Amazon destroyed the author's database.

[Scott]

Goodreads has become Goodeats!

[lethe]

Scott wrote: "Goodreads has become Goodeats!"

😂

[David]

Should we keep reporting bot adding ISBN of a paperback to a Kindle edition?
Here is a very obvious example: The Weekend
edit: Feb 28, 2023 10:51AM (#302922863)
You will have to check the log since I also asked support to correct it.

[Jaclyn, Librarian Program Manager]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "I appreciate this, BUT. The ones I'm seeing are for titles that have thousands of editions. Sometimes tens of thousands. It isn't practical to be looking at each and every one of them to determine if it is or is not a keeper."

Agreed, I was responding to gem's question if it was alright to mark these as invalid. The team is investigating other solutions.

Tami wrote: "These are book records that are actually food."

Thanks Tami!

David wrote: "Should we keep reporting bot adding ISBN of a paperback to a Kindle edition?"

Thanks for that example, David. I've added as number 7 in my post above. Fine not to report, I think we have enough examples of this.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

I am posting because I think it is no longer worthwhile to report troubles to support. This is the kind of useless and time-consuming activity that the bot errors are creating.

Edition was imported with ISBN-10 and ASIN (which was the same as the ISBN-10). There was a librarian note that the ISBN-13 had been taken.

Since librarians can't move ISBNs/ASINs, I reported to support.

1. Support moved the ISBN-10, but not the ASIN. Support also modified the edition with the ISBN-13 to show that it is an ACE for another edition with a different ISBN. Support marked the empty edition Deleted.

2. I informed the support person that ACE stands for Alternate Cover Edition and would only apply to editions with the same ISBN. I, myself, modified the description to remove the ACE language.

3. Support then re-instated Public to the edition with no identifiers. It is marked done by staff so a librarian can't fix it.

4. I have now notified support that there is no reason to retain the edition with no identifiers. I have no idea what will be done.

[☕ Lachgas ♿]

I'm working (again) on some initials and saw that same pattern (with different authors) in the last days several times
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

With records/covers looking this way in at least 3 cases (R.L Stevenson as L. R. Stevenson, G.A. Henty as A. G. Henty and now J.M. Barrie as M. J. Barrie) the initials do not only have spaces (which I'm used to merge for those old authors) but also have switched initials.
Haven't seen that in all the years I already working on initials. Or at least not in a way I ever saw a pattern so clearly.

[L J]

☕ Lachgas ♿ wrote: "I'm working (again) on some initials and saw that same pattern (with different authors) in the last days several times
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

With records/cover..."

Thanks for the heads up.

The only time I saw this in the past was for not legit books from scammers.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

L J wrote: "The only time I saw this in the past was for not legit books from scammers."

Interesting. This kind of thing is absolutely normal among the public domain publishers. Have never seen scammers bother with it. (Actually, I never see scammers on a book site unless they post trying to get you to go to their website.)

[L J]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "L J wrote: "The only time I saw this in the past was for not legit books from scammers."

Interesting. This kind of thing is absolutely normal among the public domain publishers. Have never seen sc..."

From what I remember they resembled public domain publishers but the books were popular newer books. Did a bit of research and they seemed to be from countries that don't enforce normal copyright laws. I didn't find anyone who had tried getting books but there were warnings saying don't give them credit card or banking information because they were probably scammers.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

OK. I don't give my information to unknown companies anyway.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Jaclyn wrote: "3. Incorrect combines. Please feel welcome to continue to submit examples of these."

Maybe this is nitpicking, but it makes things difficult.

Bot is combining works of the same title but with author spelling different. With large works, this means that works where the author which will become a secondary author is combined with the main work. Finding these is like looking for a needle in a haystack. (Using the disambiguate page is better, but still not ideal.)

A librarian can't combine works with different authors and Dostoyevsky and Dostoevsky are deemed different - why can the Bot do it?. The bot is combining The Brothers Karamazov where the primary author is Fyodor Dostoyevsky with The Brothers Karamazov with the author Fyodor Dostoevsky (4556 editions). The bot is combining Crime and Punishment where the author is Fyodor Dostoyevsky with Crime and Punishment where the author is Fyodor Dostoevsky (7088 editions).

