2021 - Chat about whatever you like: the weather, good stuff, bad stuff, family or pets!

[Krystal]

Carolyn wrote: "Brenda wrote: "I do that in book stores Diana, to see if a book is already on my Wish List :)"

I do that in book stores too, to check out the ratings if it's one I don't already have on my radar."

Saaaaame lol

[Deb]

Yes, me too. I rely on GR to a degree that is actually a bit of a worry at times. If it ever goes down, or becomes a pay to use... I shudder to think.

I check it in libraries and book shops all the time, yet I still managed to bring a book home from the library last week that I actually read in 2019. Shocking memory!

[Diana]

Yesterday my sister and I went to Bendigo to see the Mary Quant exhibition at the art gallery. It was really enjoyable. Today I’ve bought ingredients to make musk sticks. I’ve always wanted to try since I got the cookbook Milkbar Memories: The cookbook of your childhood dreams ... musk sticks, sundaes, sausage rolls and other fun food favourites

[Diana]

Last night I ordered my street library from the Street Library organisation in Sydney. The pre built ones are made at men’s sheds. I just have to paint and weatherproof it. I’m going to leaflet drop my neighbourhood to let them know when it’s ready.

[Krystal]

Diana wrote: "Last night I ordered my street library from the Street Library organisation in Sydney. The pre built ones are made at men’s sheds. I just have to paint and weatherproof it. I’m going to leaflet dro..."

Sounds like a fun project, Diana! :D

[Andrea]

Diana wrote: "Yesterday my sister and I went to Bendigo to see the Mary Quant exhibition at the art gallery. It was really enjoyable. Today I’ve bought ingredients to make musk sticks. I’ve always wanted to try ..."

That sounds intriguing Diana. I used to love those as a kid. Is the recipe like a kind of hard icing? How do you get that musk flavour?

[Diana]

Andrea wrote: "Diana wrote: "Yesterday my sister and I went to Bendigo to see the Mary Quant exhibition at the art gallery. It was really enjoyable. Today I’ve bought ingredients to make musk sticks. I’ve always ..."

The recipe includes gelatine, liquid glucose, vanilla extract, musk extract/essence and icing sugar. I had to order the musk essence online from a baking specialty store. You whip the mixture in a food processor, add a drop of colouring then pipe the mixture into sticks on a baking tray and let dry or set. Nothing healthy about them 😂 but my curiosity made me buy all the ingredients. I’m hoping to make them tomorrow.

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

Overnight Amazon removed ALL my reviews from their site - thousands of them - with this message:

We apologize but Amazon has noticed some unusual reviewing activity on this account. As a result, all reviews submitted by this account have been removed and this account will no longer be able to contribute reviews and other content on Amazon. If you would like to learn more, please see our community guidelines. To contact us about this decision, please email community-help@amazon.com.
I've emailed them - hopefully they'll be reinstated but there's no guarantees.

[Icewineanne]

Brenda wrote: "Overnight Amazon removed ALL my reviews from their site - thousands of them - with this message:

We apologize but Amazon has noticed some unusual reviewing activity on this account. As a result,..."

Whaaattt???? That’s insane. How can they just arbitrarily decide to remove them? Could it be that someone hacked your account?
Let us know if we can be of any help, perhaps sending emails en mass to amazon 🤷‍♀️

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

I don't know about the hacking Anne, but they've done it once before a few years ago, and it was to quite a large number of reviewers. And yes, emails to them helped last time, so I'm guessing it would again. I just can't work it out - it's not like I don't spend money there! A lot of the reviews they've removed are for books I bought from Amazon so go figure!!!

[Icewineanne]

Brenda, not sure what they’ve removed but I can still see many of your reviews. Perhaps the message itself was a hoax?

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

Ahhh.. Well, I went to the book of the author who first contacted me, and it was gone and that's where I got the message from. I then went to my profile on Amazon and there's no reviews there at all. So I'm not sure how you can see them, or if in fact they're coming back... thanks Anne, I'll go and check :)

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

No my Amazon profile is still empty...

