UK Book Club discussion
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message 51:
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Helen
(new)
Feb 23, 2012 01:14PM
Hi mods, can we have a poll, we only have a short month.
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Thanks Em :)
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Working between two campuses, a couple of miles apart. Plus, the students track me down when I'm supposed to be NOT working. Time to set some 'boundaries' methinks....
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Ian - Nice photo, where can I get a tub of your anti-aging cream?!
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Having met Ian, I know it's a very accurate picture.
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Hi are you all aware of the new ToS that GRs put out last week?
I've seen mention of guidelines about reviews and easier flagging of inappropriate comments - is that what you're asking about?Must admit that so far I haven't had time to investigate further...
On surface didn't seem that much of a change to usual. Have I missed something important?
Yes there are nearly 5000 comments and 17K+ views on the Feedback Group....it's not just inappropriate comments the way in which we write reviews has to be considered..shelves and reviews are being deleted...
Right, thanks for mentioning it, got to get myself to work this am, I'll have a look at that tonight.
What!!!??? I assumed that our reviews, shelves, stars etc were sacrosanct to us. That swearing and offensiveness would get flagged and you'd be told off. How can they ditch our stuff. people warned this would happen after the merger!
Hmmm well I've had a look and the gist of it seems to be preventing people from trashing the "character" of an author which is something I don't generally do, (well except to Jeffrey Archer, of whose books I've read none on account of the character of the author!) Please feel free to delete the above... It's not a bad idea to set an appropriate tone, being responsible about what you write is sensible but this has always been a place to express views and it's a shame to dilute them without good cause.
At the very the least, I would have expected a message announcing a change in policy and I would have expected anyone whose reviews/shelves were being deleted to have been informed beforehand. As I understand it, you will now be given some notice of items they plan to delete.
The thread says it only effected 21 members but there's an awful lot of discussion so I wonder if that's accurate. I don't know...
Has anyone else had a look at the Feedback Group?
Yes, I've been trying to follow the discussion, but there are so many comments....and replies to comments....that it's quite difficult to keep track.I pretty much agree with what you've said, Em....your comments make perfect sense to me...
It's difficult for me to beprecise with my own point of view when unaware of the kind of comments and shelf names that have been deleted....
the gist is if you don't like a book be very careful of how you write the review.....and if you find the author is a plagiarizer/criminal writing a book aimed at his victims/guilty of war crimes/controversial you can no longer warn other readers of this fact either in the review or via an appropriately named shelf.....
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It's on Goodreads feedback site, under announcements. I'm on phone but I'll try to copy/paste it to here later.
The latest summary...Over the last week, we have received a number of questions about what is allowed in reviews and on shelves. In response, we’ve put together some answers. We’re sorry about any confusion, and we hope this is helpful and clarifies our policy.
Can I still talk about the author in my review?
Yes, you can talk about the author in a book review – the author is often a relevant part of a book. If it’s an autobiography or memoir, then you might end up expressing an opinion about the life of the author and the behavior described in the book. And, in fiction, often it’s relevant to understand an author’s background and how it influenced the story, the characters or the setting.
However, there is a line between relevant criticism and unhelpful, ad hominem attacks or off-topic reviews that single out individual readers or authors. Reviews-- or shelves--that cross this line are not allowed.
Can I still be critical in my book reviews?
Yes, you can be critical about books in your reviews – this hasn’t changed. We love the passion that our members bring to their book reviews and welcome all opinions of a book, good or bad. If you take a look at our review guidelines, you'll see under "what is allowed":
We allow harsh critical statements that apply to the book or the writing in it, such as "This guy can't write a lick," or "This book is absolute trash." Again, honest opinions about books are always going to be welcome and encouraged on Goodreads.
So what has changed?
We are making some changes to better enforce our existing guidelines with the goal to help Goodreads work better for all our members. In the past, if we found a review that was an ad hominem attack or an off-topic comment about a reader or author, we removed it from the community reviews section of the book page, notified the reviewer, and kept the review on the reviewer’s profile. Now, these reviews will be deleted entirely from the site.
