Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion
III. Goodreads Readers
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Are your reviews wrong?
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V.K.
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Sep 21, 2013 01:44PM
I recently logged in after being absent for a while, and l found that all the reviews I've done on books I've read aren't reflecting the ratings I've given them. Some of them are outright wrong and others are missing stars completely. Is anyone else having this weirdness happening with their book ratings?
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Fortunately I've not had that problem - yet :-o)
Amazon has removed two five star reviews on one of my books without explaination. One review I did on another author's book was taken off without explaination also. I haven't had any ratings changed. I don't understand why they do these things, YOu didn't say if yor reviews were on Amazon or goodreads. Where were your reviews?
Sorry, this is all Goodreads. It was just my ratings of other books. might've been a bug in my browser, though. Seems to be working ok on the iPad.
Amazon is auditing reviews; if the reviewer has not bought the book they remove the review.
In the past week, I've found that Amazon has removed two reviews I gave books. I'm no longer going to post reviews there unless an author specifically asks me to because obviously it's a waste of time. They didn't bother explaining why to me, either, Peggy. And I bought the books there, Nancy. I don't know what in the world they're doing, besides discouraging anyone from writing a review.
Part of the problem may have to do with the fact that Amazon doesn't approve of quid pro quo reviews. When Amazon finds that authors have reviewed one another's books and left good reviews, Amazon may well delete both reviews.
Kathy wrote: "Part of the problem may have to do with the fact that Amazon doesn't approve of quid pro quo reviews. When Amazon finds that authors have reviewed one another's books and left good reviews, Amazon ..."In my case, my reviews were of traditionally published authors' books, and I don't know the authors, so that's not it. One was a 1-star and the other a 2, and they discussed content and were not abusive (I don't write abusive reviews). I can't understand why they were deleted.
Kathy wrote: "Part of the problem may have to do with the fact that Amazon doesn't approve of quid pro quo reviews. When Amazon finds that authors have reviewed one another's books and left good reviews, Amazon ..."That's presumptuous. What if both books are worthy of good reviews? Don't you need to presume honesty?
Could this all be a glitch? (A problem Amazon may have had with their date base or something?) I have only written two bad reviews and both are still there. On the other hand I noticed that they removed one review I had made with a 4 stars and there was absolutely nothing offensive about it and on top of it, although I gave a 4 there was also things I didn't like I had put in it. So it was not a fluffy post to help a fellow writer either. Why they target that one especially? I don't know so that is why I want to give them the benefit of the doubt and hope it was a glitch.
Did you hear tht Amazon bought Goidreads? I don't know what may happen to reviews posted on both sites. I haven't had any removed.
G.G. wrote: "Could this all be a glitch? (A problem Amazon may have had with their date base or something?) I have only written two bad reviews and both are still there. On the other hand I noticed that they re..."I'm afraid it's not a glitch, and, yes, I heard that Amazon bought GR. As of September 20 (I think), GR is deleting shelves that have "offensive" names and has started deleting reviews. In one thread I was watching, an author said 90 reviews they'd written got the ax. There was no notice or explanation. This whole change/problem is discussed at length in the Goodreads Feedback group, which I'm not part of.
Here's what I posted in another group in response to hearing about the shelf deletions and what's happening to reviews:
I think it's censorship--and this comment is coming from an author. I also write reviews and just found out that Amazon has deleted two of mine without notice or explanation; one was a 1-star and one was a 2-star, which was awfully convenient for the authors (and I bought the books on Amazon, so that wasn't the reason they were deleted). I'm no longer going to be posting reviews on that site.
Amazon now owns Goodreads. If Amazon's policy of deleting without notice or the courtesy of an explanation spills over to GR, I won't bother posting reviews here either.
I'm wondering whether this new policy on GR has been imposed on them by their buyers. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but it's a little too coincidental with what's happening on Amazon.
Harold wrote: "Kathy wrote: "Part of the problem may have to do with the fact that Amazon doesn't approve of quid pro quo reviews. When Amazon finds that authors have reviewed one another's books and left good re..."I agree with you, Harold. But I know that in some cases these review-exchanges are being deleted. In fact, I was on a conference yesterday that was helping people to promote their books on Amazon, and people were being instructed not to arrange quid pro quo reviews because it is possible that both of those reviews will be deleted.
In addition, I know there is one Goodreads group that ensures you will not review the book of an author who is also reviewing your book, and authors are told not to seek one-to-one exchanges like that.
Kathy wrote: "Harold wrote: "Kathy wrote: "Part of the problem may have to do with the fact that Amazon doesn't approve of quid pro quo reviews. When Amazon finds that authors have reviewed one another's books a..."It's not authors exchanging reviews either, at least not for mine that got deleted. How do I know? I hadn't published yet when I reviewed the book that got deleted AND no one has reviewed mine so far so that theory is out. The only thing that I may have done differently on that book is I "think" I may have changed the stars review afterwards. I know I raised it one star up here on GR so I may have done it there too. They may have thought that the author contacted me or something, which was not the case.
I just may have to try to repost it to see if they will remove it again without saying a word. :>
Kathy wrote: "Harold wrote: "Kathy wrote: "Part of the problem may have to do with the fact that Amazon doesn't approve of quid pro quo reviews. When Amazon finds that authors have reviewed one another's books a..."That's interesting. Do you mind telling me the name of the conference? It sounds like something I could use.
I read it earlier William. Do you have a link to any article about this?
I actually asked Amazon to delete a 5 star review that had been written by my aunt because the content stated my first name and that she was my aunt. They left it up there. Go figure.
I wrote an article that I hope puts reviews into some perspective. It's here and on my blog:
Who's to say: Subverting the tyranny in book reviews
Who's to say: Subverting the tyranny in book reviews
