter. I don't understand why a librarian (I am one as well) would hide their rating so I would like to know if any other author has had this experience.
I'm a librarian as well and I've never encountered this. I have been known to put up multiple reviews on the same day. I just don't have time to write a review on the exact day that I finished it. I do not see that as suspicious activity at all. Unless you mean something else by it? I'm a top 1% reviewer and I earned it by reading and giving valuable reviews that have been "liked" by other members. I love reviewing books. I'll actually be posting up two tomorrow that I have finished a few weeks ago but will mark as finished on that day. I'm not that precise. I mean, it is my shelves.
M.C. wrote: "There is a GR Librarian who has reviewed one of my books with one star, which is perfectly fine, but the rating has been been hidden in filter. I don't understand why a librarian (I am one as well)..."Hi all! Just to clarify, we don't actually allow posts in this group that name other members personally. Given this, M.C., I've edited the name of the Goodreads member out of your post.
If you're concerned about a specific rating or a specific member profile, please email us at support at goodreads dot com so that we can deal with the situation privately. A staff member would be happy to help you out.
Goodreads Librarians aren't staff members, so they do not have the option to hide a rating on your book's page. If a rating doesn't show up immediately, it's likely that there might be some sort of caching error. However, I am seeing the one-star rating that you mentioned on your book page - are you still having trouble seeing it?
I'm confused. Is the rating "hidden," or the review?
What should I do with a random low score rating from someone who apparently has not read my book? This has happened several times. Is there someone [eg administrator/librarian] at Goodreads to appeal to?
Unfortunately if a reader marks a book as a no-read your average goes down. You should be able to skip a book that has been recommended to you without effecting the books rating but you can't.... I skipped a book because it was about rape before I realised it effected the rating so have now deleted the book from my shelves.
You can also remove your review which is good because I have sometimes put a review on my phone without noticing it's the wrong book and have removed it, also if a member is no more the review disappears.
I DID have 17 ratings and 16 reviews. Now I have 16 ratings and 14 reviews. and at least one person's rating is posted separate from their review but still counted. I can't tell if goodreads is glitching, or if someone withdrew their review, or what.
I recognize one author's avatar and review are missing, the most recent one of 3 stars. It was a very valid and well written review. Unfortunately, I only recognized the avatar and did not write down their name. I intended to collect reviews soon but haven't done. It's gone now, and if the reviewer removed it, all well and good. It's a loss to future readers, but its their choice, if it is.
But that's one reviewer, whereas the total reviews is off by two of what it was yesterday. Two less.
So, I guess the question is, is this fluctuation merely a product of reviewer discretion, or are there tabulation glitches on goodreads going on? and if so, how do I get back those lost reviews?