Amazon destroyed the author's database.

[lethe]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "lethe wrote: "Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "For the golf book:
https://www.amazon.com/Hes-Got-Whole-...

and for the children's book:

https://www.amazon.com/Hes-Got-Whole-..."

They are both the link..."

Thanks. I didn't try it out, because I didn't feel like logging in. But I could buy from Amazon.com in the past, so I think it might work the same.

It's odd though that when I search by ISBN (both 10 and 13), only the children's book appears.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

lethe wrote: "It's odd though that when I search by ISBN (both 10 and 13), only the children's book appears."

Yeah, I obviously don't know how the Amazon database works. ;-)

I did search by title to get the children's book link and then compared the ISBNs by eye.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

The bot is still changing authors and over writing librarian edits. As recently as May 12 for an edit done in April 2022. See the log for

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

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Here is another where the bot changed authors over writing librarian edits. Similar timespan.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Here is another example of the bot using a duplicate ISBN instance.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Jaclyn, is there any way to get them to stop the bot import changing data when the ISBN already exists? It seems only reasonable that the importer shouldn't be doing anything to existing book records. Only when there is no cover and it could add a cover. But only then.

[Liralen]

Here's a weird one: This proof copy has been marked invalid: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...

However, it's still the edition that shows on this list (currently at location 53): https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

[Saturn]

Liralen wrote: "Here's a weird one: This proof copy has been marked invalid: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...

However, it's still the edition that shows on this list (currently at location 53): ..."

Invalid records can be displayed via a direct link to the book page. The edition of the listopia should be changed.

[Emily]

Liralen wrote: "Here's a weird one: This proof copy has been marked invalid: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...

However, it's still the edition that shows on this list (currently at location 53): ..."

It should probably be deleted and then a different edition will appear. It is ok to merge it.

[Liralen]

Saturn wrote: "Invalid records can be displayed via a direct link to the book page. The edition of the listopia should be changed."

Emily wrote: "It should probably be deleted and then a different edition will appear. It is ok to merge it."

Merging would be the only way to change the listopia edition displayed, right? Since it's not otherwise possible to change the edition that others have added.

[Dobby]

Liralen wrote: "Here's a weird one: This proof copy has been marked invalid: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...

However, it's still the edition that shows on this list (currently at location 53): ..."

Merged/deleted

[Liralen]

Thanks, Dobby.

[Scott]

Publisher added as author on nearly 2000 books:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

[☕ Lachgas ♿]

Scott wrote: "Publisher added as author on nearly 2000 books:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show..."

in the past staff could delete those at once (if they were not primary author on any record) - don't know if that's still the case but would be the easiest way to get rid of them (until for some reason they get imported again)

[Jaclyn, Librarian Program Manager]

Scott wrote: "Publisher added as author on nearly 2000 books:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show..."

I've reported this to the team for bulk removal.

[Scott]

This book was transformed into a t-shirt:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

[David]

Scott wrote: "This book was transformed into a t-shirt:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2..."
Size:
X-Large
Color:
Black

They seem to have gotten all that correctly.

[Scott]

David wrote: "Scott wrote: "This book was transformed into a t-shirt:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2..."
Size:
X-Large
Color:
Black

They seem to have gotten all that correctly."

It's nice to know I can wear the book all day comfortably.

[Dobby]

Perfect attire for the well-read person. It's also reassuring to know that your book is capable of "Sweat Absorption, Breathable, no Deformation." Those are definitely among my top criteria when searching my closet for something to read.

[Scott]

I often get sweaty when reading so that is a great feature.

[Martin]

Is there a Kindle edition? What the world needs now is eClothing

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Martin wrote: "Is there a Kindle edition? What the world needs now is eClothing"

LOL

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Martin wrote: "Is there a Kindle edition? What the world needs now is eClothing"

The Emperor's Clothes!

[Emmy]

I'm glad you still haven't lost your sense of humor!

[Liralen]

Is it machine-washable? That's a priority when considering books that I can wear.

[Scott]

Yes but do not use bleach.

[Dobby]

Or hot water! I washed War and Peace in hot water and it turned into a Reader's Digest condensed version.

[Emily]

Liralen wrote: "Is it machine-washable? That's a priority when considering books that I can wear."

Dobby wrote: "Or hot water! I washed War and Peace in hot water and it turned into a Reader's Digest condensed version."

Martin wrote: "Is there a Kindle edition? What the world needs now is eClothing"

🤣🤣🤣

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

The bot is still over writing librarian edits.

See this edition, but there are others

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

[lethe]

Corinne wrote: "Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "The bot is still over writing librarian edits... "

that is terrible news."

