Rating Multiple Editions of a Book

[Donna]

When I filtered by one-star ratings on this page, I saw two different people who had each given three different editions of this same book a one-star rating. I wasn't able to reproduce this myself, as the only option I saw was "Switch to this edition", but this seems to be an abuse of the system. If this doesn't go against Goodreads Policies & Procedures, then I think it should be added, especially given the fact that some of the books that were given one-star ratings are on the never or will-never-ever-read-this-author shelves. If they've never read it, they definitely shouldn't be allowed to rate or review it.

I understand this would be difficult to enforce, but I would think that it should be possible to at least limit rating a book to a single edition in order to prevent abusers such as this from intentionally dragging down (or beefing up) the overall rating of a book. I've suggested as much over in the Feedback group, but I think it might still be wise to do something about the multiple reviews on this particular book.

Thanks for the consideration.

[Moloch]

Donna wrote: "it should be possible to at least limit rating a book to a single edition in order to prevent abusers such as this from intentionally dragging down (or beefing up) the overall rating of a book."

This isn't likely to happen though, if only because rating multiple editions is, at the moment, the only way to record that you have re-read a book

Also, it's entirely possible that I have different editions of the same book and want to rate them differently: for example a classic with 2 different translators, and I want to rate each one separately.

[Andrew]

You can update the number of times you've read a book by editing your review of the book, in case anyone is wondering.

Translated editions do seem like a good reason to allow reviews on separate editions of the same book. Abridged versions may also be a good reason.

I wonder if there is any reason someone should be allowed to review a book that's not on their read shelf. Maybe because someone could add to their read shelf, write a review, and then remove from their read shelf. We wouldn't want someone's review to get deleted just because there was a shelf change. Would it make sense to force a book to appear on someone's read shelf as long as they have a review of that book?

[Scott]

There are a few books I have re-read, and I like seeing the different editions (completely different covers) show on my shelves. There is even one I have rated two different ways, because the first time I read it when I was a kid and I felt very differently about it as an adult.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

This is not a Librarians Group issue. You may wish to to use the Contact Us link on the Help page. Librarians can help with issues pertaining to specific book records or most related issues, but have no control over general site functionality or related issues. Closing thread.