Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
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Questions (not edit requests)
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Amazon destroyed the author's database.
Nikhil wrote: ""Haven't you learned from the previous time? Please stop spamming this group with your self-promotion.
Another author name changed because he has a book by the same title.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
Seriously how are you doing this?
Scott wrote: "Another author name changed because he has a book by the same title.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
Seriously how are you doing this?"
Must be some nifty programming that a bot can do this...
Please can somebody in staff stop the bot, the database can survive without automated uploads for a while, but it is being destroyed by current bot actions.
^^ This. Even at this point, it doesn't even seem like we will ever be able to get ahead of it. Was bad enough with the imports of all those blank notebooks.
Martin wrote: "Please can somebody in staff stop the bot, the database can survive without automated uploads for a while, but it is being destroyed by current bot actions."This. But I feel as if we're butting our heads on a brick wall.
Martin wrote: "Please can somebody in staff stop the bot, the database can survive without automated uploads for a while, but it is being destroyed by current bot actions."++
Bad bot actions doing as much or seemingly more damage than inaccurate adds by members.
The bot keeps adding old, non-literary magazines without ISBN to the database. Some examples:2018-11-Tennis Magazine magazine
MARQUEE 038 September 1991 issue
Monthly Hawks April 2019 Magazine
All of them with "Print Magazine" format. Maybe all items with this format could be filtered out somehow?
We just need webtoons added automatically too. Then it would be like when users could add anything to the database, but on an infinitely larger scale (and with all parties being upset).
Javier wrote: "Maybe all items with this format could be filtered out somehow?"They haven't figured out how to filter "Paperback" or "Hardcover" with only an ASIN.
I have seen where the bot is marking these as Invalid.
I think it hasn't been reported yet. There are a lot of what would appear to be autograph typed letters."Typed Letter Signed"
https://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8...
Anyone else bothered that the people coding and running these bots are getting paid for their labour (as they should!) and the people telling them to code and run the bots are also getting paid (and probably a lot more), and then they just expect all of us to toil away unpaid to clean up the enormous mess they leave behind? With no regard to us shouting at them to please stop whatever bulldozer they’re trampling over the database with?
I'm bothered that they aren't doing the job that should be done and therefore have made sure they can't be sent to another job because no one would be able to untangle the mess they've made. As to the one(s) who made the decision to let them do it ...
Saturn wrote: "I think it hasn't been reported yet. There are a lot of what would appear to be autograph typed letters."Typed Letter Signed"
https://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8......"
Oh good grief.
Saturn wrote: "I think it hasn't been reported yet. There are a lot of what would appear to be autograph typed letters."Typed Letter Signed"
https://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8......"
Unbelievable.
Horror story in two words: Amazon bots.
Freso wrote: "Anyone else bothered that the people coding and running these bots are getting paid for their labour (as they should!) and the people telling them to code and run the bots are also getting paid...Yes, this makes me furious. But, as Martin said in message 381:
"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."
It seems that Goodreads management has ordered the staff to LET THE BOTS RUN, no matter what, because it's all about clicks for Amazon. I feel sorry for the GR staff. Anyone who cares about GR must be ashamed at what is happening and frustrated that they aren't allowed to do anything to stop it.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9...This just got added to Andre Norton's profile in the last hour-ish. I know because I've been working on her profile on and off the last few hours.
What do I do? Is there currently a reporting process for this?
Danielle wrote: "What do I do? Is there currently a reporting process for this?"You can flag the edit in the log. It's the one where it says the author ID was changed.
Scott wrote: "Danielle wrote: "What do I do? Is there currently a reporting process for this?"You can flag the edit in the log. It's the one where it says the author ID was changed."
Ah ok! Thanks! I've been following the bot chicanery off and on here. I hope it is resolved soon
I sent this in for help to separate these but unfortunately seem to not have been understood.https://www.goodreads.com/book/separa...
The file is too large for an ordinary librarian like me to separate, & I'm ONLY guessing therefore these could have only been combined by a bot?
When will the madness end??
Lee (of Shalott) wrote: "I'm ONLY guessing therefore these could have only been combined by a bot?"The log looks like these were combined by the author.
Lee (of Shalott) wrote: "The file is too large for an ordinary librarian like me to separate..."Interesting. Is there a known size limit for how many editions are too many for an ordinary librarian to separate?
I ask because I couldn't separate a single "bot-mistake" edition from the over 8,000 editions of Frank L. Baum's Oz book #1. My work-around was to mark that edition as invalid (because it was a bot-created, error-filled record with only an ASIN).
But I'd like to know for next time so that I don't waste my time trying to separate a bad edition when it's not possible.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Lee (of Shalott) wrote: "I'm ONLY guessing therefore these could have only been combined by a bot?"The log looks like these were combined by the author."
Yes, classic rookie author mistake. They became a member in February 2022 and immediately combined all of their books together. Looks like they didn't do much after that.
The new bots have been adding tons of new editions lately, so that may be the reason why the file has become too large.
As for separating (in general, actually off topic for this thread), it sometimes seems to work better from the combine page than from the separate tool, especially for large works. Disadvantage of using the combine page is that you can only separate one edition at a time, and need to combine afterwards.And for this specific example, I've already encountered three editions where the primary author was different (two had co-authors switched; one had a title included in the author name).
Not having the same primary author on all editions can cause problems. I don't know if this issue with separating editions is caused by not having the same primary author on all editions. What I do know is that the bots are creating many situations where not all editions have the same primary author, so we're back on topic again.
ETA: I've started separating them, but "You have reached a temporary limit for combining and separating works."