Please have it stop combining. Anything. No Bot combines, please. Librarians can combine and do a better job.

[lethe]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Please have it stop combining. Anything. No Bot combines, please. Librarians can combine and do a better job."

No bot edits anything, please. At least not these Amazon dot catalog and Amazon dot com ones.

[Arenda]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Bot is combining works of the same title but with author spelling different."

Technically the bot is adding new editions (often with a different author name) to already combined editions. The result is the same, but the process is different from actual combining.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Arenda wrote: "Technically the bot is adding new editions (often with a different author name) to already combined editions. The result is the same, but the process is different from actual combining."

Well, technically aside, it is adding/combining with a work by a different author. It shouldn't be able to add an edition to a different author, let alone to a Work by a different author.

[☕ Lachgas ♿]

We would be able to do that too ... just changing the author name while entering data should have the same result I guess.

So that might be difficult to restrict - although it didn't happen that often in the past so there must have been some way to prevent it.
(at least I've never come across very different books by completely different authors being combined until lately)

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

☕ Lachgas ♿ wrote: "We would be able to do that too ... just changing the author name while entering data should have the same result I guess."

Actually, I think that is what the Bot is doing. It adds the edition with the author of the primary Work, and then changes it to the different spelling.

It's beyond annoying. I clear the big work from the Dostoyevsky combine page, work on other titles, and in a couple of hours that big work is back on the Dostoyevsky combine page. Rinse, repeat.

Just add the editions, let us combine. Honestly, I don't see why the Bot is adding an edition with a work in the first place. With all the stray editions of things on authors across the site, you'd think it couldn't/wouldn't do this.

[Dobby]

lethe wrote: "Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Please have it stop combining. Anything. No Bot combines, please. Librarians can combine and do a better job."

No bot edits anything, please. At least not these Amazon dot catalog and Amazon dot com ones."

I wholeheartedly concur. I beg for relief, even.

[Mesembryanthemum]

I just noticed that the amazon_catalog bot is updating existing records with publication dates that are unrealistically far in the future. For this one, from just a few days ago, the bot changed 1996 to 2099.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/edits/...

I fixed it, and flagged the bot's change, but REALLY? I know this isn't on the scale of millions of notebooks and VHS videos and CDs, but this should not have happened in the first place.

Please stop the bot from running -- at all -- until someone reprograms it to recognize obviously bogus information.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Mesembryanthemum wrote: "Please stop the bot from running -- at all -- until someone reprograms it to recognize obviously bogus information."

This would be good. I just wonder if GR realizes that librarians are getting worn out.

[Tami]

Yes, please stop the bots. This is embarrassing but the bot has also been importing inappropriate items, such as these, I had never encountered such a thing before on Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

gibberish records, no idea what these are https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

All records by Generic publisher are invalid as far as I've seen. Maybe they can exclude that somehow when programming the bot. They only have ASIN, sometimes not covers or other information. Even those that are actual books are duplicates of physical books that already exist with proper isbn numbers.

[Tami]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "This would be good. I just wonder if GR realizes that librarians are getting worn out."

Yes, it's kinda pointless to edit book records now. The bot edit wars and changes valid info to gibberish and false info (incorrect dates, wrong formatting, misspelled author name, removes author names.)

I was ok with marking PROOF editions invalid until I realized they keep getting massively imported. I try to avoid it now. Just look at the Book and author page issues folder is full of requests to remove PROOF editions. Why haven't they stopped the bot at least? And also program a bot to mark the PROOF editions as invalid? The bot can do a faster job than all of us together can. I don't know how that stuff works, maybe a bot can't be stopped.

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

Is the Ingram bot still running? Or just the new Amazon bots?

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Corinne wrote: "this person has maybe 12 books but there are 18 pages if invalid journals. It's wrong to move them and their books to the two-space profile and ask staff to NAB the default profile because what abo..."

Sounds like a staff project.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Corinne wrote: "examples for my complaint in msg 183 about 3rd party re-sale ASINs

We could go to almost any author page and find tons of books that have no cover, no true identifiers, no desc, no page count, som..."

