Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
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Near total purge of YA lists
I would guess it might be helpful if you provided links here to the lists in question. Then mods could (maybe) try to reverse the changes done...
I'm sorry, I was so upset I can't even think clearly.The YA Novels of 2019 list has been almost totally purged. Hundreds upon hundreds of titles are gone....
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...
The YA Novels of 2020 also seems to have dozens of books deleted...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
I have not checked the others. I believe the YA Novels of 2018 list is still intact (for now), but the person in question is deleting as we speak.
Is it possible for mods to reverse changes? That would be such a relief if they can. Otherwise, the lists will have be rebuilt from scratch, and they are typically created 4 years in advance.
Rainbowheart wrote: "Is it possible for mods to reverse changes? That would be such a relief if they can. Otherwise, the lists will have be rebuilt from scratch, and they are typically created 4 years in advance."So sorry Rainbowheart.
What might be helpful for the future would be some rules in the Librarians Manual.
Edit: Have you posted about this in Feedback, Rainbowheart? Maybe a staff member will turn up there.
Thanks, Carol. I feel like crying right now. I've spent hours and hours cultivating the YA lists. Even though I'm not the list creator, I've kept up with them for the past 5 years. I check Publisher's Weekly every week so I can add new releases.So much work has been lost. Literally thousands of voters have had their votes erased. Hundreds of books are gone. I was able to find each list in Google's cache, but it only shows the first page. All the other hundreds of votes will be lost to memory if they cannot be restored by mods.
Have you posted about this in Feedback, Rainbowheart? Maybe a staff member will turn up there."I have not. Thank you, I will try that right now.
Not sure if it helps or not, but you can figure out which book is deleted from a list by using the Librarian edit log.The number listed for each deletion is the book ID. So while very, very time consuming you can check the book IDs to figure out what the book were.
I usually open another book record and just replace the ID number with the one from the log (saves typing the whole URL).
It won't help with the votes, but at least you'd know what was deleted.
Thanks, Miriam. I know that you can see which books were deleted, but it is going to be a long process trying to rebuild from scratch. It wasn't just a few books. It was nearly the entire list.We will have to try to rebuild if the mods cannot restore the lost votes, but with only 100 votes allowed per person, it is going to be a slow process. The 2019 list was created in 2015, and it took years to get where it was. It's crazy to me how all of that can just be destroyed in an instant.
Also be sure to email support. That's ridiculous that someone would do so.
Hannah wrote: "Also be sure to email support. That's ridiculous that someone would do so."There have been a few moral crusaders of late persistently objecting to certain books being on those lists. Looks like one of them finally had a meltdown.
Thanks, Hannah. I did that, too. I had a bad feeling something was going to happen.I alerted staff on Friday after the Librarian in question changed the titles and descriptions on all the YA lists, but it was after work, and I suppose everyone had gone home. I alerted again tonight when I noticed the purge was going on.
This is just incredibly sad and disheartening.
Scott wrote: "There have been a few moral crusaders of late persistently objecting to certain books being on those lists. Looks like one of them finally had a meltdown."Yes, it's the very same one who has been flagged and reported multiple times before.
The last time I remember the lists being hijacked Rivka mentioned they couldn't reverse it. Not sure if anything has changed in the years since :(https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Well, then it's high time to make a suggestion to fix it: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/.... At least this way, we would be able to see 'who done it'.
The 2019 list is now completely deleted from Goodreads. That Librarian deleted every single book, so now the URL has been erased. No one can add to it anymore, and I do not think the history can even be seen.I'm completely in tears now. I cannot believe this has happened. How could someone who had repeated flags and reports for misconduct have been allowed to continue like this? This is an act of deliberate sabotage.
Google's cache view of the 2019 list before it was erased....https://webcache.googleusercontent.co...
Rainbowheart wrote: "The 2019 list is now completely deleted from Goodreads. That Librarian deleted every single book, so now the URL has been erased. No one can add to it anymore, and I do not think the history can ev..." Personally, I think it's all crazy, 'cause:
- The YA vs NA distiction is flimsy at best.
- Kids are subjected to a lot more graphic stuff at sex ed lessons and on TV than most lit can suggest
- I've read Lady Chatterley's Lover at 6 and loved it :) and haven't experienced any negative effects other than loving books
- It's extremely crazy that GR even lets some users highjack other people's threads....
Contact GR support directly / and name the librarian; tweet them if needed (that always gets attention)
I don't have Twitter, so if someone else could do that, that would be great.I did use the "contact us" link earlier tonight.
I tweeted them already - no idea who (if anyone monitors) their last tweet was 7hrsago
Thanks, Dee. I assume they're all either home or asleep by now.What's so terribly upsetting is that clearly this was planned for a night when staff would not be working.
Also by a librarian who has a private account and not a huge amount of ratings...if she gets punished, might even be the type to come reinvent themselves for the future.It specifically says "we take deletions very seriously"...if this person has been flagged in the past, she needed to have lost privileges long ago.
That's what I don't understand. Why was she allowed to continue when it was clear she was part of that censorship brigade? I knew something was going to happen, but I had no idea it would be as drastic as this.
how does someone with zero books get to be a librarian?
