Group Read Rules and Regulations (past)

[Kiersten, Mod]

Please read these rules and regulations before nominating a book.


Q. Can new members vote?
A. Yes. Get your vote on newbies! However, some members participate in suspicious voting or vote padding (see note below for more info). We can see when this is happening, and we reserve the right to remove a book from a poll if this is occurring.

Q. I’m an author. Can I nominate my own book?
A. No. Currently we are not allowing authors to nominate their own books. If an author nominates their book for the group read that book will not be included in the poll. If we allowed this practice we’d get nothing but authors nominating and voting for their own books.

Q. Can I change my poll vote?
A. Yes. Feel free to change your vote as many times as you like while the poll is active.

Q. How many books can I nominate?
A. Please try to keep it between two or three books at a time. If a member nominates an overabundance of books, moderators will choose between the first few titles to include in the poll. Otherwise polls can get out of control.

Q. Can I nominate a book after the poll is posted?
A. No. Nominations occur before the poll goes up. An email goes out to all members when we start accepting nominations.

Q. What books will be used for Second Chances polls?
A. The next 3 books after the winners.

*Note. Any suspicious activity on polls or vote padding is not permitted.
-What is suspicious activity or vote padding?
Basically it is when fans, friends, family, ext. create Goodreads accounts, or simply use their Goodreads account, to vote for a book. This skews the numbers unfairly, and authors who were authentically nominated by fans suffer from it.

-How is suspicious activity on polls or vote padding detected?
1. First group participation is looked into. Members comments and activity can be seen by moderators. Of course new members may not have had time to interact besides just introducing themselves yet, and others might be shy. So this isn't as big of a concern.

2. When members join and only vote. Members join regularly, however a huge wave of new members is noticeable. So if members suddenly join during the nominations or polls to vote for a certain book and nothing else this is another warning flag.

3. Inactive accounts outside of Paranormal Addicts & Newbies. We can see how active an account on Goodreads is—from books that have been added to bookshelves, activity in other groups, or participation in other conversations around Goodreads— and when the account was created.

4. The biggest red flag? The number of accounts that hit all of the mentioned warning signs above voting on one book. So say a book has 1 or 5 suspicious accounts that voted for it, that's fine. It happens. However, when it jumps up to the tens it gets noticeable. Twenties the book is looking at getting removed. Thirties there are no questions about it.

Investigation ensues, and if poll padding is evident, the book will be then removed and members notified to re-vote if needed.

- Paranormal Addicts & Newbies is not stating that all authors participate in suspicious activity on polls or vote padding.
-Authors will not be notified if their book is removed from a poll.