Amazon destroyed the author's database.

[Scott]

The books have the same title, so they must all be the same book:

https://www.goodreads.com/work/editio...

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Scott wrote: "The books have the same title, so they must all be the same book:

https://www.goodreads.com/work/editio..."

Yet another fine example of why the bot shouldn’t do combines.

[Javier]

Scott wrote: "The books have the same title, so they must all be the same book:

https://www.goodreads.com/work/editio..."

To be combined with ANTONIO VIVALDI: THE FOUR SEASONS - vinyl lp. too.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

The bot is marking Kindle editions Invalid. I am leaving these as an example. They are not the first I have encountered and I don't expect them to be the last.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

Dobby wrote: "What if they gave a war and nobody came?"

David wrote: "Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ wrote: "Has deleting quotes now got a very long cache time, or was I just unlucky?"

The bot is now DOSing us.
The battle is escalating."

I was looking for a section of Goodreads that was still working properly, but quotes isn't it. :/

[Mandy]

Can somebody suggest a way for me to work with large amount of duplicated entries (some with ISBN-10&13, some with ASIN, some with ISBN10 OR 13)?
Am I supposed to just copy all the links and sent them all to support so that they could merge all of them or am i supposed to set the duplicated ones to delete status? (But I guess i am not able to add back the isbn/asin to the other entry then?)

Almost 1/3 of the books I encountered recently have such an issue.

[David]

Mandy wrote: "Can somebody suggest a way for me to work with large amount of duplicated entries (some with ISBN-10&13, some with ASIN, some with ISBN10 OR 13)?
Am I supposed to just copy all the links and sent t..."

Some answers were already provided in this thread. If you can't find them, I suggest you start a new thread and give some examples.

As a general rule, don't hesitate to send requests to support, they are (usually) quick and efficient.

[Roberta]

Buongiorno from Italy.
Sorry, I have nothing new to say, I just want to vent. I put hours of work into Goodreads, as you all did, and now a bot is deleting everything, even those records that were perfectly fine.

All the new books are listed with "unknown author".

ChatGPT is writing poems and Amazon is unable (or unwilling) to link two "author" fields together.

It's disheartening.

[Cyndi Marie ☆★Audiobook Addict★☆]

Not sure if this was already reported but noticed last night that an author changed the name and cover of her book on Amazon. The Amazon bot updated the original listing by changing the name. So the new name and old cover were on Goodreads. I Undid the change and then created ACE’s for all 3 editions but wanted to let someone know.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

[Saturn]

Why are there so many kindle editions with the same cover but different ASINs? Is that ok?

https://www.goodreads.com/work/editio...

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Saturn wrote: "Why are there so many kindle editions with the same cover but different ASINs? Is that ok?

https://www.goodreads.com/work/editio..."

If they have different ASINs, that's the way the publisher wanted it. Sometimes that is an "Independent Publisher" but they are all valid editions.

[Saturn]

Ah, I got it. Thanks for the explanation!

[Lee (of Shalott)]

It is beyond disheartening - 13 years of volunteering with care down the drain! And now I feel this site has become absolutely untrustworthy as I am seeing loads of titles on my own shelves that have been subsequently changed since I updated them many years ago (CAPS in titles which were previously correct, bungled author names with Ph.D. etc. which previously had none, 0 page counts which had once been updated by me years ago).

[Martin]

Lee (of Shalott) wrote: "It is beyond disheartening - 13 years of volunteering with care down the drain! And now I feel this site has become absolutely untrustworthy as I am seeing loads of titles on my own shelves that ha..."

That must be terrible - I have only been (very) active on the site for one year and librarian for about six months but I feel bad about this, with 13 years it must be so much worse for you.
I spend a couple of hours each week just going through my own library (just over 2,000 titles) on Goodreads to put right the obvious errors that have been inserted since last I checked.

[Dobby]

It makes you want to weep, doesn't it? We've been swept away by a tsunami of BadBot edits.

[Emmy]

This has just been reported in the folder Book & Author Page Issues
"Hello librarians!

This book, "The Vanishing Room" has been updated with a title that sounds like a product. Can this edit be reverted?

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4..."

Librarian change log shows this was done by the amazon_catalog bot on Apr 18, 2023 12:45PM.

Meanwhile corrected by a fellow-librarian.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

It isn't possible to know from the log what book the bot has changed here. (And this is the only entry on the librarian log for this author.) It has changed the author from the correct author to an incorrect author. I know it is the wrong author because 5350 is L.M. Montgomery while 38702841 is an author reading Lucy Maud Montgomery. The Lucy Maud profile where books usually land is 29752483.