See post 170 above and others.

[Mesembryanthemum]

Tami wrote: "Yes, please stop the bots. This is embarrassing but the bot has also been importing inappropriate items, such as these, I had never encountered such a thing before on Goodreads
https://www.goodread..."

O.M.G. The bot is adding these X-rated items to existing author profiles! Has GR ever been sued for sexual harassment? Because this is not acceptable.

EDIT TO ADD: Especially for children's book authors like Maurice Sendak. This feels like a human programmer has done this on purpose.

[Tami]

Mesembryanthemum wrote: "O.M.G. The bot is adding these X-rated items to existing author profiles! Has GR ever been sued for sexual harassment? Because this is not acceptable."

Indeed. I don't think such items should be on this site. Poor verified authors are getting these books (also not verified are getting them). More examples below. It's not just Colleen Hoover's profile:

K. Bromberg (if you go to their list of books there are many more not just two)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Catherine Ryan Hyde (more on the profile)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

D.J. Molles https://www.goodreads.com/author/list... linked profile directly, half their books are X-rated items, invalid books and random items like wireless headphones.

J.K. Rowling https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

It's just never-ending.

[Mesembryanthemum]

Plus Coolio, Nora Roberts, Ilona Andrews, ex-House representative Trey Gowdy, journalist John Heilemann, and Calvin and Hobbes cartoonist Bill Watterson.

Oh, and Glenn Beck. I wonder if he or his lawyers know what has happened to the list of books on his profile?


Edit for a clarification: I'm an adult and am not offended by merely seeing these items, but I think it's terrible that they appear on author profiles where kids and other sensitive readers might see them. To tell the truth, those millions of notebooks offend me just as much, if not more.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

27k TestAsin results. What do you suppose they were testing? I suspect it didn't work.

https://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8...

And, as they are combined with valid editions, do you think they even looked at the results?

[Mesembryanthemum]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "And, as they are combined with valid editions, do you think they even looked at the results? "

I would bet a large sum of money that they didn't.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Mesembryanthemum wrote: "Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "And, as they are combined with valid editions, do you think they even looked at the results? "

I would bet a large sum of money that they didn't."

Or that it didn't occur to them there was somethng wrong.

[Mesembryanthemum]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "This would be good. I just wonder if GR realizes that librarians are getting worn out."

To put it mildly. It's good that we can't post pictures in our comments, because I wanted to include a huge picture of the Augean Stables before Hercules cleaned them out. That's how I feel today.

My librarian time is now being spent on monitoring the author profiles of my friends, family, and favorite authors so that I can remove non-book items (porn and other junk) when the bots add it. My heart aches for those authors who are spammed by the bots but don't have a dedicated librarian watching over them.

EDIT TO ADD: Who wants to adopt Coolio and his adorable cookbook?

[Freso :watermelon:]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Sounds like a staff project."

Honestly, all bot mess cleanup should be done by staff. They inflicted this mess on us. If they insist on running the bot, they can deal with the fallout.

[Martin]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Mesembryanthemum wrote: "Please stop the bot from running -- at all -- until someone reprograms it to recognize obviously bogus information."

This would be good. I just wonder if GR realizes that ..."

Yes, yes.
Please will staff take this action

[Lieke]

Mesembryanthemum wrote: "EDIT TO ADD: Who wants to adopt Coolio and his adorable cookbook?"

Done (for now...)

[Scott]

Freso wrote: "Honestly, all bot mess cleanup should be done by staff. They inflicted this mess on us. If they insist on running the bot, they can deal with the fall..."

Agreed.

[gem]

Tami wrote: "Yes, please stop the bots. This is embarrassing but the bot has also been importing inappropriate items, such as these, I had never encountered such a thing before on Goodreads."

You can't make this stuff up...

Also I totally own that Cookin with Coolio cookbook, and it's as delightful as you might imagine.

[lethe]

Scott wrote: "Freso wrote: "Honestly, all bot mess cleanup should be done by staff. They inflicted this mess on us. If they insist on running the bot, they can deal with the fallout."

Agreed."

