Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

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Elizabeth (Alaska) Are we supposed to report bot problems to Amazon? Goodreads support recently referred me to this page, suggesting they would rectify bot errors:

https://www.amazon.com/hz/contact-us/...

Frankly, this seems odd.


message 2: by Scott (new)

Scott | 8762 comments Doesn't make any sense to me. That's a page for problems with orders.


Elizabeth (Alaska) Yeah, I forgot to mark my Contact report ATT: Jaclyn. Seems GR support doesn't know what to do with our reports.


Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂  | 2303 comments I don't see this as Goodreads librarians responsibility.


message 5: by Elizabeth (Alaska) (last edited Apr 24, 2023 02:00PM) (new)

Elizabeth (Alaska) Thanks for your email! The book is exactly the same as its Amazon page, which means the error comes from Amazon. If they fix the error, it'll get updated in here too. You're welcome to report the error directly to them. I'd recommend contacting them here. Amazon has a fantastic support team who will be able to help further.

(The "here" is the link above.)


message 6: by Scott (new)

Scott | 8762 comments Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ wrote: "I don't see this as Goodreads librarians responsibility."

Agreed.


message 7: by Scott (new)

Scott | 8762 comments Yeah, let's all volunteer to correct Amazon's database too.


☕ Lachgas ♿  (lachgas) | 9386 comments Scott wrote: "Yeah, let's all volunteer to correct Amazon's database too."

yeah. instantly.

nope.


Elizabeth (Alaska) Corinne wrote: "Elizabeth, did the bot overwrite a librarian edit? was that what you reported?

I just reported a recent add to a two-space profile with ATT: Jacklyn. *fingers crossed*"


No, my report was about the bot mis-combining one title with another.

In no way should Dostoevsky's Demons be combined with The Brothers Karamazov.

My opinion? The bot shouldn't be doing any combining. Yes, that means we have to do the work instead, but it's better than fixing a mess and having to do it anyway.


message 10: by Dobby (new)

Dobby (dobby0390) | 7859 comments That's a big nope from me, too.


Elizabeth (Alaska) Corinne wrote: "Is this a new thing?

I don't really know but I thought it only combined things that were exact title matches. Haven't we spent a decade combining books for people that were a pinch different."


The bot combining at all? As far as I know it's a new thing. A couple of weeks ago I combined over 900 separate entries for Conrad's Heart of Darkness. It couldn't combine those? :-)


☕ Lachgas ♿  (lachgas) | 9386 comments Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "No, my report was about the bot mis-combining one title with another.

In no way should Dostoevsky's Demons be combined with The Brothers Karamazov.

Okay ... at least in my examples it were the same titles but very different authors.
(harder to find to fix it and very difficult to understand but well at least the same title)


message 13: by ☕ Lachgas ♿ (last edited Apr 24, 2023 02:49PM) (new)

☕ Lachgas ♿  (lachgas) | 9386 comments Corinne wrote: "Is this a new thing?"
If not completely new it certainly is in this amount and way.

But I can only remember bot adding records as a new edition sometimes (never understood when it does it and when not) but not actually showing up as combining.


message 14: by Elizabeth (Alaska) (last edited Apr 24, 2023 02:53PM) (new)

Elizabeth (Alaska) ☕ Lachgas ♿ wrote: "Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "No, my report was about the bot mis-combining one title with another.

In no way should Dostoevsky's Demons be combined with The Brothers Karamazov.
Okay ... at least in ..."


It is also combining same titles but with different spelling of the author name, too. With thousands of editions, at least there is the disambiguate page to find the ones on the author with the fewer editions.


Elizabeth (Alaska) ☕ Lachgas ♿ wrote: “But I can only remember bot adding records as a new edition sometimes (never understood when it But I can only remember bot adding records as a new edition sometimes (never understood when it does it and when not) but not actually showing up as combining.
"


Most of the miscombines I’m seeing are the old used editions being added as physical editions with ASINs. Another issue. :-(


message 16: by Dobby (new)

Dobby (dobby0390) | 7859 comments Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Most of the miscombines I’m seeing are the old used editions being added as physical editions with ASINs. Another issue. :-(."

Yes, that's a huge issue. So many of them have extraneous material in the titles, too - author names, publisher names, dates ...

As well as the third-party vendor sales information instead of an actual description.


☕ Lachgas ♿  (lachgas) | 9386 comments mine was a PB with ISBN https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... was combined with Enigma by Catherine Coulter)


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