The Extra Cool Group! (of people Michael is experimenting on) discussion
Pertaining to the project
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The Top Reviewers List: Are you a pandering vote whore?
Miriam wrote: "Wait... other people are getting actual sex for their votes? I feel cheated!"
That's one of the side benefits of being somebody's sock puppet.
That's one of the side benefits of being somebody's sock puppet.
Elizabeth wrote: "I have been known to finish terrible books just so I can rip them to shreds in this very public forum. (I'm not proud). "I also have done this. It's fun, and I do try not to be mean-spirited about it (most of the time). Working out why you didn't like a book (if it's not for an obvious reason) can be just as challenging and interesting as explaining why you liked it.
I AM known to finish terrible books just so I can rip them to shreds in a very public forum. I am proud of this.The books I review are often written to evoke a passion. If they invoke a passionate anger then I have a right to express that as much as someone has a right to express that they absolutely, one hundred percent loooooooooooooovvvvvveeeeeeeee it!
Mod
Discuss.
No. Even in deciding which plotlines, details, etc., to emphasize or omit, your reading of the book is coming into play. I've read book jackets that I thought didn't give an objective reading of the book because they made assumptions that I, as a reader, didn't make as I was reading.
And, on a mechanical level, some highly literate people think Cormac McCarthy is annoying with his punctuation choices. I think they add a special something to the book. So, even grammatical points can be subjective, because we all care to varying extents about any given grammatical rule.
Uhh, that's all I got. And I love it when you guys rip books to shreds, even when I liked the books. And I'll take some sex, too, please, if we're still passing that out.
i try to be nice, but sometimes books are just bad.
^^Agree with Michael.
Mod
There I go, getting us off topic again.
nope, not a whore. i have 105 posted reviews and something like 15 votes, maybe 7 comments from people.i am like the anti-whore.
anyone who wants to stop being one needs only directly associate with me to find that their "cool factor" is diminished.
any top dawgs wanna test this theory? ceridwen?
I will invite Zosia into the group to take you up on the challenge. She is far too many votes ahead of me in the Australian top reviewers.
i think trolls are fun, until they're not.i think i'm probably a troll myself, at times. if i read a review that i think is particularly shitty, i'll comment. if a person gets personally insulting in a group to me, i'll PM torment them until i get bored. if a person posts a link to some snarky review they've included in their boring blog, i'll post a review of their boring blog. i get irritated by assholes; i am pretty much an asshole myself. but with a tender heart, awwww.
Are you serious about PM tormenting people?
of course. if a person's going to smack me upside the head at some event, i'd prefer to take a walk with them outside rather than making a public scene. if there's going to be a volley of insults going back and forth, i'd rather it be within personal messages. i don't appreciate reading that kind of crap in groups and i definitely don't want to bog down a group with personalized arguments. plus, people can be so brave in their insults when they are anonymous and on-line, and that really bothers me. if a person gets personally insulting, they should be able to continue the confrontation away from their little group safety net. if not, they should have tact enough to shut their pieholes and not get personally offensive in a public space.
do you find this point of view disagreeable?
Mark, I don't think Kat finds the POV disagreeable. I read that she was just expressing surprise at the statement. I mean, it takes a certain amount of dedicated energy to do that (without reference to how much time it takes until a person might become bored, of course).I agree that personal insults sully a thread (unless it's amongst a group of people who obviously all know each other and it's part of their online interaction) and prefer, when indicating disagreement, to abstract, because this removes the personal element. It probably also removes the accessibility element too, but beggars can't be choosers, and I switch off at statements beginning with 'YOU are/said/whatever'.
Well, to be honest I find it weird and if you PM me about it I'll tell your mother you're not playing nice with other kids, okay?I think that if an argument starts in a public forum and you and the other person decide to take it private then that's fine. If you're just trolling and using the PM service to abuse and bombard them with hateful comments whether they like it or not then I'm seriously not okay with that.
To be honest, I also don't understand commenting on someone's review if you don't like it. Then again, I'm one of those reviewers who gets A LOT of haters and I get weekly emails from trolls and people abusing me for my opinions. I just don't understand the mentality. I've never gone to anyone else's review and posted that I hated it. I just move on. I don't go to the author's blogs and spew vitriol. I stay in my own little corner of GoodReads and write my reviews. Yet people get angry at me for my negative reviews and come onto my review and abuse me for it.