I have merged the wrong Lucy Maud author to the normal Lucy Maud profile and will deal with the problems on that profile later because it's easier to find and fix things from that profile. (Or maybe not, the bot may be marking these as Invalid. I get to the End of the Sidewalk when I click on the profile.)




There are multiple similar entries on other newly created Lucy Maud Montgomery 1-space profiles.

[Saturn]

There are the date and the edit number. So, maybe, if you check the page with the recent edits you could figure it out. However that page is unavailable right now. But I'm just speculating.

https://www.goodreads.com/librarian/r...

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Saturn wrote: "There are the date and the edit number. So, maybe, if you check the page with the recent edits you could figure it out. However that page is unavailable right now. But I'm just speculating.

https:..."

Well yes, I could check the recent edits. But for which title and edition?

This report was so that Jaclyn could see another tip of the iceberg on how the bot is destroying the database.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

And here is a screenshot of one of the made up authors. In this case I can see which books have been added. Unfortunately, the bot has marked every. single. one. of them Invalid. And so, access to the author page is not possible, though I could edit. I will not edit it until I have changed all of the editions back to Public. Grrrr.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

And further, to show that the bot is marking these as invalid, though nowhere on the log does it say so:

[Liralen]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "And further, to show that the bot is marking these as invalid, though nowhere on the log does it say so"

In these cases I'm not sure whether the bot is marking them as invalid or creating invalid records—I suspect the latter—which seems less a problem of the change log and more a problem of, uh, why?

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Liralen wrote: "I suspect the latter—which seems less a problem of the change log and more a problem of, uh, why?"

Well, yes, if that is the case. But there is no reason to think these records are Invalid. The new “Invalid” status exists so that books that don’t meet Goodreads policies as a valid book record ... There is nothing to make one think these records are not Valid records that should be marked Public. It's true, they may no longer be available for sale - their availability may have been brief - but as far as I know that doesn't make editions Invalid.

[L J]

BadBots conflicts?

Maybe one adds, another marks invalid, and third contributes to confusion.

msg 515 example shows activity by

amazon_catalog
amazon_kcw
amazon_com

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

L J wrote: "BadBots conflicts?

Maybe one adds, another marks invalid, and third contributes to confusion.

msg 515 example shows activity by

amazon_catalog
amazon_kcw
amazon_com"

No clue. Jaclyn asked for screenshots. ;-)

[L J]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "L J wrote: "BadBots conflicts?

Maybe one adds, another marks invalid, and third contributes to confusion.

msg 515 example shows activity by

amazon_catalog
amazon_kcw
amazon_com"

No clue. Jaclyn asked for scteenshots. ;-)"

Yes, and thanks to you posting maybe, just maybe, something will be done to mitigate the madness.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

L J wrote: "Yes, and thanks to you posting maybe, just maybe, something will be done to mitigate the madness."

Fingers crossed. I'm hoping that at least the developers can see wherein the problem lies.

[Saturn]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Well yes, I could check the recent edits. But for which title and edition?"

I mean the recent edits from all the librarians, but that doesn't matter because the link I posted doesn't work today either.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Saturn wrote: "Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Well yes, I could check the recent edits. But for which title and edition?"

I mean the recent edits from all the librarians, but that doesn't matter because the link I p..."

Recent edits from all librarians to look at something posted on May 30 by the bot? That would not apply.

[Camilla]

I'm repeatedly amazed about the amount of totally insane information the bots manage to import. Yes, I know the info comes from Amazon, but still... This book has a publication year of 1729 for this edition, when the original pub date is 2014.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

And I know this is by far not the worst example. I had also thought that Finnish books weren't affected that much by bot activity, but yesterday I ran into a PB edition of a Finnish book imported by the Amazon bot that had the ISBN-10 in the ASIN field. I really wish librarians were still allowed to correct these, instead of having to send a note to the staff every time.

[David]

Camilla wrote: "I ran into a PB edition of a Finnish book imported by the Amazon bot that had the ISBN-10 in the ASIN field. I really wish librarians were still allowed to correct these, instead of having to send a note to the staff every time"

As discussed above, you don't need to send such an edition to support.
* If the edition also has an ISBN10/ISBN13 you simply leave it be, this is now valid.
* Otherwise, if the edition was not shelved, you can mark it Invalid.
* If it was shelved less than five times, you can merge it with the edition with the appropriate ISBN10.
* If it was shelved five times or more, post at the superlibrarians thread and we will merge it.

[Camilla]

Yes, I understand that it's not considered basically wrong anymore, but it just hurts my eyes to see an entry in a wrong field. The edition I'm talking about is an actual, published paperback edition with a valid ISBN, so no need to mark invalid or merge. Support kindly removed the ISBN-10 from the wrong field. I just have trouble understanding why the bots are messing with Finnish books...