Hannah wrote: " "I can't begin to imagine how boring that must be, clicking off for hours... maybe we could reco some good book to her, to take the edge of the OCD off?
Scott wrote: "how does someone with zero books get to be a librarian?"You add them, you get the coveted status, you delete them, muahahah!
She's not with zero, her stats: 426 ratings | 5 reviews.
when I look at her profile it has 0 for everything. Maybe it's a mobile bug.
Scott wrote: "when I look at her profile it has 0 for everything. Maybe it's a mobile bug."I see the same numbers that Misericordia does. But the woman's profile is also private, big surprise.
This is the list that was created on Saturday, obviously in anticipation of attacking and deleting the main YA Novels of 2019 list.https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Now they have a "pure" YA list where they can ban Sarah J. Maas and any other authors they deem to not be YA.
Rainbowheart wrote: "This Now they have a "pure" YA list where they can ban Sarah J. Maas and any other authors they deem to not be YA. " Consider me a
Let's not make any more work for the mods!Although I understand the temptation.
Rainbowheart wrote: "Let's not make any more work for the mods!Although I understand the temptation."
Eh.... Let's practice resisting the temptation :) Though frankly I don't think the mods would be worried about us not being too knowledgeable of YALSA :). Anyway, at some point someone would post something out of YALSA, what's she gonna do, guard it bodily for years to come? AND, those novels are not issued yet, so how can anyone be sure they are not going to include something out of line? The only way to guarantee that would be to read the novels and to do that today we would need time machines.
What you found, proves beyond doubt that those actions were not only disruptive but premeditated and well-planned. Unforgivable, in a word.
I'm seriously tempted to add some books I read when I was a teen... >:-)
Thank goodness I just got notice that the Librarian in question has had her powers removed.There's still a ton of work to be done in trying to rebuild, but at least the rest of the lists are safe for now.
Rainbowheart wrote: "Thank goodness I just got notice that the Librarian in question has had her powers removed.There's still a ton of work to be done in trying to rebuild, but at least the rest of the lists are safe..."
Glad to see that!!!
I have a terrible feeling the 2019 list is lost forever, but I'm hoping staff has some way to retrieve the log of the books that were deleted. It will be slow going (the list had around 1500 voters and over 630 books), but it should be possible to rebuild if we at least know what was deleted.
Alison wrote: "Scott wrote: "when I look at her profile it has 0 for everything. Maybe it's a mobile bug."I see the same numbers that Misericordia does. But the woman's profile is also private, big surprise."
Now that I am on my desktop, I do see the private profile and the stats that Mis sees as well. Just the mobile app that shows 0 I guess.
Rainbowheart wrote: "For those who are interested in helping rebuild, a new list was just created...YA Novels of 2019"
I want to help, but I have no idea what is the best way to go about it. I don't have much experience with Listopias.
I think a good start would be adding all of the books that were part of the original list's top 100.https://webcache.googleusercontent.co...
I don't know how long Google's cache is kept, so this link may not be available for long!
I'm wondering: if a regular librarian saw this happening in real time, would we be able to reverse edits as they happen?
As far as I know, there's no way for regular Librarians to reverse edits. I saw it happening in real time last night, but there was so much to deal with, and it all happened so fast. One minute the 2019 list was there, albeit drastically reduced, the next minute, it was gone.
There is no "undo" function, unfortunately. (I don't really understand why some edits have it and others don't.)
damn it.So, that's what we need to lobby for next: either the ability to completely reverse list edits OR the ability for a Super to do an emergency list lock down pending Staff review.
In fact, I think that having the ability to do some type of emergency lock down should be available to any librarian - with the understanding that Staff would review any usage and possibly revoke librarian privileges if abused.
MrsJoseph wrote: "damn it.So, that's what we need to lobby for next: either the ability to completely reverse list edits OR the ability for a Super to do an emergency list lock down pending Staff review.
In fact..." And we might need exports-imports: for lists and, probably, quotes, since the issue is likely similar.
A librarian seeing THAT could have done an emergency export and saved a large part of data (or someone might have a backup version), (or even this gal could have been motivated to take that backup, import it elsewhere as another list and play with it to heart's measure).
What do you think? Would it have been helpful?
☘Misericordia☘ ~ The Serendipity Aegis ~ wrote: "And we need exports-imports: for lists and, probably, quotes, since the issue is likely similar"I'm surprised that they don't have that ability already. :-(
That would at least give people the data.
Yes, there's no way to interrupt a librarian gone rogue on a list. It was super creepy to watch her keep deleting stuff last night. Especially when she got the 2019 one down to "6 books, ~1300 votes" it just looked so spooky.
Rainbowheart wrote: "I think a good start would be adding all of the books that were part of the original list's top 100.https://webcache.googleusercontent.co......"
Since the list already counts 237 books by now, is the thing to do to use Ctrl-F on each page to check whether a title has been added already?
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The YA Novels of 2019 is being deleted as we speak. It is almost totally gone. The YA Novels of 2020 has also taken a severe hit. I haven't checked the others yet.
I realize it is Sunday night and staff might not see this until the morning, but can anything be done about restoring the books that were deleted? Literally hundreds upon hundreds of YA books were just lost. These lists are created years in advance and carefully compiled and cultivated, and all that work has been lost in an instant.