[Helen]

Not again Brenda I will have to check mine I haven't received an email I am too scared to look it was stressful enough last time. Thinking of you

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

Thanks Helen - I didn't receive an email, it was on the review page when I tried to post one...

[Helen]

Brenda wrote: "Thanks Helen - I didn't receive an email, it was on the review page when I tried to post one..."

I have just checked mine and they seem to be there for the moment, I do hope they put them back asap, thinking of you

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

Thanks Helen, I hope yours stay there!

[Icewineanne]

When i click on your name Brenda, it shows that you have a total of 3236 reviews, then clicking further, on the word ‘reviews’ takes me inside, to your list of books reviewed. Odd that they’re not showing up on your end.

[Carolyn]

Brenda wrote: "Overnight Amazon removed ALL my reviews from their site - thousands of them - with this message:

We apologize but Amazon has noticed some unusual reviewing activity on this account. As a result,..."

That's very scary Brenda! Hopefully Amazon will sort out what's happened. It sounds very odd that others can see some of your reviews but you can't.

I'm not sure I'd trust the message and the link to Help. I'd request help through the Amazon site as well. I'm not sure if there is someway to report suspected hacking but if you scroll to 'Help' at the bottom of the Amazon page, a list of different types of issues comes up. I don't think your issue is listed, so scroll down to the bottom and click on 'more help' and 'contact us' then you'll get a chat box where you can type in your issue and they'll get back to you. I've found them to be pretty prompt in getting back to you.

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

Icewineanne wrote: "When i click on your name Brenda, it shows that you have a total of 3236 reviews, then clicking further, on the word ‘reviews’ takes me inside, to your list of books reviewed. Odd that they’re not ..."

Wow that's fantastic but very weird, thanks Anne.

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

Carolyn wrote: "Brenda wrote: "Overnight Amazon removed ALL my reviews from their site - thousands of them - with this message:

We apologize but Amazon has noticed some unusual reviewing activity on this accoun..."

Thanks Carolyn, I'll give that a try.

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

Carolyn wrote: "Brenda wrote: "Overnight Amazon removed ALL my reviews from their site - thousands of them - with this message:

We apologize but Amazon has noticed some unusual reviewing activity on this accoun..."

Thank you so much Carolyn. I've never had to do that before. I chatted with a person who has forwarded the issue to the correct department and I'll receive an email in the not too distant future.

[Carolyn]

That's good Brenda. They're actually very quick and helpful once you work out how to actually contact them directly (took me a while of going in circles until I finally found that link!)

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

Yes it's not easy to find! I'm going to record your instructions so I have them if I need them again - many thanks!

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

I have just heard back from Amazon

Hello Brenda Telford,

Thank you for contacting us about your reviews. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

After reviewing the account once again, we have restored this account's previously contributed reviews and the ability to contribute reviews, comments, customer questions and answers, and other content. It may take up to 24 hours for reviews to reappear.

Once again, many thanks to Carolyn!!! I'm very relieved!

[Helen]

I am so glad woohoo let's hope it never happens again

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

Thanks Helen - I hope so too.

[Icewineanne]

So very glad got sorted quickly!

[Diana]

Glad you got it sorted Brenda.

[Carolyn]

Great to hear you have your reviews back Brenda!
I wonder why it happened in the first place ...

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

Thanks girls! No idea Carolyn - no mention of that in the email. Of course if it was their fault (which it was) they wouldn't admit it I don't think!! lol

[Krystal]

Such a bizarre issue, Brenda, I wonder why they froze you in the first place!!

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

No idea Krystal! Though it would be interesting to know...

[Diana]

I have been getting a lot of friend requests from random men. No friends in common or any other connection. I am finding it a bit creepy. I delete the requests.

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

If you delete the requests they can re request Diana. I just ignore them and they show to them as pending. So they can't bother you again. You can also block them.

[Helen]

Diana wrote: "I have been getting a lot of friend requests from random men. No friends in common or any other connection. I am finding it a bit creepy. I delete the requests."