Yes, a thousand times yes.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

lethe wrote: "Scott wrote: "Freso wrote: "Honestly, all bot mess cleanup should be done by staff. They inflicted this mess on us. If they insist on running the bot, they can deal with the fallout."

Agreed."

Ye..."

I don't disagree. But if paid staff is expected to do the things we do, they wouldn't ever have had librarians.

[☕ Lachgas ♿]

Mesembryanthemum wrote: "I just noticed that the amazon_catalog bot is updating existing records with publication dates that are unrealistically far in the future. For this one, from just a few days ago, the bot changed 19..."

have only seen the other way round yet - pub dates way too far in the past
this has 3 pub dates: one in the title, one in the pub date field and and original pub date https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
and that edition is from 1705 says the import bot https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
yeah ... nope.

What a great source that Amazon bot is /sarc

[Tami]

I've seen the same, amazon_catalog changes correct publication dates to dates way too far in the past that are incorrect. Example: Bot changed a book's publication date from 1995 to 1800, wrong day and month too (already reverted so check the edit log.) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... it also switched the illustrator to primary author but the bot has been doing that for a while.

edit: Book imported with date one date in title and a different date in the publication date field 2012 vs 1800 [1800 is sooo wrong] the record is also a physical copy with ASIN only. All these seem invalid https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

[Mesembryanthemum]

gem wrote: "Also I totally own that Cookin with Coolio cookbook, and it's as delightful as you might imagine."

The only good thing about this X-rated bot fiasco is that I learned about Coolio's cookbook. (It's now on my "must buy" list.) Thanks, gem, for the recommendation!

Lieke, double thanks for fixing Coolio's profile.

[☕ Lachgas ♿]

wondering if 3 days is the time of bot rerunning...
had noticed that once in the past but thought it was coincidence but it's not 3 days again on this book https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
(posting it here to check in 3 days if it's again messed up)

But guess will do just nothing on GR authors anymore - too annoying to move books to manually. (and not worth it if moved back after 3 days)

edit: okay was 7 days here https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... - would have liked some sort of pattern more but well so it's just staying away from GR author profiles for me.
and that one is also without any pattern https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

[☕ Lachgas ♿]

it's not only TestASIN it's also just ... Test ... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... with weird pictures
(also saw a Test3)

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

it looks like they cleared the testasin

[Mesembryanthemum]

I reported the "adult toy" non-book records to Support (with a link to Tami's original alert in this thread), but am not sure if my bug report got through. The URLs have seriously NSFW (not safe for work) terms that a filter would usually catch.

But at least I tried. And I even remembered to put "ATT: Jaclyn" at the top.

[Tami]

☕ Lachgas ♿ wrote: "it's not only TestASIN it's also just ... Test ... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... with weird pictures
(also saw a Test3)"

Disturbing image... Also why is the book's description "boobs" ??

[Tami]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "it looks like they cleared the testasin"

I don't think so. I think they just hid it from search. I remember a few profiles where I saw Testasin editions and those are still there but can only be searched individually. For example: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... nothing shows up when you search "Testasin" but if you use "TestAsin_B01AX6U5PU" it will show up.

[Tami]

Mesembryanthemum wrote: "I reported the "adult toy" non-book records to Support (with a link to Tami's original alert in this thread), but am not sure if my bug report got through. The URLs have seriously NSFW (not safe fo..."

Thank you Mesembryanthemum! I hope they receive the report *crossing fingers*

[☕ Lachgas ♿]

Mesembryanthemum wrote: "I reported the "adult toy" non-book records to Support (with a link to Tami's original alert in this thread), but am not sure if my bug report got through. The URLs have seriously NSFW (not safe fo..."

Jaclyn knows about these things already - that were the "import of other things" mentioned in her posting.
(I mailed her about them and some phone protection covers on R.J. Palaccios profile two weeks(?) ago already - but I guess more won't hurt - in the hope they finally stop that at some point...)

[☕ Lachgas ♿]

Tami wrote: "☕ Lachgas ♿ wrote: "it's not only TestASIN it's also just ... Test ... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... with weird pictures
(also saw a Test3)"

Disturbing image... Also why is..."
yes, really disturbing. and yeah my thoughts exactly.