But then again, I'm not the type to keep my piehole shut whether public, private or in real life.
nope, as i mentioned, i only pm folks who have personally attacked me within groups, and the main reason i do it is to take the confrontation away from a public setting. i don't go around looking for a fight or to use "the PM service to abuse and bombard". that's ridiculous behavior. a fool's game. i only react when provoked.i'll negatively comment on someone's review if they've insulted the author in a personal way. i hate that bs. i have no problem with negative reviews, even of books i adore; i've Liked many of them if they make me think of the novel in a different light. what i find disagreeable are personalized attacks. negative reviews are a great part of conversation and much more interesting than sitting around, agreeing on everything. there's nothing wrong with reviews that really rip apart a novel; just don't turn that review into abusive, vindictive commentary on the author's life.
Awesome. Then we are in agreement and can (presumably) eat cake.
your promised reward is merely a fictitious motivator.thank you, urban dictionary. yesterday: dirt squirrel. today: the cake is a lie. tomorrow: the whole world explained, at last? urban dictionary, i lie at your feet in homage!
Wow, I've never PMed anyone with nasty comments, or had anyone do it to me. On the one hand, I feel morally superior. On the other, now I wonder if I'm being too nice...
Elizabeth wrote: "I agree that it's great when someone else reads a book you love (and loves it) because of a review. That may still be a deep motivator for some of my reviews, probably all of the Austen and Woolf ones, at least."elizabeth, i will say that your reviews were the one motivation i needed to finally read austen and the brontes. i'm through northanger abbey, persuasion, jane eyre and wuthering heights, and i am definitely going to read vilette because it is your favorite, whereas otherwise i probably would figure jane eyre was a good enough effort (even though i really enjoyed it). so... good work!
oh also tenant of wildfell hall. i will read that.
mark wrote: "i'd prefer to take a walk with them outside rather than making a public scene...."AHH!
i thought PM was personal message, but you meant "Publicly Menacing"!
i suppose i can get behind that...
you dont like my shoe string book mark review, i'm going to guido you until the RICO laws are applied.
:)
Jason wrote: "you dont like my shoe string book mark review, i'm going to guido you until the RICO laws are applied....."i'm happy to report that a scan of your reviews did not end unhappily. i even Liked one of them. now stop anti-whoring while i go look up the meaning of guidoing and RICO.
Miriam wrote: "Wow, I've never PMed anyone with nasty comments, or had anyone do it to me. On the one hand, I feel morally superior. On the other, now I wonder if I'm being too nice..."i have an advanced case of moral inferiority. tis a heavy cross to bear.
any top dawgs wanna test this theory? ceridwen?
Hells yes! Let us link arms in uncoolness!
Seriously though, I'm a dork irl. It's weird to be successful in a popularity contest - which is maybe what the top rankings are - because I'm an introvert and a homebody, and have never been one of the popular kids.
Hells yes! Let us link arms in uncoolness!
Seriously though, I'm a dork irl. It's weird to be successful in a popularity contest - which is maybe what the top rankings are - because I'm an introvert and a homebody, and have never been one of the popular kids.
I didn't mean that comment as bait for compliments, but thanks. I'm just think there's a disconnect between real life and online identities. You know, obviously. :)
Ceridwen wrote: "I just think there's a disconnect between real life and online identities. You know, obviously. :)"Like Dr Jekyll and Mrs Hyde.
Ceridwen wrote: "there's a disconnect between real life and online identities."i am a suave underwear model who snorts cocaine and craps rainbows irl..
online i am a clumsy typist too lazy to properly punctuate..
i get what you are saying.. my underwear sales should assist me in review quality but surprisingly do not..
now, lets link arms and captain planet this shit.
now, lets link arms and captain planet this shit.*snort*
Manny wrote: "Well, I'm clearly a vote whore if the definition is based on writing in a way that's more likely to get votes. But I don't pick books on those grounds - I know that YA and romance are far more like..."Yes, but that was a pretty stellar review of Twilight if I remember correctly... YA and romance.
Man, there are a lot of great ideas on here.I write the reviews so I can go back later and see what i thought about the book. HOWEVER, I am a VPW.