[David]

Camilla wrote: "... it just hurts my eyes to see an entry in a wrong field ..."

While I understand the concerns raised, adopting ISBN10 as an ASIN—having the same value for both—is a common practice on Amazon and does not have any detrimental effects. In fact, there can be advantages to this approach. We should acknowledge that books can have multiple identifiers, including ISBN10 and ASIN, which may or may not align with each other. Therefore, I believe it shouldn't be regarded as a major concern. Instead, let's prioritize addressing more pressing issues such as cases where the bot modifies entries or adds invalid items like proofs, used books, or notebooks, as these actions are causing actual harm.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Camilla wrote: "Support kindly removed the ISBN-10 from the wrong field. "

Then support made an error.

[David]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Then support made an error."

I refuse to believe that. /s

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Again today (well, yesterday). What book is this? This is the only entry on this author log. This is from a new 1-space profile. It shouldn't be creating new profiles anyway.

[Sandra]

David wrote: "Camilla wrote: "... it just hurts my eyes to see an entry in a wrong field ..."

While I understand the concerns raised, adopting ISBN10 as an ASIN—having the same value for both—is a common practi..."

Actually, with the isbn 10 in the asin field, you can't connect with Worldcat by the link (it doesn't show up if the isbn 10 field is empty). You need to do it manually instead. *sigh*

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Sandra wrote: "you can't connect with Worldcat by the link"

So it won't read any 979 ISBNs? (They don't have an ISBN-10)

[Sandra]

No, they've never read 978 or 979, only isbn 10. The link just doesn't appear if the isbn 10 field is empty.

They'll do it manually, just not by the link.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Sandra wrote: "No, they've never read 978 or 979, only isbn 10. The link just doesn't appear if the isbn 10 field is empty.

They'll do it manually, just not by the link."

OK. I don't think actually removing the ISBN-10 from the ISBN-10 field is what was discussed upthread, but I'm glad you've provided this quirk/bug in the system.

[lethe]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Again today (well, yesterday). What book is this? This is the only entry on this author log. This is from a new 1-space profile. It shouldn't be creating new profiles anyway.

"

And not only did it create a new profile, it moved a book to it from the correct profile.

[Liralen]

Here's one that a bot created last week: This is not available 059891

If you search for 'This is not available', 100+ pages of results turn up, most of which appear to be along the same lines.

[[deleted user]]

Ok, I finally discovered America a.k.a. this discussion.
As far as I understood from here, Amazon's bot is ruining Goodreads' database with its spaming. And if I find duplicated authors' pages (or similar mistakes) with invalid books, I should report them exclusively to the support team? Is that correct?

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

It isn't spamming.

Duplicate authors can usually be corrected by librarians. Often, authors have similar names, so it might only require moving a book from one author profile to another. You can report these in the Book & Author Page Issues folder. If staff needs to be notified, a librarian will tell you.

[[deleted user]]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "It isn't spamming.

Duplicate authors can usually be corrected by librarians. Often, authors have similar names, so it might only require moving a book from one author profile to another. You can r..."

Thanks for the fast reply.

Nope, these are duplicates for sure.
For example, valid Nietzsche's profile: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Then, his invalid profile in Serbian, with (mostly) invalid books in Serbian whose valid versions are already added to the original profile: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

I found so many profiles like this. Should I also report this to Book & Author Page Issues folder?

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Милена wrote: "I found so many profiles like this. Should I also report this to Book & Author Page Issues folder?"

Yes. Goodreads maintains profiles in other languages when the book cover shows them. In such cases, the original author is always shown first so that all editions can be combined. Some of those profiles will need to be merged with another profile and perhaps other edits, too.

[[deleted user]]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Милена wrote: "I found so many profiles like this. Should I also report this to Book & Author Page Issues folder?"

Yes. Goodreads maintains profiles in other languages when the book cover shows th..."

Ok, I'll start reporting them to Book & Author Page Issues folder.
One more question, how should I name my topics when I make them so that librarians will immediately know what I'm reporting?

Thanks so much for the reply.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Милена wrote: "how should I name my topics when I make them"

It depends on what you are reporting, but including the main problem briefly (duplicate author) and the name of the original author (Nietzsche) would be helpful. Always provide links in your report. Sometimes librarians will have questions before they can address the problem.

[[deleted user]]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Милена wrote: "how should I name my topics when I make them"

It depends on what you are reporting, but including the main problem briefly (duplicate author) and the name of the original author (Ni..."

Thank you for your help and your patient and kind replies Elizabeth.
See you around and have a lovely day.

[Saturn]

I don't know if it should be reported but the bot is updating the edition field in a curious way...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...