Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

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Questions (not edit requests) > Multiple ratings of same book

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message 1: by Kate (new)

Kate Aaron (fairkatrina) | 22 comments An author brought to my attention that a member has added the same edition of one of her books four times (there's only three editions of the book on GR, so definitely duplicates, and I've double-checked these are all for one specific edition) and then rated each one differently (1* through 4*). This user seems to have done the same thing on a couple of different titles by different authors. I've never seen it before, is this some kind of glitch?


message 2: by Paula (last edited Apr 16, 2014 07:36AM) (new)

Paula (paulaan) | 7014 comments No, users can rate editions differently if they want to. Listening to a audio book is different to reading.

They may have made an error and selected different versions but questioning users on how they use GR is not the remit if a librarian


message 3: by Kate (new)

Kate Aaron (fairkatrina) | 22 comments I'm not questioning how the user is using GR, I'm questioning that these are multiple reviews on the same edition -- I have checked and double-checked that fact. I simply wasn't aware it was even possible to do that, and was wondering if it was an error in the system.


message 4: by Empress (last edited Apr 16, 2014 07:49AM) (new)

Empress (the_empress) Kate wrote: "I'm not questioning how the user is using GR, I'm questioning that these are multiple reviews on the same edition -- I have checked and double-checked that fact. I simply wasn't aware it was even ..."

As Paula said rating and reviewing different editions of the same book is something that people do.

It is not a glitch but how GR works, and readers are allowed to. But if you suspect abuse of the system you can always flag.

I'm not sure what happens if a person rates two editions and afterwards they are combined. I assume both ratings will stay. Sometimes users accidentally add duplicates (if they are looking at a different edition they might wonder why their book is not rated and rate again not realizing that each edition can be rated separately).

What kind of a glitch do you think it might be?


message 5: by Kate (last edited Apr 16, 2014 07:56AM) (new)

Kate Aaron (fairkatrina) | 22 comments There are three editions of the book listed on Goodreads. They are all combined and there are no others. The user has left four ratings, all on the Kindle edition, all left after the editions were already combined. That's what I'm finding confusing.

I completely understand that different editions can be reviewed differently, but how is a user able to leave more ratings than there are total editions, and to leave all those ratings for the same edition, at that? That's why it seemed to me like a glitch.


message 6: by Paula (new)

Paula (paulaan) | 7014 comments with out examples there is nothing librarians can look at. Since GR do not like users named in threads, it would be better to use the contact us link and send the name of the person to GR Staff.

If you link to the book then someone can take alook


message 7: by Kate (new)

Kate Aaron (fairkatrina) | 22 comments That's why I haven't named the book or user, I'm not accusing anyone of anything. I'm a librarian myself (as in, I have actual librarian status as well as author status) and I've never seen anything like it before. The author isn't bothered by it and approached me -- as a librarian -- simply because it seemed strange. As it was new to me, I thought I'd raise it here as a possible issue with the system, or as something that other librarians had seen before. As it clearly is an oddity, I'll go through the contact link.


message 8: by Empress (last edited Apr 16, 2014 08:52AM) (new)

Empress (the_empress) Have you tried to refresh the rating stats (under the delete cover option)?
It is possible that an edition was merged. I think a link to the book would be helpful.


message 9: by Kate (new)

Kate Aaron (fairkatrina) | 22 comments Thanks Ellie, but the technical department got back to me this morning and confirmed it is a system error.


message 10: by rivka, Former Moderator (new)

rivka | 45177 comments Mod
This is indeed a bug, and this not a librarian issue. Closing thread.


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