Sometimes I'll think, "I really liked/loved that book," then go see what I gave it and see that I only gave it a 2 or 3 star rating. Was I wrong then, or am I wrong now? It's helped me see that some books have staying power, you know?
Here is my (lame) whoring technique. If I'm having a good week - 20 likes or so - I'll ask my wife who has an account but is a GRINO (Goodreader in name only) if she'll have time to go on and like the reviews of the 20/30 books I've read in the last 2 months (or however long it's been since she's last legitimately been on goodreads reading reviews) that she actually likes. She likes (or says she does) most of them, but never really votes for them.
That's gotten me a "best reviewer of the week" a couple of times. It's lame, and cheap, and I'm ashamed, and I'll (probably) never do it again.
Really, I wouldn't if she'd just get on goodreads in earnest.
Man, there are a lot of great ideas on here.I write the reviews so I can go back later and see what i thought about the book. HOWEVER, I am a VPW.
Sometimes I'll think, "I really liked/loved that book," then go see what I gave it and see that I only gave it a 2 or 3 star rating. Was I wrong then, or am I wrong now? It's helped me see that some books have staying power, you know?
Here is my (lame) whoring technique. If I'm having a good week - 20 likes or so - I'll ask my wife who has an account but is a GRINO (Goodreader in name only) if she'll have time to go on and like the reviews of the 20/30 books I've read in the last 2 months (or however long it's been since she's last legitimately been on goodreads reading reviews) that she actually likes. She likes (or says she does) most of them, but never really votes for them.
That's gotten me a "best reviewer of the week" a couple of times. It's lame, and cheap, and I'm ashamed, and I'll (probably) never do it again.
Really, I wouldn't if she'd just get on goodreads in earnest.
now, lets link arms and captain planet this shit.
Mod
I will now create six puppet accounts, who will all vote for all of my reviews. It's that important.
Mod
Oi, Ceridwen, I don't know if you can top that brilliant, witty idea Michael just had. And his reviews are SO amazing. I, China Mieville, am off to vote for all of his reviews. P.S. I'M CHINA MIEVILLE, BITCH.
Awww, Mr. Miéville! You know you're my boyfriend, right? I luffs you, and would gladly perform any vote sex work necessary to procure your vote.
xoxoxoxo
xoxoxoxo
Where's old Vladdie Nabokov? There are some Austenites who need trolling.
if i see henry rollins pop in here and spot off some depressing poetry, i will be very glad..someone get on that, please
Ceridwen wrote: "I will now create six puppet accounts, who will all vote for all of my reviews. It's that important."
I know I'll always be your one true sock puppet.
I know I'll always be your one true sock puppet.
Ceridwen, I admire the dexterousness with which you actually put the line above my 'e.' This shows the kind of dedication and affection I really appreciate in a vote sex worker. Thank you, and I shall email you a lock of my hair, such as it is. China
Thank you, and I shall email you a lock of my hair, such as it is.
Eeeek!
::swoons::
Eeeek!
::swoons::
I'd be wary of where that hair comes from. He's bald.
I think the troll whoring is working. Someone commented to one of my reviews "pornographic pretentious drivel". (Or they might've meant the book.)
My Under the Poppy by Kathe Koja review. I hope they meant me.
Mariel wrote: "I think the troll whoring is working. Someone commented to one of my reviews "pornographic pretentious drivel". (Or they might've meant the book.)"
Man, I almost barfed laughing when I noticed Dan listed "Greco-Roman History" as one of his interests. I heart haters!
Man, I almost barfed laughing when I noticed Dan listed "Greco-Roman History" as one of his interests. I heart haters!
I think each reviewer has priorities that, whether they like it or not, guides the way they review.
How women are treated and represented in books, even other wise well-written books, will cause me to be far more critical of a book. I'm sure we all have our little pet causes that will determine our objectivity.
Even down to the rhythm and syntax of each sentence, people are particular and different with their personal tastes affecting whether they think the writing 'flows' or is 'edgy and powerful'. I would argue that there is no real mechanical level that people are capable of reviewing on and if one did exist, I'd posit it to be the end of all things as we know it and therefor the destruction of the very fabric of space and time.