(Off-topic)Arenda wrote: "I've started separating them, but "You have reached a temporary limit for combining and separating works.""
I separated the rest (apart from two or three non-English editions where it was not clear of which title they were a translation, so I left them under Personal Finance for Dummies).
Some combining may still be needed.
/OT
lethe wrote: "(Off-topic)I separated the rest (apart from two or three non-English editions where it was not clear of which title they were a translation, so I left them under Personal Finance for Dummies)."
I've done the combining.
The Chinese edition was on Worldcat with the original title, separated and combined.
The German edition seems to be about a business, so separated from the Personal Finance.
Only the Hungarian edition left.
Arenda wrote: "Only the Hungarian edition left."According to Google Translate, the title would be Money, money, money, and the description seemed to fit the Personal Finance for Dummies book.
ETA Good teamwork :)
Mesembryanthemum wrote: "My work-around was to mark that edition as invalid (because it was a bot-created, error-filled record with only an ASIN)."I never considered separating those. I just mark them invalid.
Miscombined. This edition is two titles and it was combined with the first named, very popular title. It happened in December 2022 when the bot created the edition, so instructions for combining *might* have changed since then. (It would be nice if the instructions were not to combine, but I feel as if I'm beating a dead horse making that request.)https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
About combining ...There are authors whose name is spelled differently in different languages. As must be obvious in this thread, I have worked on and off with Fyodor Dostoevsky. Besides the spelling in other languages, his name is also frequently given as Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
Making sure that Doestoevsky is primary and then Dostoyevsky secondary is an ongoing project. It used to be something done relatively easily. But now that the bot combines works, if left for too many days (a week? 10 days?), the combine page for Dostoyevsky simply cannot be displayed. The system times out, over and over.
Goodreads request took too long.
The latest request to the Goodreads servers took too long to respond. We have been notified of the issue and are looking into it.
It happens because there are too many editions of the many works. The works by this author have thousands of editions. There are simply too many editions to display even though it is not true that This author has too many books to display; use Work IDs to combine. Large works can take a while to display.
Large works *do* take a while to display and when there are a half dozen or more with thousands of editions the system times out. It is simply not possible for the system to display the combine page!
To see what needs work, it is necessary to access the Disambiguate page and *guess* which of the Dostoyevsky editions of a particular title have been combined with the main work.
Once the combined editions of a work have had the author names fixed can the combine page actually be accessed. At that time, it is possible to find the works that need combining. Maybe the developers think they are really helping, but they are not.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "About combining ... Goodreads request took too long.
The latest request to the Goodreads servers took too long to respond. We have been notified of the issue and are looking into it. ... "
Goodreads times out so often now that when I type "is goodre" in google or bing search "is Goodreads down" comes up as second suggested search.
...
"Maybe the developers think they are really helping, but they are not. "
If the goal is to add more items to database then goal achieved. If goal is to improve database this is epic fail.
L J wrote: "Goodreads times so often now that when I type "is goodre" in google or bing search"I read people using search for Goodreads and I don't know why. I have GR bookmarked and for me, there is no reason to use search. I also have a Chrome add-on "Search Goodreads" which means I can search GR from any site anywhere anytime.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "... I read people using search for Goodreads and I don't know why. I have GR bookmarked and for me, there is no reason to use search. ..."Off-topic
I don't know about others but when I search I'm looking for information about Goodreads from other sources.
Has it already been reported?A xerographic duplication of a draft script for an unproduced film:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
There are many of this kind:
"Original screenplay for an unproduced film"
https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Or...
Are they invalid, aren't they?
The question is whether the script has been published, not whether the film was ever produced.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "The question is whether the script has been published, not whether the film was ever produced."(Original screenplay for an unproduced film) is in the title field, that's how I found them. I wasn't focusing on "unproduced film". They look like the drafts of the scripts that are also given on sets. So, physical objects and not editions of something.
And what about all those pitiful new additions to the authors database?All info was put in one author name field only...
Saturn wrote: " So, physical objects and not editions of somethingIf never published, they should be marked Invalid (or even Deleted).
no idea what the worth of these high quality imports should be (author was: unknown author before I corrected, won't correct the title ...) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Also: in the time I needed to get to the librarian edits log page of "unknown author" the bot just imported a nearly full page of things there - including still marking books with ISBN invalid (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...) - so that the last edit on page 1 was only mine. The time GR needed to load page 2 of the librarian edits for that author was enough for the bot to create a full page of new crap so on page 2 were the edits I've seen before.but as profile does not open anymore anyways at least not many people will be trying to fix something there and waste their time)
Apologies if this was reported before, but I was mildly entertained seeing the bot edit warring itself, see especially the five edits around May 26, 2023 07:35AMhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Yessss... get them to fight amongst themselves!We can still win!
I see them do that sometimes especially with page counts! No clue why, lol!
Scott wrote: "Yessss... get them to fight amongst themselves!We can still win!"
Bwaahahahahaha!!!
**as Sorcerer's Apprentice music plays in the background**
Has deleting quotes now got a very long cache time, or was I just unlucky?https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
#820 & my comments in #847
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.
What if they gave a war and nobody came?
Serdnito wrote: "But what...? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...What is the purpose of creating this? Even if it is with invalid status..."
To haunt our dreams?
Serdnito wrote: "But what...? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...What is the purpose of creating this? Even if it is with invalid status..."
I'll go out on a limb and suggest that the programmers have to test things.
See this profile:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1...
That profile has a librarian log too.
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Off-topic, but I like the edition information: "latest edition" in ..."
It doesn't even belong. Upper or Lower either way. (My screen load doesn't go that far, so I didn't look, or else I would have deleted it.)