Robot "Member" Leaving 1-star reviews

[Jen]

Hi. So, I recently held Giveaways, and have subsequently been targeted by what I highly suspect is a robot "Member" that leaves 1-star reviews of every book (except the ones they work for?).

I flagged the review on both of my two books and sent a note to Goodreads--no response.

A member has 14,447 reviews at the time of this comment--all 1's. Because "he or she" has been able to "review" my book twice, and they're new releases, the average rating is brought down substantially. This affects me as an author. It's irritating that no one has addressed my concern, and it's irritating that I have no real recourse.

What should I do?!
Thanks for your suggestions.
Jen

[Debbie's Spurts (D.A.)]

How long ago did you flag the duplicate reviews? They're not always immediately responsive or working except business hours, U.S. pacific time zone.

(Generally, staff will ask you to remove links to accused members from this public help desk forum -- I'm no one officual who can tell you to edit out the identifying links.)

Even if an okay account, duplicate ratings aren't allowed nor are ratings from anyone not disclosing they have a commercial interest in success or failure of your book such as working for competition.

You might also want to email an explanation to support @ goodreads.com (not sure which will get quickest response -- email, this thread or your flag).

[Mellie]

Jen wrote: "Because "he or she" has been able to "review" my book twice, and they're new releases, the average rating is brought down substantially. This affects me as an author."

Just curious - how do you know its a robot and not someone who did a mass import? Many new members import a database of their books and perhaps there was a glitch that gave everything a one star?

And I would disagree, a GR member rating your book does not "affect you" as an author. Its a reader expressing an opinion, or perhaps even just an indicator of their interest in purchasing a book. I also notice you're not complaining about the 5-stars with no reviews left by blank profiles on your books.

[Will]

I am not sure that there is much that Goodreads can do. They will not be able to tell whether the member's rating of one star is malicious or not. They probably won't simply remove it (unless the member is leaving a lot of one star reviews), because it could be genuine.

I have seen some people use the review system to mark a book that they want to read later. They didn't realise that this affected the overall average.

In the long run, I wouldn't worry too much about it. A single rating will become less and less important as you get more ratings. One of my books has a two star rating from someone who didn't leave a review. That book has seven fives, twelve fours and that solitary 2. I could get annoyed by that solitary 2, but I don't let it bother me. This sort of thing happens and is quickly drowned out by the real ratings.

[Yen-Tzu]

Hi Jen,

I'm sorry to hear about this situation! In cases like this, it's best to write in to support (at) goodreads (dot) com. As the Goodreads Team is currently taking a look at the flag and they'll respond to you shortly, I'll be closing this thread.

For future reference, it might help to note that we do not allow posts containing complaints about other members to name the member or link to the member's profile. I've removed the link to the profile and any mentions of the member's name in this thread. I've also removed the links to your books at the end of the post as we actually don't allow any form of self-promotion in our official groups.