I have as well and I just delete them so many of them it is strange

[Carolyn]

Diana wrote: "I have been getting a lot of friend requests from random men. No friends in common or any other connection. I am finding it a bit creepy. I delete the requests."

I've had a few of those Diana. I always check out their profile before accepting. And if I have added them and they start sending creepy messages I flag them to admin and they disappear pretty quickly.

[Fi]

Just been catching up on all the chat and glad you got the Amazon stuff sorted Brenda.

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

Fi wrote: "Just been catching up on all the chat and glad you got the Amazon stuff sorted Brenda."

Thanks Fi :)

[Deb]

Here is an interesting thing; we are testing a new layout for GR and they invite us to click on the "beta" link and leave feedback - when I click on it, the only way to leave feedback appears to be through outlook express or other programmes I don't have and am not ABOUT to pay for.

Anyone else get this?

[Carolyn]

Hi Deborah - if you click on the beta symbol on the lower right, you'll see a button for 'Share feedback' so you can send them comments directly (I didn't't find it straight away either - it's not exactly obvious!).

I've sent in some feedback already. The thing that concerned me most is that the reviews appear on the same page as the book details (as they do already) but there seems to be no way to see the review on a separate page so that you can copy and paste a link (to our posts or Netagalley for example). This may just be something that's missing from the beta for now but I thought it was worth commenting on.

[Andrea]

I’ve only had a quick look at the new layout - just to get an impression rather than to assess usability. Someone had made the comment that it looked like a retail layout. Then yesterday I was browsing amazon.com for the first time in a while, and noticed they’ve had a redesign too! The similarities were noticeable. I hope they’re not working towards some kind of eventual merge.

[Angela]

Brenda wrote: "Overnight Amazon removed ALL my reviews from their site - thousands of them - with this message:

We apologize but Amazon has noticed some unusual reviewing activity on this account. As a result,..."

That's terrible! I hope no one hacked your account?

[Angela]

Brenda wrote: "I have just heard back from Amazon

Hello Brenda Telford,

Thank you for contacting us about your reviews. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

After reviewing the account once..."

Oh thank goodness!
Me and my paranoia with hackers...

[Angela]

Deborah wrote: "Here is an interesting thing; we are testing a new layout for GR and they invite us to click on the "beta" link and leave feedback - when I click on it, the only way to leave feedback appears to be..."

Oh no, I don't like change! It always takes me ages to work it out, and I so much prefer the original. If it's not broken, don't fix it!

[Angela]

Brenda wrote: "I can't work out what is wrong with some people! Why is it so hard to work out what 'isolate' means!!!"

I'd answer that but I'd be kicked off Goodreads ;-)

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

Angela wrote: "Brenda wrote: "I have just heard back from Amazon

Hello Brenda Telford,

Thank you for contacting us about your reviews. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

After reviewing t..."

Thanks Angela - a reasonable enough assumption but apparently it's BOTS which do it, so then 'people' have to undo their messes!! A weird way of going about it in my opinion.

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

Angela wrote: "Deborah wrote: "Here is an interesting thing; we are testing a new layout for GR and they invite us to click on the "beta" link and leave feedback - when I click on it, the only way to leave feedba..."

My views entirely Angela but it seems those powers that be think a lot of things are broken when they aren't!

[Brenda, Aussie Authors Queen]

Angela wrote: "Brenda wrote: "I can't work out what is wrong with some people! Why is it so hard to work out what 'isolate' means!!!"

I'd answer that but I'd be kicked off Goodreads ;-)"

Ha! Me too!!

[Deb]

Hi All! I could use some help.... I am partway through the Amber series by Roger Zelazny and it turns out I don't have have Trumps of Doom (I have a double of another one, but that's another story...)

Local library does not have it. Brisbane library does not have it. I don't read ebooks. None of the second hand online sellers I normally use seem to have it. Can I ask for recommendations for online books sellers from all you lovely Good Readers out there?


ANZ one's preferred, I hear there can be problems with OS orders at the minute.