In addition, we are now applying this guideline to shelves. If a shelf functions as an ad hominem attack or off-topic comment about a reader or author, we will delete it from the site.
What happens when you discover a review or shelf that needs to be deleted?
If we determine that something does not fit within our guidelines, we will send the member the content of the review or shelf for his or her personal records and delete it from the site. For reviews or shelves that were created before the updated guidelines were announced on September 20, we will also give the members advance notice before taking action.
What if I see inappropriate behavior from other members?
The best way to handle any behavior that you think is inappropriate is to flag it for us to review or email us at support@goodreads.com. We will deal with it promptly.
Right after you made the recent changes to how you handle reviews, did you delete any shelves or reviews without advance notice?
Yes – as we put these moderation guidelines into place, we began to delete reviews and shelves that were not within guidelines and sent notifications to the members in question. In retrospect, we should have notified the members before removing their reviews/shelves and provided them with a copy of their content. We will provide the deleted content to those members for their own individual records.
At one point we also mistakenly deleted a shelf called “Due-to-author”. We know that this caused confusion to people and we were not clear in our previous response about this. “Due-to-author” is a shelf that is allowed on the site. We’ve apologized to the member in question and will provide the member their data.
What are examples of shelves that will be deleted?
badly-behaving-authors
abusive-attention-whore-authors
butthurt-crazy-stalker-authors
author-insults-and-attacks-reviewers
victim-of-troll-attacks
Can you give me some examples of what kinds of author-related shelves are allowed?
The overwhelming majority of shelves on Goodreads are already within our guidelines. Some examples of shelves that are allowed are:
not-interested
not-for-me
will-never-read
did-not-finish
authors-i-don-t-want-to-read
russian-authors
female-comedians
LGBT-authors
signed-by-author
booker-prize-winner-authors
If you have any questions about whether one of your reviews or shelves fits with our guidelines, please email support@goodreads.com and we can take a look.
Mod
I can understand people being upset if their reviews have been deleted without notice but does seem that they won't be doing that in future.
Interesting stuff, I guess. I think I live in a vacuum, most of this I've been unaware of.
So most people won't be affected. Hi Ian,not spotted you for while.
No probs, I think the intent is ok but the delivery was a bit dodgy. Hopefully, it won't affect many people.
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Hi H.....must stop lurking in dark corners.
No issues with any of this (*) but agree the delivery of it was a bit ropey.* apart from Ian lurking in dark corners, I know its horror month. but I still need to be able to sleep at night!!
Mod
Hello! I’m writing to say that due to some further, serious health problems, I am no longer able to moderate the group or set up the time-traveller challenge. I’m planning to continue as a member only as long as I’m well enough to do so. If there are members who would like to take over, please give Liz a shout. Kind regards, Em xx
So sorry to hear of the health problems increasing. It's good to know you can continue to enjoy this group as a member.
I'm so sorry to hear about what you're going through, Em! Our thoughts are with you. Thank you for all you've done for this group and we're glad for your continued presence.
Em wrote: "Hello! I’m writing to say that due to some further, serious health problems, I am no longer able to moderate the group or set up the time-traveller challenge. I’m planning to continue as a member o..."I'm sorry to hear that Em. My most sincere best wishes for you. Take care of yourself, that's what's most important.
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Just a quick update. I've been in touch with Liz to offer her support and we agreed on me stepping into the Moderator role.
I joined UK Book Club back in January 2013 so I've been around a while! I'm looking forward to keeping the Time Traveller Challenge ticking over and getting to know everyone better!
See you in the forum! :)
Kate
Kate, that’s fantastic! Thank you for taking over Time Traveller challenge and supporting Liz! - I really enjoyed moderating and was sad that my health issues just made it impossible. I’ll be joining in as a member for as long as I can whilst managing ongoing cancer treatment and hiding in house of course! On bright side, lots of time to read...
Mod
Take care of yourself. x
Kate wrote: "No problem Em, I'm just sorry that you couldn't carry on. You, Liz and Ian have made a fab moderator team over the years. But I'm really glad that you can still participate and have plenty of time ..."Thanks for assisting, Kate. And for keeping the Time Traveller challenge chugging along.
