What Do You Think Of Goodread's New Review Guidelines???

[Patti (baconater)]

I agree, Elle.

[A.L.]

Patti (baconater) wrote: "Being devils advocate, A L.

A reviewer who one stars a book should never be flamed by an author, nor an author's ra ra group.

I know it hasn't happened often, but it has happened.

I'm so pleased..."

That isn't what I meant. Of course you are right, if someone doesn't like a book then fine they don't. By all means leave a one star review but it should be about why they dislike the book not because they think the author kicks puppies or whatever. Certainly the author's friends shouldn't flame them and really the author shouldn't reply but nor should the reviewer go into a rant about the fact said author is a kicker of puppies and get all their friends to 1 star it on that basis.

It goes both ways and both camps have individuals who...could have behaved better.

I agree individuals should take responsibility, be they author or reader.

Either way it could have been handled much better.

[Jim]

Patti (baconater) wrote: "Being devils advocate, A L.

A reviewer who one stars a book should never be flamed by an author, nor an author's ra ra group.

I know it hasn't happened often, but it has happened.

I'm so pleased..."

I agree entirely. It should never happen. At the very least it's rude, ignorant and unprofessional.
Looked at dispassionately there are times when reviews are strange, but frankly the odd poor review isn't going to make that much odds as my guess is that people who read them are smart enough to work out what is going on.

[Jim]

Elle wrote: "I am not a white bread fan (i take all my sandwiches in wholemeal) but sometimes you just cannot beat it...."

It's funny, after my cataract operations the hospital served me a couple of slices of white bread, toasted and nicely spread with butter, along with a cup of coffee.
It was gorgeous, utterly delightful.
Normally like you I eat wholemeal but this one time... :-)

[[deleted user]]

This isn't about an author, but I think that the principle of not retaliating is summed up well in this article!

http://uk.omg.yahoo.com/gossip/the-ju...

[Jim]

Or retaliate spectacularly and win over the judges with your puppy dog eyes so all is forgiven.
Not sure I can manage that bit :-(

[Jud]

Jim wrote: "Elle wrote: "I am not a white bread fan (i take all my sandwiches in wholemeal) but sometimes you just cannot beat it...."

It's funny, after my cataract operations the hospital served me a couple ..."

There's nothing as good as a perfectly toasted (to your own liking) slice of white bread with a slathering of real butter on top. Mmmm.....

*drools*

[D.D. Chant]

I was reading an article on line today, and apparently there is a web wide move towards more hands on moderation.

[Jim]

I am sure there will be. There have been too many police investigations and expensive court cases. No one running a forum is going to let things rip like they used to, especially if they're a big company, because they're just too tempting a target for the lawyers.

[Will]

Of course Booklikes is in Poland, where they don't have lawyers. Or they eat them, or something

[Jim]

Poland is still EU, which is effectively the same jurisdiction for a lot of regulation. I'd guess this would mean that you could bring a case against them in any EU member state. (Don't ask me, I'm not a lawyer)

You really need to set up outside the EU

[Will]

Actually it doesn't mean that Jim. The case has to be brought in the right country;.

And Poland is a notoriously difficult place to go and sue one of their nationals....

[Jim]

The number of Poles I seem to know, I'd probably just ask one of them to recommend a good lawyer back home ;-)

But if you've set your company up to avoid such legal entanglements it's not going to be good PR when your competitors have scare stories run in the media :-)