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The Great Test Book
This topic is about The Great Test Book
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Questions (not edit requests) > On avoiding deletion by bot (hopefully)

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message 1: by Javier (last edited Jul 18, 2023 10:18PM) (new) - added it

Javier (palchetti) | 30503 comments (Apologies if this was discussed elsewhere, I may have missed the relevant thread.)

I've been doing an experiment since last week: right after creating an entry, I mark it as Invalid, then set it back to Public. This way the librarian takes ownership of the 'classification' field (a.k.a status) and, as far as I can tell, the bot leaves the status untouched.

I've been keeping a log, and all 70+ entries I've created/edited since then are still set to Public (including OOP "kindle_editions" that are prone to deletion).
I had also selected a test group of 10 OOP kindle_edition entries, I didn't do the Invalid-then-Public trick on them. Out of those 10 entries, 7 were not only marked Deleted after getting the ISBN moved, but nilclass'd as well.

What I find most surprising is that the bot still edits some of the Invalid-then-Public entries in a similar way - adding "(language) edition" to the title, page count, turning kindle_edition to "Kindle Edition", etc. The only difference was the classification field. Further testing is needed, but I believe this "trick" may in fact work.

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Just for reference:
Log of a kindle_edition that survived the bot: https://www.goodreads.com/book/edits/...
Log of a kindle_edition deleted & nilclass'd by bot: https://www.goodreads.com/book/edits/...


Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂  | 2312 comments Thanks for the tip.

I haven't added any books for a while now - does putting up your review ASAP help at all?


Mesembryanthemum | 195 comments Javier, this is a VERY interesting idea. The next time I add books to the GR catalog, I will try this tip. My fingers are crossed!


message 4: by Mesembryanthemum (last edited Jul 19, 2023 12:06AM) (new)

Mesembryanthemum | 195 comments Also, I want to read "The Great Test Book", which is mentioned at the top of this thread (in "This post is about..."). Testy McTesterson must be a good author, because they have so many followers. LOL!


message 5: by Jaclyn, Librarian Program Manager (new)

Jaclyn (jaclyn_w) | 6004 comments Mod
The nilclass bug preventing books from being saved should be resolved. Let me know if you're still experiencing that specific issue.


message 6: by Javier (new) - added it

Javier (palchetti) | 30503 comments Yesss, thank you Jaclyn!


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