But not unexpected. Apparently it is very difficult to program these bots correctly, and stopping them seems to be out of the question.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

lethe wrote: "Apparently it is very difficult to program these bots correctly, and stopping them seems to be out of the question."

Yeah. They used to work. Not sure who messed with it and why.

By the way, I also saw this morning that it is deleting some used editions. Probably not enough of them, but even this is scary, because what if it is deleting editions that should be Public? Like it is making editions Invalid that should be Public.

[lethe]

Scripts have deleted perfectly valid (mostly non-English) editions last year, so I would not put anything past them.

(I have had to re-add some 15 Dutch translations to my shelves that had been merged against policy into the default edition. For one book no longer in my possession I lost the cover that I had photographed myself but unfortunately not saved to my computer.)

[Dobby]

lethe wrote: "Scripts have deleted perfectly valid (mostly non-English) editions last year, so I would not put anything past them.
(I have had to re-add some 15 Dutch translations to my shelves that had been merged against policy into the default edition. For one book no longer in my possession I lost the cover that I had photographed myself but unfortunately not saved to my computer.)"

That's heartbreaking, isn't it?

[lethe]

I was so angry and sad!

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

lethe wrote: "I was so angry and sad!"

So sorry. This is just awful.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

I sent a message to staff to request they stop the bot because it is over writing librarian edits.

Thanks for taking the time to write in about this. Our developers are aware of this issue and I've passed your feedback to the relevant team.

Ah, but Jaclyn said upthread they'd stopped doing this.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

On April 18 Jaclyn wrote: "I want to confirm that the Amazon import will not overwrite Librarian edits. Librarian changes are the authoritative source for Goodreads data. If you see recent cases of this occurring please let me know.
"

This edition of The Idiot
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

Bot changed authors April 27 that were previously entered by this librarian.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

On May 16, the bot changed the author of

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

which had previously been changed by a librarian.

[Saturn]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "I sent a message to staff to request they stop the bot because it is over writing librarian edits."

Another example here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...

And here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Again, I have to ask ...

Why is the bot posting to a 2-space profile?

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

And another repeated question ...

Why is the bot creating new 1-space profiles?

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Why is the bot deleting its own work?

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[lethe]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Why is the bot deleting its own work?

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/..."

I have seen this before. The bot creates an edition and immediately marks it as invalid. As we say in the Netherlands, it keeps him off the streets.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

lethe wrote: "The bot creates an edition and immediately marks it as invalid."

In that report, the bot actually marked it Deleted. Only by going to the author librarian log could it be located and retrieved. (Or I think that's how it was done.)

But I have also seen the Invalid. We have to just accidentally find this type of thing.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Another where the bot has over written a librarian edit. Librarian edit was done on March 31, bot over write on April 23.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...

[Melanie]

Just had a situation where I wrote into support requesting that they remove an ASIN that was added to a record by the bots that already had the ISBNs on it because the ASIN was for a used copy for sale on Amazon. Instead support turned the edition with the ISBNs into an ACE and moved the ISBNs and ASIN to a new record as an alternate cover edition. Trying now to get them to move the ISBNs back since they shouldn't have been moved.

These bots need to be stopped because it's just making more work, particularly when support doesn't seem to understand our requests to correct a record.

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

@ Tiag⊗ (if you are around) could you edit the word author's out of the thread heading? Just so other librarians realise how vast the problem is. :)

[Lee (of Shalott)]

I just came here to also cry about the state of the database. It's just so very ... heartbreaking ... for years of hard work at making sure titles have been correctly combined & ensuring accuracy of details to be absolutely inundated with so many badly coded entries smuggled in under [redundant] ASINs.

[Mesembryanthemum]

The GR database appears to be on the edge of total collapse. The DB might be larger than the GR tools can handle: book edits hang more and more often, changes don't show up in searches for days, merges take a week or more to complete, and so much more. It's not unreasonable to suspect that those millions upon millions of bot-created junk records are destabilizing the database.

Recently, I noticed that GR can't separate a single edition from a work that has over 8000 editions (Oz book #1). At least 25% -- but probably many more -- of those editions are invalid "ASIN-only" records created by the bots.

Me, I export my GR data every week, because I expect corruption any minute. I spend more time on LibraryThing than Goodreads these days.

[lethe]

Mesembryanthemum wrote: "The GR database appears to be on the edge of total collapse. The DB might be larger than the GR tools can handle: book edits hang more and more often, changes don't show up in searches for days, me..."

That sounds terrifying. Could it also mean that they aren't even able to stop the bots anymore, even if they would want to, or am I being ignorant and paranoid?

[Martin]

I'm sure they could stop the bots if they want to.
My guess is that providing links to Amazon (and thus gaining sales) is a greater priority than the integrity of the database.